Katherine Watier's Academics: Personality, Moral Development and Social Change Class Evaluation

HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE COURSE EVALUATION

Name: Katherine A. Watier Year of Entry: Fall 1994 Term: Spring 1996

Number and Title: SS 275: Personality, Moral Development and Social Change

Instructor: Maureen Mahoney, Associate Professor of Psychology

Margaret Cerullo, Associate Professor of Sociology

This course considered the relationship between individual and society and the relationship between psychological and social theory. Beginning with Truffaut's film, The Wild Child, we explored theorists' assumptions about the nature of human motivation, social relations, and social change. Ideas about individual development were juxtaposed to conceptions of social transformation with the goal of understanding assumptions about the individual embedded in social theory and assumptions about society embedded in psychological theory. Readings included Rousseau, Freud, Durkheim, Piaget, Lacan, Judith Butler, Fanon, Winnicott, Jessica Benjamin, and others. Students were required to participate in a group presentation on one of the theorists, and also submit four papers: one very brief analysis of The Wild Child, another brief analysis of the film A Quesion of Silence, a 5-7 page analysis of the theorist presented, and a final, longer paper, comparing- two theoretical perspectives on questions of human motivation and social change. The course was co-taught by a psychologist (Mahoney) and a sociologist (Cerullo).

Katherine Watier attended class regularly but remained fairly quiet in discussions, which is unfortunate because she brought a good background in psychology to the class. Her silence, she says, was a reaction to what she perceived as the aggressive and disrespectful style of some of the other students. In fact, it was a large and opinionated group, and it was difficult for some of the more soft-spoken members to enter in. Katherine, however, did an outstanding job in her class presentation, so expressing herself publicly is obviously not a problem for her. Katherine's writing, in general, is very good. Her paper on Jessica Benjamin, based on her oral presentation, developed a close, insightful account of Benjamin's theory of women's development and desire. For the final paper, Katherine expanded this analysis to compare Benjamin with Winnicott on the relationship between social recognition and domination/submission. Again, this paper reveals Katherine's thorough understanding of both theorists 'accounts of psychological development and their implications for individual resistance or conformity. She glosses over, however, the extent to which Benjamin's social theory of gender domination is far more developed than anything Winnicott offered. Katherine is left with the argument that social change depends on individual nonconformity, a position that Winnicott may accept, but Benjamin does not. Nevertheless, this is a very good paper; consistent with the quality of all of the work Katherine did for this class.

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				HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE COURSE EVALUATION Name: Katherine A. Watier Year of Entry: Fall 1994 Term: Spring 1996 Number and Title: SS 275: Personality, Moral Development and Social Change Instructor: Maureen Mahoney, Associate Professor of Psychology Margaret Cerullo, Associate Professor of Sociology This course considered the relationship between individual and society and the relationship between psychological and social theory. Beginning with Truffaut's film, The Wild Child, we explored theorists' assumptions about the nature of human motivation, social relations, and social change. Ideas about individual development were juxtaposed to conceptions of social transformation with the goal of understanding assumptions about the individual embedded in social theory and assumptions about society embedded in psychological theory. Readings included Rousseau, Freud, Durkheim, Piaget, Lacan, Judith Butler, Fanon, Winnicott, Jessica Benjamin, and others. Students were required to participate in a group presentation on one of the theorists, and also submit four papers: one very brief analysis of The Wild Child, another brief analysis of the film A Quesion of Silence, a 5-7 page analysis of the theorist presented, and a final, longer paper, comparing- two theoretical perspectives on questions of human motivation and social change. The course was co-taught by a psychologist (Mahoney) and a sociologist (Cerullo). Katherine Watier attended class regularly but remained fairly quiet in discussions, which is unfortunate because she brought a good background in psychology to the class. Her silence, she says, was a reaction to what she perceived as the aggressive and disrespectful style of some of the other students. In fact, it was a large and opinionated group, and it was difficult for some of the more soft-spoken members to enter in. Katherine, however, did an outstanding job in her class presentation, so expressing herself publicly is obviously not a problem for her. Katherine's writing, in general, is very good. Her paper on Jessica Benjamin, based on her oral presentation, developed a close, insightful account of Benjamin's theory of women's development and desire. For the final paper, Katherine expanded this analysis to compare Benjamin with Winnicott on the relationship between social recognition and domination/submission. Again, this paper reveals Katherine's thorough understanding of both theorists 'accounts of psychological development and their implications for individual resistance or conformity. She glosses over, however, the extent to which Benjamin's social theory of gender domination is far more developed than anything Winnicott offered. Katherine is left with the argument that social change depends on individual nonconformity, a position that Winnicott may accept, but Benjamin does not. Nevertheless, this is a very good paper; consistent with the quality of all of the work Katherine did for this class. 1/2 DIV I Y
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