Dear Jay and everybody-
Thanks A LOT for finding and brining useful references about synomorphs. One
difference between Baker's synomorphs and Bakhtin's chronotopes seems to me
is that Baker's unit of analysis is everyday behavior while for Bakhtin it
is (dramatic) events.
What do you think?
Eugene
-----Original Message-----
From: Jay Lemke [mailto:jaylemke@umich.edu]
Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2003 4:34 PM
To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
Subject: Re: synomorphs in Gerglish
I have slightly edited Google's English to make at least the grammar
comprehensible --
http://mailbox.univie.ac.at/~weichhp3/shared/ASSem02/ASHome.htm is the
original source ...
"Behavior Setting" stands for "order in the everyday life happening" (P. 9).
Examples of Behavior Settings (P. 10):
- a Skatturnier taking place in any place; [it's a card game -- JL]
- the yearly celebration of a certain primary school;
- the everyday life happening at a certain news stand;
- a protest demonstration against the locking of a certain industrial
company.
"common to all examples is that, an everyday life happening takes place in
each case within a certain spatially material environment, publicly in
principle, and moreover within [well-defined] [time] periods. In every such
Behavior Setting certain characteristic behavior patterns prevail, which are
fulfilled by the participants as it were according to a program, whereby it
is unimportant to a large extent, which individuals perform the individual
behavior patterns co-ordinated with the respective environment." (P. 10)
BARKER (1968) specified relatively exactly, under which conditions an
everyday life happening may be regarded as Behavior Setting [synomorph
unit?].
The Setting concept is to be seen also in the context of an "Ecologization"
of psychology and as an addition to the laboratory-experimental procedure.
BARKER and his coworkers had first tried to pursue "everyday life happening"
("behavior stream ", appeared as successions of organized "episodes" ) for
individual persons continuously over whole days. It showed up that
individuals in the execution of their everyday life life came "... again and
again as it were into the spell of certain context conditions. As soon as
possibly a child - for example - entered the baker's shop, it behaved
"baker-shop appropriately". The baker's shop... seemed to exercise on the
whole scene, so strong, a determinative force , also making possible quite
safe forecasts, that individual characteristics mattered not substantially
in the outcome. The entire expiration of everyday life of a child seemed
thereby to be segmented so that it went again and again successively into
different behavior-determining contexts of such kind and for a while there
in each case [behaved predictably ?]. Such contexts were now, by Barker
designated.as, "Behavior Settings" (P. 13).
From the view of the participant seen, Behavior Settings seem suitable to
organize the organization of the everyday life execution!
Critical questions (P. 14):
Does all of everyday life happen in Behavior Settings and arise from their
arranging?
What of the variability within these patterns of orderliness?
Where does such residual, irreducible variability arise?
"... some of these doubts and questions can be summarized in the formula:
Variability in the everyday life happening despite order by Behavior
Settings "(P. 14).
Jay Lemke
Professor
University of Michigan
School of Education
610 East University
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Tel. 734-763-9276
Email. JayLemke@UMich.edu
Website. www.umich.edu/~jaylemke
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