Analyze the concepts “an Alaskan” and a “real Alaskan”

Developing as a thinker means analyzing the way our concepts are socialized. The Foundation for Critical Thinking puts it this way:
Concepts are to us like the air we breathe. They are everywhere. They are essential to our lives. But we rarely notice them. Yet only when we have conceptualized a thing in some way, only then, can we think about it. Nature does not give us, or anyone else, instructions in how things are to be conceptualized. We must create that conceptualization, alone or with others. Once conceptualized, a thing is integrated by us, into a network of ideas (since no concept or idea ever stands alone). We conceptualize things personally by means of our own ideas. We conceptualize things socially by means of the ideas of others (social groups). We explain one idea by means of other ideas. So if someone asked us to say what a “friend” is, we might say, as the Webster’s New World does, “a person whom one knows well and is fond of.” If that same person asked us to say what it means to “know someone well,” we would respond by introducing yet further ideas or concepts.
We have many concepts that have concrete referents or examples in common, like objects (for example, a chair) and species of animals (for example, a dog or a moose) although classification systems vary culturally in terms of the defining properties of some concepts, or the examples, as reflected in different languages. Other concepts are more abstract, like the concept of “justice”. They change and evolve over time in different societies and we, as individuals, develop our own concept in relation to examples of what we consider to be justice or injustice as we have different experiences throughout our lifetime.
The Thinking Passage in Chapter 7 (pages 329-332) asks you to ponder the concept of “an American” as one that “is complex and diverse; it has had various meanings at different points in American history.” This passage poses the questions: “What are Americans like? What are some of the general qualities that are thought to characterize most Americans, in contrast to other national identities?” It then provides an ingenious approach that the social media strategy firm Hasai took to answering these questions and reporting the results (i.e., the evidence) in the form of an infographic.
Alaskans have concepts of what it means to be an Alaskan (beyond living within its borders and qualifying for it to be your legal residence or being eligible for a PFD) and also what it means to be “a real Alaskan.” This assignment asks you to reflect on your definitions of these concepts and what influenced their development and then to contribute evidence to a class infographic, the form of what Nicolas Jackson described as “a hodgepodge of statistics culled from various sources”.
Specifics of the Assignment:
For this assignment, respond to the three-part prompt below in a discussion board post. I invite you to use any form of media in this week’s assignment if you are feeling weary of simply writing your responses every week. You may record a video, an audio clip, include visuals, or the like as long as you still answer the following questions.
1. Reflect on your concepts of “an Alaskan” and “a real Alaskan.” Organize the elements of these concepts by their sign (the name of the concept) connected to a list of properties (words or images that describe the concept) and a list of referents (a few examples that embody the properties of the concept). Examples can be images or words, including quotes from other people and writings about Alaska and Alaskans that have influenced the development of your concepts. You can do this in the form of a table in Word or you can draw one or two mind maps (See page 333 in the chapter and, as examples, the formats of the ones on the first page of each chapter in the textbook.) on paper or using PowerPoint or another type of drawing program.

If you draw a mind map on paper, take a picture of it. You can also save a screen capture of what you have created using PowerPoint or another drawing program and save it as a .jpg. Try pasting your Word table or your .jpg image into the thread in the Discussion Board, but if you have trouble, attach them instead.
2. In a substantial paragraph (6-12 sentences each), describe ways in which the social context in which you grew up helped form your concept of an Alaskan. (This could include books you read or movies you saw about Alaska.) If you moved to Alaska from somewhere else, how did your earlier social context define the term? In what ways, if any, have the definitions of being an Alaskan and a “real Alaskan” changed for you after moving here and how would you define the concepts today? If you grew up in Alaska, how have your concepts changed from that of the social context and the time in which you grew up? Remember that giving an effective definition of a concept means both identifying the general qualities of the concept, which determine when it can be correctly applied, and using appropriate examples to demonstrate actual applications of the concept.
3. Make at least three contributions that could be compiled into a class infographic like the one on pages 330-331 in answer to the question “What are Alaskans like?” Research statistics about the properties that you identified in your concepts of an Alaskan or a real Alaskan that provide evidence that more or less of a majority of Alaskans have these properties. If you can’t find evidence for the properties you identified in either of your concept maps, find other statistics that are relatively current (within the last 5-10 years) that characterize the properties of the concept “an Alaskan”. Include a description of how the data are visualized (displayed) in your reference by referring to the examples in the infographic in the textbook. Comment on whether or not what you found to be true of a majority of Alaskans fits your concept of “a real Alaskan.”
Be sure to do your “due diligence” to determine the reliability of your sources of information and provide the references at the end of the post (author, date, title of article, publisher, with a weblink if it was web-published).
Please note: In total, your post should include a table or 1-2 illustrations, at least one substantial paragraph of discussion, and three statistics as contributions to the infographic.

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