Sociology Chaper One - Essay Example

Employees at Walmart stores are in the beginning stages of forming a union as well, working toward getting more equitable pay and benefits. 2. With all research methods listed here except participant observation, there is a certain degree of separation between the researcher and the subject. This varies, of course, by the type of research being conducted. This is both a strength and a weakness. While this separation enables the researcher to reach conclusions based upon the facts as they are uncovered by the research method, none of these methods enable the kind of comprehensive understanding of a group of people that can be reached through participant observation, which is why participant observation is used most often in sociology.

At the same time, participant observation poses the risk of the researcher becoming too intimately involved with the group. 3. Obesity in America is getting worse because of sociological issues. Entire groups of people are going to work two and three jobs just to make ends meet or sometimes to be able to afford the kinds of extras they perceive as necessary. Their children, sitting along watching TV commercials that equate happiness and fun with eating junk food, continue to snack and gain weight while the adults, constantly eating fast food on the run between one job and another, also gain weight after having also made similar associations between food and fun, joy, and companionship. 4. The symbolic interactionism theory is interesting because it focuses on the individual levels that contribute to the greater social system.

Without symbols, we would be unable to understand each other. Thinking about those times when I’ve had to communicate with someone who does not speak English, it is the symbols we use that facilitate the conversation. Even when the same language is spoken, though, it is the use of symbols that help us determine how we feel about others and how