Sociological Imagination - Dissertation Example

1 Sociological Imagination Question I Wright Mills explains Sociological Imagination as a “shift from one perceptive to another.” This statement by itself, could mean nothing or everything. However, Mills did not leave his readers hanging. Sociological Imagination is the ability to see the influence that society has on people, both in their public and private lives. People’s behavior are shaped by (1) social context, (2) actors, and (3) social actions. People in different countries and different time period act according to their environment. For example, Muslim women are required to dress a certain way while they are living in their Muslim countries, nonetheless, when they come to another country like America, they may dress like Americans. Change of dress style is a sociological imagination. America does not expect that type of dressing from them; consequently, they adopt to their social situation. There was a time in society when having children out of wedlock was taboo, so much so that young middle, or upper class girls who got pregnant were expected to give their children up for adoption. Now a days hardly anyone cares if you are an unwed mother. The above examples are also results of actors and social actions. Whether or not we agree, society dictates our behavior. These above mentioned people do not have to necessarily believe in their own behavior, but in order to remain in the society that they are used to, they must conform. The Sociological Perceptive consists of three paradigms (1) symbolic interaction, (2) functionalism, and (3) conflict theory. Sociologists take into account the different factors that cause an action. Symbolic interaction is how actions are governed by symbols. That is, a man wears a wedding ring on his ring finger is assumed to be married. Is he more married, or less 2 married than the man who does not wear one? No, society expects him to wear a wedding ring on his ring finger to to tell people that he is married. According to the functionalist, the input of all the agencies in society is needed in order for it to function as a whole. Society is interdependent, it is held together by the contributions of all its institutions. Functionalism promotes order, stability, and productivity. The conflict theory focuses on the negative, and blames society for inequality. It encourages revolutions in the name of justice. It contends that the rich and powerful enforce their order on the poor. Sociological imagination and sociological perceptive are concepts employed by sociologist to describe how society is influenced by norms, values,and institutions. As a student I am one unique person, however, I make up a social group, a group of students who has the same interest-- to complete this course and do it well. When this course is finished the faculty may use the results of this class to determine how successful this online course was, or whether or not they should make changes. This school, like other institutions, has conformed to the expectations of society. It has rules, set forth by a governing body. Chances are, if I have a grievance and I think the school has not dwelt with my complaint to my satisfaction, and decides to take the school to court, immediately the school might survey the other students to prove that I am just one disgruntled student, and my action does not reflect the views of my social group. This grievance will then become be a personal issue instead of a public issue. Question 2 Ethnocentrism and cultural relativity are totally opposite. The only thing that they share in common is, they both have norms, values, customs, and beliefs they display a certain behavior. 3 Ethnocentrism is a culture that is prejudice. An ethnocentric society judges other cultures on the merits of their own culture. That is, they think that their culture is superior to that of others. They think that if another culture deviates from the standard of their culture, then that culture is not important. On the other hand, cultural relativity is tolerant. It tries to understand other peoples culture without judging them. They try to understand why different people practice the culture they have adopted. In the study of sociology, one can never be ethnocentric. Sociology is not a bias science. While sociologists may hold on to their own personal beliefs, they acknowledge that others have a right to their own culture. The truth is, this world would be quite boring if every culture were the same. Even when the culture shocks the investigator, he must respect it. The culture of the Naciremans is absolutely immoral, yet, a sociologist must not criticize their many sadistic, cruel rituals. Despite the pain they inflict on each other, and their extreme, senseless beliefs, so ridiculous that one might think that they are mad, sociology requires that their culture must be respected. It is hard to believe that such a culture exists in this twenty-first century. Question 3 Functionalism, symbolic interaction, and conflict theory, were discussed in question one. Functionalism was made popular by comparing it to the human body that needs the cooperation of all its other members. Herbert Spencer in his analogy of functionalism, said society must function as a whole. Unfortunately, every sociologist does not share Spencer’s view; even though the body might need all its other members to function, the body only presumes that the 4 other member are taking care of themselves. Functionalists would like to think that every institution benefits society, and that really is not true. Karl Marx and conflict theory are synonymous, so much so that the most celebrated variety of conflict theory is called Marxism. Other sociologists have counterattack the conflict theory stating that conflict theory does not help society, the only group that profits from it, is the ruling class. The working class is treated as subordinates; and it does not explain how the individual is affected. Max Weber stated that when a person uses his own experience to understand a social phenomenon, he is exercising symbolic interaction. There are critics who do not embrace the symbolic interaction theory. They claimed that the concept is too wide and too vague, it is not quite clear; and is is too difficult to test.( Question 4 Ritzer states that without social theory one looses direction in the social world. Social theory is like putting the pieces of a puzzle together; one needs to know where each piece fits. If two puzzles are mixed together, the pieces of each puzzle has to be sorted out, before they can fit together. Social theory places an array of facts and insights into order; it gives the general point of views that one needs to understand the social world. Without social theory, all one has is a jungled array of ideas. Question 5 Students should keep all copies of e-mail sent to the professor, in case there are any discrepancies. It is imperative that all work, including homework is received on time. Only in case of valid emergency will late work be accepted. Unless students get a “received” reply from professor, they assume that the professor did not received their work. Again save e-mail 5 “received” reply. Cheating is unacceptable, and any student caught cheating will fail this class. Students will also be referred to disciplinary actions—NO EXCEPTION. Question 6 For more than a decade sociologists have argued nature verses nurture. The logical conclusion is, one without the other is an incomplete human being. Nature is the biological factors that affect development; and nurture is the environmental factors that affect development. If a child is left to develop with only nurturing, his cognitive, social, and physical development will be less than an animal’s. One would think that a child would at least learn to walk, if left by himself. However scientists have proven that this is not so; there will be minimal development if any, in such a child. Nurturing alone is not going to produce any better results than naturing alone. In his book, Piaget stated that a child develops at his own pace, and divided the development process into four stages. The sensorimotor stage; the preoperational stage; the concrete operational stage; and the formal operational stage. The sensorimotor stage starts at birth and ends somewhere between eighteen months and two years. During this time the infant is unable to distinguish between itself and anyone else; if it leaves a room, the objects in the room are forgotten. The preoperational stage starts at about eighteen months to seven years. At this stage the child is able to distinguish between themselves and others; they understand permanency, and their relationship to relatives. They are visual and does not have the ability to grasp non-concrete things like weight and volume. They conceive measurement by size. In the preoperational stage, the child does not understand why the moon is everywhere, therefore, he thinks the moon is 6 following him. The concrete operational stage is between seven and eleven. This is the stage when intelligence is rapid, most children at this stage is unable to process abstract concepts. To visualize an abstracts, they have to compare it to concrete things. That is, a child at this stage will compare love to their favorite food or activity. At the formal operational stage, the child is now an adolescent and abstract is becoming clear to him. At this stage they can follow rules; they can tell the difference between right and wrong: they understand death; and can perform complex tasks like solving mathematical problems.( Like Mead, Piaget does not explore the importance of social interaction in the developmental process. Mead did not agree with Piaget that the most important factor that affects learning is biology. One of the main concept in in Mead’s perspective is the “self”--a personal recognition of identity that takes place during the process of socialization (interaction with other human being). It is then that it is possible for learning to take place, through a process called “taking the role of the other.” Mead differentiate between play—taking one role at a time and games—assuming the position of all the player in a game; knowing how all the environs of society relate to the whole. ( Because people have an innate desire to socialize, they become hostage of socialization. The society in which they choose to associate conforms them to its value, norms, beliefs, and behaviors. If they choose to deviate, they are either punished or looked upon as outcast. Question7 7 Melissa Melkie is saying that “the looking glass self” is seeing ourselves as others see us. “The looking glass self” do not always treat us well. The way people is not always how we really are, nonetheless, more often than not, we hang on their perceptions of what we are. It would be very sad if we accept people’s negative criticism about us; and it could be equally sad if we believe in every flattery. “The looking glass self” can make or break us. Unfortunately, this is the way society works, always applying the symbolic integration theory, and it is not always accurate. Question 8 Social isolation means a lack of interpersonal contact. In humans, the cause might be a permeative withdrawal or a shunning of social interaction or communication. Sometimes people, because of physiological or physical reasons, may choose this isolation. And unfortunately, there are those who are forced to become isolated. Either way, social isolation can be very detrimental, as in the case of Victor, who Enrich Goode describes in his book, Sociology (p. 131) Victor did not act like anyone or anything, he simply did the best he could to survive. He was a product of his environment, he was somewhat nurtured. He must have mimicked other animals since he was walking on all four, and like an animal. Despite attempts to turn him into human, he could not adopt to his new environment, nor could he respond to naturing. In the case of Amal And Kamala, They display wolfish behavior, both in eating and defending themselves. These actions were direct results of being natured a wolf, and being nurtured in a wolfish environment. by a because they were natured by a wolf, and they adopted a the wolfish environment they lived in. One can say that both Darwin and Pavlov 8 together are right, but, separate them and they are partially right. Question 9 The agents of socialization are numerous. However there are four major one: school; media; peers; and family. These social agents affect young people for more than older people. School and peer work almost the same and can be very influential. It is wanting to be in the “in crowd,” the popular group in school, the best dressed, The ones who have boyfriends, the group that have money and hangs out in the mall, or the “ jock” of the football team. The media is quite a lair and I do not think at one time or another anyone can say that they were save from its onslaught. Almost all of its ads have a sexual connotation. It gets people where they live, it causes people to spend money they do not have, and make young people drool to be movie stars. To look good most people think that they must be below their ideal weight, like the models. Family is an authoritative agent, little girls want to be like their mothers and little boys want to be like their fathers. The role of the family usually determines the moral of the children, the difference between right and wrong. Question 10 In sociology, the term "master status" refers to the quality that dominates person. This quality determines how they are viewed and treated; and the other qualities are simply ignored. For example a good teacher or a good doctor is a “master status.” Some “master status” remains a lifetime and some do not. People will stop calling you someone’s wife or husband, but no one will forget that you are a murder. A star athlete like O.J. Simpson, who was given “master status” by society, might fall from grace and looses his “master status.” “Master status” can be 9 given by society, by peers, or several other kinds of social groups. Question 11 A primary group usually a small social group whose members share close, personal, enduring, relationships. These groups are almost as close and sometimes closer than the family group. They share activities, culture, goals, and values. Families, and support groups are examples of primary groups. Primary groups are usually lasting and more often than not, the members do not actually join this group; they somehow just become part of the group. In a secondary group, people interaction with each other is less personal, not like the primary group. This is a short lived group, most time they are established to perform functions. People choose to be a part of this group. In a secondary group commodities, such as labor for wages, services for payments, are exchanged. Question 12 I consider the electronic community a social group. It has more membership, and influences society than any other social group; everything is online, or computerized. If the electronic community ceases to exit, the world would literally come to a stand still. I do not agree that this online class is social group. We are a group, but the students do not interact or impact anyone but ourselves. A social group is a group with a function, we do not have a function, we are the only one who are benefited in this group. The only value we share is completing this class, a personal issue. If one of our members should come to harm, we would not be running over to comfort them or even send them a card, as a matter of fact we do not even know where each other live. 10 Question 13 A website that I would consider a bureaucracy is “AOL.Com,” There was a time when people did research at the library, now they can stay in their homes and find what they need online. Pretty soon the libraries will have to cut their staff(they will not have enough work for them); they will not need to buy new books – publishers will soon have to cut their staff too, they can either download them or listen to them online. Because of “AOL.Com” a few thousand could be out of work. Question 14 George Ritzer said he took central elements of the work of Max Weber, and expanded and updated them. Resulting in the production of a critical investigation of the impact of social change on human interaction and identity. Ritzer suggests that in the late Twentieth Century the socially organized form fast-food restaurant, McDonald, has become the constructional power presenting and extending the process of rationalization further into the sphere of everyday interaction and individual identity. McDonald's serves as the case model of this process in the 1990's. Fast food restaurants, like McDonald, produce social consequences. They have everything computerized and pre-packed. Therefore, they employ less people; the required qualification standards for employees are lowered, since they are no longer required to think, just push a button and the work is done. There is less social interaction, and service is impersonal. When less people are hired, especially in the low income groups, these groups face financial crises. These people are now in a new group, the group on social welfare. Fast food restaurants are not the only social group that is going fast; the banks and supermarkets are running close 11 behind them. Question 15 An individual or a group may use positive or negative sanctions to show their disapproval or approval of certain behavior. Positive sanction would include rewards, compliments, applause, or smiles, while negative sanctions would include punishments, frowns, rejection, or gossip. The word deviant means that one is behaving in a manner that society deems inappropriate, criminal, abnormal, a deviation from the norm of society. Sometimes Positive response can alter a negative behavior. For example an individual who uses negative behavior to get attention may stop if he is complimented on his better qualities while the negative qualities are ignored. Just as positive sanctions can change negative behavior, negative sanctions can result in negative behavior. Question 16 The Merton’s Strain theory is, a deviation from the rules and norms of society. Merton believed that society is the cause of deviation; society sets the cultural goal of material success, but, does not provide the means to achieve that goal. The four deviant paths are: conformity is the attainment of societal goals through the path that society specifies; innovation is attainment of societal goals by deviating from the accepted path set by society, an example of innovation is a drug dealer: ritualism is following the rules but looses the goal; retreatism are deviants who have reject both the means and the goals; rebellion reject both societal goals and means, a revolutionary. Question17 12 The reason the ratio between social class and race/ethnicity is so unbalance in prisons, is the process of the conflict theory. The wealthy and the powerful have money to hire layers to plea their cases. The wealthy are usually the powerful, and even though we do not want to admit it, the powerful knows judges, they move in the same circle. Obviously, people from the lower social classes, usually the Blacks and Hispanics, some whites too, know no one in “high places” and they do not have money to hire lawyers to plead their cases, therefore, they go to prison. Only a few prisons offer training, they come out and do the only thing they know to do; they are back in prison plus the new ones who keep coming. Question 18 Marx's theories on social class contend that the bourgeoisie-- the capitalists, the factory owners-- exploit those who produce goods and services for them―proletariat. These are the two social classes, the capitalists. and the workers. Weber counter back that there is more to social class than what Marx is saying. He said that there three social groups―class income, has enough money to provide themselves with material things and the comforts of life; prestige―lifestyles bring these people together, not necessarily how much money they earn; and income―people in the same income bracket, but may not have the same family size, or live in a place where cost of living is low like their counterparts, who earns the same amount of money, The result, get less for their money. Judging from the view of these socialists, they were impacted by the social classes of their time. According to their ages, they live in a time when there were basically the rich and the poor, and workers were truly exploited. 13 Question19 Contradictory class location is the assignment of class positions to middle workers (such as manager, supervisor, or salaried professional) who are neither capitalists or worker. They are a little of both. Wright, who is a Marx supporter, had a problem, his idea of Marxism was not working, unless he finds a place for them they would be left in “no man’s land.” Eventually he called them “petite bourgeoisie.” Question 20 The biggest problem with social class in America today, is health care. Fortunately, President Obamha is trying his hardest to fix this. Until then, the poor will have to be contented with subside health care; and spend a whole day waiting at the clinic just to see a doctor for ten minutes. After that spend two hours waiting in line at the pharmacy, as if waiting six weeks for a doctor’s appointment is enough. Capitalists and their employees know nothing of this public issue, since they can afford the high cost of health insurance. The working class, sometimes even with insurance cannot buy all the medication they need because the capitalists who own the pharmaceutical companies will not lower the cost of life-saving medication. This is truly the conflict theory at work. Question 21 Horatio Alger wrote a series of book in which poor men worked hard and with luck, and help from a wealthy individual, were able to achieve a better life. The functionalist would say that they should in turn help someone else. The conflict theorist would say hold on to your wealth is is yours and you worked hard for it. 14 Question22 Race is one’s biological make up. People who do not share the same genes but look alike, like Blacks and Indians. People who share common culture or subculture, and are regarded as sharing the same ancestry are ethnic groups, example Jews. Question23 Individual discrimination is what it says, discrimination against an individual. Institutional discrimination is when a place like a college, or a hospital, does not cater to people of a certain race, gender, or class. I cannot think of any institution that still practices discrimination. Question 24 As far as the American society is concern, there are two gender, male and female; and people who have characteristics of both groups must choose a group to belong. One can never be part man or woman in the American society. It is a general conception that boys play with guns, cars, rockets and rough play, and get dirty; while girls play with dolls, and kitchen sets and never get dirty. From an early age society decides what is manly and what is ladylike. Question 25 Two consequences of gender stratification towards women are and patriarchy and differential access. Two consequences of gender stratification against men sexism, and sexual harassment. Question26 Incest taboo is a law preventing people from marrying or having sex with their family 16 members. When members of the same family marry each other, they could awaken recessive genes and give birth to a child that may become a ward of the state, since the parents are not able to care for it at home. Not getting married in the first place, is benefiting society. Question 27 Homogamy is the tendency that people with similar characteristics marry each other. I believe it works. No two people can have the same characteristic for every aspect of their lives, but for the important things they must be on the same page. Opposites only attract in science. The American society agrees with me and so does the sociologist. Question 28 There was a time when marriages last “till death do us part,” not Always because the couple love each other but because it was economically necessary. As we entered into the twentieth century, women started to find work outside of the home, and started to become financially secure, and no longer have to depend on their husbands, divorce gets easier. Men start earning more, and realize that they are able to take care of themselves and children without having to stay in a bad marriage. The other reason is society, but gone are the days when divorce was taboo. Question 29 Serial fatherhood is a man having children with several different women. It exists because people have become too promiscuous. Saving oneself for marriage is becoming a myth. It is the fault of both the mother and the father. Society does play a part it maks men feel that 17 certain action make them look manly. Women have been called “sluts,” but no one ever hears a man being called a “slut,” even if he has ten children with ten different women. Question30 The conflict theory of education believes that education perpetuates inequality. It does not see the education system as equal, because schools in the affluent districts, get better teachers and better texts. Therefore, they have the advantage of getting into the better colleges, and getting better jobs, and the cycle repeats itself. I do not agree, if a child is going to excel he will excel no matter where he is. The school in the less affluent neighborhood are not treated as badly as conflict theorists say, maybe once, but not anymore. Question31 Rist research stated that in the classroom the teacher placed students at a disadvantage, set them up for failure. The students performed according to the teacher’s expectation. The self-fulfilling prophecy is, a false definition of a situation is given, evokes a new behavior making the false definition true. I agree, in school, children are at an impressionable age and either negative or positive remarks can make the child conform to someone else’s expectations. Question 32 Durkheim believed that religious worships is worship to society. When one worships he renews a bond between him and society and with his fellow worshipers. Later the functionalists added that religion contributes to the stability and continuation of society. Question 33 If one should consider religion as Durkheim and the functionalist describe it, it would be 18 safe to say that religion is a science. The reason for my conclusion is the study of the universe is a science. Durkheim said that the practice of religion offers a version of reality that makes sense, and it is of a cosmic origin. Work Cited Goode, Enrich, Sociology. Ohio: Prentice Hall, 1987. Read More