Preview

Sociological Imagination Essay

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1119 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sociological Imagination Essay
1.1 The Sociological Imagination

Sociology: the scientific study of social structure; patterned social behavior

Help understand of why people act the way they do (in groups)

Social Structure: the patterned interaction of people in social relationships

How people act when around others (food fight)

Perspective: a particular point of view

Why i see thing differently from how others see it (opinion on the president)

Sociological Perspective: a view that looks at the behavior of groups, not individuals

Republicans vs democrats

Conformity: behavior that matches group expectations

Why people act like their friends / why there are similarities

Sociological Imagination: the ability to see the link between society and self

connecting public
…show more content…
Change in balance of power result in change in society

Symbolic interactionism

Groups only exist because their members influence each other's behavior

Symbols are a key component: interaction based on mutually understood symbols

3 assumptions of symbolic interactionism

We learn meaning of symbols based on others reactions

Once we learn meaning of symbols, we base our behavior on them

We use symbols meaning to imagine others responses to them

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.1 The Basis of Culture

Culture: knowledge, values, customs, and physical objects that are shared by the members of a society

Society: a group of people who inhabit a specific territory and share a common culture

Instincts: innate (unlearned) patterns of behavior

Reflex: automatic reaction to physical stimuli

Drive: impulse to reduce discomfort

Sociobiology: the study of how biology influences human behavior

Evolution: a process of change from one point of development to another

3.3 Norms and Values

Norm: rule determining appropriate and inappropriate
…show more content…
Counterculture: a subculture deliberately and consciously opposed to certain central beliefs or attitudes of the dominant culture

Ethnocentrism: judging others in terms of one's own cultural standards

Cultural Universal: general cultural trait that exists in all cultures

Cultural Particular: the way in which a culture expresses universal traits

Similarity: the quality of being alike

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.2 Socialization and the Self

Self-concept: an image of yourself as having an identity separate from other people

looking-glass self: an image of yourself based on what you believe others think of you

Distort: to twist out of the true meaning

significant others: those people whose reactions are most important to your self-concept

role taking: assuming the viewpoint of another person and using that viewpoint to shape the self-concept

Anticipate: to expect or predict

imitation stage: Mead's first stage in the development of role taking; children begin to imitate behaviors without understanding why

play stage: Mead's second stage in the development of role taking; children act in ways they imagine other people

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The central thesis is that a sociologist cannot understand the history of the society without understanding a life of an individual and vice versa. Mills argues that People do not recognize the connection of the patterns of their lives with the course of history. He directed that we are in a time of lack of enthusiasm and that in order to adjust the issues of society we must understand the society at the individual level. Sociological Imagination allows us to understand the life of individuals in the society and the history of the society as a whole. He posits that there are two types of sociological problems such as troubles and issues. And he demonstrates unemployment as an example, troubles are on the individual level, however, when the…

    • 174 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    | Feedback: Social institutions do not have to be established by any particular organization or group and do not necessarily have physical locations.…

    • 1464 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    According to C. Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination is the “vivid awareness of the relationship between personal experience and the wider society.” The Sociological Imagination is used to view situations in many social contexts, understanding how individuals and situations can be influenced by interactions and actions. A topic that would be interesting to study would be regarding the obesity epidemic. Being overweight can be considered a personal trouble by anyone who faces it, resulting from bad eating habits or a personal genetic predisposition. But, now in the US, a large amount of citizens deal with obesity, so The Sociological Imagination can easily be applied to this issue. Obesity affects society because it is the gateway to life-threatening…

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “The Sociological Imagination” by C. Wright Mills’ has been clearly written statements about how the nature of sociology is part of human being’s everyday life in which, to have a better understand of the topic at hands social structure could be changed to help everyone. Mills goes into detail about why many feel like their everyday life is a trap and they cannot seem to overcome troubles that happen. Along with the understanding of feeling trapped there is much support on the topic of historical change and institutional contradiction (Mill). The final main topic that Mills brings to the table in this chapter is the understanding of the sociological imagination threw examples, facts, and information.…

    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Charles Wright Mills (1916-1962) was an American sociologist, and a social commentator and critic. He was born on August 28, 1916 in Waco, Texas. Mills has been described as a “volcanic eminence” in the academic world and as “one of the most controversial figures in American social science”. He is committed to social change and angered by the oppression he saw around him. He was anti-authoritarian, showy and an individualistic. I figured out that, he got married three times by different women (Dorothy Helen Smith, Ruth Harper and Yaroslava Surmach) and had two daughters (Pamela and Kathryn) and one son (Nikolas Charles). Mills died on March 20, 1962 - cause of major heart attack.…

    • 1314 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Sociological Imagination was written by C. Wright Mills in 1959. This book concentrates on what social science as a discipline, should seek to address and the positive impact that it can present. It portrays the focus of sociology and at the same time, discards the negative opinions. Mills considers that, society symbolizes disaster in institutions and the limitations of community members. He believes that a sociological imagination is an approach to get rid of these societal situations.…

    • 1170 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sociological Imagination

    • 1059 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Throughout this essay the sociological imagination is used to analyse the historical, cultural and structural reasons for drug use and abuse. Within this parameter the sociological imagination is applied, using studies research conducted in the United Kingdom, Australia, Russia and the United States. The sociological imagination was defined by Charles Write Mills as a ‘quality of mind’. (Mills quoted by Germov, Poole 2007: 4 ) It is stimulated by an awareness to view the social world by looking at how one’s own personal problems and experiences form a relationship to the wider society. In Victorian society the majority of people believed there was no ‘drug problem.' (Berridge, 1999) The substances used in Britain at the time like opium based cough medicine was commonly accepted in daily life. Sometimes opiates were taken for enjoyment, what we now class as ‘recreational’ drug use. During this era there was no obvious difference between society’s use of drugs for medicinal or pleasurable purposes. Much of peoples’ drug use was used to escape the drudgery of Victorian working class life. However, society was troubled by the amount of alcohol that was being consumed. (Berridge, 1999) When the British settled in Australia, of which the majority were male, drinking was a stand out aspect of colonial life. ( Room, 2010: 151-152) In the late eighteenth century alcohol consumption had halved due to the growing presence of women and children, and later the depression. After the first world war consumption steadily increased until it peaked in the late 1970s, partly because of a new wave of female drinkers. Australia's drinking culture in the early twenty-first century was heavily influenced by class. As was depicted by Horne about working class life. “ Pictured as happy go lucky, Hard drinking, hard gambling, Matey, thumbing its nose at The sissies and snobs in the Lower middle class suburbs.” (Horne quoted by Room, 2010: 152) By the 1960s, governments were planning to…

    • 1059 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Symbolic interactionism tends to observe things by paying full attention to the micro level of sociology. Instead of focusing on broader aspects you look at things depending upon the individual and their interactions in society. Through the use of symbols we are able to assign meaning to people and things and then develop our own interpretations of those symbols.…

    • 1406 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “Sociological Imagination is the most fruitful form of this self-consciousness.” This quote by C. Wright Mills’ The Promise of Sociology is the basis of the meaning of Social Imagination. I believe that social imagination in important because our lives are all connected to each other. If we can step into someone else’s shoes, we may be more conscientious of the judgements we make on others. Sociological Imagination can be described in many different ways.…

    • 1373 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Social facts are those realities or institutionalized patterns (e.g., taxes, posted speed limits, registration for draft) that constrain both personal and group behavior.…

    • 4432 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ethnocentrism. Judging other cultures by the standards of one’s own culture rather than by the standards of that particular culture. From an ethnocentric perspective, that which is culturally familiar is normal, ‘natural,’ true, right, moral, and proper; that which is unfamiliar is bizarre, inexplicable, abnormal, unnatural, inferior, and/or even immoral, savage, or barbaric.…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sociological Imagination

    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The sociological imagination helps us understand our surroundings. The context in which we grow up helps shape the person we will become. The settings we familiarize ourselves with have been built upon the social norms that have been set in place by changes in time. Norms are unwritten rules that we adopt throughout life and live by. C. Wright Mills underlines the connection of history and biography into the ideals that shape how your life will develop. In an attempt to understand Mill’s concept better, I broke a reliable norm of invading personal space.…

    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sociology

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Sociology is the study of the human race as a whole and the sociological perspective involves a sociological mindset, which allows you to put your personal feelings, and encounters into relation with society. To understand what we are going through as individuals, one must first understand and relate to individuals in the same situation, or as Wright (1959:3) puts it, “…the first lesson of the social science…is the idea that the individual can understand his own experience and gauge his own fate only by…becoming aware of individuals in his circumstances.” The idea of social imagination and social perspective is just that: relating yourself and your problems, to society as a whole.…

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sociological Imagination

    • 1047 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.” -C Wright. Mills, www.brainyquotes.com…

    • 1047 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    history and biography and the relations between the two within society. When I read his…

    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays