The concepts I have learned about throughout the first half of this class have been interesting, some more than others. There are five that are the most meaningful to me. They are global perspective, culture, society, peer group, and reference group. A global perspective is the study of our society’s place in the larger world and the larger world itself (Macionis, page 6). I need to have a global perspective to help myself see better sociologically. Having a global perspective will allow me to better understand the current events I hear about on the news. I need to better understand the rest of the world in order to better understand my own world. Without a global perspective, I am like a horse with blinders on. Just like the horse can only see what is directly in front of it, I am unable to see the rest of the world aside from my portion of it. Taking a global perspective will lead me to see that different places have different cultures. A culture can be defined as the ways of thinking and acting, along with the material objects that make up a people’s way of life (Macionis, page 54). I need to understand that people I meet may have grown up in different cultures and have different beliefs or values. If I take a global perspective, I will be able to better respect and value the cultures of the people I come into contact with. Learning about different cultures is one way to learn about people’s history. Everyone’s pasts and futures are linked by their culture (Macionis, page 54). As I prepare to go to college in the fall, I think about all the new people I will have the opportunity to meet. I will have the chance to interact with people from other countries. I will have the chance to not just learn more about them as... ... middle of paper ... ...d by the society that I was growing up in. The kids of today are more technologically savvy than I was at their age, but they are simply products of their environment. Charles Horton Cooley used the term looking-glass self to mean a person’s self-image based on how they think others see them (Macionis, page 108; Cooley, 1964, original 1902). This theory is fairly straightforward. How a person views himself is based on how he thinks other people see him. I have done and will do throughout my life. If I think the people at school think that I am quiet, then I will view myself as a quiet person. If I think my friends at church think I am a good listener, then I will view myself as a good listener. The danger of the looking-glass self is that it can greatly harm a person’s self-esteem. It can also give people a false sense of pride and make people have large egos.
“In addition to giving special attention to the history and current situation of their own nation, [children should] learn a good deal more than they frequently do about the rest of the world in which they live” (6). In this method of education, students will be creating bonds with characteristics of cultures that they personally find good and worthy of upholding. Rather than upholding traditions of their own nation without the respect they where originally meant to give. In this way, you would find differences in other nations cultures and not see them as flaws, but as unique features you can appreciate and strive to
In this paper will be talking about the three sociological perspectives as it pertains to the fraternities and sororities in today’s world. I have chosen this topic because it can be easily understood in all three perspectives.
One of the sociological theories is conflict theory. The conflict theory deals with people's level on wealth, or class. The conflict theory says that social change is beneficial, contrary to focuses on social order. In the story of the woman and her children, the conflict theory plays a big role on the situation. Police of higher class are threatening the homeless woman. The conflict theory is a constant struggle of people of higher class over powering people of lower class, or the weaker. The police are trying to over power the woman by telling her to leave. Even though the woman and her children were doing nothing wrong, the police used their power to tell her to leave. Also the people of the area showed their conflict theory by telling the police officers to come. They must have felt embarrassed to have a woman of such lower class to be around them. They used their power of class to have the woman removed from their community. The woman wants to be there because she has no home and it is a good community to be in, but the people look at it as an embarrassment to them because it makes their area look bad for someone of such lower class to be around them. The conflict theory is unique to all other theories because it separates people into categories determined by their wealth and standards. Their status is the element that categorizes them, weather it is class, race, or gender. The conflict theory do not always use class, race, and gender all at once. In this situation race and gender is not a main issue, although gender could be a reason, but it would fall under the feminist theory. This story is mainly dealing with class. Through all this conflict the woman feels over powered and domina...
This paper discusses three approaches that can be taken when studying Sociology. There are many subjects to be studied and discussed in the field of Sociology, and the approach chosen to study a particular subject is called a perspective. There are three different perspectives, and they are functionalist, conflict, and interactionist perspectives. This paper compares and contrasts these different perspectives with one another.
1 Most sociologists interpret social life from one of three major theoretical frameworks or theories: symbolic interactionism, functional analysis, or conflict theory. Describe the major points and key concepts of each framework. List at least one sociologist who is identified with each of these three frameworks.
Sociology is something I didn’t know about until I took this class. This class introduced sociology to me. I learned about how society basically made boys supposed to like blue and girls supposed to like pink. Sociology is “the systematic or scientific study of human society and social behavior, from large-scale institutions and mass culture to small groups and individual interactions” (Ferris and stein 2014: p9). Sociology is not something you just learn when you are just born. You learn about sociology throughout your life. Sociology is displayed around things such as being around different environments, friends, and family. Education is a sociology idea that can examine a person’s class and schooling. The higher the education you have,
The sociological perspective plays a significant role in everyday living, although many are unaware of the specific impact this perspective may have on our lives. This perspective studies human behaviors and the way certain society factors impact such behaviors. There are three main sociology perspective groups, the conflict perspective, functionalist, and the symbolic interactionist perspective (Mooney, Knox, and Schacht, 2007). Between my extracurricular activities, education, and workplace, the sociological perspective plays a significant role in my life. Today, I currently live in a society that has had a great foundation and plays an enormous role on my behavior and the things I’m able to do, as reflected by my extracurricular activities,
What is the most important concept that you learned in this class? Write this for a reader who is unfamiliar with the concept.
Writing Assignment 2 As the semester comes to an end, my first sociology class has absolutely changed my outlook towards life and our society. Professor Bostick was an inspirational instructor that really impressed me with his knowledge and passion for sociology. He truly wants his students to think outside of the box and look at our ever-changing society in an exclusively new way. My thoughts, beliefs, and opinions have defiantly been challenged after a whole semester of interesting lectures. I have gained a huge understanding about the ways in which society and culture impact my everyday life.
In every field of study, researchers come up with a variety of approaches in order to attain information and share it, based on how they perceive it to be best achieved. In the discipline of sociology, there are three major ways to conduct research about the social world: positivist, interpretive and critical sociology. These three research orientations differ in a few ways, and a sociologist may prefer to use one over another, but not one method could empirically be considered better than the other, because they are each unique in the requirements, restraints and ways they collect and use the data. Although dissimilar, each of these research perspectives is important to be aware of, since they all ultimately have the same goal: to learn more
Sociological imagination a concept coined and written by C. Wright Mills defined sociological imagination as “the vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and the wider society." Sociological imagination is being able to pull away from a certain situation or being able to “think ourselves away” from our familiar routines in order to look at it with a different perspective or alternative.
The World View is a global concept. It defines our standard of how things are or should be in the world we live in. It makes up our rules of how we and others should act and our values and morals to behave in the world. For most of the people, the world view is a vague set of rules that we have unconsciously adopted from the society. Generally our family, religious groups and society seldom allow us for making creating our own. Through our intellect, we can create aspects of our world view. In short the World View is a filter through which we make judgments of others and ourselves.
Charles Cooley’s concept of the looking glass reveals the steps of how we see ourselves based on perceptions of how others perceive us. The idea is useful to recognize how the self can grow and learn from perceptions of others. The structure of the looking glass follows three steps. The first is based on, how we appear to others. Second is our reactions of how others view us, and thirdly a person recognizes and evaluates oneself based on thoughts of others. This theory connects with socialization and culture as connections are framed
When it comes to comprehending or understanding any concept to why individuals may do some of the things they do, there are social theories out there to help better explain those actions. Sociological theories help to focus more on the aspect of social life, as well as explain behaviors that can be driven by passion, tradition, self-interest, religion, and the laws we have set out today in stone. “Unlike scientific theories, social theories tend to be more evaluative and critical than the theories in the natural sciences” (Appelrouth A. S.; Edles D. L 2012) Today, an analytical frame is used to help guide the comparing and contrasting of the several theoretical perspectives and traditions. In simpler terms, this four way frame is basically used to help compare and contrast theorist better. There are four main cells that make up this analytical frame which include, individual-rational, individual-nonrational, collective-rational, and collective-nonrational. Also included into this basic theoretical orientation or framework, are the core classical theorists. Those influential theorists included into the framework are Mead, who falls into the individual-nonrational side, Durkheim whom falls into the collective-nonrational side, Weber whom falls into the collective-rational side, and Marx who is also included into the collective-rational side.
Global studies also seeks to make connections between those different perspectives-to understand how they are related and how they might fit together as part of a large whole interdisciplinary. Global studies students and scholars analyze the social,political,and economic processes and transformations that affect not only the world as a whole but also individual localities in particular,complex,and sometimes contradictory ways. Global studies also generally foreground an active ethical component that tends not to be as prominent in many other