Sociological Portrait Essay

Introduction
As I sketch my sociological portrait, I find myself first looking at the multiple statuses I hold in society and how each came about. I am not only a father to an young adult, but a son, a brother, a friend to many, a neighbor, a student once again and a blue-collar worker. Each of these statuses developed during various times in my life, and requires me to take on, at times, numerous roles. These statuses have defined who I have become and the impacts I have on society. My sociological portrait will be based on the social institution of family. My family has been the most influential in molding who I have become.
Identity and Social Institution
My parents came from working class families that where the Traditional Family, male

These reference groups helped shape us by providing us the means of how to behave in group settings in the proper manner, communication among people from all social classes, and gave us the ability to identify other social norms. My friends and their families taught me soft skills that I had not been exposed to within my family. “Soft skills are the character traits and difficult to teach interpersonal skills that characterize a person’s relations with other people. Soft skills have more to do with who we are than what we know. As such, soft skills encompass the character traits that decide how well one interacts with others, and are usually a definite part of one 's personality (www.investopedia.com).” “Soft skills are things like knowing how to dress, act and present oneself or the ability to work well with other people (Manza Pg. 417).” For example, I learned proper table etiquette such as not starting to eat before everyone was served. This was not something that was taught at my home. I learned proper clothing attire based on the occasion and or different adult surrounding. The benefits of these soft skills became invaluable later and into adulthood by helping me in the real world. I learned what to say and when to say it in conversational circumstances that I might have been unprepared for otherwise were now familiar to me. This allowed me to carry on conversations and