Soc 101 Note
SOC 101 note
CHAPTER 1: UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
The Sociological Perspective
Sociology: o The systematic study of human groups and their interactions
Sociological perspective: o A view of society based on the dynamic relationships between individuals and the larger social network in which we all live
Charles Wright Mills and the Sociological Imagination
Suggests that people who do not, or cannot, recognize the social origins and character of their problems may be unable to respond to these problems effectively.
Personal troubles: o Personal challenges that require individual solutions
Social issues: o Challenges caused by larger social factors that require collective solutions
Quality of mind: o Mills’ term for the ability to view personal circumstance within a social context o Has nothing to do with a person’s intelligence or level of education o to improve, Mills argued that sociologists need to expose individuals to what he called the sociological imagination
Sociological imagination: o C.W. Mills’ term for the ability to perceive how dynamic social forces influence individual lives
Defines sociological perspective as the ability to view the world from two distinct yet complementary perspectives: seeing general in the particular and seeing the strange in the familiar Seeing the General in the Particular
According to Berger, seeing the general in the particular is the ability to look at seemingly unique events or circumstances and then recognize the larger (or general) features involved
Ability to move from the particular to the general and back again is one of the hallmarks of the sociological perspective
Seeing the Strange in the Familiar
According to Berger, sociologists also need to tune their sociological perspective by thinking about what is familiar and seeing it as strange
While something seems familiar and normal, if you really think about it,
CHAPTER 1: UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
The Sociological Perspective
Sociology: o The systematic study of human groups and their interactions
Sociological perspective: o A view of society based on the dynamic relationships between individuals and the larger social network in which we all live
Charles Wright Mills and the Sociological Imagination
Suggests that people who do not, or cannot, recognize the social origins and character of their problems may be unable to respond to these problems effectively.
Personal troubles: o Personal challenges that require individual solutions
Social issues: o Challenges caused by larger social factors that require collective solutions
Quality of mind: o Mills’ term for the ability to view personal circumstance within a social context o Has nothing to do with a person’s intelligence or level of education o to improve, Mills argued that sociologists need to expose individuals to what he called the sociological imagination
Sociological imagination: o C.W. Mills’ term for the ability to perceive how dynamic social forces influence individual lives
Defines sociological perspective as the ability to view the world from two distinct yet complementary perspectives: seeing general in the particular and seeing the strange in the familiar Seeing the General in the Particular
According to Berger, seeing the general in the particular is the ability to look at seemingly unique events or circumstances and then recognize the larger (or general) features involved
Ability to move from the particular to the general and back again is one of the hallmarks of the sociological perspective
Seeing the Strange in the Familiar
According to Berger, sociologists also need to tune their sociological perspective by thinking about what is familiar and seeing it as strange
While something seems familiar and normal, if you really think about it,