Preview

My Sociological Imagination

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2073 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
My Sociological Imagination
Htet A. Lin
SOCI 1100
Instructor: Kelley Harris
Final Draft: My Sociological Imaginations
December 12th, 2013. “The sociological Imagination is defined as the ability to understand the one’s own issues are not caused simply by one’s own beliefs or thoughts but by society and how it is structured.” (Mills, The Sociological Imagination, 1959). Therefore, one can never solve their problems until they understand that they cannot be solved simply on an individual level but must be addressed on the social level. It is the ability to see how society is structured and how things such as societal norms influence people into performing certain actions. It involves observing outcomes from a different perspective in order to understand what influenced those outcomes.

Growing up in one’s environment is likely to play as a factor in the way they go about things in the life. People cannot change their environment so they sometimes have to change themselves in order to become to fit in with their societies or to become successful person. The sociological perspective better known as the sociological imagination helps individuals see through a broader scope of the society. Being a part of a general category like a working class youth or a student, you must learn how to view the world through by society. My agent of socialization belongs to my university and friends or peer who surrounded me recently because I believe the service-learning that we will be taking part in will help to expand our sociological imaginations.
For myself, my parents are born into a certain environment and depending on how the utilized their sociological imagination, play a part in the environment we become a part of. As I’m coming from the working class family, there is an assumption that you have to go to the school or university for your social status or prestige of your life in my society. My parents always wanted more for me so they enlisted me in a catholic elementary



References: Mills, C. Wright. 1959. The Sociological Imagination. New York; Oxford University Press. Web. Engels, Friedrich and Marx, Karl. 1998. Manifesto of the Communist Party. New York. Web 10 Sep, 2013. Web 10 Sep, 2013. C Wright Mills, (1959), The Sociological Imagination, reprinted (2000), Oxford University, chapters 1-3 and 7, pages 3–75 and 132-143. Schwalbe, Michael. 1956. The Sociologically examined life: pieces of the conversation. Collins, Patricia Hill. December 1986. Social Problems 33. Web.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    “Let every man be his own methodologist, let every man be his own theorist” –C. Wright Mills. The sociological imagination is a way of comprehending circumstances in society that lead to a questioned outcome. Outcomes are usually shaped by: motives, the time period, location, and human influence. Social situations have a large impact on how people think and act. A sociological perspective is in a way a symbiotic relationship between human individuals and society. In order to obtain this perspective; one must extract themselves from the particular situation and have an abstract point of view of the identified circumstance. One must see the situation in a wider and more diverse perspective.…

    • 111 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In C. Wright Mills’ book, The Sociological Imagination, he creates a new academic discourse to discuss how society and the individual are intimately connected. The individual and the society in which the individual exists in are interdependent. For a layman’s example, a college student is an individual but an individual within a society of higher education, there is not one without the other. His sociological theory is referred to as the sociological imagination that allows us as individuals and a society to “grasp history and biology and the relations between the two within society” (Mills 6). From an LPS view, this imagination is at the core of the major, allowing individuals and society to interact with thing beyond and a part of them…

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The sociological imagination is a process that involves looking at myself less as an individual who makes independent decisions and more as a piece of the whole society that I am a part of. The sociological imagination involves consciously studying my behavior, decisions, and personality and connecting it to my time period, gender, age, and other surroundings. The sociological imagination can be both comforting and frightening. It is comforting because it helps individuals recognize that they are not alone in their experiences and that they are simply a product of their society. It can be frightening because it is often unsettling to view yourself, someone you believe to be unique and irreplaceable, as a small part of a whole with many others similar to you.…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    C. Wright Mills, a sociologist who wrote The Sociological Imagination, believes that the sociological imagination enables an individual to comprehend that he or she is a part of a bigger picture in this world, and with that understanding they can then be able to create a link between his personal troubles and public issues. In his own words, Mills claimed “It is the capacity to range from the most impersonal and remote transformations to the most intimate features of the human self and to see the relations between the two” (p.2). Mills believed that being able to see the relationship between the ordinary lives of people and the wider social forces was the key to the sociological imagination. Fundamental to Mills’ theory is the differences between…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    C, Wright Mills

    • 1126 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The ability of an individual within society to recognize the world around us and to understand how it functions in correlation with one 's life is, the social imagination. “The sociological imagination enables its possessor to understand the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of individuals.” (Mills, 1959, p. 3) In this paper, I will be discussing the various aspects of the sociological imagination in relation to one other contemporary article, (Benforado, 2010), as well as within my own life.…

    • 1126 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Professional Student

    • 4164 Words
    • 17 Pages

    4. A key element in the sociological imagination is the ability to view one’s own society…

    • 4164 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The sociological imagination is a complex concept that involves many components to make it whole. One component of the sociological imagination is that it is inspired by a readiness to view the world from the perspective of others. The imagination also includes stepping back from looking at the individual, and instead taking a focus on the social, economic, and historical circumstances that surround the issue that could have caused the problem. Furthermore, the sociological imagination allows for correlations to be made from the micro level to the macro level and back again. To have the type of mind frame needed to effectively use the sociological imagine, one must be willing to question their structural arrangements that help form the…

    • 1641 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In my own words sociological imagination to me means how individuals in their everyday daily lives look at their situation and often then become upset are conscious of their social positions. There are many people who look at there lives and see that things in there lives could be better but as of now they are not going right and they do not look like they are getting better which means there stuck in a trap. They began to look at there everyday troubles and how bad they are and then the start to think that it will be impossible to get over them. Sometimes this just may be they case. Mills believed that being able to see the relationship between the ordinary lives of people and the wider social forces was the key to the sociological imagination. In C. Wright Mills article The Sociological Imagination the promise. He states that “ the more aware they become, however vaguely, of ambitions and of threats which transcend their immediate locales, the more trapped they seem to feel (Mills 1). This means the more they began to know about there problems the more they feel helpless and refuses to react are do something about it.…

    • 341 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sociological Imagination

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Sociological Imagination can be viewed in many different ways, each Sociologist having their own insights. The Sociological Imagination, was developed by C. Wright Mills, created to help one look at the world in a different perspective. Mills defined it as “It enables its possessor to understand the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of individuals,”. (Mills) Meaning that to understand yourself you have to look at the history and the world around you to truly see who you are. Many things can affect your life including, your environment, lifestyle, occupation and the society you live in.…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sociological Imagination

    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Compare and contrast conflict theory with structural functionalism. Pay special attention to the way that each theory treats the origin of social change.…

    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The concept of sociological imagination is the ability to see the relationship between individuals and society; more specifically the relationship between private problems and society’s problems. Many social institutions influence our lives and beliefs, two institutions that influenced my life in a big way are education and race. Choosing to go into higher education and being a Chicana have shaped my character and beliefs.…

    • 1825 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sociological Imagination

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages

    and by using the sociological imagination. The influence of history placed on us as individuals we can explain private problems in social issues such as divorce, births and child behavior and contribute to its increase.…

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sociological Imagination

    • 544 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The sociological imagination is the ability to identify the connection between everyday life events and how they shape our lives, as well as how we play a role in shaping society around us. As my sociological imagination develops I am realizing how my life has been greatly affected by historic events that would otherwise seem unrelated. These events such as the Mariel boatlift, Reagonomics and September 11th have seemed to have the biggest impact on my family’s life and further shaped our morals and ambitions.…

    • 544 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Single Mothers in Poverty

    • 1811 Words
    • 8 Pages

    After doing the exercise of creating a budget for a single mother with two kids who is trying to “make ends meet” on a minimum-wage job, I have come to have so much compassion for those struggling with this dilemma. The odds are highly against a poor woman trying to do her best raising her children on a low-income job, some might even say that it would be impossible to do alone. The hurdles of expensive daycare, the rising cost of housing, the low-availability of welfare for women already working, the demanding natures of jobs which don’t allow for paid medical leave, and the skyrocketing costs of health care, all contribute to the poverty of single mothers. While I was taking a deeper look into this problem, it became abundantly clear to me that this is definitely a big “public issue” that needs to be addressed from a social policy standpoint.…

    • 1811 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sociological Imagination

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The sociological imagination is the notion that allows a person to understand the greater picture of oneself and one’s role in society. In this assignment I will examine my own life from a sociologist perspective. I will look at my position as an individual in society and explain how sociological imagination has shaped made me into the person that I have become today. In order to effectively due this, I must provide you with my background. At the age of eight years old my parents divorced, my father was awarded custody. Soon after this he was injured in an accident and was not able to care of me so I was sent to live with my grandparents. The reason I had to live with grandparents was that after their divorce…

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics