A Sociological Analysis

The social context in which a person lives in affects his or her daily decisions and experiences. We live in a world surrounded by social expectations and pressures to be accepted as “normal.” Every person is molded by society. A sociological imagination is what connects a person’s daily experiences to their history. It allows a person to understand their place in society and how it has shaped a person’s views and choices. According to James M. Henslin in his book Down to Earth Sociology, “Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both” (21). A person’s background helps to explain the circumstances he or she faces. My schooling, family, economic status, hobbies, and social norms
We live in a world surrounded by people of various ethnicities, cultures, and countries, who all speak various languages. As a young child, I attended a bilingual pre-school and elementary school where I was taught to be fluent in Spanish. I established unexpected friendships, spending a lot of my time in classmates’ Spanish speaking homes. I was absorbed into the Hispanic culture, eating new food, singing songs in Spanish, dancing Baile Folkórico, and hearing stories in Spanish around the dinner table. I learned about the struggles many of my immigrant friends had to go through in order to live in the United States. The lives of my friends were greatly different than my own. The difficulties my friends’ families had to go through, is something my family has ever needed to face. Despite these differences, my schooling taught me to break down language barriers. I learned that differences in culture should not define or prevent relationships from
Social norms are “mores or rules of behavior that are considered acceptable in a group or society” (Alfrey). As a woman, I have always felt that I am held to certain expectations on how I should dress and act. Growing up I was an extremely active child, participating in multiple sports. I was under the impression that boys were supposed to be tough and manly, while girls were supposed to be graceful and delicate. As a young girl, the pressure to “act like a lady” made me believe that that I could never be as competitive as men are. Because of this perspective, I also presumed that men were superior to