Sociological Imagination By Wright Mills

Can a person really understand sociology and view the world through the sociological perspective without understanding the sociological imagination? Many would say no. The sociological imagination is easily one of the biggest concepts of sociology. The textbook describes, “The sociological imagination is a quality of the mind that allows us to understand the relationship between our individual circumstances and larger social forces” (Ferris, 2016). This is a concept that is very difficult for many beginner’s to be able to apply in their daily lives. It is common in our society to view our struggles and personal issues in a more psychological perspective. Commonly, members of our society will look at our issues an will wonder what they did
In the reading it states, “Nowadays men often feel that their private livers are a series of traps…Underlying this sense of being trapped are seemingly impersonal changes in the very structure of continent-wide societies” (Wright Mills, 1959). These traps that he Mills is talking about are the struggles that we deal with that cause us problems in our lives. During his writing, Mills mentions two very important uses of the social imagination in our world. The first, it allows an individual to become aware of their life chances once they know the life chances of the other individual in the same position as them (Wright Mills, 1959). The second important use is the ability to differentiate between “personal troubles” and “public issues” (Wright Mills, 1959). If we never understood the world like this as a society, there would be no social issues and, as a result, no social change. People would just look at their misfortunes thinking that they caused them and it was not a result of the larger society they are living in. In The Promise, Mills is getting at the main point of sociology, which is that in order to understand a person’s actions and behavior, we have to look at the community that they live in. There are factors from society that play a part in an individual’s behavior, and the task or “promise” of
For a majority of its existence as a profession it has been considered a male-dominant profession. There are some people who believe that it is a male profession to this day. However, it is estimated that 54% of the present National Athletic Trainers’ Association members are females (Mazerolle & Eason, 2016). The number student members of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) show that 60% of them are females (Ryba, 2014). This is showing a steady trend of an influx of female ATs and athletic training students (ATSs), no longer making it a profession dominated by males. Despite all that progress, female ATs still struggle to gain the position of head AT in the collegiate and professional sports settings. One study estimated that in 2012, 17.5% of the head AT positions at the Division I collegiate level were held by female ATs (Mozerolle et al., 2015). It is speculated that these numbers are so low because typically the head AT at a college will provide care for the schools football team and there are still stereotypes that female ATs cannot provide care to football athletes (Mazerolle & Eason, 2016). Actually, a majority of the head female ATs in the collegiate setting, are at colleges where they do not have a football team, and many expressed concern that if their college had a football team, they feel they may not be the head AT