Preview

Sociological Imagination Study

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
309 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sociological Imagination Study
According to C. Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination is the “vivid awareness of the relationship between personal experience and the wider society.” The Sociological Imagination is used to view situations in many social contexts, understanding how individuals and situations can be influenced by interactions and actions. A topic that would be interesting to study would be regarding the obesity epidemic. Being overweight can be considered a personal trouble by anyone who faces it, resulting from bad eating habits or a personal genetic predisposition. But, now in the US, a large amount of citizens deal with obesity, so The Sociological Imagination can easily be applied to this issue. Obesity affects society because it is the gateway to life-threatening

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Sociological Imagination

    • 701 Words
    • 2 Pages

    What is sociological imagination? According to C. Wright Mills sociological imagination is the ability to see how individual experiences are connected to the larger society. Sociological perspective enables one to grasp connection to history and biography. History is the background and biography is the individual’s specific experiences. C.Wright Mills came up with the idea that in order for one to understand their personal lives the need to look beyond personal experiences and look at larger political, social, and economic issues of others. “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” (C. Wright Mills 3). Overall, sociological imagination is the awareness of the relationship between personal experience and society.…

    • 701 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Obesity has become a large and dark reality in United States. For someone who does not have sociological imagination being overweight is the result of bad personal choices or genetic predisposition. Being overweight might have been the result of past individual struggles that were caused by wrong individual decision-making or behavior. For those who get the interplay of the heart of sociological imagination this is a complex social issue that is the result of patterns of modern economic and social life. Obesity’s effect in society can be seeing in the number of life-long and potentially life-threatening diseases and conditions, like high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes. People who get sociological imagination would most likely blame how the increase in these diseases put pressure on the health care system in the United States; thus, causing the taxation of already overcrowded hospitals and overworked health care professionals. They might also think that the impact on obesity is linked to diseases that contribute to early death and create an economic burden. A sociological imagination might blame these to the public policies that contribute to the problem are restaurant industries that serve inexpensive and easy-access foods with high calories and low nutrition.…

    • 530 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
  • Powerful Essays

    Throughout history, the relation of individuals to society and vice versa has been a puzzling conundrum. Humans generally tend to understand their own experiences and lives though an individualistic outlook in which society is simply a collection of individuals. However, C. Wright Mills and Allan Johnson disagree and relate the significance of a “sociological imagination” in relating ones experiences to a greater social context.…

    • 1671 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The idea of having sociological imagination comes from the way people live and experience their lives. As a person grows, they develop troubles, perspectives and learn to possess qualities that create a biography. Every individual goes through certain experiences or troubles that enable them to withdraw from their routine and look at things differently. This particular way of thinking defines the thought of sociological imagination. Whenever a person takes ahold of biography and history and can use it to imagine life from a different perspective, they possess sociological imagination. This imagination we go through is an outcome of the troubles and discipline of society that come from our social norms, values, roles, and statuses. Another way…

    • 144 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The central thesis is that a sociologist cannot understand the history of the society without understanding a life of an individual and vice versa. Mills argues that People do not recognize the connection of the patterns of their lives with the course of history. He directed that we are in a time of lack of enthusiasm and that in order to adjust the issues of society we must understand the society at the individual level. Sociological Imagination allows us to understand the life of individuals in the society and the history of the society as a whole. He posits that there are two types of sociological problems such as troubles and issues. And he demonstrates unemployment as an example, troubles are on the individual level, however, when the…

    • 174 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • 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

    Sociological Imagination

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages

    According for sociological perspective, there are two ways to look to this situation. One is a micro perspective and other is macro perspective. Like the family that had just experienced unemployment and foreclosure on their mortgage, will surely face the family’s financial problems which are personal troubles and public issues through sociological imagination. For micro perspective, the family members losing a job because they might lack of education and experiences towards their job or they are new employee and the company can no longer afford employ them and it causes the family financial problems. These persons would feel depressed and isolated, may worry about how to find new job, may lose identity and may move in other cities where they hope it’s easier to get a job with a low cost of living. Also, in case of new college graduates, they may move back home with parents. These are considered personal troubles which are the things that affect individuals immediately. For macro perspective, the company that the individual work for might be failing because of the recession or jobs are being outsourced to foreign companies for cheaper wages. The things that the whole society are facing like this considered public issues. In accordance with sociological imagination, Mills signified that to think sociology is to see oneself located in social and historical context, to understand that there are forces that influence our lives, choices and chances. This means that social forces and individual lives are linked. In other words, personal lives and troubles have their origins in societal arrangements. The most important distinction is between the issues and the troubles. As Mills states, “Issues have to do with the matters that transcend these local environments of the individual and the range of his inner life. Troubles occur within the character of the individual and within his range of his immediate relations with others. It has to do with himself and with those areas…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    One of the key ways people can understand society and social change is to apply this sociological imagination. This involves something called making the familiar strange, or questioning and critiquing the world around us. It is similar to putting on a new pair of glasses - in this case with sociological lenses - and seeing our society and the everyday behaviors and interactions we usually take for granted in a different…

    • 72 Words
    • 1 Page
    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
  • Better Essays

    Sociological Imagination

    • 1620 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Every human being fills a certain niche. Since all humans exist in a certain state of sociological and economic condition, people have their own roles and connections to society. C. Wright Mills states that “people sense that within their everyday worlds…are bounded by the private orbits in which they live…job, family, neighborhood.” One can infer that Mills is referring to the socioeconomic conditions that bind people to society’s underlying structures, which are, in this case, jobs, family, neighborhood, etc. Consequently, by searching through a person’s history and observing their fundamental socioeconomic conditions, glimpsing their future may be possible. So with this information at our side, what can one say about oneself?…

    • 1620 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    People often blame themselves for crisis in their lives such as the loss of job or dropping out of school. How would a sociological imagination help them understand the larger social forces influencing these events?…

    • 511 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    | Feedback: Social institutions do not have to be established by any particular organization or group and do not necessarily have physical locations.…

    • 1464 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sociological Imagination

    • 1844 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Sociology begins with individuals ' experiences in order to explore the collective themes and patterns of human behaviour that shape our society and the distribution of health within it (Willis, 1993). This essay will describe the "sociological imagination" and then apply the concepts of the sociological enterprise to Aboriginal health and illness. The discussion will include how a sociological perspective contributes to understanding social exclusion and its affects on aboriginal mental illness .…

    • 1844 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sociological Imagination

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The “Seven Up Series” is a series of documentary films about the lives of fourteen British children. The participants were chosen in an attempt to represent different social classes in Britain in the 1960`s, the children were asked to answer different questions about society, other children and their lives. In one of the episodes children talk about colored people. Almost all of them expressed their opinions about colored people intolerantly, which made me feel uncomfortable and confused, because such attitude to other races is absolutely unacceptable in our society. However, this scene was chosen as an example for two main reasons: firstly, it causes dissonance of social values, and secondly, it is directly related to Mills` understanding of the intersection of individual biography and history.…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays