Concept Of Sociological Imagination

The Sociological Imagination The concept that became Mills’ Sociological Imagination were deeply rooted within his understanding of psychology and environmental influences upon human behavior. Mills based his theoretical framework upon the assumption that “individual personality attributes are acted out within environments that greatly impact personality development”, and subsequent behavior into later adulthood (Wozniak, 2009, 199). From this perspective, Mills argued that there was a deep-rooted interrelationship between the development of individual personality and the sociological environment in which the individual develops and resides. It was however Mills belief that the interconnected nature of humanity and their social and physical

history, was intrinsically linked to the current situation of both the individual and the society in which they exist. Mills directly stated that “no social study that does not come back to the problems of biography, of history and of their intersections within a society has completed its intellectual journey” (p. 6). According to Mills, not overcoming the hurdles presented by such an intersection severely limited the features of the social reality that has been examined, and therefore severely impaired the efficacy of programs designed to raise up the social structure as a whole. An individual concerned with preserving the legitimacy and efficacy of their work in improving the existing social structure must therefore ask 3 questions according to Mills’ framework. These questions are elaborated upon within the following

Mills’ framework introduced the notion that humans function as both individuals and as members of the larger social group context. This overlap of form and function of individual role expectations created a notion that “the sociological imagination is a quality of mind that turns personal troubles into public issues”, and thereby contextualizing the self-representation championed within the realm of sociological research and study (Burawoy, 2008, 363). Through the expansion of sociological examination and thought processes, attention was brought to the interconnected nature of the individual to the greater social context. Within his conceptual framework, Mills demonstrated that individual experiences were not the product of individual idiosyncrasy, but were the product of the influence of social forces upon the individual. This increased understanding of the influences of social forces upon a person in both an individual sense and as a member of a group was intended to create empathy and a desire to motivate positive social changes that benefitted all levels of the current and future social