Social structure has shaped the characteristics and the aspirations of Melvin Affandy, an Indonesian studying in University of Washington. Sometimes people fail to see that the identity of a person is subjected to his/her societal background. This is the result of people not having a quality of mind (sociological imagination) which disconnects their understanding of the tight relationship between social structure and what the person has become. Hence, I am going to analyse my subject from his societal background. By doing an interview, I extracted a statement describing how he perceives himself. These statements, if analysed, indicates how the social structure around Melvin has impacted him this way. In this paper, I am going to discuss about …show more content…
This decision is a result from a demand from his parents for Melvin to get an idea of a company and gain experience for that matter. He choses to get along with it as a result of the thought that he needs to gain work experience which is the result of the target set by universities and job positions, since most of universities and companies prefers applicants with more hands on experience. He is able to get a position in a famous company in Indonesia because he got the connection from his society in his school. He had a friend whose father works for Indofood, which enables him to get his position. His business oriented family (since his father works as a financial manager) shaped his preference for a job in the Investor Relations Department which revolves around economics. Moreover, he mentioned about his inability to speak fluent Bahasa Indonesia. This is the result of him going to International School, in which the first person is English, and the fact that both of his parents are able to speak in …show more content…
His preference to study abroad in University of Washington is the outcome of the social structure. Firstly, he went to an International School in which most students go abroad for their education. More specifically he chose the US because of his family’s economic background that favours the study in US. since the cost of living is much cheaper than in his secondary choice of country, UK. Secondly, he took IB examination, which limits his options with universities abroad than in his country. Lastly, his first language is English, which suits the language of students in United
Often differences and similarities between people may be obvious but more often their relationships can be difficult to recognize. “The relationships of individuals to the societies in which they live vary widely with time and place”. (Blair Nelson from the syllabus for assignment Essay Exam 1).
...rrest Gump’s personal life. The Vietnam War was probably the most significant of these historical events as it places Forrest in a position to make two friendships, Bubba and Lt. Dan, who were instrumental in his motivation and future financial successes in personal life. Other happenings in society such as economic conditions after a war, the attitudes of people toward handicapped when Forrest was growing up, racism, special treatment for talented athletes, and many others are only a few examples of historical events that were woven with the personal life of Forrest and his friends. I have cited in my paper just a few of the many examples of the concept of sociological imagination depicted in this movie. As one reviews this movie, one becomes cognizant of the many happenings in society that influence and shape Forrest’s, Bubba’s, and Lt. Dan’s lives. Before studying the concept of sociological imagination in sociology class, I never thought about the effect of the events taking place in society intersecting with the characters’ lives. Now, I realize that sociological imagination is the underlying theme of this movie.
The movie analyzed in this paper is The Mission. This movie contains several sociological aspects and concepts. The concepts most easily identified are the ones that will be discussed in the following pages of this paper. Those concepts are Social Inequality, Deviance, and Subcultures. Social inequality is the social differences that exist whenever one group of people has different access to the rewards a society offers. Deviance is a variation from a set of norms or shared social expectations. Finally subcultures are groups of persons who share in the main culture of a society but also have their own distinctive values, norms, and life styles. These three concepts are clearly recognizable and are the concepts most prevalent in storyline of the movie.
People go through many obstacles when they face their social identity. Some can overcome their differences, but others may not have they change to even face them due to the treatment that they get from society. Social identity is the one of many controversial and complex problems that many individuals deal with. Because, sometimes it used to be misunderstood making reference to racism and/or others complex matters. “On Being a Cripple” and “How It Feels to Be Colored” are two essays in which both characters suffer from some kind of discrimination. Indeed, in “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston and “On Being a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs, each author shows different attitude, endures challenges, and change toward social identity.
One thing we have to learn is that society is never the same. It changes over time and continuously affects us. Another aspect from the article examines sociology and the relationship between “private troubles and public issues”. “Private troubles” affect an individual and their situation. It is not affected by society, just the individual who has that “private trouble”. “Public issues” affect the society as a whole, including an individual and their situation, along with many other individuals and their situations. Gould and Lewis state that those who have “public issues” are “trapped in a ‘private orbit’”. They are imprisoned in their everyday worlds and the circumstances around them. Even with trying to find a job to escape from the “private orbit”, they cannot overcome the troubles. They are stuck in this “private orbit” because of the economy and society and how everything that happens affects every individual. To get out of our “private orbits”, we need to look beyond them and search for factors that can explain history and how it affected us. According to the authors, the “sociological
As I sketch my sociological portrait, I find myself first looking at the multiple statuses I hold in society and how each came about. I am not only a father to an young adult, but a son, a brother, a friend to many, a neighbor, a student once again and a blue-collar worker. Each of these statuses developed during various times in my life, and requires me to take on, at times, numerous roles. These statuses have defined who I have become and the impacts I have on society. My sociological portrait will be based on the social institution of family. My family has been the most influential in molding who I have become.
This is the foundation of the Sociological Imagination Concept. According to C. Wright Mills, sociological imagination is developed when we can place personal problems in a social situation or environment such that they are no longer viewed solely as individual or personal problems, but instead as social problems. That is problems that are shared by enough peop...
Throughout SOCIO 211, Professor Sanderson has repeatedly stated that the things we do every day are not natural. Instead these things are constructed by society. He has repeatedly reminded us that we don’t “see” sociology or culture and that we need to “teach ourselves how to see again.” This has been the main take home point of this class for me. I’ve never realized how much I am shaped by my friends, family, teachers, and others around me. That being said, three sociological concepts have improved my understanding of my relationship with society: socialization, gender, and family. These three concepts have been the most important to me because they all are concepts I’ve related to my everyday life, that I am influenced by, and have been molded into. These concepts have made me realize that I cannot necessarily be whoever I want to be or do whatever I want to do. Because of these three main points, I understand my roles and expectations better in life. I have noticed that I act the way I do because I have been socially constructed to do so through socialization, expectations of gender and gender roles, and by how my family has influenced my view of society.
In all aspects of their lives we associate with various groups, for example demographic, cultural or peer groups. Social Identity theory developed by Henri Tajfel in 1979 explains how people develop a sense of belonging and membership in particular groups. This theory explains behaviors in terms of social groups, we form social groups and create perceptions of others and ourselves that are influenced by the various groups to which we belong. A social group is a set of individuals who hold a common social identification or view themselves as members of the same social category (Chen & Li, 2009). Individuals can have multiple, co-occurring identities which could vary. This paper aims to explain how the Social Identity theory is used to explain violence and prejudice behavior and it also looks at the advantages and disadvantages of this theory compared to other theories in explaining the same behavior.
After reviewing the article titles given for this first assignment, I believe they indicate that Sociology, generally speaking, is not only a study of diversity or commonality in traits among people; it is also a science about factors in a person’s life and how these factors culminate responses. Interestingly enough, its topics of concern seem to be directly determined by current and common events of the world. Through the invention and expansion of new ideas, popular trends and fashions through time, Sociology adapts to responsibly to service the very subjects of interest it studies; for, even the slightest change of a person’s daily experience can have an insurmountable impact on attitude, personal growth, family dynamics and basic group behavior.
...lay in societal change. However it was only until the works of Durkheim and Simmel that the role of individual interaction and society is brought to the forefront. Durkheim largely viewed the individual as needing society as a mechanism of constraint to the aspirations of an eternal goal. Finally, Simmel was able to expand on Durkheim’s dualism by noting that society could be viewed as more than a mechanism of constraint rather as an accumulation of individual interaction. Either through a combination or as individuals each theorist distinct view of the relationship between the individual and society demonstrates a new understanding towards the nature of social reality.
In conclusion, the process to create one’s identity can lead to drastic changes in life. Yet we overcome all the obstacles and face them with no fear to achieve our dreams. We constantly use self-socialization in our everyday life and at times we can be trapped or informed by media but that is the first step to develop a norm where everyone’s beliefs come together. My experience with modeling helped me to understand what I really wanted in life and in the process I learned various ways to achieve them. Hence, sociological imagination helps me to realize that media can influence both macro and micro structures, but when family is in support with you, one can par hurdles in any situation of life.
Many different people, from many different backgrounds can define society in many different ways. To some it is the community they live in, to others it is the entity that shapes their lives, and yet to others, it is an exclusive club in which they're are a member of. To Emile Durkheim, the world's first official Sociologist, society is a complex structure in which each separate part is responsible for its own function for the benefit of the whole. This essay will not only explain how society can be both internal and external to human beings, but also three characteristics of the social fact concept, and three of Durkheim's sociologically significant concepts.
‘Sociological Imagination' as explained by C. Wright Mills is an individual's ability to recognize the connection between the course of their own lives and the role that historical and societal changes play in the personal decisions they make (Mills, 1959). Unaware of the effect of this connection on the kind of people they are becoming, they are unable to solve personal troubles as they look for solutions within themselves as a biographical entity (Mills, 1959). They fail to identify the structural transformation that is responsible for their private troubles. Dilemmas that individuals face within themselves or amongst direct relations with others are known as personal troubles (Mills, 1959). In contrast, public issues, are troubles that
Social psychologists, such as Hazel, Kitayama, Triandis, and Brewer to name a few, have been working on the subject of culture and social self since the early ninety’s. Through individual studies, they have found relationships between the origin of ones’ culture and their sense of self. In order to analyze their work, some definitions will have to be discussed in order to make for a better understanding of the relationship between culture and the social self.