Preview

The Sociological Imagination

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
491 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Sociological Imagination
The sociological imagination has revealed to me an understanding of the wider world. Growing up, I experienced the world through the lens of the people around me and understood the world in the terms of their understanding of how the world works. I learned right from wrong and developed my opinions based on the input of the people in my little world. With the sociological imagination, I am able to take a step back from my little world and look at the world through someone else’s eyes. I have learned how to take into consideration all aspects of another person’s life in order to understand why that person may act a certain way or believe a certain thing. The sociological imagination also allows me do differentiate between personal troubles and …show more content…
When a single person has troubles, it is viewed as an independent event, but when many people share in the same trouble it becomes a public issue. The sociological imagination allows you to think about the connection between personal troubles and public issues, and how one influences the other. Once you understand the connection between personal troubles and public issues, you can better understand how the circumstances in someone’s life are connected to the wider world. You could look African-American boy living in a low-income neighborhood, with a single mother barely able provide, and point to specific circumstances that have led to this situation. For instance, his father may be in prison and his mother may not have a good education, therefore she is not able to get a good job. However, you could also use the sociological imagination to consider how public issues might play a role in this boy’s …show more content…
In this way, the sociological imagination allow you to look at all the possible factors in a person’s life and relate them to their current circumstances. Once you have developed your sociological imagination, you can take it apply it to your everyday life. You can begin to take time and view the world with a “sociological perspective, which is also referred to as taking a sociological approach or thinking sociologically. In any case, it means looking g at the world in a unique way and seeing it in a whole new light” (Ferris and Stein

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    SOC Study Guide

    • 1785 Words
    • 8 Pages

    4) Sociological Imagination: to fully understand individual’s personal troubles. Understand the connections between our ‘ordinary’ day to day lives and larger society.…

    • 1785 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful 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
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sociological Imagination is to think yourself away from the familiar routines of everyday life, and look at them from an entirely new perspective. Looking outside the box.…

    • 599 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Social imagination is a termed devised by C. Wright Mills and it is used as a way to critically think about the social world we live in. Questioning the basic norms of everyday life opens the person’s mind as to why they are the basic norms. The book gave an example saying that a person can know his own chances in life only by becoming aware of the chances of individuals in his same circumstances. Our class book defines sociological imagination as the ability to connect the most basic, intimate aspects of an individual’s life to seemingly impersonal and remote historical forces.…

    • 253 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The sociological imagination helps us see that often times we are not usually in control of the major events in our life. It teaches us to look at the bigger picture when analyzing our problems. In many cases it is our culture that shapes the happenings in our life. Our culture influences everything in our lives: how we learn; what we talk about, why we think a certain way, etc…

    • 511 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The sociological imagination is a process that involves looking at myself less as an individual who makes independent decisions and more as a piece of the whole society that I am a part of. The sociological imagination involves consciously studying my behavior, decisions, and personality and connecting it to my time period, gender, age, and other surroundings. The sociological imagination can be both comforting and frightening. It is comforting because it helps individuals recognize that they are not alone in their experiences and that they are simply a product of their society. It can be frightening because it is often unsettling to view yourself, someone you believe to be unique and irreplaceable, as a small part of a whole with many others similar to you.…

    • 670 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    SOC 1010 study guide

    • 1321 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Sociological imagination is refers to the ability to appreciate the structural basis for individual problems. (Personal troubles are rooted in public issues.)…

    • 1321 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    2. Sociological imagination is the understanding of a relationship between our circumstances and those of a larger social force. The benefit of developing your sociological imagination…

    • 332 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The concept of sociological imagination is the ability to see the relationship between individuals and society; more specifically the relationship between private problems and society’s problems. Many social institutions influence our lives and beliefs, two institutions that influenced my life in a big way are education and race. Choosing to go into higher education and being a Chicana have shaped my character and beliefs.…

    • 1825 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to C. Wright Mills, the sociological imagination is a quality of mind that allows people to grasp how remote and impersonal social forces shape their life story or biography. Individuals tend to view their personal issues as social problems and try to connect their experiences with the workings of society. Mills believes that this is a way for people to understand their own personal problems. Throughout this Sociology course, we have focused a lot on the sociological imagination and how it shapes every part of society. Learning about this concept has aided in the development of my own sociological perspective and helped me gain my own understanding of the society I live in.…

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The term “sociological imagination” according to C. Wright Mills is defined as the consciousness of how one’s personal social life and the social world have a connection (Schaefer 5). Sociology is the scientific study of this connection. Everyone has their own personal view about their social life, but not many think about their life from the point of view of someone else. After learning to view social aspects of one’s life from an outside source, the vital component of the “sociological imagination” is unlocked. Personal and cultural biases influence one’s personal point of view, which is why this key aspect of the “sociological imagination” is crucial. In addition to this component of “sociological imagination,” personal social aspects also…

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sociological Imagination

    • 1140 Words
    • 5 Pages

    To consider the sociological imagination, you must think of the relationship between biography, structure and history within society. The sociological imagination helps a person to understand why there are certain attitudes, behaviours and believes. It gives us ideas and theories on how to analyse what we see and read every day. So that we can evaluate social issues, and link them to our everyday lives and experiences.…

    • 1140 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this paper, I will be talking about some aspects of my life and interpret from a sociological perspective. Most people have different perspective in their lives and in society. I will guide to the experience through my eyes and learn a little about my life. In the first chapter a guy named C. Wright Mills said “The sociological Imagination is defined as the ability to understand the one’s own issues are not caused simply by one’s own beliefs or thoughts but by society and how it is structured.” (Mills, The Promise, 1959).…

    • 1718 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The sociological imagination is a concept of being able to think ourselves away from the familiar routines of our daily lives in order to look at them in a different & a more wider perspective.…

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    the sociological imagination requires to think ourselves away from the familiar routines of our daily lives in order to look at them anew:…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays