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Sociology: WEEK 1: Reading Notes ‘ sociological imagination’ definition: A term by C. Wright Mills to describe the sociological approach to analysing issues. We see the world through a sociological imagination, or think sociologically, when we make a link between personal troubles and public issues. p.
- Sociological imagination is defined as a ‘quality of mind’ that ‘enables us to grasp history and biography and the relation between the two within society. - Sociologists aim to imagine the connection between individuals and larger social processes. - No matter how personal or individual we may think our experiences are, they are significantly influenced by larger social forces, such as the political, economic, and cultural factors that set the social context in which individual experiences occur. - Mills considered the sociological imagination to be the distinction between^ personal troubles and public issues. - When one person is unemployed, that is a personal trouble and one may seek to explain it in terms of skills, motivation and opportunities. Alternatively, if hundreds of thousands of people are unemployed within a nation, unemployment is no longer a matter or personal failure; it becomes a public issue that requires economic and political interventions. - The ability to imagine a link between the personal and public spheres. - When personal troubles are experienced collectively, sociologists highlight underlying social patterns and social influences.
• Mills did not mean that we should look at what happens to us fatalistically, as if we have no influence on
the course of our own lives. Rather, if we are conscious of the impact of social forces on our own lives. p.
• Equal opportunity policies, and the S ex Discrimination Act 1984^ were clear acknowledgements of the
linkage between private troubles and public issues — the sociological imagination in action.
• Sociological imagination can be conceptualised as involving four interdependent sensibilities:^ historical,
cultural, structural and critical.
- Historical factors : How have past events influenced the present?
- Cultural factors: What influence do tradition, cultural values, and particular belief systems have on our behaviour and social interaction? In what ways has cultural change occurred? What subculture exists? How does our own cultural background influence our sociological gaze.
- Structural factors: How do various forms of social organisation and social institution affect our lives? How do they vary overtime and between countries and regions?
- Critical factors : Why are things as they are? How could they be otherwise? Who benefits and who is disadvantaged by the status quo? What ‘alternative futures’ are possible? How do sociological insights relate to our own life experiences?
• The sociological imagination template provides a useful starting point for sociological analysis, and
highlights the issues and questions that budding sociologists need to consider.
• This type of thinking remains that we look at our place in the world and our role within the social
structures and situations in which we exist.
• Look at out ourselves and the ways in which we have been socialised, and how causes and effects
interact with each other. Week 2 reading notes Introduction:
- Socialisation is the process through which we lean to fit into society.
- Through the socialisation process, we learn the norms or rules of society and the patterns of our culture
- It enables us to fit into social groups and make adjustments to new situations
- Learning to become a member of comity is not a one-way process
- While we are shaped and moulded by our social environment, in turn we interpret and give meaning to
that environment.
- We have what is termed agency ( The ability of people, individually and collectively, to influence their own
lives and the society in which they live )
- Socialisation is one of the means by which social reproduction occurs — that is cultural values are
transmitted and reproduced across the generations, enabling these values to continue over a period of time. Changing identities in a changing world:
- A key product to socialisation is a sense of self or identity.
- Identity is ‘the sum of those characteristics which determine who a person is. This includes a person’s
perception of themselves as similar to, or different from other people.’ (Foresight Future Identities 2013, p.3)
- Identity also has a group or collective dimension, marking similarity with others (Giddens & Sutton 2013)
- These collective identities are often based on common interests or group solidarity, such as barracking
for a particular football club or being a supporter of a social or political movement.
- Nicole Ellison (2013, p.2) writes: ‘how we see ourselves and our role in the larger social environment can
have consequences for the way we behave, what we believe, and who we affiliate with.’
- Erving Goffman (1975) suggests that we have multiple differentiated identities, depending on the social
context in which we find ourselves.
- Sherry Turkle (1995, p.80) writes that, ‘the Internet has become a significant social laboratory for
experimenting with the constructions and reconstructions of self that characterise postmodern life’. p.
- ‘We can write a Facebook profile that pleases us. We can edit out messages until they protect the self we
want to be’ (Turkle 2011, p.12) Nature and Nurture: How we become who we are
- The debates around nature and nurture have varied overtime.
- Few would forget the extremes to which hereditary theories were takin in Nazi Germany, and it is not
surprising that even in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a backlash against biological determinism.
- Biological determinism: A belief that individual and group behaviours are the inevitable result of
biology.
- As sociologists, we should be aware that our views on biology and science are subject to cultural, social
and economic interpretations, reflecting the times in which we live. p.
- Many of our characterises are increasing being explained by our genetic inheritance.
- In On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Charles Darwin (1859) argued that each
species evolves over many generations, during which genetic variations occur.
- These variations can be passed down from one generation to the next by means of hereditary.
- Classical Darwinian theory describes how organisms adapt to their environment, gradually developing
new traits, and evolving into new species.
- ‘The phrase “nature and nurture” is a convenient jingle of words, for it separates under two distinct heads
the innumerable elements of which personality is composed’ (Galton 1874, p.12) p. The case for nature:
- Why should we invoke the biological in order to explain who we are?
- In 1953, Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, a basic
structure held by all organisms (Pilnick 2002). The genetic material in all humans is 99.9 percent
family members or other who are important to them.
2. Later at about three or four, they enter the ‘ play stage ’ in which they give meaning to these actions and roles. (e.g. They may take on the role of parents when playing with dolls or soft toys. 3. The development of what Mead terms the concept of the generalised other (occurs in the final stage of the development of self when a child can take on and understand the roles and attitudes of others) occurs in the final stage of development — the ‘ game stage’. In the game stage, school age children can be involved in organise, complex games, such as team sports like football or netball, in which it is necessary to anticipate, understand, and take on the roles and attitudes of others.
- Mead has been criticised for his view that the development of the self is social — a result of our social
interactions and experiences — rather than being based on biological foundations. p. Piaget and the four stages of cognitive development
- Paiget was interested in how children think and how their thinking is different from that of adults.
- He noted that the very young children he observed took little notice of other children’s speech; he termed
their speech ‘egocentric speech’.
- Piaget identified four major stances of cognitive development that also reflected biological maturation
and chronological age (Piaget & Inhelder 1969)
1. The sensorimotor stage from birth to age two, when the world is experienced through the sense such as touching, sucking and biting 2. The preoperational stage from two to seven years, which sees the development of language and symbolic play 3. The concrete operational stage from ages seven to eleven, the time when children can logically connect causes and events. They lose their egocentric outlook and see the world from the point of view of others, and 4. The formal operational stage, which occurs after the child reaches the age of twelve. It involves the ability to engage in abstract thoughts and complex activities.
- It was Piaget’s view that all human being proceed through these sequential stages, irrespective of their
culture and social background — although he conceded that not all children reach the final formal stage.
- Like Mead, Piaget believed that individuals have the power to shape their social world.
p. Goffman and social interaction
- Erving Goffman (1922-82) was interested in how we interact in the presence of other, and he used what
he termed dramaturgical analysis to investigate how we behave in social situations.
- People take on social roles just as acts perform roles in the theatre.
- Goffman’s concept of self, and the ways in which we choose and present that self, nevertheless seem
relevant in the context of popular social networking sites such as Facebook, or when people play interactive computer games — especially when they use Avatars and Handles (screen names) to represent themselves. Learning Gender:
- Is our behaviour as a man or a woman innate and biologically determined, or does the culture of a
society exert pressure on individuals to behave in certain socially acceptable ways?
- Manu sociologists believe that gender roles are socially constructed, in that we learn how t be a man or a
woman in our society — or more specifically, how to be masculine or feminine.
- Both gender differences and gender dominance are often explained as ‘differential socialisations - the
nurture side of the equation’ (Kimmel 2004, p.3, original italics) p.
- The biological sex of the chucked us used as one of the major sorting mechanisms upon which to base
the future allocation of roles within social structure of society.
- Children learn their genre roles at an early age: they identity with and imitate the same-sex parents, and
the parents often reinforce gender-stereotypical behaviour through clothes, books and games.
- There is also evidence that fathers in particular tend to play in a rougher and much more physical way
with their sons than with their daughters.
- Although parents play a major role in the socialisation of young children, children themselves are ‘very
skilled at de-coding gender messages from the world around them’ (Wharton 2005, p.127)
- In fact, children learn very quickly to apply gender levels to objects, which is sometimes referred to as
‘gender-centric reasoning’.
- Wharton (2012, p.153) points out that children ‘are aware of the expectations their society attaches to
gender and can associate these expectations with a wide variety of cultural objects and activities.
- Many studies indicate that young children prefer to play with a child of the same sex.
- This preference for gender-segregated integration manifests itself as early as the age of three, and
continues strongly until at least age eleven (Stokard 2006) p.
- From an early age — around two or three — many children seek out and seem to prefer same-sex
playmates and choose to play with different toys (Stockard 2006)
- Gender segregation is something that intrigues researchers because it is not only spontaneous, but
occurs across cultures — including non-industrial societies (Wharton 2012)
- Ethnographic studies of children and adolescents document the nature of gender segregated peer
groups, and reveal the importance of interactions with others of the same sex in enabling children to develop ‘their gender identity and definitions of appropriate gender roles, as children actively discuss and develop definition of masculinity and femininity’ (Stockard 2006, p.221) p. Agencies of socialisation:
- To understand better how the socialisation process works, we must consider where and how it occurs.
The family
- In many cultures, the primary socialisation agent is the family.
- Children are dependent on caregivers, who meet their immediate needs.
- The bond that develops between a baby and its primary caregiver (often the mother) is usually viewed as
the first and most intense part of the socialisation process.
- The family is a child’s first reference group.
The School
- The period in which children attend school is usually referred to as secondary socialisation.
- In this context, other children, teachers, and the wider social world begin to influence the child.
- Schools have what are termed manifest functions — that is, their purpose is to teach knowledge and
skills, and to prepare students for the world of work and adult life;
- however schools also teach what are describes as latent functions — attitudes and values
- More affluent parents may well select a private school where their children will learn the ‘skills and values
that match their higher position’.
- Whereas less affluent working class parents may send their children to the local state school (Henslin
2005, p.81) The peer group
- As we have seen, Mead, Cooley and Goffman stress the importance of social interactions, which often
occur via the peer group.
- Children and young people use peer groups to develop social skills when they are beginning to separate
from their families and seek an identity of their own.
