sociology : This exam covers all materials and lectures in your assigned reading
ID: 409315 • Letter: S
Question
sociology : This exam covers all materials and lectures in your assigned reading covers so far this quarter. Choose three of the four questions below. For EACH one chosen, write a 2-3 paragraph response. In your response, be sure to refer to specific concepts from the readings, lecture notes, and/or discussions, and use these concepts to support your answer. Please state the question prior to your answer.
Define the sociological perspective or imagination, cite its components, and explain how they were defended by C. Wright Mills.
What is meant by the terms "ascribed status" and "achieved status" provide an example to illustrate how a person's ascribed status could influence his or her achieved status.
Discuss how conflict theorists focus on social inequality and group conflict.
Discuss the six types of leaders that could be in a social institution.
Explanation / Answer
Answer :- One book with good information on the sociological perspective or imagination is "The Sociological Imagination" by C. Wright Mills. Mills coined the phrase "The Sociological Imagination" to describe, 'the type of insight offered by the discipline of sociology'. The term is used in introductory textbooks in sociology to explain the nature of sociology and its relevance in daily life."
The Sociological Perspective was first thought of by Peter L. Berger. He stated that, "the sociological perspective was seeing 'the general in the particular' and that it helped sociologists realize general patterns in the behaviour of specific individuals. One can think of sociological perspective as our own personal choice and how the society plays a role in shaping our individual lives."
The components of the Sociological Imagination/Perspective could be considered things like, "social norms, what people want to gain out of something (their motives for doing something), and the social context in which they live (ex.- country, time period, people with whom they associate)."
Ascribed status is conferred solely by birth. In India, if one is born into a lowly caste, his/her life choices are absolutely limited under Hindu tenets. Fortunately, this condition is changing.
In the United States, a child born to an upper-middle-class family automatically becomes an upper-middle-class child. He/she will have advantages that a child born to lower-class parents won't have.
For example, an upper-middle-class child will learn speech from parents who use correct grammar. S/he will have a great advantage over those children in school who think that answering a telephone call and saying, "This is him" sounds correct. It isn't. Consequently when the upper-middle-class kid is told that "is" is an intransitive verb (which doesn't take an object), s/he can relate that to her/his parents who have always said, "This is s/he."
Moreover, those born into the upper-middle class will likely perceive the "principal" as a resource. Those born to the lower class will see him or her as a disciplinarian.
Upper-middle class children are (typically) not disciplined with spanking or other corporal punishment. Lower class children get used to being swatted many times a day. The long-term effect of this learning pattern has consequences on how the children come to view life.
So, a person's achieved status (the position that one earns in society) is dependent on the many variables that are set in childhood (ascribed status)
Conflict theorists will always tend to focus on the power and resource struggle between conflicting groups or classes within society, since the interests of both are incompatible with each other.
Perhaps a good example is the interests of the working class to gain a better financial position through higher wages and the interests of the owning class to maximise capital through low pay to workers.
Six types of leaders that could be in a social institution are
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