Sociology Essay Examples

Sociology and Common Sense Essay
Explain the difference between a "common sense" and a "sociological" view of human behaviour,
giving relevant examples. Sociology is a social science that enables people to understand the
structure and dynamics of society. By using a scientific approach, and by critically analysing society
using qualitative and quantitative methods, sociologists can find patterns and connections within
human behaviour to provide explanations of how society affects people. Sociological views are
based on theories that have been tested through unbiased research and attempt to take all values into
account. Common sense theories are generally individualistic and naturalistic assumptions that are
based on opinions than can vary depending on an individuals...show more content...
Other people within his community may even go as far a labelling the man as lazy, because of his
labour–less situation. This would be a common sense view, as the people making the assumptions
against the unfortunate man, do not have the necessary evidence to make such a judgement. Mills
continues about the unemployed individual, '...but when in a nation of 50 million employees, 15
million men are unemployed, that is an issue, and we may not hope to find its solution within the
range of opportunities open to any one individual'. (Mills 1959: 9) It would be nonsensical from a
common sense perspective to brandish 15 million people as lazy because they are out of work, so
it is the job of the sociologist to find out why. To arrive at sociological perspective, someone would
have to analyse the situation stringently to find evidence as to why such a high percentage of the
population to be out of work. This could be down to a collapse in a country's economy, and
subsequent closure of businesses throughout the nation, due to populate being unwilling to spend
money for unessential luxuries, as recently experienced in the United Kingdom amongst other
countries. It is not enough to assume that people who receive state benefits are indeed lazy people
who shy away from work.
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Essay on Why Should We Study Sociology?
We should study Sociology because it can affect all aspects of our lives, each and every day and
learn valuable lessons from the studies and improve our living. We can use Sociology change our
lives today, so that tomorrow will be better for ourselves, children, and so on. Not only is Sociology
good for our lives as a person, but it is useful to our neighbors, co–workers, government, state,
country and in fact, the entire world benefits from the study of human behavior.
Once a person has studied Sociology, they can consider and appreciate other human's perspectives
instead of believing that your own perspective is the only answer. This will assist them in their job
to be more understanding of their customers, co–workers and bosses...show more content...
Choosing a topic sounds relatively easy, but since humans are very complex in their day to day
living, this could be somewhat difficult.
The second step in the plan should be to review the past research on the topic they plan to study.
The reason it is important to review the literature in the second step is so that a study will not be
duplicated or so that you can define your own study against one, or altered in a different way. For
example, if we wanted to study the IQ of people of the United States versus the people of Japan,
we would need to know if the people in Alaska and Hawaii were also included in this study. If not,
it could quite possibly skew the data one way or the other. If we were to not take this into
consideration, all of the efforts of this study would be useless and void. Another reason for
researchers to read existing data on the topic they plan to research is so that some of the idea's they
plan to test may have been looked over. This review may give them ideas they may have not taken
into consideration.
The third research method step is to identify and define the core concepts which are powerful
communication and thinking tools that will allow researchers efficient, complex information. This
step, like all others will provide accurate details to allow for a more thorough investigation.
The fourth step is to choose a research design and data–gathering techniques. The researcher must
identify what or

What is Sociology? Essays
What is Sociology? 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...show more content...
How has Sociology changed? According to the Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary (2010),
Sociology is referred to as ".the systematic study of the development, structure, interaction, and
collective behavior of organized groups of human beings" (para. 1); however, the transformable
qualities of this science are not represented by this definition, as they should be. To best understand
these changes, we must first consider changes within people as study objects; for as previously
stated, Sociology changes in ways which are commensurate to changes in the world around it.
For example, during the 1970's, single parent households did exist, but these arrangements were
considered to be the exception, not the rule. In contrast, today's family structures are as diverse as
the people within them. Given that it has become routine for some parents to live separately, and
couples of same sex marriages are now common place, unique areas of consideration have opened up
and are in need of further scrutiny. Through updated theories and advanced equipment, inventive
techniques have been applied to study people adjoined to the modernized world they live in. Also,
social sciences have fundamentally altered their beliefs of acceptability and acknowledged

Reflective Sociology Essay
The last six weeks have challenged my preconceived ideas about sociology and the role that it plays
in society in the popular and social media, my values, behaviours and belief system. What I hope to
highlight throughout this reflective essay is what I have learnt and how that has shaped my new
thought process and reinforced old thought patterns. Week one I learnt about the Sociological
imagination where to quote C Wright "The sociological imagination enables us to grasp the
connection between history and biography." (Henslin et al., 2011). Upon further reflection of the
reading material in Sociology a down to earth approach there was one particular story that really
resonated with me. It was the illustration about expecting...show more content...
Week three see's the introduction of the fathers of sociology Auguste Comte, Herbert Spenser, Karl
Marx, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Georg Simmel. Karl Marx and Durkheim are the two that
really resonate with me, Durkheim due to his theories around the subject of suicide and how that
subject is particularly personal with me and also Karl Marx theory around class inequality.
Karl Marx believed that man's basic needs were food and shelter and the evolution of these basic
needs led to capitalism, after the industrial revolution we see there being two distinct classes of
people the workers and the capitalist and the effect that this ultimately has on social aspect of
society. Marx looked at the unequal power struggle in this theory and how that conflict would lead to
socialism and eventually communism and it was then that he co–wrote with Englels in 1948 "The
Communist Manifesto". I can really see the same picture that Marx was looking at, even in today's
society in Australia we see the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, but more evident in
third world countries where there are polar opposites in wealth and power.
This subject has actually spilled out into my conversation at different locations, talking at a bar with
a guy about the possibility that Jesus was a

Sociology and Religion Essay example
This paper is from a catholic feminist's perceptive that the church, as an institution, is structured as a
pyramid modeled on the patriarchal family with the custom of father–right. The patriarchal
decision–maker has the power to shape, form and control the "poor of the world" (McCormick, pg.
240) mirroring the aspect of the conflict theory. The poor of the world are the people who work for
the institution of the Church controlled by the patriarchal power elite. These established masses of
people feel no control, which cause anxiety and they continue to perform their means of production
as a formed unit. The power elite's fear of being overthrown by the poor of the world is fueled with
sheer determination and consistency to stay on top....show more content...
In turn, religion started to desacralize as the patriarchal family modeled for business firms, industry,
government, educational systems and other organization because the un–represented people were
learning that the people who make decisions for others make them against nonmembers. Religion
and science affirmed the sacredness of hierarchy and theocracy but today the amount of exploitation
by elite in government and industries question these affirmations and instead of father–right it is
human right with the inferior groups claiming what is theirs. Human rights create equal opportunity
available for all races. The more inferior groups realize and recognize the presuppositions of
superiority through social conditioning then the more they can do to demand changes for their civil
rights.
The human rights cause in the rise of desacralization of religion relies also on women's roles and
significance in religious sacralization, which was developed out of fear of human extinction while
serving the elite. Women were encouraged to bear children for existence and the church reinforced
sexuality as the common ethic of Western society. Now, since there is an immense population base
with advances in science proving to propagate the race through methods such as cloning, there is no
longer the fear of human population dying out and women are no

Sociology and Social Norms Essay examples
The first decade of this millennium witnessed a dramatic awakening concerning the role of gender
which had its marked impact on gender roles. As Wharton states, "the study of gender emerged as
one of the most important trends in the discipline of sociology in the twentieth century" (1). This
emergence prompted many theories regarding gender issues, which in turn, "propelled the
sociological study of gender from the margins to become one of the central features of the
discipline" (Wharton 2). Though every group is uniquely structured in a societal set up based on
categories, the colossal development of research on gender issues clearly shows that all social
interactions, and the institutions of human progress, are biased in the case of...show more content...
Though the roles are flexible and sometimes interchangeable, dramatic social changes leave the role
boundaries in uncertainty about what the appropriate role behaviour should be. This inability to
frame clear boundaries of gender role forms the basis of gender inequality.
Gender inequality is displayed in many countries around the globe. In India, the society begins
gendering as soon as a child is born. In most cases, the birth of a daughter is unwelcome but that
of a son is celebrated. The boys are brought up bold and outgoing while the girls are expected to be
at home and do chores. While the other discriminations like economic or social discriminations are
present outside the home, but gender discrimination is present outside and inside households. In a
familial setup, the father is the head of the family and decision maker. The mother generally
performs the 'home making'. Even if the woman is employed, she is expected to do the domestic
chores, in addition to her job. Even though she earns, she does not have the freedom to plan her
salary or decide anything.
Traditionally, the family property, irrespective of who is being the family head, is transferred to the
male. As a result, the male enjoys power and he becomes the authority. The oldest among

Essay on Sociological Autobiography
My life started with my long and hard birth on July 14, 1993. I came into the world with a large
scream and was immediately placed into some sort of category. The doctors and nurses took a
quick look at me, and pronounced me as a girl. This social label of being a girl was now my
gender, which is something I had no say in. Every since that very moment in time where my
parents were told I was a girl, I have been treated according to my gender. This meant that my
parents automatically dressed me in pink, bought me dollhouses and kitchen sets and threw me
Barbie themed birthday parties. Since I was surrounded my whole entire life by these things, it was
almost like second nature to think and act the way that I did and still do. My...show more content...
I became intrigued and wanted to play with his toys because they became so much more
interesting then mine. When my grandmother saw that I was playing with trucks and enjoying it,
she quickly came over and grabbed them out of my hands, giving them back to the little boy I had
taken them from. She then explained to me that trucks were for boys not girls, and I should stick
to using my pink shovel and bucket set to make nice sandcastles. I didn't understand at that point
what the big issue was, it was just toys that were fun to play with, but I agreed with my
grandmother because I didn't want to get into trouble and from then on stuck to focusing on
making sandcastles. I quickly forgot about the trucks, and never again did I think to play with
anything remotely like that. Little did I know it, but that was one of the first examples of gender
roles that I had been exposed too. Growing up, my label of a female has given me both advantages
and disadvantages. Having a younger brother has given me a clearer view of how parents and
family members socialize the both of us to act male or female. Because I am a female, it was
expected of me from a very early age to attend school and university. There was never really a
choice, it was either that or go straight into work, which was the less pleasing option. However my
brother is just expected to get his high school diploma and go work for my father and take over our
family business, which

Sociology Major Essay
It has been a long dream of mines to go back to school and earn a college. degree, Even though there
were many obstacles in my way I never gave up. I was determined to find my way and purpose in
this life.
A degree in sociology will be relevant for helping to achieve future personal and professional goals
because it helps us to understand our social systems and understand the institutions. It also explores
humanity's diverse ways of interacting and study our human social behavior.
A Sociology degree will further help to achieve professional goals because it develops
communication skills and critical thinking, enhance awareness of diversity and evaluate social
phenomena, It also improve the capacity to understand and analyze professional...show more
content...
The orientation is the introduction and it equipped me the resources that are valuable to me. In turn,
Academic one and two taught me about student benefits and responsibilities, Professional
development and most important academic expectations.
The introduction of Sociology was another opportunity to rely on positivism, which is to rely on the
philosophy of science by observation and examination of the effects of groups and individuals,
cultural phenomena and human interactions. Another important advantage was learning about "The
Sociological Imagination written by C. Wright Mills" because it allowed me to take the larger social
issues and personal experiences and make a connection between the both.
Upon successful completion of my major, I am working towards being promoted in retail
management. I am already in a leadership position. Some of my key roles are to also identify and
develop potential future leaders. With my sociology major, helped me to be a good mentor to
others at work and in my personal life too. I learned a lot about the paper we had to write on
Nature or nurture and that is one of my takeaway from the sociology program because it taught me
that ambition and personality are important combinations of skills that are rare and to exhibit being
a true leader that appreciate and recognize employees and others is one of the best reward ever!
These are some of the leadership styles that will enable me to acquire leadership success and future

Sociology in Everyday Life Essay
Sociology in Every Life
One central and important study of sociology is the study of everyday social life. Everyday life and
sociology are definitely two distinct terms and situations, but they hold a close relationship. While
sociology studies human interaction, everyday life consists of everyday human interaction.
Everyday life is filled by human beings interacting with one another, institutions, ideas, and emotions.
Sociology studies the interactions with all of these and shows how mere interaction resulted in
things like ideas and institutions.
Everyday that you wake up and come into contact with what you do and the people you speak to is
sociological. You wake up and interact with objects. Some of these objects you...show more content...
The Structural–Functional theory argues that in order for race and ethnic relations to be functional
and contribute to the conduct and stability of society, racial and ethnic minorities must assimilate
into that society. Assimilation is a process by which minorities gradually adopt patterns of a
dominant culture.
It is believed that deviance encourages social change. A good example of this would be how race
and ethnicity are strongly linked to crime rates. The amount of African Americans that were
involved in crimes was a higher proportion than any other race. African Americans makes up 13
percent of the population but were accounted for 28.9 percent of the arrest. There are several
reasons why arrest for African American could be this high but the main cause would probably be
because of social standing.
Some disadvantages to the African American population are that white people have an overall
higher occupational standing and they also receive schooling beyond high school. Many people
of this race are brought into single parent homes which lead to a huge gap in wealth and these
children receive less supervision which puts them in a greater risk of living in poverty. Over 40
percent of African American children grow up in poor families leaving the high crime rates to not
be a surprise. Prejudice is also another factor to the high crime rates because white police tend to
arrest black people

Sociology as a Science Essay
Sociology emerged in the eighteenth century after a period of intense cultural, social and economic
changes. As people began to try to understand these changes, there came a period called the
Enlightenment. This is also considered by Hamilton (1992) to be a "time characterised by the
development of distinctively modern forms of thought about society and the realm of the social."
The Enlightenment encouraged a new way of thinking marked by application of reason, experience
and experiment to the natural and social world. Sociologists approached the study of society and
change by using scientific means as they were inspired by the recognition of the value of scientific
principles and procedures....show more content...
They believe that sociology is a science as it is based on the principles advocated by the early
scientists and shares common assumptions. Positivist strongly believe that only science can
provide an objective truth or facts, and a good example of this is Durkheim's study of suicide, in
which he proved that sociology can relate to scientific topics. The metanarrative of science which
existed in the past, to a certain extent shows how it was used by early sociologists as a
conceptual framework for their work, therefore adopting science as it was considered to offer
more scope than religion. Auguste Comte is considered the founding figure of positivism, and was
inspired by the need to make sense of the rapid social change brought about by the industrial,
agricultural and political revolutions taking place across Europe. As they believe that human
behaviour is determined by social constructions beyond their control such as laws and social facts,
positivists claim these are a product of the way in which societies are organised. Therefore, they
believe that sociology should be a scientific discipline based on logic and methods of the natural
sciences. When positivist sociologists collect information and data from the social world, they
usually do so with a hypothetico–deductive approach, which is considered a

The Sociological Canon
The field of sociology has three sociologists who form the sociological canon, of whom many
theories, and strategies have formed how we look at society. Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile
Durkhiem all share a similar timeline when they were born, but even with that similarity these
sociologists saw the world in vastly different scopes which influenced their theories. These
contrasting values and theories show clearly in their work and has led to some of the most
influential works within the field, hence their place as the sociological canon. It is interesting to
see the contrasting nature between these very influential sociologists and will be the focus of
this essay. While looking at the three sociologists who make up the sociological canon it is
important to take into consideration how they view social order and social change. Karl Marx
used his theory of social class in order to explain how society structured itself (Bratton, Denham
2014). Marx theorized that classes were relational, exploitive, and conflictive in nature. Marx
explained social order, by way of the labour market and modes of production. His theories showed a
pessimistic but realistic view of how the system abuses and takes advantage of the working class,
and through strife the working class needed to empower themselves to grow and reach their
potential. Emile Durkheim theorized about the division of labour, which was a written work that
analyzed the relationship between social solidarity and the

Sociological Theories Essay
Sociological theory creates ways to understand the social world by having different theories to
explain understand social life. It aids to make sense of this social world. It draws together a wide
range of perspectives to help provide the fullest picture. (Macionis & Plummer p.36) It shows that
one theory can explain something that another cannot. My aim is to answer this question with
reference to both functionalism and conflict theory. This will be done by comparing and contrasting
both theories in relation to their perspectives on both suicide and gender discrimination as social
issues relevant to this day and age. Functionalism and conflict perspectives are both macro theories.
This means that they focus on the big picture, for...show more content...
(Turner, p.112) Functional analysis established itself as a way of 'bringing to light the significance of
the institutional order and connecting it with the unintentional consequences of social action.
(Turner, p.121) On page 35 of Back et al. it states that Durkheim's argument is that classification is a
process of 'marking–off', of showing things that are related, but have distinct points of difference to
another. Functionalism assumes that society's social institutions perform important functions to
help ensure social stability. Rapid social change threatens social order, but slow social change is
desirable. Durkheim believed that the individual has no way of limiting passions, so the moral
authority of society must do this. Individual aspirations are limited two ways, by socialisation and
social integration. Socialisation helps us learn the rules of society and the need to cooperate.
Social integration allows us to integrate into society and reinforce our respect for its rules. These
both, as stated by Durkheim create a strong collective conscience. Suicide, as an example of a
social issue, is explained with the functionalism perspective by not focusing on the individual
unhappiness, but instead on the group rates of suicide resulting form external forces. This may be
caused by normlessness, which may result from periods of rapid social change, and people find it
hard and unclear about how to deal with problems in their life. This frustration

Sociology In Sociology
Sociology is the study of groups of people and how society interacts with them. There are many
people out there that have done research or contributed in some way to sociology. Not just on
people, but things like religions, countries, genders, race, and many more. Many things play in
the role to form us and our society. Here in America, we have Trump as our president and we eat
burgers and french fries, but over in japan they grow lots of their own food and eat it like potatoes
with vegetables and chicken. Different things happen around the world and we just can't seem to
think there is other things out there than what we just do or what we call ourselves and so forth.
We don't think about how our society affects us and how we affect society. Society can affect us
in a positive way or even a negative way. A positive way society can influence us is if the
president said all schools in the United States have to have extra curricular activities and the
government will fund it. This could be great for a poor boy in San Joaquin, California who really
wanted to be on the track and field team, but his school did not have it because they couldn't
afford it. This would have kept him out of trouble in the past, but when it finally was available by
the government, he joined and it kept him out of trouble and he worked much harder in school. A
negative way society can impact us is Obama's health care act. Now that they are trying to get rid of
it, many people will have to go without

Essay on Sociology Interview
In my interview I chose my girlfriend's neighbor. Hector is of Mexican decent and he is here
because in Meigs county the produce fields hire Mexican laborers on worker permits. Hector
started out doing this then he became the boss about five years ago and received his green card
and now is an American and can speak very good English. He explained to me that in Mexico there
is no age when you can start working so there are young boys working at six to ten years old to
help support his needy family. He also stated that women do not usually work they are only aloud
to go to the village markets and get goods for their family's and raise there many children. I asked
about minimum wage and he kinda laughed and said some teens and men who work...show more
content...
He said that female children usually do not work they go with there mothers to market and get
the bare essentials they need. I asked what do they do with the rest of there time and he said a trip
to the market could take all day because they bargain shop. The second topic that we both
actually wanted to talk about was the wages of workers. He was sure to let me know that
Americans have it great with the minimum wage law, because in Mexico they have no such law.
I asked him when he worked in Mexico how much he got paid and he said "I worked at the same
job for the same company for 10 years and my maximum pay was $6.50, but when I started I got
$.50 an hour". He also said that when he was chose to come work in the fields all over America
that he was getting paid on commission because since he was not an actual American resident he
could not get minimum wage. "I work as hard as I could and went as fast as I could to pick all I
could to send the money back home where it was needed" Hector said. The third thing that we
talked about was the usage of labor unions in Mexico in association with American labor unions.
He said there is no way that they could do that in Mexico because there are to many people and not
enough jobs and he also said that "Mexico is not

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