Respond to two classmates’ discussion on sociology perspective. Responses should be at least 150 words each (put the word count in all responses). Replies should take the conversation further by adding questions or your own ideas in your replies. In addition, you can point out both strengths and areas of improvement on your peers’ submission. Strong posts will demonstrate understanding and connection to course materials.

Classmate#1: Marc A Robosa

1. I think what is meant by sociological imagination is being a very open minded person who looks at sociological interactions and what influences it.  A person who is able to look at a situation, and pull away from what they know and look at it at a different lens. A benefit of developing a sociological eye is that it will look at problem in different ways and come up with with different solutions. Some other benefits is that it gives an individual more knowledge and insight for a community, a society and as a whole.

2. I think what Mills was trying to say in this quote is that Society turns women into a “slave” for men. Men are described as “Chief Providers”(McIntyre pg16).  Women are dependent on the men after they get married, and that in a marriage, no satisfactory solution can be made unless a 3rd party is at part. Basically saying that society is the reason why marriage is not satisfied for couples. Coontz would agree with this because society standards cause arguments in relationships. It says in her article that “Social differences limit how fair or equal a personal relationship between two individuals from the different groups…”(Coontz 12). Saying that two individuals in a relationhip will always be affected since they come from various groups in society. Another thing she was saying was that “various groups… have unequal access to economic resources, political power, social status”.  These differences causes problems in marriages, just like what Mills was saying in his quote. Saying that Marriages are affected by a 3rd party, or affected by something else like inequality, and differences.

3. A person with an individualistic view looks at what a person does as an individual. They would examine what drives a person to commit crimes, and fix it from what they are driven from. However the sociologist view is a little different. It talks about how an individual learns from society, and influences them to commit crimes.  Saying people who are criminals learn it from other people around them. Sociologist would try to reduce crimes by creating a better environment to where people are not influenced negatively.

4. Out of the three theoretical perspectives described from McIntyre, I thought the Functionalist perspective was the most interesting one. It talks about how a society works together in order to function. We pay tax to the state, and then the state funds school, where kids go to school. This perspective basically says that our society works as a circle, trying to reach equilibrium. I thought this was interesting because I always thought society as a competition like the conflict perspectives. We compete with other people to get into college and we compete people for jobs. So I thought this was a really interesting and different perspective of society

5.  I quote I want to talk about is on the Coontz reading where she says “although they continue to be unequal, they are now asked to put aside the psychological defenses they have constructed against that inequality, including a certain amount of self-protective guardedness”(McIntyre pg12).  I thought this was very interesting because it was describing the relations of what happens when a a person with higher social power asked someone that is a lower power to disagree with them and express their minds.

McIntyre, L. J., (2014). The Practical Skeptic: Core Concepts in Sociology. Dubuque: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

McIntyre, L. J., (2014). The Practical Skeptic: Readings in Sociology. Dubuque: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Classmate#2: Cheyen Venigas-Mcveigh

1. The sociological imagination in my own personal opinion is being able to turn on and observe anything with an open mind and questioning why society behaves in the ways it does. Observing how people act in any given sociological setting

2. This quote is first discussing that in societal view when a couple is married the women become subservient caretakers to the men and the men are the only providers making them the ruler over the house. This makes the women feel hopeless and powerless, under the man’s authority. The couple has different levels of power which will lead to unsatisfied marriage. It is difficult to be happy in a marriage without a 3rd party being involved or the married couple will worry about how this reflects in society. I believe Coontz would agree strongly will Mills view. Coontz states “These social differences limit how fair and equal a personal relationship between two individuals from different groups can really be”(McIntyre “Readings”, pg.12). Coontz goes on to give examples of different incidences of people with lower levels of power not feeling able to speak up because of the intimidation they feel from the social standpoint of the person above them.

3. An Individualistic approach would be reviewing and going over what might have to lead the person to do the crimes they committed. Looking more at the person’s history and taking that into consideration. A sociologist approach would be to take environmental factors into consideration and looking at data collected for the crimes. A Sociologist would try to reduce crimes like this by changing environmental factors found to be correlated with such crimes.

4. I think the most appealing theoretical perspective McIntyre goes over is the Functionalism perspective. I think it makes the most since that society works in a continuous cycle. Like we received from the community and we give back to the community. This is also very beneficial for a community because it ends up balancing out in the end.

5. “Male often complains that feminists ignore male insecurities and burdens, and they have a point” (McIntyre pg.15). I thought this quote was interesting because as a feminist I haven’t given a lot of thought as maybe I should to the male’s perspective in society. I mean, feminism’s main idea is equality. I have thought about it a little, but not much. It should be important to see male insecurities because we then can have a better view of society as a whole.

References

McIntyre, L. J., (2014). The Practical Skeptic: Core Concepts in Sociology. Dubuque: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

McIntyre, L. J., (2014). The Practical Skeptic: Readings in Sociology. Dubuque: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.