The textbook readings for Weeks 1 and 2 explore social forces that can affect our lives as individuals. For this assignment, choose a private or individualistic act that could be regarded as a broader social problem or social issue. You may choose one of the following or a topic of your own:
Homelessness
Domestic violence
Addiction
Obesity
In a 2-page essay, address the following:
Thoroughly explain what the sociological imagination is
Thoroughly examine how and why the sociological imagination helps understand your chosen topic
Incorporate one outside scholarly source you find on your topic
Your paper must contain scholarly support in the form of paraphrases *only* with respective citations from the assigned reading (the textbook/lesson) and the outside scholarly source that you identify on your own. Do not directly quote from sources for this paper, but instead, paraphrase in your own words from source material and cite the sources with parenthetical in-text citations and with full APA-style reference on a reference page at the end of your essay.
Requirements
Length: 2 pages (not including reference page)
1-inch margins
Double spaced
12-point font
Page number in the upper right of all pages
Parenthetical in-text citations and a reference page formatted in APA style
Abstract and title page not required
Acceptable file type: .doc, .docx, or PDF
“Sociological reasoning is often referred to as the sociological imagination—the ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and the larger society (Mills, 1959b). The sociological imagination is important to each of us because having this awareness enables us to understand the link between our personal experiences and the social contexts in which they occur. Think for a minute about some of the problems you face. Are these problems totally individualistic in nature or do they have their roots in the larger society? What about the high cost of college and university education? At a personal level, you and your family are the ones who have to figure out how to meet these economic demands and sometimes financial hardships caused by the cost of your education. However, what you must pay to attend college and how the costs of your overall education are funded (through savings, part-time jobs, family contributions, grants, scholarships, or other economic means) are embedded in the larger structures of higher education and the politics and economics of our larger society.
The sociological imagination will enable you to grasp the relationship between economic and social arrangements, such as the cost of higher education, at the societal level and your own biography at the individual level. This way of looking at social life also helps you distinguish between personal troubles and social (or public) issues. Personal troubles are private problems that affect individuals and the networks of people with whom they regularly associate. As a result, individuals within their immediate social settings must solve those problems. For example, one person being unable to afford a college education or being unemployed may be viewed by some other people as a personal trouble. But, by contrast, public issues are problems that affect large numbers of people and often require solutions at the societal level. To pay for a college education, many students must rely on loans that may follow them many years after college. Some estimates suggest that more than 44 million people in the United States have a combined total of more than $1.4 trillion in student debt. This is a societal problem, not just an individual one!
The sociological imagination helps us place seemingly personal troubles, such as having difficulty paying for a college education, losing one’s job, or thinking about taking one’s own life (referred to as “suicidal ideation”), into a larger social context, where we can distinguish whether and how personal troubles may be related to public issues. Let’s compare the two perspectives by looking at suicide.”(Kendal, 2021)
Kendall, D. E. (2021). Sociology in our times: The essentials (12th ed.). Cengage Learning.
