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Muhammad Islam

SOC 100

Dr. Shircliff

February 25, 2022

1. Using your social imagination will help you think critically, and exercising critical thinking

will help you extend your sociological imagination. The sociological imagination, according to

C. Wright Mills, is "the vivid knowledge of the link between personal experience and the larger

society." It helps us to "understand history and biography, as well as their interrelationships

throughout society." In other words, it is the ability to comprehend how historically conditioned

societal factors impact human experiences. You are your own individual with your own narrative

(biography), yet you are impacted by the social structure and those who came before you in a

million ways. Sociology will force you to consider how you fit into the "larger picture" of society

and all of its intricacies. According to the sociological viewpoint, human conduct is "mediated,

molded, directed, and influenced by social connections and social systems." Student loan debt,

contradictory expectations from separated parents, or an inability to have a meaningful love

connection throughout one's college years are some instances. These are all societal problems

that people born at the same time and in the same social location as us have in common. It

requires thinking on how historical and societal issues affect our own lives. In other terms, "the

sociological imagination" is the ability to link personal experiences or challenges to larger

societal issues.

3. Sociologists assess the world, identify a problem or an intriguing trend, and set out to

investigate it. They create a study using research methodologies, such as a scientific approach for

doing research using an interpretative framework. There are many research methods that
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sociologists use in order to study the social world. Sociologists often select from commonly used

methods of social inquiry, such as survey, participant observation, ethnography, case study,

unobtrusive observations, experiment, and secondary data analysis, or the use of existing

sources. Every research technique has advantages and disadvantages, and the topic of

investigation heavily impacts which approach or methods are used. For example, when an

architect conducts research, they consider the ideal technique to acquire or obtain knowledge

about creating a building. To create a building, an architect requires a blueprint; as a sociologist,

the blueprint is the study design, which includes your data gathering strategy. Some advantages

of surveys could be that they have higher response rates and are fairly simple to administer while

some disadvantages could be creating a connection between the creator of the survey and the

taker is difficult and uit can at times be biased. For some instances surveys can be a great option

for sociologists depending on the issue while choosing another research method may be more

ideal.

4. The ordered set of social institutions and patterns of institutionalized connections that

comprise society is referred to as social structure. Social structure is both a result of and a direct

result of social interaction. Social structures are not usually evident to the untrained observer, yet

they are constantly there and impact all aspects of human experience in society. ​The different

scales of social reality are microscale, mesoscale, macroscale, and world scale. Micro-level

sociology studies individual interactions on a tiny scale, such as conversation or group dynamics

while sociologists investigate the experiences of groups and the relationships between groups at

the meso level. Macro scales go higher and can go into politics, family relationships, etc. World

scale sociologists analyze relationships at the largest level, such as exchanges between nations or
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comparisons across nations. These connect to each other because it is like a ladder where you go

up and step on each step one by one.

8. In terms of economic production, social stratification is a hierarchy of roles that determines

the social incentives for persons in those positions. The connection between social class and

social stratification is based on accomplishments or performances. The caste system and the open

class system are two examples of stratification systems. The caste system denotes a person's

social status and is determined for life based on inherited status. The Brahmins who are priests

and the Kshatriyas who are warriors are two examples of this caste structure. The estate structure

is reminiscent of Europe's medieval era. The open class evaluates a student's performance based

on personal effort and ability. People can modify their social class in this class by ranking higher

or lower based on their accomplishments and incentives. In an industrialized society, the United

States, for example, emphasizes competitiveness and possibilities. The open class stratification

system is likely to be open. The connecting factors of education and employment would be the

systems that reflect attain status. An open class system would be considered accomplished status,

with individuals obtaining their abilities by hard effort and non-inherited abilities. The caste

system is an example of an ascribed system, in which an individual inherits their powers from

their family. Private property is the foundation of the existence of inequality because in most

cases to be able to obtain properly requires you to come from a high class family and that isn’t

something you get to pick and choose but rather random. The capitalists were referred to as the

bourgeoisie class, while wage earners were referred to as the proletariat class by Marx. While the

bourgeoisie class was unquestionably affluent, the term "bourgeoisie" refers to those who

possess the means of production. The term "means of production" refers to everything that is

required to manufacture things, such as land, factories, machinery, labor, and so on.
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References:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social%20structur

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2014/04/28/the-unequal-burden-of-crime-and-incarcera

tion-on-americas-poor/

https://open.lib.umn.edu/sociology/chapter/5-1-social-structure-the-building-blocks-of-social-life

https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/social_inequality.htm

https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-structure

https://www.thoughtco.com/social-structure-defined-3026594