social issues are often at the root of our situation. The sociological imagination holds that we can best understand our personal experiences and problems by examining their broader social context—by looking at the big picture.
Many individual problems (private troubles) are rooted in social or public issues (what is happening in the social world outside one’s personal control). Distinguished sociologist C. Wright Mills called the ability to understand this complex interactive relationship between individual experiences and public issues the sociological imagination. For Mills, many personal experiences can and should be interpreted in the context of large-scale forces in the wider society (Mills 1959).
Consider, for example, someone you know who has been laid off from a job. This personal trauma is a common situation during a recession. Unemployed persons often experience feelings of inadequacy or lack of self-worth because of the job loss. Their unemployment, though, may be due to larger forces such as a machine taking over their job, unsound banking practices, corporate downsizing, or a corporation taking operations to another country where labor costs are cheaper and there are fewer environmental regulations on companies. People may blame themselves or each other for personal troubles such as unemployment or marital problems, believing that they did not try hard enough. Often, they do not see the connection between their private lives and larger economic and social forces beyond their control. They fail to recognize the public issues that create private troubles.
If you are having trouble paying for college, that may feel like a very personal trouble. High tuition rates, though, relate to a dramatic decline in governmental support for public higher education and financial aid for students. The rising cost of a college education is a serious public issue that our society needs to address. Individuals, alone, cannot reduce the high price of college.
As you learn about sociology, you will begin to notice how social forces shape individual lives and group behavior. This knowledge helps us understand aspects of everyday life we take for granted. In this book you will learn to view the social world and your place in it from a sociological perspective as you develop your sociological imagination. Connecting events from the global and national levels to the personal and intimate level of our own lives is the core organizing theme of this book.
Thinking Sociologically
How has divorce, poverty, or war caused personal troubles for someone you know? Give examples of why it is inadequate to explain these personal troubles by examining only the personal characteristics of those affected.
Questions Sociologists Ask—and Don’t Ask
Think about this—everything a sociologist asks must be answerable through research. Perhaps you have had late-night discussions with your friends about the meaning of life, the existence of God, the ethical implications of genetically modified food, or the morality of abortion. These are philosophical issues that sociologists, like other scientists, cannot answer through scientific research. What sociologists do ask are questions about people in social groups and organizations—questions that can be studied scientifically. Sociologists may research how people feel about the previous issues (the percentage of people who want genetically modified food to be labeled, for example), but sociologists do not determine the right or wrong answers to such value-driven opinions. They are more interested in how people’s beliefs influence their behavior. They focus on issues that can be studied objectively and scientifically—looking for causes or consequences.
Sociologists might ask, Who gets an abortion, why do they do so, and how does the society, as a whole, view abortion? These are matters of fact that a social scientist can explore. However, sociologists avoid making ethical judgments about whether abortion is always acceptable, sometimes acceptable, or always wrong. In their private lives, sociologists and other scientists may have opinions on controversial philosophical issues, but these should not enter into their scientific work.
Likewise, sociologists might ask, What are the circumstances around individuals becoming drunk and acting drunk? This question is often tied more to the particular social environment than to the availability of alcohol. Note that a person might become intoxicated at a fraternity party but not at a family member’s wedding reception where alcohol is served. The expectations for behavior vary in each social setting. The researcher does not make judgments about whether use of alcohol is good or bad, or right or wrong, and avoids—as much as possible—opinions regarding responsibility or irresponsibility. The sociologist does, however, observe variations in the use of alcohol in different social situations and the resulting behaviors. The focus of sociology is on facts, what causes behaviors, and the results.
▲ Binge drinking, losing consciousness, vomiting, or engaging in sexual acts while drunk may be sources of storytelling at a college party but can be offensive at a wedding reception.
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© Chris Ryan/Caiaimage/Getty Images
Thinking Sociologically
Consider the information you have just read. What are some questions sociologists might ask about drinking and drunkenness? What are some questions sociologists would not ask about these topics, at least while in their role as researchers?
The Social Sciences: A Comparison
Not so long ago, our views of people and social relationships were based on stereotypes, intuition, superstitions, supernatural explanations, and traditions passed on from one generation to the next. Natural scientists (e.g., chemists, astronomers, biologists, and oceanographers) first used the scientific method, a model later adopted by social scientists. Social scientists, including sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, economists, cultural geographers, historians, and political scientists, apply the scientific method to study social relationships, to correct misleading and harmful misconceptions about human behavior, and to guide policy decisions. Consider the following examples of specific studies various social scientists have conducted.
Consider an anthropologist who studies garbage. He examines what people discard to understand what kind of lives they lead (Bond 2010). Anthropology is the study of humanity in its broadest context. It is closely related to sociology, and the two areas have common historical roots and sometimes overlapping methodologies and subject matter. However, anthropologists have different specialties in four major subfields within anthropology: physical anthropology (which is related to biology), archaeology, linguistics, and cultural anthropology (sometimes called ethnology). This last field has the most in common with sociology. Cultural anthropologists study the culture, or way of life, of a society.
A psychologist may wire research subjects to a machine that measures their physiological reaction to a violent film clip and then ask them questions about what they were feeling. Psychology is the study of individual behavior and mental processes (e.g., sensation, perception, memory, and thought processes). It differs from sociology in that it focuses on individuals rather than on groups, institutions, and societies. Although there are different branches of psychology, most psychologists are concerned with individual motivations, personality attributes, attitudes, perceptions, abnormal behavior, mental disorders, and the stages of normal human development.
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