Essay on Kailum GormanWeek1Assignment

Objective – Explain basic sociological concepts of the family, marriage, and intimate relationships. (Pg. 365)

Consequently, fundamental aspects of our social experience and identities, like race and gender, can be readily understood through the symbolic interactionist lens. Because both race and gender have no biological basis whatsoever, both race and gender can be understood as social constructs that function based on what we believe to be true about people, given what they look like. We use socially constructed meanings of race and gender to help us decide who to interact with, how to do so, and to help us determine, sometimes inaccurately, the meaning of a person's words or actions. Symbolic interaction perspective is a useful

Everyone in the world has a theory about why something happens or how it happens, but in sociology there are many different types of theories that often contradict each other. Theory is defined as “a statement of how and why specific facts are related” (Macionis, 2013). Most theories explain why people act in certain ways and explains why a person in a group may act different than someone that is alone. When building sociological theories most sociologist ask their selves two different questions: “What issues should we study?” and “How should we connect the facts?” (Macionis, 2013). By answering these questions the sociologist is led to a road map, or a theoretical approach. Theoretical approach is described as “a basic image of society that

Humans define race by how they conceive and categorize different social realities. Thus, race is often referred to as a social construct. The differences in skin color and facial characteristics have led most of society to classify humans into groups instead of individuals. These constructs affect us all, and they often result in situations where majority racial groups cause undue suffering to those that are part of the minority. The understanding of race as a social construct is best illustrated by the examination of racial issues within our own culture, specifically those that have plagued the history of the United States.

Sociologists employ three major theoretical perspectives in sociology today. They are the structural-functionalist perspective, the conflict perspective, and the symbolic interactionism. The structural-functionalist perspective is done at a macro level and its focus is on the relationships between the parts of society. The Conflict perspective is done at a macro level and its main focus is on how the wealthy controls the poor and weak.

The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply

Race and gender are two facets that inherently dominate individuals everyday lives. A person’s social environment, work environment, and educational environment is congruent to their race and gender. From birth, it has been set up that everyone is assigned to a label. A pink or blue blanket is swaddled around a newborn child and a box is checked signifying that child’s place in society. These two actions ultimately define how a child is to be viewed and treated. As children grow into young adults they either decide to stick with their original assignment, while others decide to deviate from it. These individuals deviation results in many of them being viewed harshly and looked down upon because they strayed from their social norms. This constant cycle of being classified and labeled from birth is the social institution of gender and race. These social institutions aid in the inequality that is present in society, and race and gender are shaped by this. However, if these social institutions were removed, race and gender could dissipate. This is due to the fact that race and gender are not real, but are socially constructed concepts used to organize the power, or dominance, within our society to one social group over the other groups.

What important changes in family patterns do you see today? Today I see family patterns change in many perspectives ways. Families are more independent. They form their own opinions in their decision making. Do you see positive changes, negative changes, or both? I would have to say that I see both positive and negative changes in families. The positive that I see is that many husbands are more involved with their children and even some are now stay home dads taking care of the children while women go to work, the negative that I see is that there are many people filing for divorce and children being raised by single parents. What do they mean for families, in your opinion? My opinion is that most people are

My pre-adolescent years were spent in a community thick with diversity. My friendships were as diverse as the environment in which I lived. It never struck me that racial and ethnic ideals separated people in society. However, upon moving to a predominately white upper-class community I began to question such racial and ethnic ideas. From my adolescent years through today I began noticing that certain people are viewed differently for reasons relating to race and ethnicity. As a result, the most recent community I grew up in has kept me sheltered from aspects of society. As a product of a community where majorities existed, I found myself unexposed to the full understanding of race and ethnicity. Prior to the class I had never fully dealt with issues of race or ethnicity, as a result I wondered why they would be of any importance in my life.

Facebook is great because it is a way for people to keep in contact with

Race, to many people is one thing and one thing only; the color of one's skin. But race is more than just the color of one’s skin, but it’s their biological makeup and social makeup. Biological race is the skin color we are born with along with the other genetic traits that come with certain ethnic backgrounds. Social race, however, is how society depicts your skin color and biological traits, and decides from there what social “class” you may be placed in, how you’ll be treated, and how you’ll live your life, socially. All people are biologically born the same “race” as their parents, or a mix, if the parents are different. But what determines the social race?

In Anderson and Collins’, chapter on “Why race, class, and gender still maters” encourage readers to think about the world in their framework of race, class, and gender. They argued that even though society has change and there is a wide range of diversity; race, class and gender still matters. Anderson and Collins stated, “Race, class, and gender matter because they remain the foundation for system of power and inequality that, despite our nation’s diversity, continue to be among the most significant social facts of peoples lives.” (Anderson and Collins, 2010) When I was a little girl, I never knew that people were classified in to groups such as race, class, gender. I knew there were people that had a different color of skin than

The social construction of race and the conjured up idea of different races affects many Americans on a macro and micro scale or institutionally and individually, respectively. To sociologists, this idea of a socially constructed race matters because race has a tremendous influence on people’s lives.

The subject of race, within the field of sociology, can often be viewed as both a fluid concept and a cultural experience. Contrary to popular belief, race is not biological, but is a socially constructed category of people that share the same biological traits. Race can often change over time and is formed primarily by our personal views and the views of others. These can range from ethnicity to self-presentation and feelings of place within society. One example of the fluidity of race can be seen based upon the classification of the White or Caucasian race. In today’s culture, this race has been drastically increased to include a vast array of “white” individuals.

Social media has made communication a lot more easier than ever before. Now, with a touch of a button people could communicate with anybody any where in the world. Websites such as Facebook makes communication with others an easy task. Facebook improved commucnication and even made communication a better experience. Facebook allow peole to share photos, post comments, and view people’s personal information. With almost 500 million users accounts, facebook is considered to be one of the most popular social media websites,most of the people use it as a substitute for real life human interaction.