Sociological Explanation Vs Common Senses

1. Some people accuse sociologists of observing conditions that are obvious. How does looking at sociology as “making the familiar strange” help counter this claim? How does sociology differ from simple commonsense reasoning?

These differing responses can be explained via sociological reasoning. Such reasoning would include acknowledging an individual’s comfort level, their relationship to me, the norm violator, their traditional opinion of where it is appropriate to have a picnic, and their views of whether or not they feel it is appropriate to acknowledge my norm violation as a positive or negative form of social deviance. A sociologist would relate and explain differing responses by highlighting the how an individual’s sexual orientation, personal religious beliefs, culture, lifestyle, worldview or gender identity influence their individual thoughts and responses to the social environment in which they live, providing a proper methodology by which to

After having read the first three chapters of “You May Ask Yourself: An Introduction to Thinking Like A Sociologist,” I easily discovered that I have been a budding sociologist since I began forming my own thoughts. A sociologist questions everything and tries to relate the unknown, and I do that on a daily basis. Three specific ways in which I have noticed myself thinking like a sociologist have involved the Conflict Theory, the Reflection Theory, and the idea of “positivism.”

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

The North Hanover Mall is an average shopping center with various stores and small attractions. Typically, the mall is not over-crowded; however, during the evenings and weekends it is well-traveled. There are the average chain stores such as JCPenny’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Hallmark, and Bath and Body Works. Likewise, there are some smaller, lesser known stores, for example, a few nail and hair salons, cafes, a pizza shop, and a sports apparel store. In general, there is a diverse mix of people shopping, from ethnicity to ages and group sizes. The night I choose to do my social observation the mall was much busier than I had anticipated. There was a Halloween event and an antique car show; both circumstances brought more individuals than usual into the shopping complex.

Throughout this essay, I will explain the distinction between sociological and common sense understanding, highlight the differences between sociology and other social sciences, and evaluate two sociological perspectives – Marxism and feminism.

P. L said: “there is a debunking motif inherent in sociological consciousness” (1963), sociology has an inborn intention to unmask the social reality and discover the very truth of society, which is logically and methodically decided. Mastering such a methodology, we are capable of figuring out that society is not as superficial and simple as we directly perceive. A social incident may seemingly be explain by a simple common sense, but actually, there are certain value, norm or meaning systems that support or justify the incident’s happening. Furthermore, behind the value or meaning system, there are likely to be group interest that generate them and the group interest are also decided by social positions or roles. Ultimately, it is the social structure that distributes the social positions or roles and constrain our interaction and correlation. Therefore, with different layers hidden behind the incident unmasked, we can probably reveal the essence of

A key part of engaging in sociology is to adopt a sociological viewpoint or 'think sociologically'. Etymologically, sociology is the 'study of society' but this doesn't differentiate sociology from other forms of social study. Hence, many begin to describe thinking sociologically by what it is not - it is not thinking politically, thinking anthropologically, thinking historically or thinking psychologically, for example (Berger 1966: 11-36; Reiss 1968: 2-3). Others try to determine the nature of sociological thinking by detailing practical phenomena which can be thought about such as social systems and their subsystems, social institutions and social structure, and social aggregates, relationships, groups and organisations (Reiss 1968: 1),

Sociology is a social science that enables people to understand the structure and dynamics of society. By using a scientific approach, and by critically analysing society using qualitative and quantitative methods, sociologists can find patterns and connections within human behaviour to provide explanations of how society affects people. Sociological views are based on theories that have been tested through unbiased research and attempt to take all values into account. Common sense theories are generally individualistic and naturalistic assumptions that are based on opinions than can vary depending on an individuals

In other words, being able to perform in a rational manner. Sociology is defined a the interaction between people and societies. Sociology, essentially studies the way individuals identify themselves and how they adapt within society and all the changes that occur. The statement "Common Sense explanations outweigh the value of Sociological explanations" is certainly not true.

Explanation of common sense and sociological approaches to the study of Human Societies, with examples.

Before I begin to explain what a sociological imagination is I would like to explain when this physical theory started and tell you that it was once called something else before that. Sociology was discovered in the early 17th century in “The Age of Enlighten “Where the scholars wanted a more scientific theory then just basing everything off of things being super natural. Sociology was once called “social physics “by August Comte. Sociological imagination is when you take all your personal beliefs and opinions on things out of the equation and truly try to understand the situation for what it actually is and grasp that there are going to be certain scenarios that happen that are not always self-inflicting.

I agree with you points regarding both Sociology and Common Sense. It's true that common sense in itself is more of a "street smart" and common knowledge opposed to, Sociology which is the study of understanding people and the behaviors associated with interpreting the society around us and how it functions. You make a good point about how you view Sociology as more of a sociological perspective meaning that its interpreted based on one's viewpoint of it then it being a solid definition. Although I must say, it's true that Sociology does make someone step out of their comfort zone so to speak hence, making an individual 'more

The sociological imagination, as coined by C. Wright Mills, is defined by the Introduction to Sociology as “the application of imaginative thought to the asking and answering of sociological questions.” In simple terms, it can be described as the ability to grasp the relationship between our lives as individuals and larger social forces that help to shape us. An example of this is the difference between personal troubles and public issues. Imagine the issue of unemployment in a small town; personal troubles means that five out of the population of 10,000 people of this town are unemployed. This is a personal trouble because in this situation, only 0.05% of the population are unemployed. Unemployment in this town would be a public issue if ten

The Sociological Imagination was a term that was first coined by sociologist C. Wright Mills. It could be said that definition of The Sociological Imagination is having the ability to look beyond personal experience and realise that society is shaped by the cross over between biography and history. Mills thought that everyone in society had the capability to think sociologically and that this was essential to gain a deeper understanding of both their society, and their current circumstance. This approach contradicts a more readily adopted approach by the public that sociologists call “The common sense approach”. The common sense approach is a collection of knowledge that has been acquired through little scientific merit, such as: personal experience, gossip or anecdotal evidence. This essay will discuss and explain the difference between the Sociological Imagination and Common-Sense explanations through the use of examples to explain the topic of sexuality.