Essay about Sociology

1. Identify and explain the four (4) ways in which marginal jobs deviate from the norms expected of work. Then explain which members of the labor force have the highest likelihood of working in marginal job and why.

However evidence suggests that social responsibility can be diffused. This reduces helping behaviour within groups. Latane and Darley (1970) coined the terms pluralistic ignorance (not helping because it appears that no one else is concerned) and diffusion of responsibility (the tendency to believe that someone else must be dealing with the situation). This lack of helping behaviour in group situations shows that prosocial behaviour cannot be explained by social responsibility alone and so do individuals who help despite the above effects show more selflessly altruistic tendencies?

Sociology is an empirical science that studies human behavior, relationships and institutions. I choose culture and society as sociological concepts that I learned this semester. Some sociologist study social facts, which are the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the culture rules that govern social life, those may contribute to these changes in the family.

A family is “a set of people related by blood, marriage or some other agreed-upon relationship, or adoption, who share the primary responsibility for reproduction and caring for members of society.” (Schaefer, 2009) A family is considered a social institution. This social institution is one that can be applied to all three sociological theories which are functionalism, conflict, and interactionism.

My conversation with Yen Mai provided further evidence for influence of Christianity on Midwestern culture and how Chinese culture lacks this influence. In China, the religions of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism are most common and are philosophical in nature. From these religions, it can be argued that Chinese culture adopted the values to honor family and treat elders with respect and obedience above everything. As a result, Chinese students treat their family and the elderly with more respect than America students. This also reminded Yen Mai of an important cultural difference she experienced, America’s “Good Samaritan Law,” which was fascinating. Because my culture is influenced by the Christian value of helping others, I take the “Good Samaritan Law” for granted. It can be argued “The Good Samaritan Law” stems from the biblical story in Luke [10:25-37] where an unclean Samaritan shows a stranger compassion by caring for him after he has been robbed and beaten. This law protects Americans from any legal action if harm is caused to a person in need when assistance is being provided. Yen Mai had witnessed strangers assisting a women who had fallen on a sidewalk in Red Wing. This confused her. In China, the strangers would be arrested because only the person responsible for causing the harm would aid a stranger. The influence of her culture prompted her to wonder, “Why else would you help the person?” This example demonstrates how an understanding of cultural influence

Sociology is the scientific study of how humans and groups behave socially and how they, as a whole, change over time. Through the examination of the scientific side of sociology, the understanding of the social world can be shown more clearly. Within the study of sociology, there are two main branches: micro and macro. Micro sociology is looking at the individual and social interaction. Macro sociology focuses beyond social interaction and seeks to examine systems as a whole (Larkin, 2015).

Additionally, being exposed to someone else’s pro-social behaviour influences our own as well. Seeing someone else do something good for someone has been shown to increase pro-social behaviour in others. That person is perceived as a role-model for pro-social behaviour in the eyes of others. This, however, does not mean that pro-social behaviour will be influenced in all people, as each individual behaves differently. One individual may look at a pro-social act and think it is good that someone intervened and move on; another may look at it and learn from it in hopes of implementing it into their lives in the future.

Over 70 years ago, Hartshorne and May (1928) concluded that pro-social actions are largely situationally determined rather than the result of enduring personal characteristic. This led to the conventional wisdom that dispositional variable are weak and unrealiable predictors of helping and altruism, further, when interest in helping was rekinded in the late 1960s and early1970s (Dovidio, 1984), the research findings were consistent

The first step in sociological research is to create a hypothesis, and then to operationalize an idea by transforming the subject into something that can be measured. This research can be then carried out in two ways: either quantitative or qualitative. In both of these fields, there are multiple methods of how to go about research. Sociological research is important in understanding public attitudes and helping to enact new policies. It is a way to understand society, and make more informed decisions about the ideas people discuss. For example, every day a vast amount of people choose to take their life away for multiple reasons. One aspect of social life that I would like to go more in detail in, is why people attempt to or actually commit suicide. By understanding the leading causes for suicide, society can help prevent or at least understand what someone else is going through without places a negative stigma on their situation.

According to google, the term real means to “actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact; not imagined or supposed.”  the word real has many synonyms. For example; Actual, evident, absolute, legitimate, and true are synonyms to the word real. According to the dictionary imaginary means “existing only in the imagination.” Words that are similar to the word imaginary is false, untruth, fictional, and abstract.

Isn’t it amazing that so much happens around us that people don’t notice the little details? For example you might be speaking to someone and while you’re speaking you might not notice certain facial expressions they are making. Some people might act differently because they want you to notice something but you don’t notice the little things. There are many different concepts that happen throughout every interaction, some people do not even notice them. Throughout my daily life in October, I observed two interactions that were examples of either deviance or front region and back region.

According to Gross (2010) the term prosocial behaviour is used to describe behaviours carried out by individuals intended to benefit others, such as helping, cooperating, comforting, reassuring, defending, sharing, donating to charity and showing concern. Whether one displays prosocial behaviour can, to a certain degree, be dependent on several situational factors as explained in social psychology. These factors typically include the individual’s analysis of the

Altruism is the belief in or practice of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others. Otherwise known as “the bystander effect”, it is unfortunately exposed more via social networks and online websites in the present time. For instance, there is surveillance camera footage online which shows a small two year old girl getting run over by a van in China. Almost ten minutes go by as 18 people walk or drive past without any intentions of helping; some pedestrians looked and kept walking, others even created a path to avoid the motionless toddler. Eventually an older woman comes to the child’s aid but a few hours later he did not make it. With this short surveillance footage in mind, the final paper will focus on the past, present and future of the Bystander effect. The bystander effect has been found across a variety of experimental conditions, such as simulated asthma attacks (Harris & Robinson, 1973) and car breakdowns (Hurley & Allen, 1974). Similar to the bystander effect case mentioned above, others will be introduced briefly to gain another perspective. I will share my research theories and studies that I conducted and will continue to study.

Our role in society plays a big part of who we are. More importantly how generous we are toward others in need. People of lower class have a tendency to be more dependent on other whereas people of upper class are more independent. Lower class people act more prosocial fashion due to an increased orientation of others needs. Some say that lower class people help others as a way of adapting to their hostile environments by being greater at prosocial behavior than upper class people. This research study aims to find out if lower class people act

Throughout all cultures of the world, one common characteristic can be found- kindness, and the willingness to help others in all situations. People all around are motivated to do good for different reasons. In the early 1600s-1750s, the Puritan settlers in America believed in a strong work ethic, and that doing good would benefit a person in the eyes of heaven. The Humanists, a later group, believed in the philosophy that people do good to help society. Although people do good purely to help society, most are motivated by the reward of the deed. The fear of not acting on good deeds is also a equal motivator, similar to the Puritans. In our modern society, the social reward, promotion of one’s self-image, and to get “brownie points” for their religion are all motivation factors for people to do good.