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The Sociological Imagination

The Sociological Imagination. Personal Troubles vs. Public Issues. Personal Troubles. Occur within the character of the individual...and within the range of his/her immediate relations with others. These have to do with one’s “self” Personal troubles are “private matters”

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The Sociological Imagination

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  1. The Sociological Imagination Personal Troubles vs. Public Issues

  2. Personal Troubles • Occur within the character of the individual...and within the range of his/her immediate relations with others. • These have to do with one’s “self” • Personal troubles are “private matters” • “Solutions” appear to stem directly from individual decisions.

  3. Public Issues • Have to do with matters that transcend the individual…especially his/her inner life. • They have to do with larger social systems and historical process. • Issues are public matters that in some way affect everyone in a given collectivity. • “Solutions” transcend individuals.

  4. EXAMPLE ONE Eating Disorders • History of Eating Disorders • Cause of Eating Disorders • When viewed as “personal trouble” • Cause of Eating Disorders • When viewed as “public issue”

  5. EXAMPLE TWO Women and Happiness • By almost every social and economic indicator, the last 35 years have been positive for women • Controlling reproduction, obtaining more education, working in male professions, gender-wage gap has declined, they live longer, men are doing more housework • Are women “less happy” or “more happy” today than they were 35 years ago?

  6. EXAMPLE TWO Women and Happiness • They are “less happy” • This is true for working women, stay-at-home women/moms, married and single women, highly and less educated, moms and childless women, young and old • EXCEPT: black women are happier today • How can sociology help women?

  7. EXAMPLE TWO Why might women be “less happy”? • Their anticipated happiness 35 years ago was overinflated • Women’s lives are more like men’s lives – and men are less happy than women • There was pressure in the past for women to pretend they were happy – even when they weren’t • So they erroneously reported being happy

  8. EXAMPLE THREE • You have a group of friends and you’re a non believing liberal Democrat • Some are happy and other are not so happy • Some are extremely religious and others are atheists or agnostics • Some are conservatives and others liberals • You are not so happy and you want to be like some of them but not like others • You try to mimic their personalities by asking them what their secret is…until…

  9. EXAMPLE FOUR SEXUAL ACTIVITY AND COLLEGE • When we ask (young) college students about the sexual activity of their peers: • They think they don’t have enough sex • They think others have lots of sex • Naturally they feel: • Happy about this? • Unhappy about this? • Neither if they attend a Christian college…

  10. EXAMPLE FOUR SEXUAL ACTIVITY AND COLLEGE • From a 2005 study: • 80 percent of students had 0 or 1 sexual partner in preceding year • 59 percent had no sexual activity in previous 30 days • But only 22 percent of those students believed that fellow students had one or no sexual partner • Most believed that “most other” students had 3 or more sexual partners

  11. EXAMPLE FOUR SEXUAL ACTIVITY AND COLLEGE • When students learn this information and interpret it through the lens of sociology… • It makes it a lot easier to take cold showers or stay home and have sex with themselves.

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