The Sociological Imagination
The differences the writer would have discerned among the visitors to the Mall would be in terms of their dresses, personal appearances, and conduct. It could also be seen in terms of the fact whether the visitors are seriously intended on the purchase or just to look around the place and spend time. People of different age groups, occupations, income groups, and social statuses have dissimilar reasons for visiting malls. Wealthy people come to buy luxury items, cosmetics, and expensive clothes; poorer people just come to do some window shopping or buy need-based articles, children come to play, have food and drinks. There are some groups of people who just come to loiter around, watch what other visitors are up to, and generally do nothing except observing the going-on in the Mall. Their age groups, nationalities, social outlooks, and purchasing capacities are significant aspects that determine how they dress and what they buy.
According to C.W. Miles, because: “neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both”, we need to develop a way of understanding the interaction between individual lives and society. (Encyclopedia: Sociological imagination, 2003).
Functional Analysis
The manifest intentions of the Super Bowl are to determine the world football champions. The latent aims would be in terms of generating revenues, sponsorships, and gate money.
The manifest intention of attending church is to reinforce faith in God and pray. It is also to gain inner strength to counter the challenges of daily living. It is also a kind of solidarity shown to the community members and the church organization. The latent aims of visiting churches are to seek communion with God and seek solace in spiritual thoughts.
The manifest intentions of attending sociological classes are to prepare oneself for a career in this profession through acquiring knowledge and experience in this field. The latent objectives could be to understand the social aspects of human behavior and conduct and to pre-determine, with reasonable accuracy, how individuals/groups would behave under selected social settings.
However, it is often seen, as suggested by Robert K. Merton, that a “middle-range theory.” needs to be applied in sociological situations. (Merton, 2003).
Sociological Perspectives
The fundamental paradigms of sociological perspectives vest on the following patterned behavior which most of us enjoin:
- Perceiving the obvious in the specifics: We tend to form generalized, patterned behavior processes in terms of dress code, food preference, and professed code of conduct; this could also be in terms of matching people with stereotyped characteristics, behavior, etc,
- Seeing the bizarre in the familiar: Often people are quick to castigate uncoded behavior patterns or sometimes focus on “how society guides our thoughts/actions often without our awareness.” (Seeing the strange in the familiar, n.d). It is often seen that individual patterns are seen in a social context. Persons are accountable for individual responsibilities undertaken by them, without giving less credence to the fact that societal influences often interfere in individual or group action and performance.
References
Encyclopedia: Sociological imagination. (2003). Nation Master. 2009. Web.
Merton, Robert. (2003). A justice site: Sociologist. California State University. 2009. Web.
Seeing the strange in the familiar. (n.d.). 2009. Web.