Sociological Imagination, Stratification, and Capitalism Significance to Societal Changes

Reflection Paper
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Reflection Paper
Sociologists use social concepts to illustrate specific events in society. By definition, sociology is the study of social interaction and organization that attempts to explain and understand social action. Studying psychology and its concepts encourages individuals to perceive a social environment in other ways. In sociology, the society represents more complex social structures. Socialization is a primary feature of sociology because community members engage in frequent interaction to establish healthy relationships. It enables society members to acquire some knowledge that helps them embrace societal norms and processes. This reflection paper mirrors three sociological concepts: sociological imagination, social stratification, and capitalism. These concepts are significant because they promote societal changes.
Sociological Imagination
Sociological imagination, a concept coined by C. Wright Mills, helps in understanding the social world that exceeds any shared belief people might obtain from their limited social problems. Mills was a modern sociologist who enlightened the members of society with his social imagination concept. He argued that one could not understand personal life or societal history without understanding both. The sociological imagination connects personal challenges with wider social issues (McCoy, 2012). Mills determined individual challenges (biography) and larger social issues (history). His sociological imagination concept allows people to relate the events in their lives with their society.
Personal troubles are individual problems experienced by a person and their instant association with others. Mills noted that people operate in their own lives as actors and actresses who make decisions about their family, friends, school, work, and group (Trautner & Borland, 2014). People can influence the outcome of a situation at the individual level. For instance, a college student who parties frequently, skips classes, and never does assignments has a private problem with his chances of success in college. However, when half of the college students in the country fail to graduate, it becomes a broader social concern.
According to Trautner and Borland (2014), wider social problems tend to be outside of one’s control. This entails larger organizational issues and processes derived from society instead of the individual. Nationwide, when students join college, they seem not ready to understand the rigidity of college life. Their high school life may not have challenged them enough to make the appropriate adjustments needed to succeed in college. Countrywide, the average teenager spends a lot of time online, playing video games, texting messages, hanging out with friends, and working at least part-time (Pyyhtinen, 2016). How and when that student gets experiencing concentrating on college studies and the harsh self-discipline needed to transition fully into college life remains a mystery.
The actual sociological imagination power is based on how people learn to differentiate between individual and social levels in their own lives, inc...