Social Imagination

Question 1

An American sociologist who promoted the idea that social scientists should not merely be disinterested observers engaged in research and theory but assert their social responsibility.

Answer 1

C. Wright Mills (1916-1962)

Question 2

His theories focused on his observations of the American society during his time specifically the ‘ruling’ or ‘elite’ class

Answer 2

C. Wright Mills (1916-1962)

Question 3

Best known for his work– ‘The sociological imagination’ (1959)

Answer 3

C. Wright Mills (1916-1962)

Question 4

Published in the year 1959 by Oxford University Press. Considered to be Mills’ most influential work

Answer 4

C. Wright Mills’ Sociological Imagination

Question 5

The vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and the wider society.

Answer 5

sociological imagination

Question 6

It is the capacity to see how sociological situations play out due to how people differ in terms of their places in given social or historical circumstances.

Answer 6

sociological imagination

Question 7

TRUE OR FALSE

In viewing the society, a person must be able to pull away from the situation (seeing society from one perspective– self) and think from an alternative point of view (see how things interact and influence one another.)

Answer 7

TRUE

Question 8

There should be willingness to view the social world from the ________________.

Answer 8

perspective of others.

Question 9

The focus on viewing the society should rather be on the ________________ that produce social problems.

Answer 9

social circumstances

Question 10

In viewing the society, one must have an understanding of the relationship between our particular situation in life and ____________________.

Answer 10

what is happening at a social level

Question 11

Why focus on the wider scope of society and not just on the self?

Answer 11

• Social conditions affect our personal lives
• Mills believed that every problem faced by an individual has roots in society as a whole and is faced by many others.
  e. g. unemployment, broken families, inequality

Question 12

It refers to private problems of an individual from events in his/ her own life.

Answer 12

Personal Trouble

Question 13

e.g. getting fired from work, divorce, increasing utility bills

Answer 13

Personal Trouble

Question 14

These are problems that affect large groups of people and come from the structure (patterns of behavior and relationships) of society

Answer 14

Public Issues

Question 15

e.g. unemployment, increasing number of couples having divorce

Answer 15

Public Issues

Question 16

The problem lies within the structures of the society and we realize that we cannot provide ____________ to these issues but instead give _____________ to social problems.

Answer 16

personal solutions; social solutions

Question 17

TRUE OR FALSE

Sociology helps us gain a better understanding of ourselves and the social world that we belong to.

Answer 17

TRUE

Question 18

In sociology, the personal and the historical are detached by recasting personal problems as historical ones and historical problems as personal ones.

Answer 18

FALSE

Question 19

Sociology helps us analyze society deeper by asking these sociological questions:

Answer 19

• What is the structure of society?
• What is the place of society in history?
• What kind of people does society produce?

Question 20

TRUE OR FALSE

Doing Sociology is a radical undertaking wherein it requires from us a willingness to suspend our own preconceptions, assumptions, and beliefs about the way things are.

Answer 20

TRUE

Question 21

To have a ________________ means looking at the world sociologically, asking sociological questions and providing sociological answers.

Answer 21

‘sociological imagination’

Question 22

relates personal troubles and public issues, connecting biography and history in order to give a complete sense of the specific anxieties and crises in our society.

Answer 22

Sociological imagination

Question 23

relates personal troubles and public issues, connecting biography and history in order to give a complete sense of the specific anxieties and crises in our society

Answer 23

Sociological imagination

Question 24

is a quality of mind that will help them see what is going on in the world and what may be happening within themselves.

Answer 24

Sociological imagination

Question 25

helps understand society as an open system where all have connections with each other

Answer 25

Sociological imagination