Obesity and the Sociological Imagination

Sociological Imagination is a type of mindset. When approaching a problem or situation, you need to assess the cause and effects. A Sociological Imagination requires you to look at the situation from a different perspective and determine the correlation between things in the big picture.

The social causes of obesity are racial demographics for obesity and the environment people grow up in. In most urban settings, there is a lack of healthy, unprocessed food in stores. Most of the stores are set up like gas station convenience stores where alcohol and sodas are their main profit.

Minority races have a higher chance of obesity and obesity-related diseases. The political causes of obesity are corrupt politics, government backing, and marketing that targets children. USDA representatives will serve, then leave for chocolate or unhealthy company, and then go back to working for the USDA. These representatives get government backing for the fast-food industries and promote their unhealthy products. Another political issue is that there are no restrictions against marketing targeting children.

The economic causes of obesity are low wages in urban areas and government funding for school cafeterias. Urban areas have higher poverty rates and people who are trying to just get by. Fast food is priced much cheaper so they can spend their money on more items. Government funding for school cafeterias is also an issue because they’re trying to stretch their budget too. The government will pay for the cheapest vendor and that usually means lower quality, more unhealthy options.

Get quality help now

writer-Charlotte

Verified

Proficient in: Sociological Imagination

4.7 (348)

“ Amazing as always, gave her a week to finish a big assignment and came through way ahead of time. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Cultural Relativism

The purpose of marrying children at such a young age was to pay off debts, make a family alliance, or help give money to your family. Dysfunctions that might arise as a result of this cultural practice are the men beating the girls, the girls receiving no education, the girls having to have many kids at an extremely young age, and the weddings are very hard to stop. Most people who disagreed with the practice still went along with it because they had no voice and they could receive harsh backlash for their disapproval.

Someone who believes and accepts this type of martial practice might view the martial practices we believe in as selfish, foolish, late, and more. They most definitely disagree with the choice women have in the marriage and how the partners are usually equal in the relationship. I feel like they would disagree with women marrying in their late twenties, not having kids until they were in their early thirties, and women having a say in how many children.

This cultural practice would be viewed as wrong by an ethnocentric person. They would see it as a girl having no choice and being restricted. Education is a very powerful pathway to success so the lack of education these girls receive would anger an ethnocentric person (assuming they were of western culture).

This cultural practice would be viewed as beneficial to the girl and family from a sociologist or educated person’s cultural relativism perspective. This is because it gives the girl more rea spect in her community and can prevent her from being raped and labeled as an outcast. Marriages join families and can help bring a family out of poverty. Due to the lack of education, there is no other job for a girl or woman to do besides raise a family.

Socialization

Genie is a young girl who was discovered when she was a young teenager. She was abused and locked in a case in complete isolation. She could not speak and had few memories. Her case is important to understanding social and cognitive development because she proved part of the hypothesis of cognitive development wrong. The hypothesis stated that you could only learn certain parts of a language at specific stages in your life before it is too late. This case tells us that social deprivation and abuse severely harm the mind and the knowledge capacity of the child.

Gains Genie made when working with various researchers were extending her vocabulary and being introduced to the world. She was eager to learn and at first exceeded their expectations. They would introduce her to new technology and parks to see how she would react. Setbacks Genie experienced were the inability to learn grammar, terrible memories, and not fully being able to overcome her issues. Even though she had a large vocabulary, she could not form proper sentences and grasp aspects of grammar. Her dark memories constantly reminded her of her past and she was unable to ever live on her own. She had to move into group homes and was passed from person to person.

Socialization is the interaction with the people, objects, and experiences within our world. Feral children teach us that socialization is a crucial aspect of being completely successful in life. Genie’s brain was underdeveloped, smaller, and had non-repairable parts that inhibited her learning process.

Based on any of the topics above, find one article through SIRS Researcher or a graph/other info on Statista and summarize and analyze in no more than two paragraphs. Please include either APA or MLA citations of the source material.

“Peer Pressure and ‘Transgender’ Teens”

Social media platforms and modern times promote the idea of completely embracing yourself for who you are. A person with a cultural relativism mindset would view the transgender “movement” as a way of promoting positivity and self-love. They would see that a percentage of the population is now being accepted into society. A cultural relativist would also see the large friend and medical groups forming where they can offer help during this process. Negative aspects they would notice and take into account are bullying of people in transition or who have already transitioned; not everyone has accepted this idea yet. If a person believes they are transitional and comes out, but then returns to their original gender, there is also a fear of being called out. Overall, a cultural relativism perspective would take into account many perspectives to weigh the positives and negatives of the situation (Melchior).

An ethnocentric person, from a conservative background, might view the process of becoming or being transgender as immoral or wrong. Many people argue that more students are classifying themselves as transgender due to pressure from their friend groups or for popularity. Uniqueness is now a quality that people are praised for and some young adults will do anything for this sense of approval. This perspective would also view this idea as fake and non-realistic; many argue that there are only two genders. Another standpoint from this point of view is how rapidly this movement seems to be taking place. The article stated that very few changes in a teen that lead to “gender dysphoria” have been documented (Melchior). This leads to debates over the cause of such a rapid change in mindset. In short, a person with a conservative background would have the ethnocentric perspective of transgenders as a popular, social movement without literal cause or feelings (Melchior).

Reference:

1. Melchior, Jillian K. ‘Peer Pressure and ‘Transgender’ Teens.’ Wall Street Journal, 10 Sep. 2018, pp. A.17. SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks-sirs-com.proxy071.nclive.org.