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Essay on Sociology and Social Power

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Part 2: Introducing Sociology People today blame themselves more and more for every bad thing or "troubles" they have on personal fault rather then looking towards the social issue (Mills 1959, pg.1). In the article The Promise C. Wright Mills' say that "the individual can understand his own experience and gauge his own fate only by locating himself within his period, that he can know his own chances in life only by becoming aware of those of all individuals in his circumstances" (Mills 1959, pg.2). This means that people can understand themselves better if they look past themselves and start looking at in conditions as a whole, not just blaming yourself but seeing that there is a problem in the society and you cannot necessarily …show more content…

I have had the experience of rolelessness when I was about 15 and working for my father. He would always be telling me what to do and how to do it and always having someone older help me, even though it wasn't a challenging task for me and would only assign independent tasks if I was as complex as picking up trash. This underestimation of me made me feel as if I was useless and just a burden on him. Coontz then looks past the troubles of one couples marriage fights and into the social relationships that have been created in our society (Coontz 1997, pg.13). Social relationships have to do with situated social power. Situated social power by Coontz definition is, "various groups in society have unequal access to economic resources, political power, and social status, and these social differences limit how fair or equal a personal relationship between two individuals from different groups can really be" (Coontz 1997 pg13). I have personally experienced situated social power with my dad. He has said to me that I can do whatever I want to do, but that really isn't the case, there is actually only one correct decision and he is feeling like he has put the decision into my hands but I know if I do the decision that he doesn't want me to do there will be consequences. Then in the end, he just being my dad had made me make my decision with only one real choice. This also shows that

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