Pressures of Autonomy and Conformity

Pressures of Autonomy and Conformity

NOW FOR AN ORIGINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT:Pressures of Autonomy and Conformity

Reflect As you consider your own life and as you create questions to ask the person you interview, consider the following questions:

How might a sociologist introduce you or the person you interview? How have social influences shaped you or the person you interview? What were the social forces that constructed your life or lifestyle? How have you negotiated the crisscrossing pressures of autonomy and conformity? Who are you in social context and what does it mean to understand your life using the “sociological imagination,” or utilizing a sociological perspective? What sociological concepts would be most helpful in understanding and interpreting your life experiences, whether class, or reference group, conformity, agents of socialization, gender socialization, racial socialization, norms, roles, significant others, total institutions (particularly if you were in the military), achieved status, ascribed status, deviance, subculture, culture, culture shock, ethnocentrism, folkways, mores, peer groups, and any others described in the textbook chapters, to interpret your life experiences? What events, moments or relationships in your life have impacted you significantly?

Interview Locate someone willing to be interviewed regarding sociological perspectives on a part or parts of that person’s life story. The person can be anyone you choose, whether in your family or outside your family. Be sure to inform that person that you will be writing up your observations from the interview in an assignment for your Society and Culture course.

Write In a paper, compare and contrast your sociological observations about yourself with your sociological observations of the person you interview. Address the following 3 important sections:

1. Explore the interconnections between your life story and the larger social structure or culture.

2. Explore the interconnections between the life story of a person you interview and the larger social structure or culture.

3. Compare and contrast the sociological themes and concepts related to your own personal story with the sociological themes and concepts related to the story of the person you interviewed. Apply the sociological imagination in the analysis.

Include the following in your analysis:

Quotes or paraphrases and citations from both outside scholarly sources and assigned readings (online Lessons or textbook readings), to support your observations in all 3 required sections. 6 different concepts, key words, or vocabulary words from Chapters 1-6 in your analysis and observations, formatted in boldface and underlined in the main text of your paper