Question A
I am 26 year old lady living in Orlando, Florida. I am full time students majoring in Nursing and I like spending my weekends with my children in the park or swimming in the beach. I like interacting a lot with people some of whom have very different backgrounds from mine. I always find their views on life as well as their opinion on various topical issues very interesting. My interaction with these people has helped me understand the reasons behind the diverse cultures that exist in the world.
Being a nurse involves dealing with people of various personalities and backgrounds and its takes a person with people skills to appropriately handle patients under one’s care. These are people with various physical problems and who need the utmost care to help them recover quickly from their illnesses. Apart from routine medication, research shows that psychological stability is essential for the quick recovery of patients. This involves effectively interacting with people within their environment meaning that their unique needs have to be taken care of.
Apart from being a requirement for my course, taking sociology fulfils my desire to understand people within my environment in order to respond effectively to their needs. The course counts a great deal to my accomplishing my career objective i.e. that of helping people overcome their problems. Sociology deals with human affairs and therefore will form a strong basis for my future career. It provides me with an insight on how society works hence offering me the opportunity to intervene from an informed position and thereby increasing the chances of my intervention being effective.
One of my other goals in life is also to do research especially on social issues as part of my contribution towards a better society. Studying sociology offers a strong foundation in future for doing research on social issues such as mental health, business, public planning, and education.
An individual’s behaviour is also influenced by various factors within his environment which have to be understood if a fair evaluation is to be made on them. Having a better understanding of what these forces are and how they work will give me a better position to intervene positively.
I also aspire to taking an administrative or managerial position in future which arguably needs interpersonal skills as well as knowledge of how a society works. A course in sociology will therefore increase my chances of being a better leader within an organization or within society. With the knowledge of sociology I will be better equipped to shape the destiny of my children as I will be better disposed to understand the forces that may negatively or positively influence them and thereby intervening appropriately.
I believe that bettering the quality of life should form the mission of each one of us and that involves some of the most apparent societal problems such as economic inequality, discrimination, crime, divorce, juvenile delinquency etc. Today’s work pressures have enhanced an unnatural relationship between individuals including between parents and their children, something that is responsible for the increasing deviant behaviour among the youth. I believe that society’s problems start with this very basic unit of the society and therefore that interventions should be focused here. Studying sociology will enable me become a more responsible parent and member of the society. It will give me the people skills needed of me as a nurse thus enable me deliver my duties effectively.
Question B
Sociology is the study of society focusing on issues such as inequalities, the development of identities among groups and or differences between various groups within the society as well as privilege systems. Psychology on the other hand is the study of the both human and animal behaviour which includes the study of the human mental states as well as their mind. The main goals of psychology are to construct knowledge about people and thereby apply this knowledge positively to help them. psychology also studies the experiences that have influence on a person’s behaviour i.e. what makes them who they are while sociology studies broader issues in the society i.e. it tries to understand why societies behave the way they do.
While sociology may be seen as a theory of society in its concern on various type of societies and how they work, social work takes a more specific and practical approach to society. It deals with specific problems that face the society e.g. family breakdowns, drug addiction, crime etc. sociology deals with broader subject matter such as theories on society such as Marxism and feminism as well as such aspects as religion, culture, race, gender etc that may not have specific application but contribute to the understanding of society.
Sociological perspective may be described as the way we view social phenomena. It is the ability to connect one’s own experiences with societal relationships. A subject such as suicide may thus be conceived as part of an attempt at social integration by an individual i.e. a self sacrifice on behalf of the society whose expectations the individual cannot meet.
Sociological perspective involves being objective in one’s assessment of a given phenomena. It may involve understanding the factors that influence a certain culture though it may not be part of one’s own. The culture in this case may be misunderstood by the larger constitution of the society.
