Essay Example on Society and Personality: How Experiences Shape Our Interactions

I agree with the fundamental theme of sociology that each day social life is an outcome of the link between personality traits and forces of the society. Society and an individual are connected, and one cannot be understood without linking it to the other. Around the world, every person is attempting to make sense of their world. Sociologist's primary interest is the interaction with social groups and the entire society.Also, how experiences people have shaped their interaction with social groups and the entire society. Decisions made by individuals do not occur from anywhere but are influenced by social forces and cultural patterns. This paper will be a discussion on the fundamental theme of sociology which posits that an individual's everyday social life is the product of the relationship between personal characteristics and forces from the society. There is a need for having an understanding of the social, cultural, organizational and historical environment to understand the way people behave.

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Sociologists cannot deny that a person have the freedom to make decisions and behave in a certain way as well as they are responsible for the consequences related to the choices they have made. Before understanding the behavior and decisions made by people, there is a need for examining the influence of people, societal features and events in the immediate environment (Newman 120). Sociologists study what goes on among people as groups, societies and individuals. Secondly, how social forces impact the interaction between people and their surroundings. Also, sociology examines how daily interaction creates society.

To understand the relationship between people and society, there is the need for understanding the personal characteristic and social forces surround a person. According to sociologists, the sociological imagination is a concept which posits that it is the ability to see the impact of social forces in our lives or rather an awareness that our lives are at the connection of history of the society and personal biography. Sociological imagination helps in enabling people to understand the historical picture and meaning of experiences.

Our personal lives experiences have an effect and are affected by the society that we live in. It is not easy to understand the relationship between social forces and individuals. Majority of the people usually take for granted what they decide to think, say and feel is an isolated occurrence. Life daily seems to be a series of personal choices which are free. Specific opportunities are closed to the individual because of their race, gender or age( Newman 180). For instance, registered nurse and preschool teacher's majority of them are female, while the engineer and bank executive are males. Additionally, doctrines of religions usually limit a person's choice of behavior. For example, for a sincere catholic family planning is prohibited while for a traditional Jew, he or she cannot eat meat and take milk at the same meal, whether dinner or lunch.

Government and politics have an impact on citizens of that country. A decision which have political link made at the regional, international or local level may lead to the closure of the government agency which people depends on making services and goods which you have planted familiar either less available or become more expensive.

Medical insurance workplace family leave policies may affect an individual's decision when to have a baby. Through shoeing how social processes impact us and how a person's action can affect those processes, sociology gives a different insight into the taken for granted large scale cultural and personal events as well as global processes which make up an individual's daily existence.

Issues at a personal level such as prejudice, sexuality, love, ageing and poverty are understood better with the proper context of the society. For example, in the United States of America, adults believe that their sole purpose of marriage is love; the society urges people to marry people of their same race, social class and religion. Sociology as a discipline makes people have a broader perspective of an individual's autonomy and personality to understand the factors that shape a person. Sociologist Wright Mills (1959) terms sociological imagination as the ability to see the effect of societal forces and personal characteristics on a person's private life.

Mills claims that our thoughts and experiences are products of society-wide forces. Sociology, as a disciple has the role of helping people to have a view of life as the interconnection between societal history and personal biography. Hence it provides a mean of interpreting social circumstances and experiences. The sociological imagination is a platform which gives room for recognizing that the solutions to the majority of social problems which are a dangerous lie not in transforming the characteristics of a person and personal situation but transforming the roles available to people and social institutions ( Mills,1959).

It is vital to have an understanding of an individual's global context, cultural and historical context. These contexts will help a person understand by different people social life which entails their interactions, decisions, feelings and actions are the way they make them. We cannot understand society without understanding the people living in it and the vice versa. People are not destitute hostages of forces of the community. People and societal forces influence each other. A person's life is a product of historical, structural (macro-level) and societal practices. People are responsible for creating, reaffirming, transforming and maintaining society.

Sociological imagination encourages people to see that each being has the responsibility in the formation and promoting its history. Society is perceived as a creation made by people which consist of people who have interaction with each other. Contact with people is vital in the social development of another person. Connection with other people helps in personal development. The presence of other people's appearance is essential for the expression of certain body functions and feelings (Newman, 200). Additionally, generosity and personal contentment are also associated with social interaction with others, for instance, if a person knows someone happy whether he or she is a colleague, friend or relative it significantly leads to an increase in your chances of being happy.

Other people's influence on us is beyond performances, emotions and behaviours. A person's physical being is affected by the people surrounding him or her. A certain research posits that the risk of getting heart attack among women who live with their husbands and parents of their husband is three times higher than those who live with their husbands only. Those surrounding a person influences the way people eat. For example, when people are eating together, their pace is adjusted and tend to eat for longer.

Living with people in a social structure influences various elements of our lives. The relationship between society and an individual is reciprocal.A person cannot have an understanding of an individual without understanding the society and vice versa. People can create or destroy organizations, change the norms and revolutionizing institutions present in society. People have a significant responsibility in coordination, reproduction and giving meaning to the community in daily connections. Among the key elements that shape the structure of society is culture. It entails beliefs, rules that guide people and the objects in people's lives.

People are products of the historical era and culture in which they dwell. Additionally, learning is made up of all products of the community which ate shared and created over time by members of a given culture. From a tender age, a child in a specific community learn the foods, tools, mode of dressing, mode of transportation, which actions are proper and those who are improper in private and public setting. Through these guidelines to follow in a society a person is shaped by society and cannot go against the society set rules and regulations. Hence what decision action ad thoughts that a person makes are linked to the requirements of the society.

In rare cases, we see the link between historical context and our personal lives. History is considered as the past activities in the society in which we live. The values, norms, rules and regulation which govern each day life in a given community changes with time. Some cultural activities which were taboos in the past have presently become acceptable( Newman320). For example, househusband, abortion and premarital sex was highly punishable and prohibited in the past, but currently, in some states, it is acceptable. In the United States, for instance, in the past cigarette smoking was legal in any place, to be it in hospital, movie theatre or supermarkets anytime the smoker is in the urge to smoke. Currently, there is an increased health awareness smoking in public places have been prohibited and is considered as a criminal offence and can be taken to court of law.

Historical, social, organizational and cultural environments give people a common bond that is a sense of experiences which are shared. Living together with each other depends on the matter that we have a tremendous amount of historical, social and cultural knowledge. With that understanding, people can foretell with conviction what the majority of the people will do in a particular scenario. Individual's actions are a reflection of shared cultural expectations and not functions of psychological predispositions and personality type. The cultural environment provides a guiding principle on information about which activities are disapproved, approved, preferred and acceptable at a certain period or epoch.

Most important beliefs have been shaped by the culture that people dwell such as the universal facts of life. The historical and cultural foundations of our lives aids in seeing our relationship between society, social order and individual( Newman,470). To a person, culture seems relentless and considerable but cannot be in existence without people. Rules, norms and regulations give the direction of people's lives whether they abide by the laws or break them. If there is more culturally and ethnically diverse in a society, the likelihood of normative conflicts between cohorts will be higher.

Sociologists argue that people are more than a combination of biological traits and genetic dispositions. Society magnifies physical differences and genetic. The structural-functionalist approach reminds people that important task of any community is a reproduction of itself in creating members whose desires, goals and behaviours are in line with those the society deems desirable and appropriate. Through the process of socialization, the needs of the community become the individual's needs.

The results of the socialization process are developing a sense of self that is different attitudes, traits and behaviour's, which makes a person different from the other person. Being a productive member of the society is a complex process which involves the connection between different environments which are organizational, social, cultural and historical to mention a few.

The interactions that people have with others are the grounds against which the majority of the people judge the well-being of their lives. The environment plays a vital role in impacting how different people behave and respond to situations the way they do. These social, historical, cultural and organizational environments can discourage or facilitate interactions among individuals. Human behaviours are affected by the cultural context, which includes the genes that have been inherited and the experience that...