Week 1

Welcome to Introduction to Sociology! In this first week of the course, you will complete Interactive Units 1, and then return here to complete a Discussion designed to encourage you to start developing your sociological imagination.

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Learning Resources

Required Readings

Interactive Units

Laureate Education. (2018). SOCI 1001S: Introduction to Sociology [Lecture Notes]. Retrieved from Laureate Education, Inc.:
https://class.waldenu.edu

• Interactive Unit 1: Foundations of Sociology

Articles

Crossman, A. (2018). The sociological imagination: An overview of the book by C. Wright Mills. Retrieved from
https://www.thoughtco.com/sociological-imagination…

This article provides many underlying themes of Mills’ (1959) argument on the need to utilize a sociological imagination for understanding the interplay between the individual and the wider society, and for identifying alternative points of view.

Pham, T. B. (2011). Penning the sociological imagination: Writing about my struggles with writing. Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, 9(2), 1–10. Retrieved from
http://scholarworks.umb.edu/humanarchitecture/vol9…

In this article, the author applies the sociological imagination to his anxiety with writing papers.

Quinn, C. (2009). Working to thrive, not just survive: My work history in a sociological imagination. Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, 7(3), 181–190. Retrieved from http://scholarworks.umb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1319&context=humanarchitecture



In this article, the author uses his sociological imagination to discuss issues of gender, race, and socioeconomic status in the context of the sociological imagination.

Discussion: The Sociological Imagination

The social imagination is defined as the vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and the wider society; the ability to see things socially and how they interact and influence each other. To have a sociological imagination, a person must be able to pull away from the situation and think from an alternative point of view (Crossman, 2018, para. 8).

Important Note: This Discussion
must be completed by Day 5 of the first week of the course, or you risk being dropped from the course. This includes both your initial post and response post.

With practice, you can use your sociological imagination to better understand the circumstances of an unemployed person, a person of a different gender, a person from another country, or the CEO of a major corporation. Throughout this course you will use your sociological imagination to view situations from a variety of perspectives.

To prepare for this Discussion:

• Read the three articles referenced above.

With these thoughts in mind:

By Day 3

Post a 1- to 2-paragraph response to the following prompts:

• Describe a value or behavior that you think studying sociology might help you understand. You can choose a behavior you do not like (e.g., a teenager constantly looking at his or her cellphone) or a value you treasure (e.g., integrity in the workplace).
• Explain why you chose the value or behavior.
• How might you use your sociological imagination to better understand the value or behavior you chose?
• Refer to 2 specific examples from the readings provided or other sources you find. Be sure to include information about each source, including title, author, year, and page number. If you refer to concepts from your Interactive Units, note the unit and element (lecture notes, video, etc.) to which you refer.