Week 1: Introducing Sociological Psychology and Research Methods

C&S: Shwalbe 3-6; BB: Becker #1

Shwalbe talks about how people should be sociologically mindful, meaning they should be ‘conscious of the patterns, conditions, processes, and relationships that constitute and characterize our social world’. He introduces the subject by touching on and explaining C. Wright Mills’ theory of the sociological imaginiation, which “enables its possessors to grasp the intersections of history, society, and personal biography.”

Shwalbe says that sociological mindfulness is rare. However, this is exactly why I want to study sociology. I want to know how the social world works. I want to know what causes people to interact in different ways, why people do what they do, and how I can improve a situation just by being aware. I love people’s stories and listening to their joys and their hardships, and using that to better understand why they might interpret things differently than how I would, and why their reactions to (and in) situations might differ from mine. I want to know what people’s tendencies are in general. I want to be aware of how what I say and do can elicit both negative and positive responses from others, and thus avoid offending people or hurting them. If I am mindful, as Shwalbe describes, I can better understand how I might accidentally offend someone with my words or actions when I don’t intend to.

I enjoy talking to people and spending time with lots of people. I have many friends, especially in a couple of large organizations I am involved in. Thus, I have a tendency to float around and talk to many people when I am doing activities with these organizations. However, I understand that we also have a lot of new people and visitors in both of these organizations and if I am not mindful of people’s feelings and situations, then it would be easy for me to seemingly act like I don’t care about the new people who don’t feel as intertwined in the group. They may see my mingling, floating, and talking to different people as leaving them because I don’t want to talk to them. I need to be mindful that because they don’t know everyone like I do, it would be more beneficial for me to stay and talk with them longer or take them with me when I go to talk to others so that they don’t feel like they have been ditched or left out.