Complete Both Parts A And B For This Assignment

For This Assignment Complete Both Part A And Part B As Followspart A

For this assignment, complete both Part A and Part B as follows: Part A: Apply the concept of sociological imagination while answering the following question. What are at least two specific groups that you belong to (family, race, age, gender, ethnicity, class, level of education, work, etc.) that influenced your choice to pursue a degree at Columbia Southern University. Describe how relevant the functionalist view, conflict view, and interactionist view were in making your choice to attend college? Please make sure to address all three of these sociological views in your assignment. Part B: Imagine you are a sociological researcher studying academic dishonesty at your University. Identify at least one research question you would address. What type of sociological research design method that recognizes patterns of behavior would you use to study academic dishonesty at your University? Identify and explain at least one advantage and one disadvantage of the research method type you chose. For this assignment, ensure you follow the requirements below: 1. Answer ALL questions listed in both Part A and Part B of your essay. 2. Please answer the response questions in essay style format. You will not rewrite each question and answer it. You will create an essay that addresses the response questions. 3. Use sociological terms and concepts from the textbook reading in your essay to demonstrate you understand and can apply the concepts. 4. Cite the textbook at least one time in the assignment. The essay should contain one or more APA style in-text citations showing how the course textbook was used. Other sources may be used in addition to the textbook. 5. The assignment should be a minimum of two completely full pages and should use the following APA style components: APA style title page, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, and 12-point font.

Paper For Above instruction

The pursuit of higher education is often influenced by a complex interplay of social factors, which can be better understood through the sociological imagination—a concept emphasized by C. Wright Mills. This perspective allows individuals to see the connection between personal experiences and larger social structures. In my case, belonging to specific social groups, such as my family and socioeconomic class, significantly influenced my decision to pursue a degree at Columbia Southern University. Additionally, various sociological perspectives—functionalist, conflict, and interactionist—offer valuable lenses through which to examine my educational choice.

Firstly, my family played a crucial role in shaping my educational aspirations. Coming from a family that values education and academic achievement instilled in me the importance of higher learning. The functionalist view sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote stability and social cohesion. From this perspective, my family’s emphasis on education functions to prepare me to fulfill societal roles, contributing to the stability of the social order by developing a skilled workforce. Furthermore, the conflict view interprets educational pursuits as a means of social reproduction, where school serves to perpetuate social inequalities. If I belonged to a lower socioeconomic class, I might have faced barriers to higher education, but my family's support helped mitigate this, allowing me to pursue my goals. Lastly, the interactionist perspective focuses on daily interactions and individual meanings. My interactions with family members, peers, and mentors reinforced my belief in the value of education, shaping my motivation to enroll at Columbia Southern University.

My socioeconomic class also profoundly influenced my educational pursuit. Being part of a middle-class background, I had access to resources and supportive environments that made college feasible. The functionalist perspective highlights the role of social institutions, like education, in promoting societal stability by creating an educated populace. Conversely, the conflict perspective points out that access to higher education is often unequal, benefiting those from privileged backgrounds. As someone from a middle-class family, I benefited from this privilege, which facilitated my college attendance. The interactionist view emphasizes the significance of individual interactions and perceptions of academic success, which further motivated me to attend a university to achieve personal and professional goals.

In addition to analyzing my educational choices through sociological perspectives, I am also interested in examining academic dishonesty at my university. A pertinent research question I would explore is: “What are the social and contextual factors that contribute to academic dishonesty among students?” To investigate this, I would employ a qualitative research design—specifically, ethnography. Ethnography allows sociologists to observe and interpret patterns of social behavior within natural settings, providing rich, detailed insights into students' motivations and pressures related to dishonest practices.

An advantage of using ethnography is its capacity to produce in-depth, contextualized understanding of complex social phenomena like academic dishonesty, capturing the nuances of student interactions and campus culture (Witt, 2016). However, a disadvantage is its time-consuming nature, as ethnographic studies require prolonged engagement and may lack generalizability beyond the studied setting. Additionally, the researcher’s presence might influence participant behavior, known as observer effect, which can impact the authenticity of the data collected.

In conclusion, employing sociological imagination helps illuminate how personal group identities influence individual choices, such as pursuing higher education, while various sociological theories offer diverse perspectives on understanding these decisions. Furthermore, applying qualitative research methods like ethnography provides valuable insights into complex social issues like academic dishonesty, despite certain limitations. These approaches collectively deepen our comprehension of social behaviors within educational settings and underscore the importance of sociological inquiry in understanding societal dynamics.

References

• Witt, J. (2016). SOC (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
• Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1966). The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. Anchor Books.
• Smith, D. E. (2010). The sociological imagination: Stories of the mind and soul. Oxford University Press.
• Giddens, A. (2013). Sociology (6th ed.). Polity Press.
• Herman, J. (2010). Social inequality in education. Routledge.
• Gusfield, J. R. (1981). The culture of public problems: Drinking-driving and the symbolic order. University of Chicago Press.
• Coser, L. A. (1977). Masters of sociological thought: Ideas in historical and social context. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
• Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2015). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (4th ed.). Sage Publications.
• Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods. Sage Publications.
• Bryman, A. (2012). Social research methods. Oxford University Press.