the sociological imagination 6
The Sociological Imagination
(2-3 double-spaced pages)
Obesity is one of the fastest-growing health problems in the United States, and it is especially acute among children. A recent Gallup poll showed that a majority of Americans think of obesity as an outcome of individual choice/behavior. For this paper, you need to apply the Sociological Imagination to the issue of the high rate of obesity in American society.
Your paper should accomplish the following two goals, though goal 2 will likely take up more space in the paper.
- Describe how the interplay between individual experiences and structural processes at the heart of the sociological imagination helps you to see this health issue more clearly and more thoroughly than the general American population.
- Discuss how sociological theory and methodology contribute to an empirical analysis of obesity. Write out three sociological hypotheses about obesity (in the form described in class). Each hypothesis should be written from the perspective of one of the major theoretical perspectives (e.g., one hypothesis that a conflict theorist might develop, one hypothesis that a structural functional theorist might develop, and one hypothesis that a symbolic interaction theorist might develop). Keep in mind, obesity can serve as either the independent or dependent variable in your hypotheses.