Reference no: EM132304094

How does sociological imagination help examine private acts such as suicide within a larger societal context?

Sociological imagination helps us examine private acts such as suicide, homelessness, obesity, and much more, by forcing us to think on a much grander scheme. If forces us to see past our first encounter of the situation or event. It helps us realize that there is an explanation beyond just what we may think we know. It helps remind us that there are several, bigger influencers out there, beyond just ourselves or those individuals, such as the world around us. As mentioned in an article, "blame has power" and sociological imagination helps us think wiser before putting the blame on someone or something and allows "various perspective" to be closer examined (Bousalis 2017).

What are some examples of social forces influencing youth suicide trends in the United States, suicides in India, and suicide trends in the U.S. military?

As we all know, social media is a huge part of everyday life for many people. The includes youth, middle age people, and the older generations. Unfortunately, with it being easily accessible, it has also made it easy for our youth to be targeted and bullied. It allows for these bullies to go untraced because there is no physical evidence of the bulling occurring. Not only does it allow for bullying, it allows for the kids to get unrealistic expectations of themselves. The expectations can range from appearances, material things, and body imagine.

The idea that society or social media portrays, most of the time is not realistic and make kids or even adults feel like they don't belong.
When it comes to influences on suicide trends in India, it is the change in the economy and the increase in levels of education. As mentioned in our reading, you would assume that would be an incredible change, which in part it is, but it is also causing other issues. As a result of the economic changes, higher expectations for those individuals increased, job anxiety increased, and individual achievement and pressure increased (Kendall 2018).

Social forces directly impact our military because they are constantly being put in situations where they are not an individual, but a key part of a group or special task bigger than themselves. When they are no longer needed in those situations, they lose a sense of themselves and are unsure where they belong. It is in our nature to belong somewhere and without a sense of being, it can create despair and extreme loneliness.

Use the sociological imagination to explain your observations, and how the sociological imagination helps us consider the causes and possible solutions to suicide.

When taking a step back and looking at the world around me, there are many things that I can see that can influence the thought and actions of suicide. I feel like it can stem from our upbringing, the people around us, individual experiences all the way to the way society makes us feel we should live our lives. Sociological imagination helps us take a step back and realize there are many explanations on why someone may turn to suicide. Sociological imagination has already led to possible solutions to suicide. Some of these solutions are educating people on possible causes leading to it, helplines, shows, counseling and so forth. Hopefully we can continue to use it to create new and innovative techniques to reach out to the people who are struggling with the thoughts and contemplations of suicide.

Reference:

Bousalis, R. (2017). Establishing Sociological Imagination before Blame in Historical Events. Sociology in our times: The essentials (11th ed). Boston: Cengage Learning.