Sociology Final Questions, Essay Example

• The family is two or more people that are considered to be related by blood, marriage, or adoption.  There are two types of family that include the nuclear family – the parents, siblings, or spouse – and the extended family – the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  The role of the family is to provide many different kinds of support and development for the individuals within the family, especially the children, as well as the overall development of society.  This support can be in the form of financial, health care, producing socialized individuals, being involved in recreation, and reproducing children.  The family is supposed to reproduce children and teach them how to be upstanding members of society.  The parents are also in charge of providing financial economic development and production into society by working a job and paying taxes on their services provided, services received, and the house or car that they own.

The definition of family is different for each individual ethnicity.  For instance, Hispanics are very family-oriented.  They believe in a close, tight-nit family where each member takes care of one another, and typically the family members live with one another for most of their lives, or at least live within the same area so that they can visit frequently.  This is also very similar to many Asian families.  People of Japanese, Taiwanese and Chinese backgrounds are also very closely grounded to their families.  They live with one another for most of their lives, and very seldom do members of the family move away from their parents.  As society continues to evolve, this view has changed a little because now, more than ever, children are leaving the home to go away to college.  Still, it is usually the case that the children will return after earning their degrees and come back home to live with the family and help support them.  In Asian cultures it is not rare to see the nuclear and extended family members living under the same household.  Typically, Hispanic families live near their extended family members, but the nuclear family is all that lives under the same roof.  The view of marriage has changed in today’s society because of the economic and social changes associated with the view of the roles of men and women.  For instance, women can now hold jobs and can even be the breadwinner in the family, while the man is a stay-at-home dad.  Equality has led to reversed roles and unclear role definitions in a marriage.  Also, this trend has forced people to become more independent and career or goal-oriented than ever before.  More efforts are spent on trying to achieve alone than with a family.  This does not even take into consideration that many people feel that homosexuals should be allowed to be married.  These different societal changes have caused a change in the way we view marriage in recent years.

There are many different threats to the common view of family in our society today.  The first major threat is divorce where parents legally destruct the marriage and re-enter separate, single lives from one another.  This puts a lot of stress on the child because they are able to see failure in their parents, where they may not have seen it before.  Children tend to blame themselves for divorce.  Divorce can cause many different types of psychological and physiological damage within the family.  Today, over 50% of marriages are likely to end up in divorce in the United States.  It used to be very difficult to receive a divorce, until the late 1970s with the passage of laws various laws in states like California that allowed for an easier way of divorcing a spouse.  Today, adultery is the number one cause of divorce.

Violence is also another major threat to the family structure, and it can come in all different forms including domestic abuse, spouse abuse, and child abuse.  Abuse can also come in the form of physical abuse, sexual abuse, or emotional abuse that can alter a person’s opinion of themselves or self-image.  Each of these forms of violence tends to cause a very large divide between children and their parents or a divide between the two spouses themselves.  Abuse can cause many psychological and physical problems for the victim.  There are many laws on the books against domestic violence, which are in place to help protect children and spouses that cannot protect themselves.  Sexual abuse and sodomy are also very serious emotional and physical forms of abuse that are also against the law in many states such as Connecticut.

• Suicide is the taking of one’s own life.  In the United States it is the 11^th most common cause of death, the third highest cause of death among 15-24 year olds.  Statistics show that there are around 30,000 suicides in the United States every year.  Suicide is the result of social factors that influence members of society.  These social factors can include failure to maintain economic stability, alcohol or substance abuse, bullying, peer pressure, increased family responsibilities, or learning that an individual is terminally ill.

Marital status is one of the most common causes of suicide among individuals of society.  Single individuals are twice as likely to commit suicide.  This is a very crucial factor because society has set the standard that an individual must grow up, earn their education, get a job and then marry and start a family.  These are the steps to happiness in our society and to be unable to perform one or more of these steps means that we are a social outcast and looked down upon or ridiculed.  Recently divorced individuals are also likely to commit suicide, especially those that are caused from one or both of the spouses having committed adultery.  In addition to divorce, the recent death of a spouse can sometimes lead to the living spouse committing suicide, although this trend is not as likely among the elderly.

Two other causes of suicide involve sex and the individual’s occupation.  Sexual encounters can cause an individual to commit suicide.  If the individual has recently become a victim of rape or has had a long history of sexual abuse committed against them, they may be likely to develop psychological disorders that impact their image of self-worth and send them into a state of depression.  Sex, however, can also mean the individual’s sexual preference.  Homosexual individuals are typically not accepted within mainstream America because of the religiously intolerant views of the public.  Many homosexuals are publicly abused and ridiculed for their lifestyles and this can cause many individuals to commit suicide at alarming rates.  Finally, a person’s occupation, or lack thereof, can lead to an individual committing suicide.  An individual that is under extreme occupational pressures or financial duress at home may find that matters are far too difficult.  Also, individuals that have recently been laid off or unemployed for quite some time may also look to commit suicide.  Typically, suicidal people are experiencing extreme pain, frustration, or guilt that they cannot overcome.  These individuals usually are afraid to seek help for their problems because they do not want to be ridiculed or judged even further.

Durkheim’s social integration theory states that suicide could not be explained by physiological traits or psychological variables; instead, the social forces that an individual can experience are really what shapes an individual’s life.  Durkheim believed that suicide is related to how close society is integrated.  He argued that societies that are very close nit and have support structures showed less frequency of suicide than with societies that were not closely integrated.  There are two main types of suicide, which include egoistic and altruistic suicides.  When integration is low and there is a lack of meaningful relationships, individuals tend to commit egoistic suicides because they are focusing on themselves and their specific problems.  When integration is high, individuals may commit altruistic suicides in the form of heroic acts, such as stepping in front of a bullet to save someone else’s life.  These acts are not self-serving and are focusing on the greater good of society.

• There is often a large stigma within our “enlightened” society against individuals that have been diagnosed as mentally ill.  This is caused for a number of reasons.  Namely, mental patients do not fall under the umbrella of social normalcy.  Mentally ill individuals have behavioral trends that can be very disruptive to our way of life, or disruptive to our perceived perfect existence that we should all aspire to.  Individuals that do not fit into this perception and have been diagnosed as mentally ill are cast aside.  They become homeless and disease-ridden because society will no longer help these individuals become active members of society.

Mental patients need the help of community-based care to ensure that they can receive much needed support when released from treatment.  Too many times, individuals are released and then re-enter the hospital for further treatment because there is no care or support for them within their communities.  Evidence also shows that people can be involuntarily confined to a mental hospital by members of the family, a judge, or the police force.  These individuals, including some doctors that examine the patients, are rarely trained to treat or analyze mental illness.  Therefore, these individuals declare that people are mentally ill based on what society suggests is normal.  This can be a very opinion-based and biased process.  In order for these problems to change and the views of society to change, the culture needs to become more understanding to the causes and problems associated with mental illness.  Properly trained medical professionals need to diagnose mental illnesses and public programs should be provided to help recently released patients to stay in society and receive the care and support they need.

The medical model of mental illness states that the mind can become susceptible to disease and disorders just like the body.  Therefore, the goal of mental illness should be to treat the disease and cure the mental illness.  Many social causes are associated with developing mental illness, including include class, racism and sexism.  When an individual is experiencing a period of economic disadvantage, they are more likely to be mentally troubled, stressed, and overloaded by the duress of circumstances.  Some of the highest rates of hospitalization for mental illness are attributed to living in an unstable, low-income area.  Race and sex can also be factors associated with mental illness.  As a person experiences multiple instances of racism and oppression, they can develop unusually low opinions of themselves or develop disorders that help them explain the irrational external environment.  African Americans, Hispanics and women have been common victims of oppression.  They have been oppressed economically and their ability to achieve a high class level in society has been reduced substantially.  Women are often labeled as underappreciated and depressed.

Seasonal affective disorder is a specific amount of depression that evolves around the beginning of fall through the end of the spring.  Bi-polar disorders are also mental illnesses where there are sudden and severe changes in a person’s mood.  The person can go from being very happy to entering a state of mild to extreme depression in a matter of moments.  A third mental disorder is called schizophrenia where people may be extremely withdrawn from their surroundings or they may even act like they are living in a completely different world.  A person’s emotions can be very bizarre and inappropriate for the situation that the person is in, while their behaviors can be sporadic and very unusual.  People with a chronic illness may be viewed as heroic or brave for dealing with their diseases while mental patients are cast aside.  Many people believe that anyone can develop a chronic disease, but mental illnesses are only associated with the poor or underprivileged lowest members of society.  Support is given to chronic disease patients, while mental patients are forgotten and viewed as a burden on society.

• Substance abuse is the consistent and excessive consumption of substances that is above and beyond a prescribed dosage.  Substance abuse can often lead to psychological or physical addiction.  Many people have experienced problems with addition from cigarettes, narcotic agents, and alcohol consumption.  Due to the added costs of purchasing the drugs, receiving treatment and rehabilitation for addiction, and the illegal aspect of the drugs, our culture considers substance abuse the social plague of our time.  It impacts everyone whether politically, economically, socially or medically.  Meanwhile, the mass media continue to portray illegal substances and narcotics in many positive ways that only expands the problem.  Movies, TV shows and many different forms of advertisements show people smoking pot, doing illegal drugs, drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes.  Most people are only seeing the positive aspects of these substances because of the ways they are portrayed in the media.  Very seldom do people get to see the impact that addiction and abuse have on the person, the family, and society.

Society views substance abusers similar to the way they view mental patients – they are outcasts of society and publically shamed and can often be ridiculed for their problems.  In many cases people believe that substance abusers are abusing drugs on purpose and that addiction is not real.  They believe that anyone can control their addiction and quit at will, which is not true because certain chemicals and substances can be physically or psychologically addictive.  In the media, mainstream culture uses humor to associate with substance abuse.  TV shows like “That 70s Show” show teenagers and young adults sitting around smoking pot, laughing among friends and having a good time.  There is a rift between these two alternative views where part of society views it as a shameful outcast behavior, while others believe it to be normal, acceptable and funny.

Marijuana is an illegal substance in the United States, although some states have already legalized its use in the medical field.  It can help deliver a sense of calm and reduce pain for patients, especially individuals that are recovering from cancer treatments.  There is a mild euphoria associated with marijuana in some people, but it is not enough to make people highly addicted in most cases.  The overall benefits of marijuana are very clearly shown, which is why it should become legalized in the United States for medicinal purposes only.  If marijuana is legalized to be purchased for any purpose, it can promote substance abuse similar to that of cigarettes and alcohol.  Many proponents of legalization argue that marijuana could be legally sold and taxed, which would help provide more money to the government and allow less strain taxing citizens.  These benefits are very strong toward legalizing marijuana as long as it is in mild doses and for medicinal purposes only.

Treatment for substance abuse can come in the form of therapy, rehabilitation, and even hypnosis.  In the medical profession, most people check themselves into rehab centers to “dry out” or put themselves through a withdrawal period to cure them of the substance abuse problem.  Therapy can also be used where addictions are psychological.  Psychologists can help the abuser understand why he or she uses the drug, the dangers of using it, and provide steps to eliminating it from their lives.  Hypnosis has also been used to cure psychological addiction.  Although this is an alternative treatment, it can sometimes cause great changes and help them quit the habit completely.  Our society should take steps to understand the extent of substance abuse and the great social costs that are associated with it.  There are so many negative impacts of substance abuse that the mainstream media must cease providing media that promote using these substances.  Also, society cannot cast away these individuals.  Instead, members of society should accept the problems of substance abuse and help these individuals receive the treatment they need so it will no longer be considered our “social plague.”