Sociology: Personal Interview, Essay Example

Introduction

This personal interview was conducted with a teenager in my social network. In preparation a research on interviewing techniques was conducted to enhance interactions between myself and the interviewee.  It was discovered that while this interview did not pertain to collecting data for a research project, an interviewer’s presentation was essential for successful outcomes. During the process I had to learn being comfortable with the interviewee as well as the person comfortable with my presence and the questions that were asked. Specifically, two articles were reviewed.

The first pertained to the social work podcast, an interviews conducted with Micheal LaSala regarding parents and their discovery of gay/lesbian children. It was entitled ‘Coming out Coming home’ (Social Work Podcast, 2014). The next article selected highlighted was an interview highlighted in the form of a video related to gender roles and stereotypes (Gender Roles & Stereotypes, 2014). This was also an interview demonstrating excellent interviewing techniques applicable to this assignment

Summary of Interview

Demographics of this interviewee were revealed as a biracial 16 year old female living in a relatively depressed crime infested neighborhood, but still attending high school. She is the third child in a family of four headed by a single parent mother who is struggling with substance abuse and poverty (Family Background). This interviewee emerged from a family tradition where both maternal grandparents  were devoted to Pentecostalism, but her mother had some doctrinal interpretation difficulties  conflicting with her personal views so she wandered away, eventually, to a new thought church. My interviewee’s mom is African American, but father Hispanic white and both maternal grandparents are African Americans. Very little is known about the paternal grandparents (ethnic racial identity).

Experiences with oppression for this teenager started early in life when her father left the home ten years ago. She recalled that being just six years old and has never seen him again. Her mother had to find additional employment to finance family necessities. Many times there were no light, insufficient food and eviction threats. Due to poverty and inability to meet basic needs the family resorted to welfare and relocated to the projects. Specifically, for this teen oppression was related to her being biracial, poor and living in the projects. It would appear that she was labeled, ostracized, neglected and abused due to these features in her sociological profile.

Precisely, she firmly believed that this influenced her mother’s drug dependence since she felt lost and neglected by a God who was expected to care according to her Pentecostal upbringing. However, using this experience and her mother’s response it helped her develop better coping strategies even though being the third of four children. The two older brothers had finished high school and were accepted into and attending community colleges. They also obtained part time employment assisting in the family’s financial situation. This played a vital role in the coping mechanism since it offered support from remaining in high school and accomplishing also.

In responding to the question attitudes towards oppressors the teen highlighted that the greatest oppressor is her father who left them without any financial support.  It became most oppressing when the Child support services said that they could not locate him in the system geographically to impose a child support order. However, she concluded that her grandparents taught her to ‘love all enemies.’

Conclusion

In summarizing my findings this is a brave individual who has not succumbed to oppression and negativity of her social environment. Instead she had used the positive influences in her environment to cope with her struggle and be an example to other teenagers. There were no significant periods of comfortableness during the interview since my interviewee was quite composed throughout the interaction. The setting was perfect and interaction beneficial.

References

Gender Roles & Stereotypes (2014). Learning gender and development. Retrieved on April,4^th, 2014 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CWMCt35oFY&list=PLE0C08F6092967A01

Social Work Podcast (2014) Coming Out: Coming Home. Retrieved on April 4^th from http://socialworkpodcast.blogspot.com/2011/04/coming-out-coming-home-interview-with.html