Category: Literature Review

‘The Sociological Imagination’ written by C. Wright Mills discusses how sociology is the practice and ability of intellectually removing one’s mind from routine and familiar situations and events in order to view things from a clearer objective and standpoint. C. Wright Mills demonstrates two conceptions of social reality throughout the book. The first notion is ‘the individual’. Mills discusses how ‘the individual’ experience and worldly viewpoints are results from the environment in which the individual exists in. The second notion is ‘society’. Mills describes society as a “systemic economic inequality and structural poverty”. He blames society for an individual personal trouble.

A connection I made to the book while reading would be when I was first applying to college during my junior and senior year of high school. As a prospective college student, college is a perceived as a solitary journey to one’s path to success. In order to be accepted into the university of my choice there is a process I had to take. I had to take and pass the college entry test along with the application essays. The sociological imagination scared most incoming freshman into frenzy. Personally, I believe the pressure was on because almost every member of my family attended college, therefore, I felt that it was my responsibility to not let my parents and family down. Because my mom and dad both placed a high value on education, I was raised to understand the importance of it. I believe this also has to with my father not attending college. When he came to America from Colombia, he was 17 he just worked the rest of his life. In some ways he says not attending college has set him back in life. Therefore, boxing up our college choices into a solitary experience can easily be shaken up by the sociological imagination.

In the beginning of the story, Mills starts of my discussing the sociological promise. He also makes a promise to his readers. He promises his readers that he would explain society as well as the purpose of it and how one should study it. I questioned his promise. How can the readers trust that Mills will follow through on his promise? What justifies his sincerity of ambition. Mills states, “Nowadays men often feel that their private lives are a series of traps”. When Mill’s states “traps” he is explaining to his audience that his choice of words will be in everyday language.

Mills had many important key concepts however, one that happened to be very important would be the overall topic. The sociological imagination which also means the ‘quality of mind’. This concept allows an individual to fully understand “history and biography and the relations between the two within society”.

In ‘The Sociological Imagination’ by C. Wright Mills, Mills explains the way we use the sociological imagination to comprehend the nature of history and biography and their relationships within society. We encounter social changes, innovations, and developments which become more embracing and more intricately connected with one another every day in our lives; however, little do we grasp the nature and the influence of changes without possessing the sociological imagination to look further and beyond them. Mills poses a set of questions concerning structural changes, one of them is, “What is the structure of this particular society as a whole? What is its essential components, and how are they related to one another?”. In the flow of modern history, our society is shaped by technology whose main components are the Internet, social media, and smartphones. They are the most significant new developments in society during my life.

We are ushering in the era of advanced technology with a sense of freshness and dependency. Few decades experienced the technological explosion in computing which paved the way for the social media as we see today. Until the year of 2006, Facebook was launched and became the most popular social media networks on the Internet and in the world. After the birth of Facebook, a variety of social networks rose and joined the fray. The massive rise of social network has marked an end to traditional media to some extent and revolutionized human communications. It is undeniable that social media brings us valuable opportunities and benefits that traditional media fails to do. Social media has revolutionized the way we communicate. It provides a mean to meet new people and make friends beyond geographical obstacles and maximize exposures to groups of people who share passions and interests. Some social networks also provide a platform to access to a large network to find a suitable job. Due to the great benefits and the rapid development of social media, our society has witnessed a vivid spectrum of how social media and technology changes not only our individual life but society as a whole. Social media has afforded people opportunities to voice their opinions and share their thoughts that can reach a large community of millions people. Hence, social media becomes an extremely useful tool to deal with the challenges encountered by the world such as human rights violations, climate change. The MeToo movement is an example of the use of social media to provide a space and mean for everyone to participate in humane campaigns. The movement virally began to spread in 2017 as a hashtag on social network and acted as a strong movement against sexual harassment and assault and supported survivors. In terms of businesses, social media has afforded companies to promote their products and connect with their potential customers. Companies can take advantage of social media to respond to customer complaints and provide customer service in real time, which in turn will increase loyalty among customers and quality in customer service.

However, we, as a younger generation, are becoming so highly dependent on technology and social media usages that we could barely survive without smartphones and the Internet. We spend a great amount of time on Facebook, Instagram meeting people, chatting and gradually escaping the real life. We prioritize media communication over face-to-face interaction and deteriorate our social skills. The urge to be accepted, praised, and liked by so-called online friends on social media has led people to be the version that will be accepted and welcomed by the majority on the media. Therefore, social media becomes an outlet to operate things anonymously. We lose trust of people on the Internet and social media becomes an invisible weapon to verbally attack others. Moreover, we will lose ourselves and eventually gain truth in our own lies while we try to elaborate our profiles and crystalize our lives. When lies shape our identity, do we still have a self?

In ‘The Sociological Imagination’, Mills says, “It is not only information that they need- in this Age of Fact, information often dominates their attention and overwhelm their capacities to assimilate it.” This paper was published before the rise of social media and smartphones but it addresses the same problem we are facing today. We are living in the age of information and can easy get access to what we want to know by typing few words and hitting enter key. We urge to consume information about the world around us and people in our circles which may result in privacy risk. Mills expresses the concern over the thirst of information to serve individual purpose, “What they need, and what the feel they need, is a quality of mind that will help them to use information and to develop reason in order to achieve lucid summations of what is going on in the world”. Availability of personal information on social network sites makes people vulnerable to online crimes such as identity theft, stalker, cyber harassment. People upload their profiles to social media containing a bunch of personal information which can be leveraged to steal your confidential information and abuse your digital identity.

When I asked my grandmother what the most significant developments she has had during her lifetime, her answer was August Revolution and a political economic renewal campaign (Doi Moi) in 1986. August Revolution marked an end to French colonialism, defeated the Japanese fascists, and declared independence. The victory of August Revolution paved the way for Vietnamese people to become the masters of the nation.

In early 1980s, Vietnam faced an economic crisis. The nation economy witnessed a substantial increase in inflation rates, the significant decrease in GDP and export revenues. At that time, Soviet Union cut down on economic aid which resulted in an increase in Vietnam’s isolation in the global market. Due to pressure from economic depression, diplomacy and political issues, the leaders of Communist Party of Vietnam were urged to take reforms. As a result, the campaign shifted the nation economy from centrally-planned economy to a socialist-oriented market one by removing investment restrictions, building economic relations with ASEAN countries, and liberalizing policies. The implementation of Doi Moi Reform revived the nation economy and made major changes and progress on economy stability which resulted in the high GDP growth rate, the reduction of inflation, the increase in export revenues, and poverty alleviation. In terms of agriculture, a major step toward privatizing property rights was made which successfully led to the privatization of the agricultural land. In terms of industry, the economy was moving toward a multi-sectoral economy. Moreover, the reforms removed quotas and restrictions on foreign trade. As a mark of the effectiveness of the campaign, Vietnam became one of the big three global rice exporters.

To sum up, there might be no similarities between my list and hers. However, as Peter L. Berger says in ‘Sociology as an Individual Pastime’, “He will naturally be interested in the events that engage men’s ultimate beliefs, their moments of tragedy and grandeur and ecstasy”, we view the world in the same way. Each period of time in the flow of history encounters different issues, changes, and developments. The way we view the world is affected by social, politics, and economic changes. We do not experience all the events together, and we share values, experiences and thoughts differently due to generation gaps. Therefore, we make different interpretations of the world based on different personal encounters, but we use the same mechanism to view the world, which is sociological imagination.

Oppression is described by the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘cruel or unjust treatment or exercise of authority’ and it can also be described as ‘a situation in which people are… prevented from having opportunities and freedom’ as outlined by the Cambridge dictionary. Oppressive acts are commonly used against people who belong to certain groups and categories. In a modern world-renowned for its diversity and inclusivity, we are still able to see many forms of oppression daily. Oppression comes in many forms. Lisa Young (2004) called them the ‘Five Faces of Oppression’; Violence, Exploitation, Marginalisation, Powerlessness, and Cultural Imperialism. Not everyone is subjected to the same forms of oppression. Violence is a visible face, but it is through the faces of Cultural Imperialism and Marginalisation that Oppression has made its way into our society and social constructs. Social norms and structures have created a culture of power levels, separated into the powerless and those who hold authority. Power structures can be based on race, culture, gender, and class.

Social Identity Theory, originally introduced by Tajfel and Turner (1979), outlines the need for human beings to migrate into groups due to similarities in behaviors and circumstances. Humans use this idea to relate to and recognize other humans. These mental constructs create social norms, and expected behaviors and create the foundations on which social interactions are based. The human mind is attracted to what it perceives as normal, this is a bias, a perception built upon one’s position in society. ‘Within the social realm, this human tendency to search for patterns naturally results in the creation of in-groups and out-groups’, in many situations this division of people directly correlates to other labels; the oppressed and the oppressors, the uppers and the lower, the in-groups and the out-groups. A simple explanation of this social system is of people who are like you and people who are different from you: We are, and They are. It can be as simple as supporting Manchester United and supporting Liverpool in the English Premier League. This human behavior gives rise to many prejudices and biases towards what is perceived as the out-group (the others).

Tajfel and Turner in 1979, divided their theory to encompass three processes; Categorisation, Identification, and Comparison (McLeod, S. A., 2019). Social Identity Theory outlines how oppression has originated. It is in these divisions of people that we begin to see comparisons between differently identified categories of people. In these comparisons, social constructs form the idea of uppers and lower. Power and authority lie with the in-group over the out-group and so the out-group is unfairly subordinated. However, it is essential to acknowledge the complexity of the role of people who become the oppressors in many cases, as many oppressive actions aren’t deliberate but are the results of a series of restrictions in law created by institutions to implicit stereotypes. Oppression is a negative concept that holds serious consequences for peace and inclusivity in our society, yet it is not always a cruel deliberate action by a group. As a middle-class – Irish woman, with a friendship with a middle-class – Sudanese woman, there can be a distinct comparison made between ethnicity and skin colour. These differences are used daily to describe experiences and opinions, but this can also contribute to such social ideas becoming mainstream and approved ideas.

Letty Cottin Pogrebin (1992), a known journalist and social activist, acknowledges how our history has shaped our oppressive nature when she said “When men are oppressed, it’s a tragedy. When women are oppressed, it’s tradition.”. Many people in our society are oppressed. They are restrained, lacking freedom, and subject to someone in a ‘higher’ position. Many groups have a history of being confined to the rules created by an authoritative figure. It is within these centuries and decades of lacking freedom, that a culture of oppression has been created. Many oppressed people are part of a minority group, a group of people who hold little to no authority in social standings. In Ireland, these social categories were commonly women, members of the traveling community, people with disabilities, Protestants, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Groups that were perceived to not fit into the normal ideology of a human being. Yet, not all members of such categories have been victims of oppression. Growing up in a strong, open, and vocal family created an inclusive environment where people with Disabilities, strong women role models, people with different religious values, and people with different sexualities and preferences were a day-to-day norm in my household.

Audre Lorde (1979), feminist, womanist, librarian, and civil rights activist are iswn for her strong voice opposing the oppression of women, people of color, and those in the LGBTQ+ community. She is known for saying “For the master’s tool will never dismantle the master’s house.”. This creates a profound understanding that real change is not created by them for us, but by us for us. To bring about societal and cultural change concerning the daily oppression faced by many, deliberate or not, a stand must be taken to highlight these injustices on a public platform separate from tools used by oppressors. The need for freedom pulls the oppressed from their restraints to stand and march and protest against those who treat them unjustly, even if that is the majority of the society that we live in. Many prejudices become a normal thought process when they have been verified by those in authority. Young-Bruehl (1998) outlines how biases and prejudices are supported by political and legal ideals, created by those with power, ‘prejudice, social distance if it erodes, must be reinforced politically and legally’. To change society, we must create substantial change within these sectors of authority. Power structures have created this history of oppressive regimes and it is power itself that can change this. Power within, power to, power with the people. To have to power to stand up for yourself and against your oppressor has more weight to it than the authority that oppresses.

Ireland has had its fair share of oppressive regimes and ideologies in the past. These social constructs have not all been abolished yet. One prominent example of change and development by the people of Ireland is the progression of women in the state. From 1884-1938, it was a common view that Ireland itself was a woman, in need of protection by her “sons”. Afsaneh Najmabadi (2005) acknowledged that including women in this abstract sense, can exclude women in reality. It creates a further distance between men and women. There is a great sense of achievement from the progression of women in Ireland. Although, there is still much to work for to eradicate oppression based on gender in our society. For women, we still see issues with gender-based violence, gender pay gap, and gender participation levels. As a woman in Ireland, it is becoming easier but also more important to shift the power dynamics in our society. Global movements are contributing to this shift and increased participation can only boost this important change further.

Bibliography:

1. Cambridge University Press. (2008). Cambridge online dictionary. Cambridge Dictionary online. Retrieved on November 22, 2019, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/
2. Cuhadar, E., & Dayton, B. (2011). The Social Psychology of Identity and Inter-group Conflict: From Theory to Practice. International Studies Perspectives. (s.l.: Oxford University Press)
3. Lorde, A. (1979) The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.
4. McLeod, S. A. (2019). Social identity theory. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/social-identity-theory.html (Accessed November 23, 2019). 3 Social Identity Theory Stages
5. Najmabadi, A. (2005) Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian Modernity. Berkley CA: Californian University Press, pp 207-231. Comparison of the identification of women as abstract ideas.
6. Oxford University Press. (2015) Oxford Dictionary of English. (s.l.:Oxford University Press)
7. Pogrebin, L. (1992) Deborah, Golda, and Me: Being Female and Jewish in America. (s.l.: Anchor)
8. Tajfel, H., Turner, J. C., Austin, W. G., & Worchel, S. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. Organizational identity: A reader, 56-65.
9. Taylor, E. (2016) Groups and Oppression: What is Oppression? [e-book]. s.l.: Hypathia. Volume 31, Issue 3. http://fh6xn3yd3x.search.serialssolutions.com/?id=doi:10.1111/hypa.12252&sid=wiley&iuid=6861090&date=2016&jtitle=Hypatia&volume=31&atitle=Groups+and+Oppression&genre=article&spage=520&issue=3&title=Hypatia&issn=0887-5367&epage=536 (Accessed November 20, 2019)
10. Young, L., Heldke, l. and O’Connor, P. eds. (2004) Oppression, Privilege, & Resistance. Boston: McGraw Hill. ‘Five Faces of Oppression’, oppression forms.
11. Young-Bruehl, E. (1998) The Anatomy of Prejudices: Constructing Ideal Types. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, pp 405. Role of Politics and Law in oppression due to the authoritative state of such roles in society.

Literature review is done at the beginning of the research project to enable the researcher to identify what is already known about the chosen area of interest so they do not replicate the work that has already been done by other researchers. This required the researcher to read around the immediate topic of the research to broaden their knowledge and understanding of what is missing. It also narrows down the topic and highlights the important parts that should be focused on new research. Literature review has four different stages which are extraction of information, interpretation, analysis and synthesis.

Extracting information requires the researcher to skim and scan for preliminary judgement on the relevance of the information. It also identifies key words to look out for or to use during new research. Interpretation helps the researcher understand what the source is talking about and it also questions the reasons of publication of the presented interpretation. This stage also helps the researcher to identify links between the research topic and the researcher’s purpose.

Analysis

At this stage of literature review, the researchers scrutinise the text to look for any arguments proposed by the authors and they look for valid and reliable evidence that back up those arguments. They also look at their own work and compare it to the one they are analysing to see the differences and similarities . During analysis, the researcher looks at the participants group, the methods used and the objectivity of the data.

Synthesis

Synthesis is a method of developing a different argument or point of view based on the gaps highlighted by the preceding analysis. Once each source in the literature search has been critically analysed, the researcher will have a different perspective on the research topic and will be able to identify more clearly how much more research can bring new knowledge and understanding. This will then give the researcher the opportunity to formulate a hypothesis and allow them to plan their project. A researcher might want to do further research in the Ebola outbreak- there is research that has been done already so it is essential to do literature review to have a deeper understanding of what he or she really want to find out in their research and what has been found already.

Websites allow researchers to access important reports as well as government documents that you wouldn’t normally just find anywhere in libraries or book shops. There is a lot of different useful information on the internet and websites which makes it easy to get a hold of it.

Journals are specialist publications published at regular intervals for specialist groups such as professionals, scientists and other researchers. The publication of research is an important aspect of the research project. Some online journals have to be subscribed to in order to access the information, however, the government funds most of the journals needed for research. There are also E-resources such as online newspapers and eBooks which provide information useful for research.

Social science research uses books, mostly to get information whereas scientific research depends on published journals. Recent textbooks have greater credibility than books published a few years ago as they contain older information. For example, books that have information on policies, they regularly change which means more new books are needed with the updated information. However, when referring to theories, older books have more credibility as they were written by the actual theorist who experienced it at first hand – which means they have more validity and authentic.

Data

In research, the data is almost always presented in the form of graphs, tables and statistics. Tables enable data to be viewed systematically without having to read a lot of text. They are frequently used to present quantitative data but can also be used to conclude qualitative information which makes it easier to check for clarity in responses. graphs and charts are another form of visually representing qualitative data; they make the interpretation of the data easier as it enables large quantities of data to be presented in a manageable format.

Demographic statistics

Demographic statistics gathered by government agencies, local authorities and health trusts are useful for comparison with data collected in the researcher’s project. The Ofice for National Statistics also known as ONS publishes different demographic statistics which are grouped under health, social care and education. They also present comparisons with similar data from earlier researches. Statistical information may be presented in various formats such as tables, graphs and charts. This is easier to see and interpret it. This research method is useful when looking where the money in health and social care is spent, also it can help with identifying how many people are living with undiagnosed illnesses.

In our daily life, troubles always occur, many people always trapped by an abundant problem. But we do not seem to be aware of how others are feeling of being trapped. In the reading ‘Sociological Imagination’ by C. Wright Mills, it introduces what sociological imagination is and how personal trouble is related to the whole society.

In the reading, C. Wright Mills mentions that sociological imagination is a way to engage the world. By using this approach, people need to think sociologically and to relate private troubles to public issues or seeing the general in the particular. It is said that ordinary men do not usually realize that they are having a close connection with the society. People used to relate their circumstances with their own business like their personality, their background. Apart from demonstrating the relationship between society and human beings, the benefits of using sociological imagination are posed. C. wright Mills claims that ‘The sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society’, by grabbing the relevance between individuals and society, people are enabled to understand the larger historical scene, changing the individuals’ uneasiness towards obvious troubles and the indifference of public, to the involvement with public issues. As a result, people can not only change their own life but also change the process of history and society. Moreover, the reading has shown how the lives of individuals are being shaped and reshaped by broader social change. There are 4 examples in unemployment, marriage, war and metropolis 4 areas given in the reading, to support the idea. The reading encourages us to think ‘out of box’, to see different problems from different perspectives, to link the private troubles with a great variety of milieux, as well as the social structure.

After reading the ‘Sociological Imagination’, I understand that we can see our society in our everyday lives. This approach is also applicable in Hong Kong, and I would like to illustrate an example of it, which is the problem of elderly poverty.

I have observed that there is a granny whose outfit is worn-out, always come to my parents’ store with a trolley. She is not a customer who will buy something but is a collector who ask for waste boxes, newspapers, and other scrap. No matter when, weekdays or weekends, I can see her trace. But why she has to do this? She may earn a few dollars, or a maximum of $40-$60 a day by selling cardboard boxes to recyclers. This ‘job’ is not only exhausting but also time-consuming, they need to collect so many cardboard as these materials are not very valuable, about $2/kg.

One elderly collecting cardboard to earn money is his/her personal trouble, s/he is so poor that s/he has to do this to make a living. However, it is not the only case in Hong Kong. We can see that the problem of elderly poverty exists in Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, 1.39 million people are living the poverty line (Government of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region, Hong Kong Poverty Situation Report, 2017) and one out of the three elderly Hongkongers aging 65 years old or above is living in poverty (Ngo, 2015). According to the official figures (HKSAR, Hong Kong Poverty Situation Report, 2017), the poverty rate of elders aged 65 or above is 44.4% (495000), even though there is intervention made by the government, the poverty rate is still very high, about 30.5% while the poverty line is set at a monthly income of $3800.The reasons behind this social phenomenon are mainly the less job opportunity to the elderly, the change of family structure and insufficient support by the government.

Elderly poverty problem aroused by the lack of job opportunities for the old people. Elders are to some extent being discriminated against in the job market. Many employers, especially in the private sector, refuse the elderly’s application by using the excuse that the retirement age is 60 (‘Hong Kong’s job market has no room for the elderly’, 2018). Having the stereotype that the generation gap may affect the office’s harmony and lower the efficiency, may lower the possibility of the elderly being hired even though some of them are talented. Besides the stereotype, the higher the labor insurance may hold the employers back from hiring the seniors because the more responsibility employers need to bear, the more unwillingness they have towards hiring the elderly. Moreover, the limited job opportunities provided to the elders are mostly with low payment, which may not ease the problem of poverty.

For the change of family structure in society, it relates to the problem as well. The formation of the society has been changed from a larger scale of family to a nuclear family because of different factors in the society. This structure leads to many people having one to two children, or even no kids, and worsens the problem of elderly poverty as well. The elderly may not have someone to take care of them, or their lives may not be fully supported by their child because their child may not be able to bear the sole financial burden on their own.

Last but not least, the lack of government support. As Hong Kong is a liberal city, it has a free market and the tax rate imposed by the government is not high, at a maximum of 15% (‘GovHK: Tax Rates of Salaries Tax & Personal Assessment’, 2019). Thus, there is limited welfare provided by the government. Take ‘fruit money’, the Old Age Allowance as an example, the elders are given a monthly payment of $2600 (HKSAR, ‘Social Security’), however, this subsidy helps a little and it is not enough for the elderly to ‘survive’.

By applying the approach of sociological imagination, we can see that an elderly being poor may not be his/her personal trouble, it can be related to society. Because of different social factors, the problem of elderly poverty occurs and many senior people have difficulties in maintaining daily life. Thus, in solving or easing the problem, we can not just consider the personal situation, we should consider the structure of a society as well. After reading ‘Sociological Imagination’, I realized that private troubles and public issues can have a tight relation. By using sociological imagination in the daily life, I can be more aware of the relationship between personal experience and the wider society, to face my own trouble and the public issue in a new way other thinking individually. In my opinion, lack of sociological imagination can make one indifferent, however, with this approach, people can make decision with self-awareness, but not being dominated by the social norms. Sociological imagination can make one more considerate too, as it helps one to be more sensitive towards different issues, to think deeply in different things, not just ‘judging a book by its cover’.

Within this essay I will be summarizing what C. Wright Mills means by ‘The Sociological Imagination’ and why it is necessary for individuals to possess it.

Within chapter 1 the author explores the plight of individuals and explains that individual troubles are usually linked to public issues and that often the problems that an individual experiences are derived from structural issues with society. For example, an individual problem in the modern world could be a person’s declining mental health, however when we look more broadly at this we can see that it is more of a public issue given the epidemic of poor mental health. Therefore, we must look at society’s role in causing this, this could be from a number of structural issues such as lack of funding for mental health services and a culture with a focus on overworking to the point of burn out. The sociological imagination therefore must be used to look past the issues of an individual to see the root of society’s problems and therefore how we can improve it as a collective.

Mills believes that individuals are unaware and therefore ‘trapped’ by a poor understanding of how society works as they are caught up in their own lives, rarely looking out with their own social environment to see that their individual accomplishments and failures are often directly linked to changes within society. Individuals therefore cannot grasp the idea that the history of society has an influence on how they live their own lives and that they too must be able to influence society as a result of this link.

For an individual to truly understand the society in which they live Mills believes that they must develop the sociological imagination, which is a method of questioning the way society works and discovering the reason that issues have come to be in the first place. This is done by looking through what could be described as a lens that allows the user to gather information and critically analyze a range of societal influences and therefore gain a deeper understanding of why things happen within society.

To conclude, Mills aims to show that by using the sociological imagination individuals are able to understand that ‘history and biography’ are in fact linked, which therefore allows them to see the connections between seemingly minute personal issues and how the bigger picture in society as a whole has influenced them. It allowed for people to gain a greater understanding of where they sit within society and therefore the role they play in comparison to others.

The present study conducted is partly a replication of a study ‘Gender differences in self-esteem and happiness among University students’ carried out by Malik and Sadia (2013). The findings of the study carried out by Malik and Sadia (2013) were as follows: males had significantly higher levels of self-esteem than females; insignificant differences were found between males and females for happiness; a positive relationship was found between self-esteem and happiness.

Moreover, the purpose of the current study is to explore gender differences between happiness and the relationship between self-esteem and happiness. Happiness is a feeling where an individual feels satisfied with their life and experience and feels more positive emotions in day-to-day life (Kesebir and Diener, 2008). A happy person is always cheerful and satisfied with his or her life (Lucas & Diener, 2000). Three important components are suggested to be facets of happiness: a higher level of life satisfaction, higher levels of positive affect (positive feelings and emotions), and little or no negative affect (negative emotions and feelings) (Myers & Diener, 1995; Hill & Argyle, 2002; Lucas, Diener, & Suh, 1996).

Several studies have found that external factors, such as physical health, income, education, job and close relationships, marital status, gender, and age do not have a lasting effect on happiness or influence happiness (Lyubomirsky, King & Diener, 2005; Diener, Oishi, & Lucas, 2003). In contrast, it is the internal factors, such as self-esteem and personality traits that influence one’s happiness and have an enduring effect on one’s long-term happiness (Lykken & Tellegen, 1996). Thus, happiness comes from inside (internal factors) rather than outside (external factors).

Moreover, a study by Khodarahimi (2013), included 200 Iranian adolescents and 200 young adults, which included males and females. The study found that males had significantly higher levels of happiness than females regardless of age. Several studies suggest that gender is associated with subjective well-being and many studies have found that women have higher levels of happiness compared to men (Wood, Rhades, Whelan, 1989; Koker, 1991; Zweig, 2014). For example, the study, which included 600 Taiwan Chinese people found that women scored significantly higher compared to men on the measures of happiness (Lu, Shih, Lin, Ju, 1997). Similar findings were also reported in other studies of happiness, which suggests that this is true cross-culturally (Shmotkin, 1990; Katja, Paivi, Marja-Terttu, Pekka, 2002; Meliha, 2006).

However, women have been found to score higher on the measures of depression and neuroticism than men (Cheng, Furnham, 2001). For instance, Mirowsky & Ross (1995) found that women experienced 30% more distress than men and often expressed negative emotions freely compared to men. The study by Fujita, Diener, and Sandvik (1991) found that even when women were as happy as men they reported experiencing more depression than men.

Another key element in our study is self-esteem. Self-esteem means having a positive view of oneself and appreciating yourself (own appearance beliefs, views, opinions, emotions, and behavior), so have high self-worth and self-respect (Lyubomirsky, Tkach and DiMatteo, 2006). The study by Redenbach (1991) found that Self-esteem is positively correlated with happiness, success at the workplace, and accomplishments in school and college. Self-esteem also has a positive correlation with health and a better quality of life (Evans, 1997).

Moreover, a high level of self-esteem is associated with higher levels of happiness and lower levels of emotional distress (Brown, Dutton, & Cook, 2001). Individuals who have high self-esteem are confident about themselves, can make new friends, and cope with problems in life, and therefore they are contented (happy) and have a higher level of satisfaction with their lives (Brown & Marshall, 2001; Katz, 1998). In contrast, to these findings, individuals with low self-esteem have negative thoughts for themselves, which causes them to experience negative feelings, such as anxiety and sadness. They are not very sociable and are not open to experiences, so they avoid taking risks in life or trying anything new as they think that they might fail or be unsuccessful (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, and Vohs, 2003; Croker & Park, 2004). Thus, self-esteem is vital to happiness.

Many of the studies have reported that males have a high level of self-esteem compared to females. This difference in self-esteem between males and females begins in adolescence and continues during early and middle adulthood and this difference decreases to a lower extent in old age (Kling, Hyde, Showers & Buswell,1999; Zeigler-Hill, & Myers, 2012; Robins, Trzesniewski, Tracy, Gosling & Potter, 2002). However, the studies also report that both genders have similar journeys for self-esteem. So, both genders have high self-esteem during childhood, which decreases during adolescence and then increases again in adulthood before it disappears in old age. (Wagner, Gerstorf, Hoppmann, & Luszcz, 2013; Orth & Robins, 2014; Robins & Trzesniewski, 2005).

Furthermore, research findings suggest that individuals with high self-esteem are mentally happy and healthy, whereas those with low self-esteem are psychologically depressed and miserable (Abdel-Khalek, 2016). Individuals with high self-esteem are more likely to feel positive about themselves, they are better able to cope with challenges in life and negative feedback from people and have positive perceptions about people and the world (believe that everyone values and respects them) (Stavropoulos, Lazaratou, Marini and Dikeos, 2015).

In contrast, individuals who have low self-esteem have a very negative perception of themselves and the world. The study by Mackinnon (2015) found that low self-esteem is associated with depression, feelings of loneliness, shyness, and psychological distress. Thus, self-esteem affects the way individuals feel about themselves and low self-esteem can cause individuals to be unhappy in life. Thus, high self-esteem is vital for the feeling of happiness.

Furthermore, research has found that self-esteem is an important factor for emotional well-being (Baumeister et al, 2003). Research has found that individuals with higher levels of self-esteem experience more feelings of motivation, happiness, and optimism compared to those with lower levels of self-esteem and they also tend to experience less anxiety, depression, and negative moods (Abdel-Khalek, 2016). This implies that self-esteem is a very important factor for mental well-being.

Many other pieces of research had similar findings where self-esteem was positively correlated with satisfaction in life, hope, happiness, and loving relationships (Abdel-Khalek, 2016). Individuals with high self-esteem are more likely to cope with difficult tasks than individuals who have lower levels of self-esteem (Baumeister et al, 2003). Individuals with high self-esteem are stronger to face changes in life compared to low self-esteem (Stavropoulos et al 2015). Thus, a high level of self-esteem gives an ability to cope with challenges, handle unpleasant situations, and manage relationships with love.

High self-esteem has also been found to positively moderate depressive symptoms when one is facing negative life events (Stavropoulos et al 2015). Some studies have also found that individuals with high self-esteem are more persistent compared to low self-esteem individuals when they are facing failure in life (Di Paula and Campbell, 2002). Low self-esteem is also associated with higher levels of aggression, being less competent to cope with difficulties in life, depression, and decreased level of well-being (Stavropoulos et al, 2015).

In the study ‘Gender differences in self-esteem and happiness among University students’ by Malik and Sadia (2013) they used the Rosenberg Self-esteem scale (Rosenberg, 1965) to measure self-esteem in university students and they were successful in finding significant differences in self-esteem between males and females and it was also positively associated happiness, therefore, we will use the same scale in the present study.

However, in the present study, we have not used the Oxford Happiness questionnaire (Hills and Argyle, 2002) to measure happiness in our participants as in the study ‘Gender differences in self-esteem and happiness among University students’ insignificant differences were found between male and female for happiness. In the present study, we will use the PANAS scale (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), which measures positive affect (positive emotions and feelings) and negative affect (negative emotions and feelings), and the Life satisfaction scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin, 1985). This is because evidence from the studies above implies that an individual who has a high level of satisfaction with their life, and who experiences a greater positive affect (experience positive emotions and feelings) and less negative affect (negative emotions and feelings) will have a high level of happiness as they have a high level of subjective wellbeing.

The hypothesis of the present study is:

• Males will score significantly higher than females on self-esteem. H₀: There will be no significant difference between males’ and females scores on self-esteem. Any difference is due to chance.
• There will be a significant positive relationship between self-esteem and happiness (subjective well-being). H₀: There will be no significant positive relationship between self-esteem and happiness. Any difference is due to chance. This implies that the higher the scores on self-esteem, the higher the scores on life satisfaction. The higher the scores on self-esteem, lower the scores on negative affect (and higher scores on positive affect) on the PANAS scale.
• There will be a significant difference in the level of happiness between males and females. H₀: There will be no significant difference in the level of happiness between males and females. Any difference is due to chance.

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is classified to be a severe psychiatric disorder that affects individuals’ social life and personal. The origin of the word itself Schizophrenia— meaning “split mind” in Greek—first appeared in 1908 by the Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler (Barnet, 2018). This disorder presents itself in three types of symptoms which can be psychotic symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive impairment. Psychotic symptoms can present delusions and hallucinations which is the inability to connect with reality. Other symptoms related to this order are, negative symptoms decreased motivation, impaired speech, social withdrawal, and cognitive impairment which is the lack of performance that controls a variety of cognitive functions. ( Owen, Sawa, & Mortensen, 2016). The psychotic symptoms tend to be more frequent and more long-term than the other symptoms. By late adolescence, or even in early adulthood many have experienced their first episode that is followed by a prodromal phase. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5), schizophrenia presents itself with the state of psychosis, psychoses features can be associated with schizophrenia but have different types of psychoses associated with bipolar disorder that include psychotic episodes including major depressive disorder also including psychotic episodes ( Owen et al., 2016). Each individual’s diagnosis varies taking into consideration the number of times episodes have been encountered also if there has been any sign of substance abuse and if there were any indications of depression or mania. With some evidence of the progression of the disorder during the early stages in the left hemisphere and the superior temporal structures more than any other part of the cortex ( Vita, Barlati, Peri, Desde, & Sacchetti, 2016). As the disorder progresses into more severe stages with the degree of progression with the frequency occurrence of episodes and including antipsychotics that are prescribed.

This literature review scrutinizes the research that includes treatment in sex differences of schizophrenia itself including symptoms, and treatments. My focus is on the symptoms and treatment plan that impaired individuals with schizophrenia according to a treatment plan that follows according to their sex and the severity of their disorder.

Hallucinations and Delusions

In schizophrenia, there are different levels of severity of the disorder, but a common symptom is the appearance of hallucinations which differ from person to person. Also, different types of hallucinations can be experienced by the five senses. Auditory hallucinations are the most common type within individuals (Smith, 2019). During an auditory hallucination, the person may hear voices, it could be several voices at once which can sound like whispers, or a different person trying to mummer. The voices can often tell the affected person to do commands, and the internal voices can sound unhappy with them (Smith, 2019). During visual hallucinations, individuals experience the presence of objects, figures, people, patterns, and lights that are not physically there. Others have reported being able to see and get in contact with their deceased loved ones. Losing perception is also included (Smith 2019). Also, when experiencing olfactory hallucinations often can cause some trouble without being able to smell many individuals fear for mealtime from the fear being experienced, many of them refrain from eating because they fear their food has been poisoned. (Smith, 2019) Next, in a tactile hallucination individuals experience the feeling of ants crawling which in reality is not happening. Delusions are characterized by DSM 5 “by having a false belief based on incorrect interference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everyone else believes and despite what makes up incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary (Imperfect Cognitions, 2013)”. During persecutory delusions, the person concludes that harm is coming their way either by an individual group despite the reality that is not happening. In erotomanic delusions, the person comes to the delusion that an individual, or more likely to be a celebrity has fallen in love with them. In somatic delusions, a person can believe they have an illness, or that something is affecting their body by an undiagnosed and rare condition that is not present or detected. When a grandiose delusion is present, a person believes that they have superior abilities or qualities despite not having valid proof (Smith, 2019).

Sex Differences in Schizophrenia

Men have a greater probability than women to be diagnosed with schizophrenia, the ratio 4:1 male to female between the ages of 18 and 25 which is 4 years earlier than females (Gogos, Ney, Seymour, Rheenen, & Felmingham, 2019). Because of the lack of ovarian hormones being produced during menopause, women experience a peak of the disease. Research shows that men with schizophrenia have shown higher brain changes in morphological abnormalities and the amount of white matter than women. Reports show that women experience more negative symptoms in a more critical matter than men (Gogos et al., 2019). Both women and men experience the same amount of major depressive symptoms. During the progression of the disease and the severity of each present stage, men are least affected by the prescribed antipsychotic medication and have been hospitalized more often than women. Men also have a higher rate of being hospitalized which comes with substance abuse or medication men increase social isolation than women and many more men experience social withdrawal. Women have been shown to have better rates of remission and higher rates of recovery than men (Gogos et al., 2019). In studies that were conducted on the brains of males and females, MRI and postmortem studies show that men with schizophrenia show to having larger lateral and third ventricles, and anterior temporal horns than women; and also shows that men have smaller medial temporal volumes, hippocampus and amygdala, Herschel’s gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, and overall smaller frontal and temporal lobe volumes (Kathryn, Richard, & Jill, 2010).

Sex Differences in the Treatment of Schizophrenia

Treatment In Schizophrenia

The ultimate goal in treatment for schizophrenia is to seize the relapse of the frequency of episodes, and symptoms and integrate the person back into their daily routines. Most people with this disorder rarely go back to how their life was before the disorder. There are two types of treatment plans nonpharmacological and pharmacological for long-term outcomes. When going with a nonpharmacological option it is advised to include psychotherapy sessions as well. According to the American Psychiatric Association, antipsychotics except for clozapine (SGAs) are the best medication treatment for schizophrenia. SGAs are the best option for medication over antipsychotics (FGAs) because individuals experience fewer extrapyramidal symptoms ( Patel, Cherian, Gohil, & Atkinson, 2014). Sex differences in essential when wanting a more effective gender-specific pharmacological treatment which can help to predict the proper dose of medication is necessary, control the side effects of the medication, and compliance. Female patients have been shown to have surpassed their treatment plan with 50% higher of being hospitalized ( Patel et al., 2014). Thus, male patients tend to have a higher tolerance to antipsychotics which often requires males to be prescribed a much higher dose than females the reason for the higher dose is the correlation between liver enzymatic clearance. Also, males have higher levels of unhealthy habits such as cigarette smoking, drinking alcohol, and high caffeinated drinks which create a higher rate of enzymes to build up in the liver. For women with high hormone levels cause them to have more side effects such as hyperprolactinemia, hypotension, increased weight gain, and autoimmune complications ( Li, Ma, Wang, Yang, & Wang,2016). Research of sex factors in gender differences involves hormones more specifically gonadal hormones, for example, estrogen in women. A new finding of oxytocin is an important hormone for reproductive function which is beneficial for a therapeutic target for schizophrenia patients ( Li et al., 2016).

Conclusion

Limitations of Existing Research

Research on differences in sex differences demonstrated that women have shown to have better outcomes even when schizophrenia remains present longer in women at a later age ( Urizar, Fond, Urzua, & Boyer, 2018). Most of the studies have shown a greater increase in social adjustment for females compared to males, and they also have better premorbid functioning than males (Thara & Kamath, 2015). Studies have shown that there is no relationship between gender differences in the incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia. Thus, the majority of research states females reported having better clinical outcomes than males in the short-term, where in contrast gender differences tend to disappear over longer periods ( Thara & Kamath, 2015). During the early phase of schizophrenia, gender differences are more present in the prodromal phase and early presentation of psychosis a treatment plan is provided ( Talonen, Vaananen, & Kaltiala-Heino, 2017). Psychotherapy was administered to both men and women to help reduce the frequency of negative symptoms, but only women found this type of therapy to be helpful with their symptoms ( Savil, Orfanos, Bentall, Reininghaus, Wykes, & Priebe, 2017). Future research should have a control group with a specific treatment for each man and woman for each group for example adolescents, early adulthood, or late adulthood. Taking into consideration the sample size and patients taking nonpharmacological and pharmacological treatments. However, each treatment plan comes with different types of medication or extra psychotherapy to be included to fully follow the treatment plan. Having the right knowledge of the severity of schizophrenia can help an individual, not relapse and have better management skills in taking their medication without the substance abuse of their antipsychotics. Also, future research should include outpatient treatment plans and their outcomes to inpatient treatment plans.

‘The Sociological Imagination’ written by C. Wright Mills discusses how sociology is the practice and ability of intellectually removing one’s mind from routine and familiar situations and events in order to view things from a clearer objective and standpoint. C. Wright Mills demonstrates two conceptions of social reality throughout the book. The first notion is ‘the individual’. Mills discusses how ‘the individual’ experience and worldly viewpoints are results from the environment in which the individual exists in. The second notion is ‘society’. Mills describes society as a “systemic economic inequality and structural poverty”. He blames society for an individual personal trouble.

A connection I made to the book while reading would be when I was first applying to college during my junior and senior year of high school. As a prospective college student, college is a perceived as a solitary journey to one’s path to success. In order to be accepted into the university of my choice there is a process I had to take. I had to take and pass the college entry test along with the application essays. The sociological imagination scared most incoming freshman into frenzy. Personally, I believe the pressure was on because almost every member of my family attended college, therefore, I felt that it was my responsibility to not let my parents and family down. Because my mom and dad both placed a high value on education, I was raised to understand the importance of it. I believe this also has to with my father not attending college. When he came to America from Colombia, he was 17 he just worked the rest of his life. In some ways he says not attending college has set him back in life. Therefore, boxing up our college choices into a solitary experience can easily be shaken up by the sociological imagination.

In the beginning of the story, Mills starts of my discussing the sociological promise. He also makes a promise to his readers. He promises his readers that he would explain society as well as the purpose of it and how one should study it. I questioned his promise. How can the readers trust that Mills will follow through on his promise? What justifies his sincerity of ambition. Mills states, “Nowadays men often feel that their private lives are a series of traps”. When Mill’s states “traps” he is explaining to his audience that his choice of words will be in everyday language.

Mills had many important key concepts however, one that happened to be very important would be the overall topic. The sociological imagination which also means the ‘quality of mind’. This concept allows an individual to fully understand “history and biography and the relations between the two within society”.

In ‘The Sociological Imagination’ by C. Wright Mills, Mills explains the way we use the sociological imagination to comprehend the nature of history and biography and their relationships within society. We encounter social changes, innovations, and developments which become more embracing and more intricately connected with one another every day in our lives; however, little do we grasp the nature and the influence of changes without possessing the sociological imagination to look further and beyond them. Mills poses a set of questions concerning structural changes, one of them is, “What is the structure of this particular society as a whole? What is its essential components, and how are they related to one another?”. In the flow of modern history, our society is shaped by technology whose main components are the Internet, social media, and smartphones. They are the most significant new developments in society during my life.

We are ushering in the era of advanced technology with a sense of freshness and dependency. Few decades experienced the technological explosion in computing which paved the way for the social media as we see today. Until the year of 2006, Facebook was launched and became the most popular social media networks on the Internet and in the world. After the birth of Facebook, a variety of social networks rose and joined the fray. The massive rise of social network has marked an end to traditional media to some extent and revolutionized human communications. It is undeniable that social media brings us valuable opportunities and benefits that traditional media fails to do. Social media has revolutionized the way we communicate. It provides a mean to meet new people and make friends beyond geographical obstacles and maximize exposures to groups of people who share passions and interests. Some social networks also provide a platform to access to a large network to find a suitable job. Due to the great benefits and the rapid development of social media, our society has witnessed a vivid spectrum of how social media and technology changes not only our individual life but society as a whole. Social media has afforded people opportunities to voice their opinions and share their thoughts that can reach a large community of millions people. Hence, social media becomes an extremely useful tool to deal with the challenges encountered by the world such as human rights violations, climate change. The MeToo movement is an example of the use of social media to provide a space and mean for everyone to participate in humane campaigns. The movement virally began to spread in 2017 as a hashtag on social network and acted as a strong movement against sexual harassment and assault and supported survivors. In terms of businesses, social media has afforded companies to promote their products and connect with their potential customers. Companies can take advantage of social media to respond to customer complaints and provide customer service in real time, which in turn will increase loyalty among customers and quality in customer service.

However, we, as a younger generation, are becoming so highly dependent on technology and social media usages that we could barely survive without smartphones and the Internet. We spend a great amount of time on Facebook, Instagram meeting people, chatting and gradually escaping the real life. We prioritize media communication over face-to-face interaction and deteriorate our social skills. The urge to be accepted, praised, and liked by so-called online friends on social media has led people to be the version that will be accepted and welcomed by the majority on the media. Therefore, social media becomes an outlet to operate things anonymously. We lose trust of people on the Internet and social media becomes an invisible weapon to verbally attack others. Moreover, we will lose ourselves and eventually gain truth in our own lies while we try to elaborate our profiles and crystalize our lives. When lies shape our identity, do we still have a self?

In ‘The Sociological Imagination’, Mills says, “It is not only information that they need- in this Age of Fact, information often dominates their attention and overwhelm their capacities to assimilate it.” This paper was published before the rise of social media and smartphones but it addresses the same problem we are facing today. We are living in the age of information and can easy get access to what we want to know by typing few words and hitting enter key. We urge to consume information about the world around us and people in our circles which may result in privacy risk. Mills expresses the concern over the thirst of information to serve individual purpose, “What they need, and what the feel they need, is a quality of mind that will help them to use information and to develop reason in order to achieve lucid summations of what is going on in the world”. Availability of personal information on social network sites makes people vulnerable to online crimes such as identity theft, stalker, cyber harassment. People upload their profiles to social media containing a bunch of personal information which can be leveraged to steal your confidential information and abuse your digital identity.

When I asked my grandmother what the most significant developments she has had during her lifetime, her answer was August Revolution and a political economic renewal campaign (Doi Moi) in 1986. August Revolution marked an end to French colonialism, defeated the Japanese fascists, and declared independence. The victory of August Revolution paved the way for Vietnamese people to become the masters of the nation.

In early 1980s, Vietnam faced an economic crisis. The nation economy witnessed a substantial increase in inflation rates, the significant decrease in GDP and export revenues. At that time, Soviet Union cut down on economic aid which resulted in an increase in Vietnam’s isolation in the global market. Due to pressure from economic depression, diplomacy and political issues, the leaders of Communist Party of Vietnam were urged to take reforms. As a result, the campaign shifted the nation economy from centrally-planned economy to a socialist-oriented market one by removing investment restrictions, building economic relations with ASEAN countries, and liberalizing policies. The implementation of Doi Moi Reform revived the nation economy and made major changes and progress on economy stability which resulted in the high GDP growth rate, the reduction of inflation, the increase in export revenues, and poverty alleviation. In terms of agriculture, a major step toward privatizing property rights was made which successfully led to the privatization of the agricultural land. In terms of industry, the economy was moving toward a multi-sectoral economy. Moreover, the reforms removed quotas and restrictions on foreign trade. As a mark of the effectiveness of the campaign, Vietnam became one of the big three global rice exporters.

To sum up, there might be no similarities between my list and hers. However, as Peter L. Berger says in ‘Sociology as an Individual Pastime’, “He will naturally be interested in the events that engage men’s ultimate beliefs, their moments of tragedy and grandeur and ecstasy”, we view the world in the same way. Each period of time in the flow of history encounters different issues, changes, and developments. The way we view the world is affected by social, politics, and economic changes. We do not experience all the events together, and we share values, experiences and thoughts differently due to generation gaps. Therefore, we make different interpretations of the world based on different personal encounters, but we use the same mechanism to view the world, which is sociological imagination.