Social Questions - Report Example

Q What is the Difference between Prejudice and Discrimination? Is discrimination always led by prejudice? Prejudice: Prejudice is an unjustified irrational thought - without having adequate knowledge - about an individual or group of individuals because they belong to a particular social group or because of supposed characteristics. These thoughts can be negative or positive. Prejudice is a predetermined idea that a person has about an individual, race or group. Prejudice is an attitude, emotion, feeling that are biased against or in favor of a person or group of people. Some types of prejudice are sexism, homophobia, classicism, ageism, racism, religious and nationalism (Whitley, and Kite, 2010). Discrimination: Discrimination is an unjustified usually negative behavior towards an individual or group of people. It is an act of refusing equality of opportunities based on the race, sex, social class, religion, and other distinguishing factors of the individual. Discrimination is an act that a person does on his judgments. It is about treating people differently (See Sue 2003). Many researched enlighten the negative side of discrimination, but it does not mean negative behavior always; it can be more positive behavior with one who is associated with membership group. For example employers discriminate hiring of employees on the basis of their gender or race. Culture has an impact on prejudice (irrational thoughts); it is because some set of beliefs a culture hold normally and also include viewpoint regarding behavioral, attitudes, opinions and values. These sorts of cultural thoughts force people to think in a particular way. If it is said that discrimination is a procedure to put prejudice into the action and prejudice leads discrimination so it would not be wrong, but it is not true in all cases. For example, A universal prejudice people have about foreigners may not cause of discrimination. Therefore, it can be said that prejudice does not lead discrimination always. Q. 2. Describe the Talcott Parsons view of family. What are the circumstances of his approach? Talcott was an American sociologist, and he is known as the originator of “Fit thesis” and fit thesis suggests that families’ shapes are developed to go with the needs of industrial society. Talcott view of the family is based on the study of American families that he did in early stage of 1950s and wrote numerous articles and books on modern American family. According to him family life existence is based on two purposes and these purposes or functions are: 1. Establishment of adult 2. Socialization, procreation or reproduction of young people. His view about family is extremely positive; However the fact is that families have many other purposes and functions other than the establishment of adults and Socialization of young people. It is found that people value family life and feel sad and alone without family members and women are positive towards family life as compare to children and men. He presented the idea of the nuclear family (concept includes wife, children, mother and father) in which men is a main source of income and women are playing the role of ones who look after the needs of the family associated with emotions. According to him this concept is suitable for an individual and for society as well; the presence of a father is extremely essential for a healthy development of family. Talcott paid no attention towards other factors which play an important role in the development of children specially income and class. This concept was criticized by women because in such form of families women loose her economical and social power (Brent and Lewis, 2014). Recently it has been researched that Talcott concept has some advantages from which few are monetary, children gain emotional well being and this concept also contributes to the stability of family. Q.3. What is the connection between education and employment? Employment is an association between two parties that occur in the result of a contract in which one is stated as an employer and the second is stated as employee. Education is a learning of skill, habits and knowledge that is transferred by an individual or an institution to other people and generations. It has been playing a significant role in development since centuries. In general, it is considered that education has a positive and significant relationship with employment. People with higher education are likely to get higher pay and higher level jobs in organizations. It is found that education is helpful in the outcomes of re-employment of those who are suffering from unemployment. Education improves the level of economic growth because education is cause to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of employees and the result is high demand of well educated workers which lead to decrease unemployment. Education has an impact on employment , and it varies country to country. It is found that higher educational development has significant and positive impact on employment (Chen and Wu, 2007).OECD countries for the development of the economy depend upon educated employees, and positive relation among employment and education can be seen in below chart eighty four percent of people with tertiary education are employed. In OECD countries, upper secondary education is considered less needed education for competitiveness in the market. (OECD, 2011) It is detected in Malawi (world’s least developed country) that education is an authorization of employment and lead to higher wages; even association of secondary education with one hundred and twenty three percent of the wage premium is distinguished (Castle et al, 2010). It has been examined that the rate of self-employment either for men or women is increasing with age and decreasing with education which clearly elaborates the ignorance of education among self-employed people who work alone, but it is vice versa for those who hire workers on wages (Paci and Serneels, 2007). Q4. Describe the role of interest groups play in U.S. Interest Group is a group of people associated with an organization and share similar goals, interests and policies; interest groups enter in a political process to promote their views in order to achieve their goals. Interest groups are not like political parties because they do not line up their candidates and political parties do. They are considered policy specialist and those that promote the policy (Brunell, 2005) and parties focus on the maximization of seats. Not only in US but in many other countries, it is considered that the interest groups do not represent the whole society but they represent and promote some certain group interest like business and wealth interest. Interest groups have a relationship with US political parties; Tactics and strategies of Interest groups play an important role in politics of U.S and Britain. In US, it is found that in 1970s interest group played a crucial role in the interpretation of pluralist democracy as compare to other parties. Interest groups work with Congress and with the members of Congress very closely on drafting the policies and legislation and provide a wide range of knowledge and information regarding current issues to government and public. Their role just not end here they also actively participate in different campaigns; campaigns that are related to politics. U.S Congress requires funds for campaigning therefore Congress depends upon interest groups because Congress gets significant financial support from interest groups. According to Smith voting campaigns, actions of legislators and other political matters do have an impact of special interest groups’ actions and positions. So it has been found that interest groups have a role to play and have a major impact on the politics in United States. Interest groups run voting campaigns and thus they play an important role in influencing the views of the people and in making adjustments in policies (Brunell, 2005). References Brent, E and Lewis, S. J (2014). Learn Sociology. Jones & Bartlett Learning. Brunell, L., T (2005). The Relationship between Political Parties and Interest Groups: Explaining Patterns of PAC Contributions to Candidates for Congress. Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 681-688. Castel, V., Phiri, M., and Stampini, M. (2010). Education and Employment in Malawi. African Development Bank Group, pp. 110. Chen, Z., and Wu, Y. (2007). The Relationship between Education and Employment: A Theoretical Analysis and Empirical Test. Frontiers of Economics in China, Vol. 2, no. 2, 187-227. OECD. (2011). Education at a Glance: 2011. Available from http://www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/48631582.pdf [Accessed 9th January 2014] Paci, P., & Serneels, P. M. (Eds.). (2007). Employment and shared growth: rethinking the role of labor mobility for development. World Bank Publications. Whitley Jr, B. E., & Kite, M. E. (2010). The psychology of prejudice and discrimination. CengageBrain. com. Read More