The First Concept Is Empathy. Empathy Is the Ability to Put Ourselves in Someone Else S

SOCI 1311-001

June 15, 2016

SECOND SAA

The first concept is empathy. Empathy is the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and see what they see and understand what is happening from their point of view (Richards 2010). Richards states as examples the War in Iraq and America’s land being used for its coal by the Chinese. He compares its differences and similarities and makes us realize that there are more similarities than differences among people. Particularly when we emphasize we are able to see that there are only victims in both scenarios. The people in Iraq are fighting for their land and their right to the oil. And the Americans are fighting for their right to the coal in the other scenario.

Also, we need to understand that Americans are not always the good guys, the Christian saint with high morals that could do no wrong. Richards shows that Americans are not always out there for others’ best interests but after their own sometimes, debunking using the Christian faith to justify certain actions. He does this so he can start gaining empathy for the people involved in the Iraq War. So, the audience knows that they feel the same as we do if we have been invaded and lost a love one. Americans are the villains, the intruders. In both scenarios, the one with the upper hand are unwilling to forgo their source of wealth.Richards forces us to see the bigger picture and to emphasize with these people.

And this leads us to our second concept. The second concept is that little problems are part of a bigger picture. The same problem that we experience individually can often be linked to larger issues on a societal level. When the problem occurs at this level it means that it is not just an intimate trouble anymore where the individual is at fault, but is actually much bigger than the single person and can be related to some structural, societal or historical processes (Newman 2016).Newman uses examples such as suicide and job employment to demonstrate that there is a bigger explanation than the individualistic explanation that many people are confined to.

When I attempted suicide, my family and Ithought it was caused by me wanting attention. I did not even understand my own actions. I contributed it to not being able to handle the stress of the real world. However, could it be that everyone who cannot handle the real world attempted suicide? The answer is no. In Newman’s discussion of Durkheim’s research on the types of suicide (Newman 2016), I have learned that my suicide attempt is not a shortcoming on my part or other people’s but directly impacted by the changes in society around me and even the structure of society itself.

A weak economic system within a can also cause massive and extensive job loss, affecting individuals(Newman 2016). Fragile government structures can lead to war, tearing apart families and affecting individuals (Richards 2010). In conclusion, this week’s readings demonstrated how personal troubles are not due to people’s individual efforts and hard work to keep their jobs, but just how all our lives have been affected by what is occurring in the bigger picture.

References

Newman, David M. 2016. Sociology Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life. 11th ed. SAGE Publications, Inc.

Richards, Sam. 2010. Sam Richards: A Radical Experiment in Empathy.

Retrieved from

Done Well:

Links to course material

Links to current events/social phenomenon

Two specific examples

Length is spot on

Areas of Improvement:

Concepts are discussed, but need to be clearly stated & defined (i.e. sociological imagination isn’t stated, but it is clearly defined whereas empathy is both clearly stated and defined in student’s own words).

Citations are good, but not need some tweaking to be ASA 4th.