An interview with two individuals of different races revealed their position in society. One came off as a highly learned person earning a high income of $ 120,000 in a year with a lucrative job in the community as a manager in a reputable firm. According to this description, this places the person in the upper-middle-class position in society. This interviewee is an African American and believes that the American dream is attained through education. The Weberian model places this person in the upper middle class. According to Wright's model, this person is placed in the managerial class, which consists of highly educated professionals with a high income. The interviewee is male, and he is almost retiring. He has a business that runs an attribute that Wright says is similar to that of the capitalist or the upper class. The fact that the interviewee is male and aside from being employed, he runs a business, affirms the 10 million self-employed statistics of two-thirds of them being male (Kendall, 2013).
The second interviewee came off as some who earns a comfortable salary but with a low socioeconomic status. The interviewee has a white collar job that is a nurse in this case. This individual is a woman, and her annual salary is in the range of $ 70,000 to $ 80,000. She has a college degree. According to the Weberian model, she is strategically placed in the middle class. In this class, it is difficult to move up the ladder due to either upward mobility being blocked on the job or long term unemployment. Wright classifies them as the working class either having blue collar jobs or white collar jobs. Their level of education is also low, and they see themselves as having a comfortable life (McDougall, 2015). The lady also affirms that she belongs to the middle class because she feels satisfied with her job and her level of education.
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Race, gender, and class play a significant role, especially in the achievement of the American dream. Those in the lower class in society, women for example, who do not have faith in working hard, and have an income that is below average or is in a low financial state have odds that are low when it comes to believing in the American dream. Compared to black people, whites have a little odd of believing in the American dream. African Americans are a minority in the middle class in America, but for most of them, achieving middle-class status is seen as the American dream. Even though blacks may have work, they will struggle to achieve the American goal.
Racial inequality has resulted in the unequal opportunity because of the social stratification and constructs affecting homeownership, marriage rate, and employment (Ferrante, 2014). In the case of jobs, there has been an increase in the rate of work for women. Their level of education has also increased over time. It is noted that women between the ages of 25 to 64 in employment have at least a high school education. These stratifications play an essential role in the lives of both men and women. A woman who is educated and has employment is confident. Furthermore, in the world of today, there is an unequal status in work.
This unequal status affects the belief of women in the American dream. In addition to this, men have a high belief in the American dream than females. In the American community, men have more significant opportunities and power due to its patriarchal nature, which means men have higher mobility compared to women in terms of stratification. These stratifications also affected the perception of both males and females in attaining the American dream with men having a higher belief in achieving the goal.
According to the functionalist perspective, society is a structure of parts that are connected and work in harmony to keep a situation of social equilibrium and balance for the whole community (Kendall, 2013). That is to say, social institutions such as family present a condition for nurturing, socializing children, and reproducing. Education provides a way in which society can transmit its knowledge, culture, and skills to its youths. Politics offers a way in which the community can govern its members. Economics provides for distribution, production and goods and services being consumed. Moral guidance is provided by religion, which involves worshiping a higher power (Eagly, 2013).
This perspective of sociology applies in the individual's life because it outlines matters like one being single or having both parents working and how these affect their sibling's outcome in school. This is because, since both parent or parents are working, then they will have less time for their children and therefore they will perform poorly in class. The society is also interconnected and affect an individual life in that, with the advancement of technology, these individuals have gone back to study to improve their working skills. In the case of women, today's workforce has so many women working, which has led to the inclusion off sexual harassment policies in workplaces.
The functionalist perspective is chosen in this case because of the interconnectedness of the individual's lives (Kendall, 2013). It explains precisely how society functions and makes an individual aware of what is needed to be done. It also explains personal life. For example, society can be dysfunction or functional, depending on different matters (Ferrante, 2014). The community is functional if these matters affect life in a positive way or dysfunctional if they affect life in a negative way. From another perspective some of these matters can either contribute in both a dysfunctional way or functional way, for example, crime can affect society in both a dysfunctional and functional way in that it can lead to harm, but also it makes the society more aware of what morals they share and also increase social cohesion.
Interviews are useful in obtaining detailed data about an individual opinion, feelings, and perception. They also allow for a more thorough questioning process. In an interview, the interviewee responses are recorded; they also achieve a high response rate. Furthermore, ambiguity can be defined and follow up done. An interview also allows one to quote a specific respondent and the exact meaning of the questions clarified. Some respondents in an interview may be self-conscious in one way or (Kendall, 2013).
Although interviews are advantageous in several ways, they also have limitations, and these include; interviews take a lot of time to set up after which one has to conduct the interview, after the interview there is the transcription process than the analysis of the data then feedback and then finally reporting. Interviews are also very costly, and in addition to that, different interviewers may comprehend and transcribe information from interviews differently. The quality of data also depends on the interviewer since some interviewers may be shallow or and therefore, limited information is recorded. Interviews administered on paper are recorded manually and scanned, which increases the cost of the whole process. Finally, the use of interview is limited to the population that is supposed to be interviewed, another limiting factor is the number of the people that are actually qualified for the interview and the area in which the interview is to be taken (Kendall, 2013).
During the interview, information about the individual's families was taken into account, the man had a family, and he was the primary provider. He was also the main person making decisions in the family, and therefore, this family comes off as a patriarchal family. This person came off as a religious person and well spoken. He does not believe in polygamy but believes in the value of extended families. He has a higher social status than others because of his job as a manager and because he is well educated. This classifies this individual in the upper middle class in the society because he lives well and earns a lot of money. His language is also very much polished, which is mostly associated with this kind of class. His children are also taken to a good school and enjoy privileges only the rich can buy.
In the case of the lady, she is a well-spoken woman also learned. She is also a Christian and believes in a higher power. She is a single woman who believes in the sanctity of marriage. She is well aware of her social status in the middle class and is much comfortable form where she is. She has an extended family that stays close by, and they remain close together. She perfectly fits well in the middle class due to her opinion on how to treat her children. She is able to afford to take them to public schools and only buy the necessary things that they would only need. She can also afford to buy them a few luxury things that will make her children feel they fit in society. It is essential to say that at this strata, she is the most confident because she can live comfortably without having to depend on anyone but herself.
References
Eagly, A. H. (2013). Sex differences in social behavior: A social-role interpretation . Psychology Press.
Ferrante, J. (2014). Sociology: A Global Perspective . Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Kendall, D. (2013). Sociology in Our Times: The Essentials . Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
McDougall, W. (2015). An introduction to social psychology . Psychology Press.
