Examples Of Sociological Imagination Essay

The sociological imagination can be used to explain why people continue to smoke despite being aware of the health risks involved. The Sociological imagination is the shift from viewing social issues and diseases through a personal perspective to considering all the social factors that influence and shape the social issues and diseases within our lives. (Gilbert, Selikow, & Walker, 2010) A social issue that is largely influenced by society is smoking, because studies that will be discussed later show that stress and a person’s economic position are some of the contributing factors to smoking, which are both influenced by society. Smoking can be studied in relation to the psychosocio-enviromental model. This model views health and illnesses within a social context, where it seeks to create an understanding of the onset of the disease, illness or behaviour. This model also emphasises the “promotion and maintenance of health through the socio-environmental and behavioural changes.” (Gilbert, Selikow, & Walker, 2010)
Smoking is a key example of the difference between private and public troubles as stated by Mills (1968) in his book, The Sociological Imagination. (Gilbert, Selikow, & Walker, 2010) Fitzpatrick (1986) also

Instead of just looking at the physical action of smoking as a decision and personal preference, by studying the other possible factors from a sociological view there is a greater understanding of why people continue to smoke. Thus the cause and continuation of smoking cannot be viewed from a one sided approach but it should rather be viewed from a psychosocio-enviromental view as explained