A Study Into Ethnic Origin And Ideal Body Shape.
A Study Into Ethnic Origin And Ideal Body Shape ? ? ? ? Contents * Abstract * Introduction * Method * Results * Discussion * References * Appendices Abstract A study into ethnic origin and ideal body shape. Aim > To determine if ethnic origin has an affect on a person's ideal preferred body shape. Hypothesis > I predict that ethnic origin will have no significant affect on preferred ideal body shape and any results showing that it does are coincidental and caused by chance factors Procedures > 24 females were asked to complete a questionnaire which asked they're age, gender, ethnic origin and what they're ideal body shape was out of four varying silhouettes shown to them. Findings > Females from the Black group chose a larger body shape than those originating from Western > Females from the group other chose an ideal body shape similar to that of female's origination from Western society. > Females from the Asian group chose a body shape thinner than that of females originating from a western society Implications of Findings > This study demonstrates how influential media images can be on a person's perception of the 'ideal body shape' and how these images may contribute to a sense of dissatisfaction of one's own body image.
What Are The Main Ways In Which Racism Affects Peoples Health And Well-Being In The UK? How Can Health Or Social Services Workers Contribute To Greater Equality In Service Provision Across All Ethnic Groups.
What Are The Main Ways In Which Racism Affects Peoples Health And Well-Being In The UK? How Can Health Or Social Services Workers Contribute To Greater Equality In Service Provision Across All Ethnic Groups. Racism is a socially constructed phenomenon, evident within mainstream society's individual and institutional value systems. The corrosive effects of racism seriously impinge upon the life chances and life expectancy of ethnic minorities, living within the United Kingdom. Within this essay I will attempt to highlight the social implications of racism, illustrating the relationship between racism, poverty and social exclusion. I will also consider recent government legislation and the contribution required from Social Services to combat the perpetuating effects of racism. Within today's society racial classification creates a dominant framework of superior and inferior beings, some still believe superiority of one race over another is a result of biological indifferences. According to De Gobineaue "the white race possesses intelligence, morality and will power superior to those of the others" [other races] (Giddens 1993:264). Alternatively, black races are considered to be, in educable, deviant and inferior to their white counterparts. These stereotypical viewpoints embody the essence of racism; Giddens (1993) defines racism as falsely attributing inherited
Assess the extent to which Marxist and Feminist theories help our understanding of religion in society today.
Assess the extent to which Marxist and Feminist theories help our understanding of religion in society today. Both Marxist and feminist theories are based upon conflict that is there are groups exploiting other subordinate groups, and they both see things from a macro point of view (the wider society). Marxist believe religion is part of the superstructure it's economically determined, as the infrastructure (economic base) controls the rest of society. Marxist see the religious organisation and all of its institutions as an ideological state apparatus used as a tool of oppression to place the proletariats in a subordinate position. Through secondary socialisation theodicy is passed onto the next generation which contains the ruling class ideologies, creating docile well behaved passive followers who are under false-class consciousness and defer their gratification as they seek salvation in the afterlife. E.g. through such things as religion hymns their position in society is justified to them and legitimised to the ruling class as they come to believe that their position in society is divine. Marxists see religion as a method of cushioning the effects of oppression and at the same time maintaining the oppression, acting as a mechanism of social control making sure the continuous exploitation carries on. Religion therefore offers and illusion for the followers as they believe
Examine the main trends in births and deaths in the United Kingdom since 1900
Examine the main trends in births and deaths in the United Kingdom since 1900 (24marks) Births are the amount of babies born. Sociologists use the concept of birth rate to measure births. The birth rate is defined as the number of live births per 1000 of the population per year. There has been a long-term decline in the number of births since 1900. In that year, England and Wales had a birth rate of 28.7, but by 2007 it had fallen to an estimated 10.7. However there have been fluctuations in births, with three 'baby dooms' in the 20th century. The first came after the two world wars, 1974-18 and 1939-1945, as returning servicemen and their partners started families that they had postponed during the war years. There was the third baby boom in the 1960s, after which the birth rate fell sharply during the 1970s. The rate rose during the 1980s, before falling again after the early 1990s. Sociologists have identified a number of reasons for the decline of birth rate since 1900. The reasons consist of social, economic, cultural, legal, political and technological factors Firstly the women position in society has changed. They have become more equal to men by able to work and have more choices. Many women are choosing to delay child birth, or not have children at all, this is so they can concentrate more upon there career along with there social life. For example in
Assess the usefulness of Postal Questionnaires
Assess the usefulness of Postal Questionnaires Postal questionnaires are surveys sent out by post with a pre-paid envelope. A researcher will often use some form of incentive in order to encourage high response rate, this could be entry to some sort of competition or perhaps a small free gift if sent back before a certain date. Postal questionnaires like all questionnaires are restricted to two basic types of question: Closed-ended (or "closed question") is a question for which a researcher provides a suitable list of responses (e.g. Yes / No). This produces mainly quantitative data. Open-ended (or "open question") is a question where the researcher doesn't provide the respondent with a set answer from which to choose. Rather, the respondent is asked to answer "in their own words". This produces mainly qualitative data. Some advantages of using postal questionnaires as oppose to other forms of questionnaire are: The researcher is able to contact large numbers of people quickly, easily and efficiently using a postal questionnaire (since all he / she has to do is identify the group that will be targeted and post them the list of questions).Questionnaires are relatively quick and easy to create, code and interpret, especially if closed questions are used. In addition, the respondent, not the researcher does the time consuming part of completing the questionnaire. The
Critically assess the view that religion opresses women (33 marks)
Critically assess the view that religion oppresses women (33 marks) Women's religious oppression has long been an issue for religious women and sociologists. Much of the evidence to suggest that women are oppressed comes from the sociologist view of feminism. Feminists tend to formulate that women are disprivileged due to the fact that religion is a mainly patriarchal institution where supernatural beings and leaders are overwhelmingly male. However, this is a blanket definition and can be defined in several different branches. Altogether, there are three main denominations. Liberal, Radical and Marxist feminists all approach patriarchal religion with slightly different idea towards religion but essentially aiming for the same thing. Liberal feminists are the most well known of all. Their main aim is to gain religious equality for women by removing their obstacles that their religions put onto them to allow them the right to become priests and other forms of figures of importance. While, radical feminists take a more direct approach to the issue by saying that religion exists solely for the benefit of men. They also believe that the rise of monotheism is a problem due to the fact that it is hard to find a religion where their one and only supreme being is female. In the same light, Marxist feminists also take a very direct method to approach women's oppression. They say
Assess the usefulness of structural approaches to our understanding of society.
Assess the usefulness of structural approaches to our understanding of society. (40 Marks) There are three structural approaches that we must look at to understand society, Functionalism, Marxism and Feminism. These three theories can all be described as structural, macro, positivist and a consensus point of view. Functionalism studies sociology as a whole. It sees society as a system with all parts inter-related and working together to meet the needs of society. In other words, society operates like a living organism with interdependent structures of society such as families, education and religion. Functionalists believe every society is made up of four sub-systems: economic, political, family and cultural systems such as education, religion and media. Each sub-system functions to maintain a healthy society. Functionalists such as Durkheim and Parsons believe that modern society has to be based on consensus. Cultural systems socialise individuals to conform to society's norms and values. This creates a value consensus, which gives us a shared agreement of norms and values by all individuals in society. This maintains social order so that society is able to function properly; creating a stable and harmonious society, because of this social change will be slow and gradually evolves. If one part of the system does break down and becomes dysfunctional then this can affect
How has the family changed over the last 100 years
Sociology Since the last 100 years family life has changed dramatically the way they behave and socialise, this essay will show what and how families have changed, they have changed in many different ways, some in a good and some in a bad way, I.e. more mothers work outside the house, more school educated, different races, useage of more technology, Murdock's view on families etc. This change has been brought up by the media, the environment families were in and inventing new things have also been a part of changing our family life's. The term family means that a group of people who live together under the same roof, who are socially-related to one another and that there is a sense of family as our universal kinship, its meant by that we are connected/related to each other by blood or marriage. An example of kinship relations is a mother and a child. There are three divisions of family, these are called, extended families/Nuclear families/ and re-constitutional families. George Peter Murdock, an functionalist sociologist, defined family as a quote, it stated that ''the family is a social group characterized by common residence, economic co-operation, and a reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least to of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted of the sexually co-habiting adults.'' He meant by this that a
Examine the problems sociologists may find when using participant observation in their research.
Examine the problems sociologists may find when using participant observation in their research. When sociologists carry out an investigation, they can execute their research in a number of ways. One way to do this is participant observation. Participant observation is a primary research method in which a sociologist studies a group by taking a role within it and participating in its activities. There are two different types of participant observation. Overt where the participants are aware of the researcher's true identity, and there is covert which means undercover where the true identity of the researcher is a secret. One problem of participant observation is there are several practical disadvantages. It is very time consuming, an example would be Eileen Barker who did a study of "The Moonies" and which took her 7 years to complete. Alongside this, the researcher needs to be able to recognise aspects of a situation which aren't significant and worth further attention. If the observation is covert it can be very stressful and demanding. Another problem is reliability. Reliability means if another researcher repeats the method they would get the same results. To achieve reliability, research procedures must be standardised so that other researchers can reproduce them. Participant observation usually produces qualitative data; this can make comparisons between studies
Assess the usefulness of official statistics as a source of secondary data in sociological research.
Assess the usefulness of official statistics as a source of secondary data in sociological research. Official statistics are considered useful because it is high in reliability. Emile Durkheim believed suicide statistics from European countries were sufficiently reliable to establish correlations between suicide and other 'social facts'. From the statistics, he concluded that higher level of social integration among Catholics result in lower suicide rate. It was evident that this statistical data is reliable because when he checked on differences within the population of particular countries, he found out that Bavaria, the area of Germany with the highest number of Roman Catholics, also had the lowest suicide rate. However, Atkinson has criticized the validity of suicide statistics by claiming that the commonsense theories held by coroners influence the way they categorise sudden death. For example, death by gunshot is more likely to be defined as suicide if it took place in the countryside during an organized shoot. It is possible that some suicide cases are not recorded due to the coroners wrongly assume that it is a sudden death instead of suicide. Hence, we can say that although official statistic is useful in terms of its reliability, the usefulness is flawed by its validity problem. Another usefulness of official statistics is they are high in objectivity. As claimed
