Question

As you are driving to Montgomery College, you notice a panhandler on a street corner. Instead of immediately assuming this person is lazy, you think that perhaps this person was struck with bad luck during the economic recession, became unemployed, and eventually lost everything. Your ability to understand the social context of this panhandler's situation is referred to as __________. (A) Ethnocentrism (B) Social fact (C) Formal rationality (D) Sociological imagination

Answer 1

Answer:

(D) Sociological imagination.

Explanation:

Sociological Imagination is defined as the ability to see socially and how they interact and influence each other. In other words, to think socially allows an individual to put themselves in the perspective of others' point of view, which is helpful as a tool for the understanding of the situations of others through rational thinking instead of experience.

Regarding the example, the driver uses Sociological Imagination to evaluate and make a plausible explanation for the panhandler's financial situation - even though the driver might not "have been in their shoes" before.