IMPACT OF SOCIAL LIFE ON INDIVIDUAL’S LIFE CHANCES

IMPACT OF SOCIAL LIFE ON INDIVIDUAL’S LIFE CHANCES

ABSTRACT

The main topic discussed in this research is the impact of social life on individual’s life chances in terms of marriage, housing, political involvement, family experience and education. The researcher is an American student. The main methods for carrying out research are use of questionnaires, interviews and secondary sources with the conclusion confirming the hypothesis that there is a relationship between social life and individual’s life chances.

INTRODUCTION

Social class of an individual can have both negative and positive impacts on individual life. Social life brings inequality because commodities and chances in the society are not equally distributed and therefore there is a daily struggle to obtain them. This can be observed in areas of life in terms of marriages, family experiences, occupation, holidays, housing, education political involvement or even healthcare. Social class can determine who to marry, which time of housing one will have or live in, which level of education an individual can have and the school an individual will go to, whether an individual will pursue leadership positions in politics and which hospital an individual will go to seek medical services.

Furthermore individuals with same age, race or gender will tend to form a given social class in terms of the work that they do for example there are some jobs associated only traditionally with males like engineering and plumbing. In this research, the researcher will show how social class in America compares to that in Kenya and social class of individuals globally.

Individuals in lower class with lower income and low education can rarely afford good healthcare services, good education level and service as compared to people of higher classes. (Sally,2013)

DEFINATION OF TERMS

• Sociology involves the study of a society in terms of its social behaviour; its organization network, origin, development and institutions. Main areas that sociology focus on include social mobility, religion, law, social stratification, social class and sexuality.
• Social inequality refers to the presence of unequal rewards and opportunities for different classes and positions in the society. Social inequality can be viewed in terms of income, wealth, power, schooling, ethnicity, occupation and race.
• Race refers to division of individuals based on their social relations, physical characteristics, and genetics.
• Gender is usually determined by being either Male of Female which differentiates individuals in terms of either being masculine or feminine.
• Global perspective- This can looked at in terms of global perspective about sociology which entails world view and study on social classes of the entire world in terms of the social classes and social inequality.
• Life chances refers to the opportunities that individuals have to get their fare share in life which can be determined by his status, economic situations, and the power that he posses.

Lower class people can be partially be held responsible for their status with claim that society offers many chances or opportunities for them to improve their social class.

• Research methods- these are techniques or methods that are used for conducting a research like telephone survey, questionnaire, interviews, observation, analyzing historical records and documents analysis.

BACKROUND OF THE STUDY

Differences social classes of individuals’ lives in this society have impacted their lives differently thus creating different life chances that they have in life in terms of opportunities and rewards in terms of occupation, healthcare, marriage, education, political involvement and family experience which are some of the times determined by factors like race and gender. The society has over the years experience social inequality and this motivated an American student to do a research to find out how different social determines individual’ s life chances in terms of marriage, housing , occupation, life experiences and political involvement after hearing many people complaining about social inequality in America.

OBJECTIVES

Specific objective:  To find out how can difference in social class impact an individual’s overall life chances.

General objectives:

• To determine how social classes contributes to social inequality in marriage, family experiences, housing, education, political involvement and healthcare.
• To find out how social classes intersect with areas of diversity based on age, race and gender to bring social inequality.
• To find out how is social inequality perceived globally.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• How can difference in social class impact an individual’s overall life chances?
• How social classes contribute to social inequality in marriage, family experiences, housing, education, political involvement and healthcare?
• How social classes intersect with areas of diversity based on age, race and gender to bring social inequality?
• How is social inequality perceived globally?
• HYPOTHESIS

H0; There is no relationship between social class and individual’s life chances.

H1; There is a relationship between social class and individual’s life chances.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH

1. Provision of decision making aid since it will help the government in making decision when redistributing resources to the society to minimize social inequality.
2. This research will help scientists involved in studying social problems in our society by providing them with intellectual knowledge that may help them develop set of principles for understanding and prediction of human interactions with its environment.
3. As a student it will help me in my career as am doing my masters and also to achieve high position in the society social structure, to provide service to our society, to gain respect and also an intellectual joy to me because of doing creative works. (Giddens, 2007)

Limitations of the study

• Time, there was limited time to carry out the research due to less time offered by those who I obtained information from like institutions and individuals.
• Cost, this involved high cost of travelling from one research area to another and for producing  questionnaires and for buying secondary data sources.
• There exist insufficient interaction between organization that determine distribution of resources in the country and the research institutions in our society. This acted as a great barrier in doing the research.
• There was poor functioning and management of libraries that the researcher visited and this made the researcher to use much energy and time in tracing journals, books, reports and previously done researches on the topic yet this time could be used in tracing relevant materials.

Scope of the research study

The study covered a large area n> 30 covering mainly focusing on American and Kenyan citizens.

Conceptual framework for the study

This is a diagrammatic representation of the relation between the variables under this study which include individual life chances as dependent variables and social class in terms of marriage, housing, family experiences, political involvement and healthcare as independent variables of the study.

Independent variables                                         dependent variable

Marriage

Housing                                                                 Individual’s life chances.

Family experiences

Political involvement

Healthcare

       Theoretical framework of the study.

• Conflict theory, this argues that conflict erupts when status, power and resources are unequally distributed to citizens in the society and that one’s social is not only determined by age, race or gender by also by factors like education level. In America some of main social conflict includes gender inequality like leaking photos of females thus undermining them, police brutality against Black Americans who are shot even if they are not criminal. In Kenya the main social conflict includes tribalism where voting, resource distribution and employment is mainly tribal as each tribe seek their own interest.

METHOD SECTION

The researcher used the following methods for data collection during research;

• Questionnaires
• Interviews
• Observation
• Secondary data sources

RESULT SECTION

• Citizens are blaming the society for making low class people poor because the society is not offering enough job opportunities to support the poor.
• Effects of social inequality include high rates of diseases, violence, accidents, and neglect among the poor which can lead to higher death rate.
• In both countries children born by rich parents end up being rich while those of low class end up in poverty because of low healthcare and quality of education and lower chances to be involved in politics.

CONCLUSION

If the society is dreaming to one day have social equality the factors that keep those of higher class rich and those of lower class poor have to be broken by the government  through equally redistribute resources and providing opportunities and services like education, occupation and healthcare equally both in Kenya and America.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• The government should strive to be protecting all citizens and equally redistribute resources and services in the country not based on gender race, gender, age or ethnic group.
• Library functions and management should be improved to help researchers obtain relevant information in a timely manner and at a low costs.
• The government should develop a code of conduct to govern how research work need to carried out.
• The government should develop some mechanism of industry-university interaction seminars and programs so that business practitioners can give ideas to academicians on required areas of research and to boost the confidence level on research work done. (Ashley, 2005)

REFERENCES

1. Ashley D, Orenstein DM (2005) Sociologist theory: Classical statements (6^th ed) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S Pearson Education pp 3-5,38-40
2. Giddens, Anthony, Duneier, Mitchell, Applebaum, Richard.2007.Introduction to Sociology. Sixth Edition.New York: W.W Norton and Company chapter 1
3. Sally T Hillsman (February 2013) “Sociology is a STEM Discipline, American Sociological Association.