AS SOCIO

1. There are two types of questionnaires: Postal questionnaires and Structured Interviews. Postal
questionnaires are a form comprised of close-ended questions that can be delivered online through email and
social media. It can be easily quantified since the researcher can receive the responses easily at the other end
of the platform. Structured Interviews, however, are more complex than postal questionnaires as they involve
interviewing the actual respondent. The questions are also close-ended, quantified, and generalized, but this
method can only collect responses from limited respondents. Sometimes, the presence of the researcher
might even skew the results of the research because of respondents’ bias and reactions. This question can be
first answered from the perspectives of the researcher since the individual’s approaches to a research problem
might substantively differ from others.

2(a). Sociological research will be profoundly impacted even during the process of selecting the research
method. Sociologists have contradicting views as to the merits and shortcomings of various research
methods, and it really depends on the sociologist’s values and beliefs. For example, an interpretivist prefers
qualitative research methods such as unstructured interviews and participant observations to answer the most
important questions about, for example, crime raised by the researcher. When one prioritizes qualitative
methods over quantitative tools, it is expected that the sociologist values validity over generalization and
quantification. This involves the interpersonal comparison of utility that a researcher is biased against certain
tools of analysis that when engaging in research, the tools that catch the most resentment will be excluded
from the possibility set. Even the “research questions” and “topic choice” are subject to the subjective
determination of the researcher.

Sociological research might also be influenced by the bias emerging from the respondents. This is
epitomized by the limitations of methods like interviews, especially structured interviews. In structured
interviews, the primary objective of the researcher ought to be safeguarding reliability to the most
considerable degree. However, when the respondent is answering questions before the researcher, the
responses can be influenced by the respondent’s perception of the researcher because of religious, ethnic, and
other socioeconomic grounds like clothing. These factors undermine the reliability of the research because
one can cogently argue that the results would have been different had there been a different researcher with
the exact opposite characteristics. Therefore, sociological research is influenced by biases coming from all
participants of the project.

(b) Unstructured interviews are conversations in which there are no pre-determined topics of discussion
while the respondent is encouraged to talk at length unhampered. This is a qualitative research method
especially favored by the interpretivists.

One strength of unstructured interviews is that the conversation could lead to sophisticated revelation of how
people attach meanings to social facts, the contributing factors to human choices and actions, and other deep
aspects of human nature that cannot be learned through conducting a straightforwardly generalizable online
questionnaire. When the researcher is asking the respondent questions, the sociologist is privileged to gain
valuable insights from the stories told and the emotional attachments behind human endeavors that shape our
society. Unstructured interviews are by no means value-free and reliable, but it is precisely the reason why
some sociologists choose this method. They aim at understanding societies from an individual level, while
not viewing humans as products of social institutions.

However, unstructured interviews are not free from blemish because of the practical difficulties of carrying
them out. The method overwhelming requires the researcher to have outstanding skills of communication to
win the trust of the respondents. The researcher must form this kind of connection with the interviewee so
that the conversation can be as transparent and honest as possible. The amount of time spent on preparation
and the cost of renting venues and facilities are spared if the researcher only needs to send out a few forms
for quantifiable responses to generalize data. Therefore, the practical and technical impediments may be the
reason why researchers prefer other alternatives.
3(a).
Gender identities are often associated with the characteristics of males and females applied to the roles and
functions of respective groups in a society. This short essay intends to explore the influence of family on
gender identity.

Liberal Feminist theorists like Oakley believe that gender identities are products of socialization. They
believe that there should not be differences between boys and girls, but they become categorized into genders
because of different standards of child upbringing within the family, a central venue of primary socialization.
Boys are taught to be brave, courageous, and instrumental by encouraging them to engage in “masculine”
activities such as weightlifting and driving race cars. Girls, on the other hand, are socialized into
concentrating on chores, beauty, and appearances, which are different from activities for men. As a result of
the socialization process, girls are socialized into the traditional interpretation of womanhood, while boys
have become the epitome” of “real men”. Therefore, according to Oakley, gender identities are shaped within
the family through primary socialization.

Another sociological evidence is from the functionalist theory of gender within the family, championed by
Parsons. Parsons believes that participants of a massive society serve certain purposes and functions,
definitely including the respective functions and roles of men and women. He believed that men are
instrumental, while women are expressive. In a family, the powerful men would come back home while the
women were socialized into providing emotional care for the men, maintaining family stability. Only in this
fashion do Parsons and the functionalists believe that the family and society will be stable when men and
women are assigned to gender-exclusive tasks within the family. Therefore, the obligations of a family
member have a profound impact on gender identities that men and women are socially required to perform
different functions of the family, shaping their respective gender identities.

(b).

One sociological evidence against this view is actually from Oakley herself. Oakley’s works on different
female identities contradict her views on the family’s influence on gender identities. She has listed various
female identities such as contingent identities, assertive identities, and autonomous identities, where, except
contingent identities, the other identities are not compatible with the traditional interpretation of gender and
family order. Assertive identities believe in family, but women who belong to this category seek more control
over decision-making, while autonomous women do not even belong to the family. If the family has such
strong ramifications on shaping gender identities, then it will not lead to those who rebel against the
traditional perception and conceptualization of gender, but in this case, there are plenty of outliers. Other
external factors like feminism, social media, and globalization should also be considered to trace the changes
in gender identity instead of regarding family as a primary cause.

Section B

5.

There are various factors exerting an influence on an individual’s roles and functions and the way in which
that person is perceived in the society. This essay intends to explore whether age is the predominant factor in
transforming the social positioning of a person by comparing aging to other crucial factors like social class
and culture.

Aging is certainly a contributing factor to transforming the lifestyles of a person because deteriorating
physical capabilities mean that the usual roles and functions cannot be normally performed in most
circumstances. This can be epitomized by a career change of a professional basketball athlete who has to
alter the identity from a vibrant dunker to a grandiloquent salesman of his shoe brand and wine. In this
situation, age has profoundly changed a person possibly forever because there are new activities to be
engaged in once a generation of people enters a higher age group. The responsibilities change as well
because the elderly need to concentrate on family affairs such as caring for grandchildren when both parents
are absent. Attributed to their declining physical strength, researchers (Vauclair, 2017) also found adequate
evidence of ageism that aging is discriminated against and mortified because their infantilization lowers their
utility to others, often perceived as “useless” and a source of “burden” especially in western societies.

However, one must be cautious of this over-deterministic view on the implications of age on society because
these meanings tend to differ, being contingent upon the specific situations age is considered. Postmodern
sociologist Chambers (2012) argued that the de facto positions and capacities are not uniform across social
classes. The elderly who belong to the upper class are highly venerated for their financial prowess and
connections in the industry, actively participating in philanthropy, politics, and innovation. They still have
the never-diminishing thrust to improve their competitiveness against their rivals, while the poor elderly are
inactive and jobless, often considered as a burden for the government pension schemes. The middle-class
elderly are also viewed with much more prestige than the working class. This is epitomized by the students’
admiration for senior professors, scholars, and professionals with immense experience and knowledge in
particular politics that are their bailiwick. Therefore, it is not cogent to argue that there is a uniform
perception of age in a society because there are many more factors at play.

There are also cultural factors enormously shaping age identities in different societies. The disdain and
resentment toward old people tend to take place in Western societies because of the exceeding admiration of
consumerism and the culture of hostility toward the elderly, according to Ulrich Orth and Trzesniewski.
There is no culture of “filial piety” in Western countries, and there is no social convention morally requiring
young people to venerate their elders and treat them with considerable care. In oriental countries like China
and Korea, however, young people will be despised if they do not show respect for their elders, privately or
publicly. In Chinese schools, for example, teachers often convince students that is a moral imperative to
show kindness to the elderly and provide help and charity-related work whenever possible. Therefore, social
and cultural institutions also heavily determine the perception of age.

Deviating from the question of the elderly, Aries’ study of childhood exemplifies how different legal
institutions influence gender identities. In his examples of 16th-century Britain, children and teenagers were
considered to be equal to adults. There were several children between the ages of 7 and 17 executed for
committing arson and other egregious crimes. However, this cannot be even conceived from modern
perspectives in Western countries anymore because the current cultural and legal institutions provide a
separate phase for men: childhood. Therefore, the identity of a person may not be subject to the specific age
group because it depends on whether the culture values age as an important social construct.

By way of conclusion, this essay argues that age is not the predominant influence on a person’s identity
because the surrounding people care more about that person’s utility to others which may be influenced by
age, but the treatment of others and the roles depend on the current status and power held by these
individuals. Therefore, we cannot argue that age is the paramount factor but rather the contextual perception
of the age itself. There are circumstances where age does not receive considerable weighting as shown by the
examples of Aries’s research on childhood where children and adults were treated equally. One can argue
that a 50-year-old professor might not be considered significantly more or less valuable than a 60-year-old
professor, provided the equal prestige of academic excellence. Therefore, the statement in the question bears
little merit.