Answer any 5 of the following questions. Please note that your answer for each q

Question

Answer any 5 of the following questions. Please note that your answer for each question will be not more than 750words

Need to use contemporary examples and photographs of your choice to support the statements.

QUESTION 1

‘Photographic images convey more than visual facts’ – discuss this statement by exploring the processes that occur in the ‘practice of looking’, and highlight the effects they may have on everyday social life.

QUESTION 2

Sexual orientation has become a main issue in contemporary social policy. Elaborate.

QUESTION 3

According to Max Weber, the actual operation of a democratic society is in the hands of the bureaucracy. Discuss.

QUESTION 4

The mass media are considered to be the one social institution that can help the individual to create a sense of belonging - not to specific cultural groups but to a general or mass culture. Discuss.

QUESTION 5

“Education has an important role to play in any society.” Critically assess this statement from the following perspectives:

(a) Functionalism

(b) Marxism

(c) Feminism

QUESTION 6

‘Sociology is related to technology and media’. Discuss this statement with relevance to your society.

QUESTION 7

‘Women empowerment has increased the risk of gender-based violence in the Maldivian society’. Discuss this statement.

Explanation / Answer

Ans. 1: We’ve all heard the cliché, “a picture tells a thousand words”, but there is real value in using images to promote scientific content. Images help us learn, images grab attention, images explain tough concepts, and inspire.

We are very visual creatures. A large percentage of the human brain dedicates itself to visual processing. Our love of images lies with our cognition and ability to pay attention. Images are able to grab our attention easily, we are immediately drawn to them. Think about this blog, for example: did you look at the words first, or the image?

We process images at an alarming speed. When we see a picture, we analyse it within a very short snippet of time, knowing the meaning and scenario within it immediately. The human brain is able to recognise a familiar object within 100 milliseconds. People tend to recognise familiar faces within 380 milliseconds, which is pretty speedy.

Bright colors capture our attention because our brains are wired to react to them. Our vision senses are by far our most active of the senses. This may be thanks to our evolution. Quick processing of visual information would have saved our ancestors from the attack of a predator or during a hunt for food. A gatherer would need to be able to identify certain shades of red berries during their forage. These primitive behaviors come into play even now in our everyday lives. This is often a fact that advertisers use to their advantage.

Images on social media: As Social Media Assistant at BioMed Central, one thing I’ve realised is how vital images are in my role. A post on social media accompanied by an image is 10 times more likely to receive engagement. Visuals are one way of grabbing your audience’s attention and gaining interaction, especially on Facebook. With this in mind, you can use these images to drive users to research.

And what if you have limited characters to write with? Twitter only allows users 140 characters of text, which can sometimes make it difficult to convey a complex message. With an image, you can help explain these tough concepts without taking up too much space.

Images help educate: In a world where we are bombarded by stimuli, we often seek the easiest and most fluent way of acquiring and learning information. Reading can be a slow and time-consuming activity. It takes a lot longer to read a long sentence than to analyse a visual scene.

At school we are expected to scour our textbooks and memorise sentences word-for-word. This isn’t always the best tactic. Many of us are visual learners, who memorise content more effectively if it happens to be image-based.

This is what makes infographics so popular: they crunch down data and findings and present them in an easy to digest manner.

The images, diagrams, and figures in infographics make the learning process more fluid.

Images help tell a story: Sometimes scientific findings, even the important ones, just don’t seem personal to us as individuals. People may not feel concerned about a certain disease or condition because they are not emotionally invested in it. Now, this isn’t because we’re all stone hearted monsters. It’s because sometimes these findings just aren’t reaching out to us in the way they ought to.

Images help us become involved. With images, we are seeing the science, rather than standing on the outskirts. The images help contribute to the storytelling process that canmake science more engaging.

Images are a vital part of science communication, and shouldn’t be cast out in favour of long blocks of text. In order to break down the often complex messages of science, we need the help of visuals.

Ans. 2: Sexual orientation is an enduring emotional, romantic, sexual or affectional attraction to another person. It can be distinguished from other aspects of sexuality including biological sex, gender identity (the psychological sense of being male or female) and the social gender role (adherence to cultural norms for feminine and masculine behavior).

Sexual orientation exists along a continuum that ranges from exclusive homosexuality to exclusive heterosexuality and includes various forms of bisexuality. Bisexual persons can experience sexual, emotional and affectional attraction to both their own sex and the opposite sex. Persons with a homosexual orientation are sometimes referred differently (both men and women) or (women only).

Sexual orientation is different from sexual behavior because it refers to feelings and self-concept. Persons may or may not express their sexual orientation in their behaviors. The word homosexual is usually avoided because of its negative connotations relating to the way it has been used in the past.

Sexual orientation is a relatively recent notion in human rights law and practice and one of the controversial ones in politics. Prejudices, negative stereotypes and discrimination are deeply imbedded in our value system and patterns of behaviour. For many public officials and opinion-makers the expression of homophobic prejudice remains both legitimate and respectable - in a manner that would be unacceptable for any other minority.

The main principles guiding the rights approach on sexual orientation relate to equality and non-discrimination. Human rights advocates, lawyers and other activists seek to ensure social justice and guarantee the dignity of lesbians, gays and bisexuals.

Societal attitudes toward homosexuality vary greatly in different cultures and different historical periods, as do attitudes toward sexual desire, activity and relationships in general. All cultures have their own values regarding appropriate and inappropriate sexuality; some sanction same-sex love and sexuality, while others may disapprove of such activities in part. As with heterosexual behaviour, different sets of prescriptions and proscriptions may be given to individuals according to their gender, age, social status or social class.

Homophobic attitudes in society can manifest themselves in the form of anti-LGBT discrimination, opposition to LGBT rights, anti-LGBT hate speech and physical attacks targeting (presumed) LGBT persons.

Many of the world's cultures have, in the past, considered procreative sex within a recognized relationship to be a sexual norm—sometimes exclusively so, and sometimes alongside norms of same-sex love, whether passionate, intimate or sexual. Some sects within some religions, especially those influenced by the Abrahamic tradition, have censured homosexual acts and relationships at various times, in some cases implementing severe punishments. Many countries have also seen rising support for LGBT rights in modern times (including the legal recognition of same-sex marriage, anti-discrimination laws, and other such rights).

Ans. 5:

Education is so much important for success in life. Education is important for the personal, social and economic development of the nation. Education is important to live with happiness and prosperity.
Education empowers minds that will be able to conceive good thoughts and ideas.

Education enables students to do the analysis while making life decisions.

Life gives various survival challenges for humans. But education guide human to fight the with failure and get success in life.

Education is only one thing that can remove corruption, unemployment, and environmental problems. Education is not about doing degree it is about how you can live with your own feet.

Education helps to become good students, parents, entrepreneurs, doctors, siblings and honest citizens. Being in contact with an educated person and having an intelligent conversation with him expands knowledge and introduces a certain creativity and joy in the mind.

Education makes the national development process fast. Education develops good political ideology.  The standard of living of its citizens is largely dependent on the level of education the citizens are able to acquire.

The value of education and its significance can be understood from the fact that as soon as we are born, our parents start educating us about an essential thing in life. A toddler starts learning new words and develops a vocabulary based on what his parents teach him. They educate him who is his father, mother, brother, sister etc. and how to behave with each person giving them due respect. They also impart him priceless knowledge about ethics and morals right from the beginning when he has a tender mind so that these qualities stay with him for his entire life in the form of conditionings.

How we behave with our parents and how much regard we have for our elders is a direct result of our initial education in our childhood days. So it wouldn’t be wrong to say that a person’s initial education begins at his home. Parents guide their child not just into the first steps when he starts learning how to walk; they also guide him on the steps to be taken with behavior, morality, and respect.

They educate him about the rules of society and why they need to be followed to become a good human being. As the child grows older, his ambitions and desires grow bigger and parents try their best to provide him the best educational environment to make his dreams come true.In today’s era, it is extremely important to know about the significance of a good education. A good education does not simply consist of going to school or college to get a degree. It goes beyond that. If someone is able to read or write, has gone to school and attained a degree, it does not mean he has a complete education. This is just a part of the knowledge that makes him aware of what is important in the world, and since most of the world wants a degree from him, he goes ahead and gets a degree. In this process, he gets the capability to know what is important for him, what is wrong and what is right.

Ans. 6: Sociology is defined as "The science of human society." In many, if not all cases, human roots, organizational skills and the development of society with regard to technology have been key attributes in the field of sociology. Technology introduces advancements and information that plays an important part in helping a society to achieve its objectives. No matter what those goals are, relationships are always at the heart of accomplishing them. In this day and age of advanced (and extremely sophisticated) technology, people seem to be making connections more easily and on a much broader scale. They are interacting in many different ways and in some cases, the interactions are extremely creative. Of course, the bottom line is that it always comes down to the human relationship.

With the huge number of people who are involved nowadays with social networks, it is very interesting to note how they are influenced by each other in many different ways. Human beings need to network. It is one of the major sources of happiness and fulfillment and the more they interact (on many different levels), the more satisfied they are going to feel. When people engage in social networking, there is no doubt that they start to have a tremendous impact on each other and the discussions that come out of the networking experiences very often affect the decisions that they make in life and in business. It is very important for people to recognize and appreciate how much other people influence them and how much that enriches their own experience. It has been proven that conscious and subconscious behaviors dramatically increase when people are involved thorugh social networking. Because humans are emotionally dependent on each other, many people will share qualities, both positive and negative.

It is important to understand that if sociology and its relationship to technology fails, the fault lies with the people. Technology is created and maintained by humans. If something goes wrong on the technical side, it is irrational to blame the technology itself. The responsibility always lies with the people. On the other side, the people are the ones who deserve the credit when everything works out well. For example, a huge amount of friends on Facebook, or dozens of followers on Twitter, requires maintenance to keep the interest of those advocates. No matter how technologically advanced your social media channels are, without human involvement, progress is not possible.

There are often times that one wonders how social media became so popular and why so many people have shown such an interest in it. First of all, it is critical to understand that human relationships are at the heart of social media's success. By no means does this discount how important the technological aspect is. Without technology, there would be no social media to begin with. One of the biggest reasons for the success of social media is accessibility to people at incredible speeds. The interactivity of social media is what relates to human nature. The sociological characteristics of social media can be credited with its own progress. Human beings' influence on each other is a part of the phenomenon that is inevitable. People make choices in life (and the same applies to their interaction through social media) in large part due to what other people do and say.

Sociology plays a tremendous role in the success of social media. Technology can be viewed as an extremely sophisticated tool that makes things possible when it comes to social media and human beings. As time goes on, those tools change and new ways are introduced. It is very important to take advantage of whichever technological advances are being offered, as long as they make sense for your business. A devotion of time and energy toward working with new technologies will pay off in business in one way or another.

Ans. 7: Maldives is currently in a transition period from an empowerment and integration approach to gender equality and mainstreaming. Under this shift in policy a Gender Management System (GMS) based on the Commonwealth model was put into place in 2001, with the establishment of a Gender Equality Council and the subsequent appointment of Gender Focal Points in all sectors. A National Plan of Action incorporating the Beijing Platform for Action, Commonwealth Plan of Action on Gender and Development, SAARC Plan of Action on Women, SAARC Plan of Action on the Girl-Child and CEDAW was formulated and in being incorporated into the annual workplans of the MGFDSS. The Sixth National Development Plan and the Vision 2020 of Maldives also have incorporated gender as a crosscutting issue. A National Policy on the Equality of Women and Men has been formulated and has been approved in principle by the Cabinet.  

Island Women’s Development Committees (IWDCs) have been established under the MGFDSS, in all inhabited islands and all the wards of the capital, Male’, to work towards eliminating existing gender disparities and raising the health, education and economic status of women. A Micro credit loan scheme was first conducted under an European Union funded project. Loans were disbursed to women in the capital Male’ and also to women in two of the outer atolls. Due to the scheme’s success a second micro credit loan scheme was funded by the government. Loans have been disbursed for women in Male’. Both schemes proves to be very successful and in great demand. Work is underway to issue more loans under the scheme to women in selected atolls.

A campaign to raise awareness on the issue of VAW was started in 2002. Under this campaign, documentaries, posters and TV spots were produced and widely distributed to make the public understand the subtleties of Gender Based Violence and to encourage women to take the initiative to break the cycle of violence. The focus is now on developing the required human resource capacity and on strengthening the necessary institutional mechanisms for a multi-sectoral support system for victims of violence. Specific legislation to deal with gender based violence is being drawn up with the technical assistance of International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).  

The Maldives ratified CEDAW with reservations in 1993. The MGFDSS has been conducting information sessions and workshops to create awareness on the obligations of the state after ratifying CEDAW and to provide knowledge and skills in the practical application of the principles of the convention for protecting the rights of women.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse A
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.