Answer to Question #47586 in Sociology for Jay

Question

"Difference can refer to variations between people-these may be physical, behavioural, or related to attitudes and preferences" Could someone illustrate the last sentence?

Answer 1

The concept of difference in Sociology might be treated as otherness, as a unique characteristic of each person; it helps characterize the majority and minority concerning any issue or situation. From the sociological perspective, differences are not inherent to people. In other words, people are not born with a set of characteristic features that define their way in life; on the contrary, these features are acquired by people through getting certain life experiences. Understanding of differences is the key to defining one’s social identity, which is a set of characteristics that are related to one’s social belonging. In simple terms, people define those individuals that belong to “their” group as “our” and those who belong to other social groups as “not our”. Physical variations concern appearance, gender, age, ethnicity, etc. Behavioral variations unite or separate people based on similarity or difference in their behaviors in this or that situation. Difference in attitudes and preferences concerns the ways how people evaluate this or that event based on their system of beliefs, convictions, and lifetime experiences. Diversity is what makes people so unlike and thus interesting to each other.