General Chuck Yeager :: Essays Papers

General Chuck Yeager Charles E. Yeager was born on February 13, 1923 in Myra, West Virginia and raised the nearby village of Hamlin for the first eighteen years of his life. His father drilled natural gas, and his mother was a housewife. At an early age, Chuck helped his father drill, and learned mechanics from his father. Chuck was always fixing the car engines or the drill engine if it broke. In high school Chuck played basketball and baseball, although he never really excelled in either. He also was not that smart in school. He said the only thing that he was good at was typing and math, everything else, he got a D in. After high school, Chuck, being poorly educated and destitute decided to join the U.S. Army Air Corps. The funny thing about that is that Chuck never even saw an airplane on the ground until he was 16 years old, when it had an emergency and landed in a cornfield, and Chuck was not even impressed with it. He said the reason that he joined the Air Corps is because the recruiter made the Air Corps sound more interesting that the Navy recruiter. Anyway, Chuck joined the Air Corps as a mechanic. After a year of being a mechanic, the Untied States was short pilots, so they put up a notice to see if anyone wanted to become a pilot. Chuck signed the form; however, it took another year for them to pick him. It was always hard for Chuck to fit in among the other pilots and mechanics. Because he was from West Virginia, he had a strong accent, and a poor education, so he was never given a chance at first. Then, when he first went in a plane, he almost quit the pilot school because th ere was turbulence and he was bumping all over the place. On the other hand, once he flew a plane by himself he was hooked. He excelled in pilot school because he had excellent vision, 20/10, and learned how to dogfight, that is getting in position to shoot down another plane and avoiding getting shot down yourself. He left for the War in 1942. He was disappointed at first because after 6 missions, they hadn’t seen one German.

Should Sociology Be Scientific?

In sociology there are two main contrasting views to how the subject of sociology should be approached and studied, as a science or not. In this essay I will be explaining the arguments of each side of the discussion fully, and aim to show the positive and negative points of either approach to studying sociology. The first argument I will analyse is Positivism. Positivists support the view that sociology should be studied as a science, arguing that society and the activities of the individuals in society as a whole hold main similarities and attributes to the physical or natural world. Positivists believe that social factors are largely involved in determining human behaviour, an example being that positivists think that people wish to seek partners in order to allow them to marry and produce children, letting them fulfil societies expectations of them. Positivists use scientific methodology, which means that their procedures resemble methods of collecting data that are usually seen in practice in natural sciences. Examples of some of these methods are questionnaires, structured interviews or statistics. Using scientific procedures in the Positivists view means that more accurate results will be collected, they hold the view that it is possible to see society in an objective way. An example of this is Durkheim, who believed the social facts of society could be considered in the same way as objects and events of the natural world. He thought that social facts did not only consist of things that could be observed objectively or in a direct manner, but also belief systems which exist in the consciousness of individuals. To look at these belief systems in a scientific manner Durkheim thought that they couldn't be changed at will, but were controlled by society making them available to scientific approaches. Correlation is another part of scientific methodology, where by looking at different social facts correlations are found between them, where there is evidence of a relationship between two or more different factors. Durkheim found that in his study of suicide there was a relationship between suicide and religions, (e. g. Protestantism and a high suicide rate). After correlations are found between social facts the researcher may believe that one social fact causes another to make a hypothesis, such as crime causes a person to become working class, or being working class causes a person to commit crime. One problem with this part of the positivist scientific methodology is that some correlations found by researchers may just be by chance or indirect. This can happen where two social facts are found together but in actual fact don't have any direct connections to each other. It can happen that a third social fact has a relationship with both the other social facts, which can cause them to be linked. An example of this is gender being the cause of both level of criminality and location in the class hierarchy, which illustrates that class and crime aren't actually linked, but are both related to gender. In positivists research they also believe that if findings are verified and found in many different contexts such as in different societies around the world and during different time periods the research can be see as being a law of human behaviour, which is the main aim of the positivist perspective. This is where a statement is found to be true in all circumstances, a comparison being scientific laws such as gravity being established, positivists hold the view that these laws can be found in human behaviour. Durkheim thought he had found a law of human behaviour when his research into suicide had the conclusion that suicide rates always increased when in society there was a drastic change in the economy. Using scientific methodology such as questionnaires does have the positive of being reliable, as the data could be collected repeatedly and it is likely to achieve the same conclusions over and over again, but also has the weakness that people can lie and be biased in the questionnaires towards themselves. Another problem is that questionnaires restrict the answers of the individual being asked the questions, which also can happen in structured interviews where the individual cant put across what they want to say because of the structured questions and style of the interview. Also questionnaires and scientific methodology doesn't take into account the individual differences that could be involved in the issue that is being researched. An example of this is suicide. Research into the matter of suicide has been criticised when it has been done using scientific matters as Douglas made the criticism of Durkheim's research that not all suicides can be treated as the same type of act as they could have different or contrasting meanings behind them, e. g. lderly Eskimo's will kill themselves for the sake of their society, where as a someone in a western society may kill themselves because they are depressed. Also, in Durkheim's research into suicide, J. D Douglas criticized him saying that the statistics used weren't valid, as the decision to if the sudden death was a suicide is made by the coroner, who in turn is influenced by the family and friends of the victim. This creates the possibility of there being systematic bias in the decision, having the consequence of not very reliable statistics to base his conclusions on. Another weakness of scientific methodology is it can result in generalisations in the conclusions, where the researcher will split the data collected into different categories, as Durkheim carried out in his study into suicide, which can be too reductionist, missing out important factors in the issue being researched such as the background of the suicides etc. Another method used in sociological research is observation, which positivists believe that the social world can be objectively observed and classified. Observation is not only used by positivists, but is also used by many anti-positivist sociologists who have observed situations in connection with subjects like education and suicide, where Atkinson observed the processes involved in the decisions made by coroners in the coroners courts. One problem with using observation is that it is restrictive in the type of situations it can be used in, such as in the study of the subject of politics, sociologists are prohibited from observing the British Cabinet. Also because the results are based on how the situation was observed through the researcher, it is possible for there to be interference from the researcher in the data collected. Another group that support the idea of sociology being a science is realists, who see much of sociology being scientific. An example of this is the realist's sociologist Keat, who saw Marxist sociology as scientific as the models developed by Marx was evaluating processes and institutions in society based on empirical data. Realists suggest that both natural and sociological sciences have the same aim in the research carried out which is to develop theories and create perspectives to explain the world based on collected evidence. Auguste Comte was a founder of sociology, and through founding the subject attempted to show it as a science using a scientific manner in his research, studying social phenomena. He talked about discovering the laws social phenomena being the main aim behind the subject of sociology, and scientific methods being the best way of accomplishing this. He also thought that society as a whole was greater than the individuals within it, which in other words meant that society was more complex than the number of people in it, that it involved many other variables. One procedure that Comte supported was the HD procedure, which was where you started with a theory, created a hypothesis based on that theory, slected a research method that could be verified and analysise the data collected through this method to see if the hypothesis was correct. One problem with this procedure is that although it does have reliable data that is collected, and a straight forward procedure involved, a negative aspect of creating a hypothesis to work with before carrying out the research is that it brings in the possibility that the researcher will pick a research method which will be biased to the hypothesis by be the method most likely to prove it. An example of where this happened was the research into aids attempting to prove it as a ‘gay plague'. Another example of a positivist theory was made by Karl Popper, who created the theory of falsification. Popper believed that the best way to see if a theory or conclusion was true was to let it stand the test of time. In this he meant that the longer a theory was supported and unreputed by other sociologists, the more true it was. Popper was critical towards Marx, saying that he was unscientific because he didn't use empirical data and that Marx's theory couldn't be proved wrong or right as Marx left his theory open to when the revolution would actually happen, meaning that if a revolution didn't happen in that time period, Marx would still be able to argue that it was going to happen ‘some day in the future'. The other side of the argument of should sociology be scientific is held by anti positivists, such as Max Weber. Weber claims that to come to true conclusions the motives of a situation or a persons actions must first be understood. An example of this is if a person is fishing, are they doing it because its their hobby, or maybe because they are hungry. One process supported by Weber was verstehen, which is where the sociologist imagines himself or herself as the person or in the position of the person whose being studied. Weber thought that the motives behind an action are just as important as the actions themselves for coming to the truth behind a subject. There third perspective involved in the debate is Post Modernism, which believe in the grand narrative, or that there is no such thing as just having one dominant theory. Post Modernists believe the best results and theories are academic pick and mix's, where conclusions are drawn from many different perspectives and theories to get an all round finding that includes all the different points of view involved. Post Modernists also think that there is no such thing as one objective truth, and that no one method or way of looking at sociology can arrive at true conclusions as in reality, society is always changing as is the norms and values within society. One post modernist who believes that there is no one technique that can find the truth (a belief held by epistemology) is Lyotard, who sees all epistemology as being based on more the researchers opinions instead of being based on objective knowledge. This is known as being a metanarrative.

Gender Roles Are Not New For History - 1556 Words

Gender roles are not new to history; they have always been a part of society. Throughout history men have had predetermined roles as well as women. However, these roles have been ever evolving and changing. Society has always confined people of any sexual identity to the cookie cutter roles of gender, whether they fit or not. One thing that has never changed, only multiplied, is the pedestal of sensual appeal that women were thrust upon. While women have almost always served the same purpose in men’s eyes, some of the roles that are recognized as feminine today were passed down from men (Boboltz 1). A common reasoning behind high heels, for example, is that women wear them to improve posture, increase height, and to make a fashion statement. While this may be true today, high heels were in fact not invented by women for women (Boboltz 1). The origin of high heels are traceable back to the use of male Persian soldiers (Boboltz). These men are said to have invented the rai sed heels in order to help them mount their horses. Heels were â€Å"essential to the fighting styles of Persia† (Kremer 1). Persian soldiers supposedly invented heels in order to secure their mounting of the horse so that in the process arrows could be shot as well as when riding the horse (Kremer). The Persian heels started to make their way to Western Europe in the late sixteenth century. Aristocrats of Spain, Germany, and Russia were all introduced to this new marvel, and suddenly they became aShow MoreRelatedEssay about Historical roles of men and women in leadership 1217 Words   |  5 Pagesby women through history, the concept of history that needs to be observed is a vast period of time. For if all or most of known history about humans is not taken into consideration, then much of present day analysis of leadership gender roles might actually start to make sense. The previous sentence was not an error in thought or printing. Much of modern analysis of gender perspectives in leadership and the roles of men and women seem to forget the thousands of years of history and the more recentRead MoreEssay on Historical Roles of Men and Women in Leadership1231 Words   |  5 Pagesby women through history, the concept of history that needs to be observed is a vast period of t ime. For if all or most of known history about humans is not taken into consideration, then much of present day analysis of leadership gender roles might actually start to make sense. The previous sentence was not an error in thought or printing. Much of modern analysis of gender perspectives in leadership and the roles of men and women seem to forget the thousands of years of history and the more recentRead MoreGender Roles And Gender Inequality1262 Words   |  6 PagesThroughout history, there has always been the role of both the male and the female in society. As time passed and civilization progressed, the question of the role of the women has also changed. Men and women in society have had many differences, which included things such as gender roles, gender inequality, inequality in the workforce, and sex discrimination. Also, the questions of what it takes to be a man or to be a woman is very important. For many different cultures, gender differences are extremelyRead MoreAm erican History : The Eyes Of A Woman1171 Words   |  5 Pagesthought of how gender shapes our world today, let alone early America. In high school history classes, the history we studied always seemed to revolve around men and women were never really discussed. I had the notion that women just took a back seat throughout history, when in reality, they played an integral part in shaping early America. The role of gender transformed our country throughout the centuries. When we place women at the center of our analysis of early America, we see history from a fullerRead More Impact of Gender on Communication Essay1194 Words   |  5 Pages Throughout human history gender has had a significant, if not the most significant, role in human life. It is clearly a fork in the road at birth that will determine many things you will barely ever have any control over. What you wear, what you eat, what you do; all is directly influenced all throughout your life based on your gender. These â€Å"gender-roles† have been long assigned without personal say, or even our parents say. In fact, it stems from almost pre-historic times to the beginningRead More Anthropology and Gender Essay1576 Words   |  7 PagesThough women have played an integral part in the history of the discipline of anthropology, it was not until the early 1970’s that the field of anthropology and gender, or feminist anthropology emerged. Sex and gender roles have always been a vital part of any ethnographic study, but the contributors of this theory began to address the androcentric nature of anthropology itself. The substantial gap in informa tion concerning the study of women was perceived as a male bias, a prejudice made more apparentRead MoreGender Roles During Modern Europe1485 Words   |  6 PagesGender roles in early modern Europe were ultimately characterized by the culture forces that shaped the period, particularly through religion, literature and art, and through the establishment and the execution of the law. Men and women’s roles and responsibilities as husbands and wives and as fathers and mothers were principally imposed by these cultural facets. While economic pressures did influence gender roles, their overall impact was less than that of their cultural counterparts. ReligionRead MoreWomen s Influence On The Formation Of The New Land971 Words   |  4 PagesThroughout history men have been conquers, captains, leaders, kings, and have left a print in history. On the other hand, women are depicted as weak and fragile, unable to fend for themselves. According to society women need a strong masculine man to protect and provide for them. What if I told all that could’ve been different in a new world where women and men could be free, own land, and practice any religion, would you go? Many European settlers fled England with hopes to break free from traditionRead MoreThe Role Of Gender Roles In The Elizabethan Era1075 Words   |  5 Pages  Ã‚  Ã‚   The stereotypical topic of gender roles in early history is the definition of the Elizabethan Era. Since the beginning of time females has been ranked below all male figures in status as well as a work force. Furthermore, the men were known to be the breadwinners for the family whereas the women were meant to stay at home housewife (Sharnette). Throughout history this storetype has evolved, but an average day for a male and female during the Elizabethan Era is rather contrasting. With women havingRead MoreGender Roles Essay562 Words   |  3 PagesGender Roles Women and men have extremely different roles in society. These gender roles are very evident in the way we see ourselves as women, which is based on how we have been treated in the past and the actions in history we have taken toward gender equality. Katha Pollitt expresses her feminist view in her work Why boys dont play with dolls. Instead of looking at kids to prove that differences in behavior by sex are innate, we can look at the ways we raise