CCO 105 (TMA)

Ahhhhh~ the module that is simple yet complex, obvious yet hidden, and that would be social research. In this module, we are basically learning how to reveal the hidden intricacies of how society operates and how it is affects us. In our first two lessons, we were taught about the fathers of sociology; Karl Marx, Max Weber and Emile Durkheim. How they developed their theories gave new impetus to revealing social structures. As such, we were tasked to identify a social phenomenon in our TMA and integrate two or more theories created by Marx, Weber and Durkheim which are conflict theory, symbolic interactionism and structural functionalism, to our social phenomenon identified. To gain a better idea of what these 3 thinkers talked about, this would be a better aid.


For that, I have picked the topic on the Japanese culture of practising Inemuri which is the art of sleeping in public. As I have picked symbolic interactionism and structural functionalism, I have committed the mistake of using ideologies instead of ideas in my essay. Thus, this has caused me some marks as it has shown a lack of understanding and carelessness in my essay. If such a careless mistake has been avoided, I think I could have scored a grade higher for the TMA. The difficulty I have encountered when writing the essay would mostly be on the integrating of two thinkers. As all crafts requires practice, one factor for my struggle during the integrating would definitely be the lack of practice. This is again proven when I can see that I can easily integrate the three theories during exams.

After learning social research, it allowed me to understand the importance of sociology and how simple things we do in our everyday life is a result of what the society deems as appropriate. As a business student, gaining such knowledge is indeed vital due to our ever-changing environment and understanding it will allow us to seek opportunities that others might not have observed due to their lack of knowledge or expertise in this area.