Examining the Impact of Roles and Social Pressures on My Life Essay exa

Examining the Impact of Roles and Social Pressures on My Life      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I spent a recent evening watching a movie with my erstwhile girlfriend Jaimie, along with two of our mutually close friends, Jason and Michael. In the half hour before starting the video, we rearranged Jaimie's furniture to make room for the four of us. During the screening, we laughed together at a child's antics, made jokes about trite and improbable situations, and watched silently as the story drew to an emotional climax. As the credit scroll began, it was clear that I was both welcome and expected to stay in the room in a casual social gathering with the other three. However, my response was to mumble something about having to leave, and, retreating to my own room, to spend the remainder of the night playing video games and guitar. One may ask why I chose to leave, when my social role as friend to those individuals would have me stay. In fact, the forces contributing to my curt exit, though partially individual, are predominantly social, and include influences from the five major stages in my relationship with Jaimie, the sociological roles and expectations I played in each stage, and the counsel of my other friends.    The first phase of our relationship involved adjustment to our new roles as Boyfriend and Girlfriend, and the feelings that accompanied it. This occurred quickly; for my part, I had not been more than casually involved with a woman for seventeen months, and was feeling the pressure and judgment of a society that expects its members to engage in heterosexual courtship at my age. Jaimie was in the process of terminating a mutually destructive relationship and had experimented with several unsuccessful liaisons;... ...must bear in mind, however, that in order for these theories to be fully validated, they must be applicable not only to generalized groups of people or representative individuals, but to every member of society, each following the same patterns as every other. Since it is historically impossible to accurately predict the behavior of human beings on any scale, variations between individuals must be explained by something unique about each person. Whether called a soul or some other name, this element of spontaneity exists in every person and can allow him to break free of his expectations.    Works Cited Berger, Peter L. Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective. Garden City: Anchor, 1963. Fromm, Erich. Escape From Freedom. New York: Avon, 1969. Sartre, Jean-Paul. "No Exit." No Exit and Three Other Plays. New York: Vintage, 1989.