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Seeing Patterns
by
Charles Lamson
The teacher sometimes asked his students to read a story called "A Typical Date Rape." The story describes a situation in which heavy drinking, misplaced trust, poor communication, the subtle threat of violence, and a man's refusal to take "no" for an answer result in rape. One time a woman read the story in class and said, "There is no such thing as a typical date rape. Each case is unique." The teacher disagreed.
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The teacher said that the man who wrote the story had studied many cases of date rape, and that the story summed up what he had learned. This explanation did not convince the student. She insisted that each case is unique. The teacher said, "Yes, each case may be unique in its details, but every case has common features." Another student then offered this: "I've done counseling at the women's' center, and I can tell you that this story is very realistic. It fits the pattern that I have seen over and over."
As it turned out, the student who insisted that each case is unique, admitted that she knew of only one other case - one that did not quite fit the pattern described in the story. Because of this, she thought that there were no patterns, and that it was impossible to generalize. She was mistaken.
Part of being sociologically mindful is seeing that the social world works in patterned ways. Many of the patterns are easy to see. Millions of people get up in the morning, go to work for 8 hours, come home, eat, sleep, and then get up and do it again. That is one kind of pattern, which exists because many people do things together in the same way, over and over again. In fact, that is what a pattern is: a regularity in the way the world works.
The story about the rape described a pattern, one that was harder to see. It required the study of many cases of date rape to bring the pattern to light. It often takes a lot of work to discover patterns in social life, because some kinds of events do not happen every day. If you were asked to describe a typical bank robbery, you would have to study quite a few cases to see what they had in common. perhaps then you would see a pattern.
Some of the patterned ways in which the social world works are obvious. Some are not. Being sociologically mindful means paying attention in a disciplined way, so that we begin to see patterns that are not so obvious. To be disciplined, in this sense, is to stick to certain rules of procedure when trying to see what is going on in the world. If we pay attention carelessly, we will still see things going on, but many patterns will remain invisible to us.
For example, it would be possible to examine many date rapes, bank robberies, and other crimes, and find no patterns. This might happen because we failed to get the same kinds of facts about each case, so we might fail to see what a lot of cases have in common. A good rule of procedure for paying attention might therefore be: "Always get the same facts about every case." To stick to this rule - when it would be easier to ignore it - is what it means to pay attention in a disciplined way.
One reason to be mindful of patterns is that if we want to change the world, we must be aware of the patterns that make the world what is. If we want to reduce rape, for example, it is helpful to know what conditions, thoughts, and actions typically lead to rape.
We can apply this principal - the need to grasp the pattern that produces a particular result - to anything we might like to change. To stop the spread of a disease, for example, we must know how it is spread, and to find this out we must look for a pattern. Where do cases arise? Among which people? What do these people have in common? Have they all been to the same place, engaged in the same activity, or even the same food? By answering these questions, we can figure out what the pattern is and how to keep the disease from spreading.
Sometimes it is important to be aware of and to disrupt patterns in our own thoughts and behaviors. Imagine a person who always agrees to help other people with their projects. Helping others makes this person feel good, but too much helping keeps her from getting her own work done. Because she does not get her own work done, she feels like a failure and gets depressed. Suppose this happens over and over again. If the person becomes aware of the pattern, perhaps she can change. All that might be necessary is learning to say "no" when the requests for help become too great.
*SOURCE: THE SOCIOLOGICALLY EXAMINED LIFE, 2ND EDITION, 2001, MICHAEL SCHWALBE, PGS. 100-102*
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