Others described social situations where the individual was singled out through namecalling,
staring, and irrelevant questions. Interestingly, although the script does not mention
Christians specifically, nor does it tie violent images to religion, several students reported
feeling that they would be persecuted similar to how homosexuals are persecuted in today’s
society. One student wrote that s/he imagined, “people saying it [being straight] was a sin,
asking what was wrong with me.” Another visualized “the beatings and attacks caused by
homosexuals.”
The third question asked students to report what was sociological about this exercise.
Results for this question are presented in Table III. A majority of students, 58%, used
language that represented the sociological imagination. Common responses to this question
included: “Sociological imagination,” “see another group’s perspective,” or “get into
another person's shoes.” While some mentioned “sociological imagination” specifically,
even those who wrote indirectly about the “other” were coded as sociological imagination
because taking the role of the “other,” according to Mead (1934), is a part of developing
into a social being through socialization processes. One student wrote that the activity
“really showed how it was to be on the other side and how homosexuality is really viewed.”
Another said that the activity was sociological because “it put us in someone else’s shoes
and made us feel what homosexuals go through on a daily