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An individual's group, status, and role determine the generalizations or stereotypes given to them, also resulting in the way they perceive others. Generalizations can only be useful when applied accurately. We Generalize by comparing similarities in each experience, which help us classify certain things. In the movie A Bronx Tale, C's father generalizes Sonny as a "bad man" based on his prior knowledge of him. When we compare situations using false judgement, we are then stereotyping. As a young girl, I played for an all girls basketball team. I was stereotyped as a tom-boy for playing that specific sport. In reality, I was the furtherest thing from a tom-boy, I simply just enjoyed playing the sport. People are often quick to judge based on the little knowledge they know.

Sociologist study both micro and macro sociology. Macro sociology is the study of long-term social patterns, due to wide scale social systems. On the other hand, Micro sociology is the study of how people socially interact in small groups within a wider social system. Setting sail is an example of both studies. The decision of who would stay and who would go, depended mainly on the individuals' usefulness.  As an American culture, usefulness ranges from: strength, knowledge, health, opportunity and youth. All of these characteristics are portrayed as useful because they resemble a sense of future.

Sociologist study using two types of research, qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative data regards interviews, observations or notes which get more into scope of one's true self, while quantitative data deals more with surveys generalizing one's "idealistic" perspective of themselves and creating a statement about society as a whole. In the beginning of Gang Leader For a Day, he approaches the situation with quantitative data by having people take a survey, during the end of the story, he realizes that qualitative data is more useful because it gives sociologists a better understanding of the study.