Importance Of Studying Sociology

WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY? Sociology is a broad social science that studies the behavior of human beings, social relationships and social institutions through the use of systematic processes. Firstly, Sociology is an extensive subject since it covers several different areas of social life from traditional aspects such as religion, family, race, crime, and gender to modern social concerns like social movements, the environment, and technology. The study of Sociology is not static due to the fact it changes and is updated throughout the time. In fact, social aspects depend not only on the period of time in which they happen, but also on the places in which they are developed.

The purpose of The Sociological Imagination was for Mills to oppose these traditions and to influence the way American sociology works. Likewise, in his book, Mills resists the “normal” way sociologists use research techniques when constructing a sociological analysis. He sees sociology as the study of humans and their behavior, thus seeing that humans are beyond a piece of data on a chart. Mills believed that sociology was created to evolve social systems, such as when his life was changed from a person in poverty to a person of success. Mills’s book, The Sociological Imagination, impacted the world of sociology and showed more of the interactive component of sociology instead

Throughout these we also take a look at deviance and conformity. We get up close to the sociological definition of deviance, and emphasizing the importance its social reaction in societies. We begin to understand what forces society to allow or even encourage breakdowns of social order and disorganization of socialization and social control. By that, this section is dissect how race, class, gender, and age come together through structure of a society. We have been taught to answer questions like: what actions are defined as actually threatening to social order or deviant and who get to be the judge?

Throughout history, sociology has played a large role in understanding social issues that have developed and reoccurred in various societies around the world. Therefore, sociology is considered as the study of human social behavior and its development of structures and functions in a society. As a result of this study, multiple sociological theories have developed to explain social phenomena and help give a greater explanation to social interaction and human existence. Social theories can be thought of as puzzle pieces because they allow us to pieces together empirical data and interpret facts necessary to understand what’s going on in our worldly societies. This also explains why social theories are often very abstract since they are used

Therefore, the issues of race, ethnicity and social constructions are best understood as themes of sociology. In the globalized world, there exist various diverse people with different racial backgrounds, different cultural values and beliefs as well as diverse social structures and constructions. The modern man intermingles with people having all the above traits and it is only through sociological approach that it becomes possible to relate and understand the people and their diverse backgrounds. On the other hand, the study of sociology provides us with social norms which are very useful in determination of the material cultures, non material cultures and the socializing agents in the society. These three components of a social system are very important in the running of the day to day life activities since they act as the guides towards human behaviors and the way in which human beings are expected or supposed to react to certain situations.

Since it is extremely difficult to have such a complete strong hold on social issues such as family, politics and economics, it is important to know and understand the basic principles that underline the theories we study. To compare the theories of Georg Simmel, Vilfredo Pareto, and George Herbert Mead, I will first discuss the basic strengths and weaknesses of their theories. Simmel was a conflict theorist who sought to investigate “pure or formal sociology” by trying to understand the societal forms themselves. Pure sociology refers to the investigation of the forms of interaction that underlie political, economic, religious, and sexual behaviors. Simmel was inspired by social differentiation and he was interested in the change that urbanization, industrialization brought to society (Li, Lecture).

What are the principles that are involved in the foundation? The essential functions of sociology are the following: Individuals will behave differently in groups than alone, Rules that are socially constructed are abide by individuals, society construct the rules, Some people have more power in creating rules and penalties for breaking the rules, These constructed rules of society can be studied scientifically. With these principles, sociologist are able understand society and improve its well-being. The sub disciplines for sociology is as follows Protocols What are the protocols of operating within the principles of sociology? The basic protocols assigned to the sociologist are set to evaluate, interpret, and improve society.

The study of sociology has leads to a greater understanding of how individual and groups interact at the local, national and worldwide level. The study of sociology has provided valuable understanding how human behaviour is shaped and influenced by the societal forces of group interaction. Sociologists study people as they form groups with one another. Also sociology places special emphasis on studying societies, both as individual entities and as element of a global perspective. The meaning of sociological theory A sociological theory is statements of why and how particular facts about the social world related.

“It can be said that the first wisdom of sociology is this- things are not what they seem” (Berger, 1963). The sociological perspective allows scientists to investigate the factors influencing social behavior that are not seen and not obvious. The sociological perspective allows examination of behavior as it is influenced by the groups in which people belong and by the influence of their society. Factors that influence social location, or the position of a person within society, have significant influence on behavior. Occupation, Education, race, and even age can have effects on how a person operates within society, how they behave and to which groups they belong (Henslin, p.2, 2015).

Therefore, to ascertain the cause of problems, in order to be able to realise their solutions one must be able to look outside the personal sphere of consciousness, and examine the influence of society. This is the concept of sociological imagina... ... middle of paper ... ... This highlights an important point: the sociological imagination focuses not only on society’s influence on peoples’ external circumstances (unemployment, poverty, healthcare), but is also crucial for studying “the framework [by which] the psychologies of a variety of men and women are formulated” and “how individuals become... falsely conscious of their social positions”. In conclusion, the sociological imagination is the capacity to explain individual experiences in relation to their societal causes. Mills, who developed this concept, saw it as the only way to fully develop an understanding of individual circumstances and position in society, both of their external situation, and their psychologies.