What is Sociology?

“I had always looked down on sociology as this arriviste discipline. It didn 't have the noble history of English and history as a subject. But once I had a little exposure to it, I said, 'Hey, here 's the key. Here 's the key to understanding life and all its forms” (Wolfe). “Sociology is an invitation to look behind the scenes of the social world-a passport, as it were, to a different way of viewing life” (James). Define sociology and explain the three major sociological perspective. Sociology is the science of society, social institutions, and social relationships; specifically, the systematic study of the development, structure, interaction, and collective behavior of organized groups of human beings. The three major sociological perspectives are Structural Functionalism, Conflict, and Symbolic Interactionism. Structural functionalism, or simply functionalism, is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. Next, conflict society is the competition of a few groups of people for scarce resources, and lastly, there is symbolic interactionism. Symbolic

The study of sociology is the issues, concepts, investigations, and more importantly, the systematic study of relationships among people. While the study of sociology focuses on groups, or society as a whole, it should not exclude an emphasis on individuals because individuals forms groups and groups produce individuals. We cannot study and fully understand one without the other nor can we study them as if they were merely in competition with each other. Rather, sociology is a personal encounter with the social force which shape our lives, especially those that affect our awareness and ignorance of how we create, maintain, and change those very social forces.

While studying sociology, it is necessary to develop a sociological imagination. It is helpful to learn the views and perspectives of sociology in order to better understand how social forces, social institutions, and social structures impact someone’s life. By having a better understanding of how these things contribute to our lives, we also have a better understanding of why certain events occur.

Sociology is exemplified by the study of a society or societies. Society is shaped by set of tradition that will shaped the behavior people by an assortment of rules that govern individuals within a certain society in their daily transactions and interactions. After watching and analyzing these videos and concept, this has given me a greater insight on what can be taught and learned.

It is far more often that one would ask, “what is sociology?” as opposed to “what is biology?” Some believe that sociology is more of a pseudo-science, similar to astrology, but there is no question that sociology is a real science. Many sciences have advanced humanity, such biology and physics. Sociology, being a relativity new science, has also improved many aspects of humanity. If humans were like robots, everyone exactly the same, both physically and mentally, there might not be a need for sociology. But this is not the case, our world is populated by over 7 billion humans. Each individual is unique, independent and have a mind of their own. When a group of people are involved with each other, either by sharing the same geographical area or by sharing the same culture or religion, they form a society. And like the people who form the society, each society is unique. There are societies that have millions of members and others with much less. Some societies have members with powers to make rules and others that are controlled by these rules. Though it may seem impossible to identify all the societies and understand all their actions, by studying sociology, we can organize and simplify the study.

One can think of sociological perspective as our own personal choice and how the society plays a role in shaping our individual lives. Sociological perspective or imagination focuses not on individuals but their group, or society, and attempts to explain human social structures, including cultural and governmental institutions and forms of activity and interpersonal relations using social facts or social forces. Sociological Imagination is the ability to connect seemingly impersonal and remote historical forces to the most basic incidents of an individual’s life. It suggests that people look at their own personal

We use many different lenses through which to see our modern world. Microscopes are used to see things that are too small for the naked eye, telescopes are used to see things that are too far away for the naked eye, and cameras are used to capture a moment in time. In the world of social sciences we often view things through similar, intangible lenses or what we call perspectives. Sociologists today employ the three main theoretical sub-perspectives: the symbolic interactionist perspective, the functionalist perspective, and the conflict perspective. . Through the analyzation of William Goulding’s novel The Lord of the Flies, these sociological perspectives can be applied to understand that when people are stripped of social imperatives and structure, they will digress to a more emotionally primitive nature. These various perspectives that exist in sociology will help us dissect this classic novel and understand how social order was once created and inevitably destroyed by the boys on the island.

Sociology is described as “looking at the world a particular way” (Matthewman & West-Newman, 2013) When opening your mind to this, it is then easier to discover the reasons why we do certain things and why things are the way that they are. There are three main schools of sociological theorising, which are conflict theory (creating a social hierachy), Micro Interactionism (studying social interactions), and Functionalism (how social events contribute to social order). These ideas are defined by sociologists Karl Marx, Max Weber, Durkheim, Irving Goffman, and ---- in an effort to reveal the inner functioning’s of the world.

Sociology is a part of everyday life. People experience sociological changes when they get married, get a new job, or get discriminated against. All of these things can alter a person’s perspective on a group of people or even the world. Since the beginning of this class, I have personally endured several sociological changes in my life. I recently started a new job. I’m meeting new and wonderful people and I no longer dread having to go to work. I have also begun setting plans for my wedding to the one girl who I know will make everyday better than the one before. But, perhaps the one instance that has affected me the most and the deepest was when my parents got a divorce.

Sociology is the study of the relationships that humans have with each other and social institutions. It aims to understand the links that exist between individuals and the social structures around them and also the functions that these social institutions perform in society.