Last but not least, I would like to give examples and give my point of view on the word sociology, such as what does it mean to me! First, I would like to define and explain what sociology means to me! Sociology explores people and society. It examines our social institutions; our families, the state and social relationships like gender and ethnicity, to help make sense of how we both see and interpret our rapidly changing world. Sociology examines how our behavior individually and in groups is influenced by social processes and what that means.
Sociology enables us to understand how society functions and under which circumstances. It examines the way humans interact with social changes and with other societies. Additionally, sociology focuses on examining social dynamics such as culture, values, socialization, violence, inequality and order. Other social sciences concentrate on more specific things about a society. Instead of studying social economics as a whole, other social sciences may study about the distribution of economic goods and how it affects an individual.
The social action approach, argues that individuals experience the social world by interpreting their actions and interactions with others and the meaning they assign to social phenomena. The starting point for understanding society should be the individual as they are authors of their own ideas. Emphasis should be given to how shared meanings develop and how these influence the way individuals define, act and react to their environment. Opposing the social action approach are the structural theories. Structural theories such as functionalism and Marxism are macro (large scale), and deterministic: they see society as a real thing existing over and above us, shaping our ideas and behaviour – individuals are like puppets, manipulated by society.
Subculture theories is a theory where individuals have the same interests, problems and concerns which will form a subculture. Deviance in terms of the subculture of a social group arguing that certain groups develop norms and values which are to some extent different from those held by other members of society. There are a number of sociological theories. Functionalist see shared norms and values as the basis of social order and social solidarity. they consider crime and deviance, ahead of a certain level to be dysfunctional to society, as it is seen as threat to social order.
This essay will explore the differences and similarities between two social scientists’ view of how social order is made and rebuilt. Both are concerned with governance (Silva, E, pg. 309), that being the action or manner of governing either individuals or society as a whole and how authority and discipline are exercised. The two propositions that will be compared and contrasted are: · Goffman - that social order is produced through the everyday actions and practices of people as they live their lives (Silva, E, pg. 316) · Foucault - that social order is produced through the power of knowledge and discourse (that which is talked about), which are the products of historical processes (Silva, E, pg.
Functionalism is a macro theory, which looks at society as a whole rather than focuses on each individual. It is a theory that concentrates on the harmony between social institutions in society that is based on a consensus view rather than a conflict view as a Marxism theory. As a comparison to society as a whole, Functionalists use an organic analogy as an example. Each organ of the human body has a different job to do and if one part became ill or diseased, the rest could be contaminated or will produce changes in other parts. Similarly the operation of any society is dependent on its social institutions as they provide vital functions which maintain harmony, stability and solidarity within a society.
Positivists and functionalists such as Durkheim and Comte view sociology as a science and they argue that sociology can discover all the social problems. This theory believes that the state serves the interest of everyone and policies must be introduced that fit everyone. For that reason they like piecemeal engineering, which is the idea of tackling one social problem at a time. However Marxists criticise this vies as they argue that educational policies are aimed at equalising opportunity but not reducing poverty; therefore this weakens the view given by the functionalists that the state serves the interests of everyone. However functionalist still believe that sociology and social policy now have a strong relationship.
Knowing the locus of causality provides a foundation to construct models of cause and effect. Therefore, making attributions gives people order and predictability to control their lives. Adopting this systematic, organizational framework, Heider proposed people use ‘naive psychology’ to explain their social world (as cited in Buchanan et al., 2007, p.60). Jones and Davis’s suggested people are more likely to make internal attributions. This is motivated by peoples need to view others behaviour as intentional and predictable which can be applied beneficially over multiple situations.
Presentation | c. Manuscript | d. Key word | e. Rough | Hint: p. 38 | SLO1:Describe public speaking and identify effective communication skills, such as strategic planning. | LO1H:name the different ways of outlining a speech. | | 1 | 18. | The limits placed upon the speaker's choices by the rhetorical situation are called: a. opportunities. | b. constraints.
Methods of micro sociology include symbolic interactionism, phenomenology and ethnomethodology. However there is opposing argument as macro sociologists think the opposite as although they concentrate on individuals as well they also look at families and other larger groups in society in which an individual is part of. Weber a social action theorist believes people hold meanings about the world and consciously act on the basis of meaning. He saw behaviour in terms of the meanings people action to actions and classified them into four types. Instrumentally rational action is when a goal is not desirable but an induvidual still works out the best way to reach it.