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.
Sociology examines how our behavior individually and in groups is influenced by social processes and what that means. In fact once you start seeing things with a sociological perspective – things will never be the same. It’s knowing how and why we do what we do that engages us with the world around us and makes us more effective agents for social change. However, sociologist C. Wright Mills describes sociology as “the intersection of biography and history?” A lot of you may wonder what he mean: well from my studying and perspectives; The reason why he say sociology is the interception of biography and history is because, Biography: happens to individuals and History: happens to society. For example, every
Sarita Brown Chapter 1 Sociology explores and analyzes the ultimate issues of our personal lives, of society and the world. It's the science dealing with social forces that shape our lives, interests, and personalities. Sociologist dig deeper into the social life and the principles to explain human behavior as a whole. It also helps us to understand why we behave as we do. This is a necessary understanding because it brings about social change.
There is an ongoing debate on whether or not sociology is a science; science is defined as a systematic knowledge of the physical or material work gained through observation and experimentation. Natural sciences have few key aims – the principal aim is to base laws and theories on objective facts that are obtained through investigation of observable phenomena. This involves using statistical techniques to test the relationship between variables, objectivity is very important in science where research and knowledge are free from bias. Positivists believe that what goes on in reality is not random or by chance, but patterned and it is science's job to observe and record these patterns in a system to be able to explain them. Compte argues that sociology should be based on the methodology of the natural sciences and that it would result in 'invariable laws' within society.
Vushaj SOC 150-05 September 6, 2013 Writing assignment #1 Sociology is the study of society and social interaction. Sociology takes a broad approach at helping one understand how people interact in different societies. On the contrary, other social sciences look deeper into specific areas of society, rather than society as a whole. Classical sociologists Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber, each contributed to the scientific study of sociology. Marx believed that societies grew and changed due to struggles of different social classes.
Another difference with the two is that sociology uses survey and correlational research mostly but social psychology understands the importance of experimental research as well (Myers, 2010). However, clinical psychology relies heavily on experimental research just like social psychology in order to verify hypotheses. Than general psychology or known as personality psychology is different than social psychology because they focus on the individual instead of the impact that people have on each other. In order to sum everything up sociology would be on the left for social psychology because of the focus on social interactions, clinical psychology would be to the right of social psychology because of their use of experimental research, and personality psychology would be in the main of social psychology because both want an understanding of people as
It was a term coined by one of the founding fathers of classical sociology Comte and it involves: “Knowledge that is disciplined, empirical and scientific free from religious or political bias.” On the other hand as society and the early science of sociology evolved a different approach was seen by many to be the way forward. This anti-positivist thinking or interpretist approach believes that society cannot be studied as a science; this methodological anti-positivism proposed the theory of the human in society as an individual and thus research be directed to human cultural norms, values and symbols. The interpretist will take a more subjective approach were as the positivist tries to look at society objectively. Let us now look to compare and contrast positivism with an interpretist approach. Positivists are of the opinion that society can be studied using a scientific approach comparable to the way scientists study the natural world.
This means that structured interviews will appeal to positivists as they like sociological methods which gain reliability, gain quantitative date and can cope with a large sample size. Positivists like these because they all help to find the cause of something rather than the effect; this in turn lets positivists to seek the social science aspect of sociology. A sociologist may decide to use structured interviews if they are willing to study a sample of a large number of participants. Structured interviews will also gain a high response rate unlike questionnaires; this is because the interview is face to face rather than putting a set of questions through a door. However participants who are interviewed are those with a lot of time on their hands this can make the sample unrepresentative of the whole population as they may be lonely people who have a lot of time on their hands.
The behavioral revolution in Political Science, advanced tools and techniques of research, concepts and models borrowed from other sciences have enriched political studies and have imparted it greater scientific character. However, while the claim of Political Science to be treated as a science has to be accepted, it has to be done with the reservation that, like all social sciences, it is an inexact and in approximate science and that it is a science of human behavior. The behavior of a person is highly
These preoccupations make sociology anti-utopian in its claims and anti-fatalistic in its orientation, and distinguish its 'generalised' knowledge from localised commonsensical knowledge. SOCIOLOGY in contemporary India is a loosely-defined field of intellectualactivity. There arepervasivedisagreementsaboutits aims, its scope, its approach, its methods, its concepts and its very subject matter. Many would say that it is at best a subject, and not quite - or not yet - a discipline. There are professors of sociology who not only disapprove of the subject as it exists but are doubtful about the very possibility of its