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.
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.
People can be seen socially in distinct points of view with a wide variety of speculated ideas through the use of Sociology’s theoretical perspectives. These theoretical perspectives contain three primary sociological views: Symbolic Interactionism, Functionalism, and Conflict Theory. Together, these perspectives offer us an elucidation about the social differences of humans all over the world. Within this paper, these three perspectives will be purposefully explained and analyzed to provide a better understanding of how and why Sociological views vary. Symbolic Interactionism is one of the major theoretical perspectives of Sociology.
A theory is a set of interrelated propositions or principles designed to answer a question or explain a particular phenomenon; it provides us with a perspective. Sociological theories help us to explain and predict the social world in which we live. This paper discusses the three perspectives of Sociology; functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionism perspectives. Thus, comparing and contrasting these different perspectives with one another by giving background and example. The pioneering European sociologists offered a broad conceptualization of the fundamentals of society and its workings.
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.
In reading Invitation to Sociology, I found that Berger is consistently explaining the difference of the terms society, social, and social problems. Berger is saying that there are different levels to each of these three terms to which one can see behind and through our social structures. For me to have a better understanding of sociology, I found it necessary to define sociology in my own mind. To me, sociology is the study of society and the human behavior within it, without allowing my biases to overly influence what I see. Berger gives an example that helps me understand it better.
The Major Theoretical Perspectives. According the text, Theoretical Perspectives were fundamental to the evolution and study of Sociology. Through these various concepts and theories sociologist sought to explore and examine how social life and events affect the logical social order of things and serve as an indicator of the future our society. Some Sociologist viewed society as a stable self sustaining entity, while others saw it as the day to day interactions of individuals and yet it was also viewed in terms of the varying groups that are forced to compete for limited resources. The Theoretical Perspectives that are integral to U.S. sociology are the functionalist perspective, conflict perspective (both of takes a macro level view of society) and symbolic interactionist perspective (takes a micro level view of society).
The aim of sociological research is to establish causal explanations of social behaviour and the functions of social facts, this means if you can find the causes of negative behaviour, you can eliminate it and better the human condition. Durkheim’s theory on social facts is based on the belief that sociology can be treated like the natural sciences i.e. that laws and trends can be established that apply to everyone. The answer to this question depends on your interpretation of the term ‘science’ and your sociological perspective. According to Parsons, society is based on a value consensus, which is a set of agreed goals, values and roles that standardise and determine behaviour.
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.
Functionalist, Conflict, and Interaction Theory There are three major theories that depict how sociologists view the world. The theories are functionalist, conflict, and interaction theory. Each of these has its own view points of how people affect society, and how society affects the people. Each theory has its own group of sociologist to go with it. The theory that a sociologist picks to back has an effect on how they do research and how they look at problems.