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
In this assignment, I am going to briefly explore the definitions of Functionalism and Feminism and how their ideologies affect our contemporary societies. In doing so I will give examples that expand upon the definitions and illustrate that such ideologies are evident and still have an impact on the society we live in. FUNCTIONALISM 1) The theory of design that the form of a thing should be determined by its use. 2) Any doctrine that stresses people. (Sourced form the Dictionary) Functionalism is a sociological paradigm that originally attempted to explain social institutions as collective means to fill individual biological needs.
In the study of sociology, there are three sociological assumptions: argument, evidence, unit of analysis. These arguments differ greatly, but share common ground: assuming exactly what they need to be explaining. When writing a sociological argument, it is important to
Introduction to Sociology SCGL 1001- Official Assessment Task 1 The Sociological Imagination- C Wright Mills Precis Analysis and Exercise Part 1: Summary of the ideas expressed by C Wright Mills C Wright Mill’s book “The Sociological Imagination” is “an incitement to look at sociology with a fresh and clearer vision. [1]” As a classical sociologist, he expresses sociological imagination as a method to allow individuals to think outside familiar routine, see a connection between their problems and social issues and provide a greater awareness of how the values we cherish or feel threatened affect society. Sociological imagination is a method which allows individuals to think outside familiar routine, look from another perspective and “gauge our own fate by locating ourselves within a particular historical period”. [2] As a result, individuals can also grasp history and biography thus leading to three specific questions. Firstly, “individuals can question the structure of their society, its essential components and their relation”[3].
However not every sociological findings is revolutionary. Many findings do appear consistent with common sense. Sociology is the study and science in determining whether specific ideas or common sense beliefs are facts or fiction after an inquiry of systematic testing of beliefs against evidence has being done on an institution and culture. Knowledge acquired in the study of sociology has relatively greater reliability and validity as compared to common sense beliefs.. Sociological views are based on rigorous research and therefore evidence based, have sociology knowledge is therefore the product of theory development and testing as compared to the every day common sense beliefs.
As well as teaching Mills wrote many influential books and articles mainly focussing social inequality, the decline of the middle class, the relationship between individuals and society, the power of elites, and the importance of an historical perspective in sociological thinking. Mills was influenced mainly by Max Weber’s theoretical perspectives. The Sociological imagination: C Wright Mills’ extract from chapter one of the Sociological Imagination focuses on how there needs to be an understanding between modern society and individual lives and how individuals need to look at issues in society from more than just their own perspective. He emphasizes that people are ‘trapped’ (Page 1) in the problems of their own lives and are limited to their immediate jobs, families, neighborhoods etc which makes them unable to pursue wider ambitions. He also describes how individuals become ‘more aware...of ambitions and of threats which transcend their immediate locales, the more trapped they seem to feel.’ (Page 1) The idea that people seem to become overwhelmed the more they know about society means that they are not able to look at things from a wider perspective.
------------------------------------------------- Identify and explain the main arguments proposed by positivist thinking that sociology is a science. Consider and explain the responses from anti-positivist thinking that propose an interpretist approach. Assess the advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches, illustrating your answer with references to sociological theorists, methodology and research. Positivism in short is the view that the study of sociology can be carried out in a scientific manner. 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.
Sociology is a perspective way of thinking, where people tend to overlook different situations. Gangs Leader For Day written by Sudhir Ventesh, contains its own distinctions of the idea of social perspective. Its offers a lot to sociology with the methods of study, its own limits and contributions, certain sensitive topics. Critical thinking is one of the most important topics on sociology. It asks about what is happening and how
At the other end of the spectrum, Ground Theory is a systematic form of enquiry which generates social theory through the study of social systems present in human relations and although there are differences between the two, they both have much in common. In respect to the similarities that exist between the two, both theories adopt an interpretivivst approach, in which the researcher seeks to explore real life situations, which requires much more interaction between persons and this takes the form of interviews or observation etc. both theorist collect and analyses data from participants perspectives and try to ensure their findings are not influenced by preconceived ideas, to achieve they must involve participants in data analysis to increase trustworthiness of the findings. In brief, Grounded and Phenomenologists Theorist seeks to explore, individuals experience in the context of the world we live in. Phenomenologists emerged from Philosophy, primary influenced by E. Husseri and M. Heidegger, it aims to describe and explore experiences which can only be done by collecting data, from individuals who have lived through those experiences.
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