Defnition, Scope and Nature Fo Sociology

Definition of Sociology
Sociology is the systematic and scientific study of human social life. Sociologists study people as
they form groups and interact with one another.
Sociology places special emphasis on studying societies, both as individual entities and as
elements of a global perspective.
Sociology is the systematic study of social behavior & human groups. It focuses primarily on the
influence of social relationships upon people’s attitudes and behavior and on how societies are
established and change.
According to Sorokin, sociology is a study first of all the relationship and correlations between
various classes, second between the social and non-social aspects of life and third it studies
general characteristics common to all classes of society.
For architects the scope of sociology would be the study of how “social relationships which
influence spatial relationships”.
The methods developed in sociology are adopted to study every social problem scientifically and
objectively without subjectivity to the extent possible – This tool is used to help understand and
document the spatial requirements of the users.
Nature of sociology:
• Sociology is a social science and not a natural science, because it deals with human
beings and social phenomena.
• It is positive and not normative science because it studies social phenomena as it is and
not as it ought to be.
• It is pure and not applied science because it studies underlying factors of a social
phenomenon.
• Sociology is an abstract and not a concrete science because it studies society in general.
• It deals with society, which is abstract and as such the subject cannot be concrete.
Sociology,V sem 1 Aalekhya Kandala

• It is a science of generalization and not that of particularization because it studies a social
problem in general and not in particular way.
• It does not study a social phenomenon from a angle.
• It is an empirical or rational science because it tries to follow logical method of data
collection.
Scope of sociology
It is a study of human relations with all its achievements, conflicts & uncertainties
“since sociology is so elastic science it is difficult to determine just where its boundaries begin
and end, where sociology becomes social psychology and where social psychology becomes
sociology”
-V.F.Calberton
The two main schools regarding the scope of sociology
• The specialistic or formalistic school

• Criticism
• The synthetic school
Specialistic or formalistic school:
• It was led by German sociologists George simmel

• “ sociology is a pure and an independent science“
• It should study only the forms of social relationships but not their content
• Social relationship such as competition ,subordination ,division of labour are
expressed in different fields of social life such as economic, political , religious ,
moral ,artistic etc

Specialistic or formalistic school
“ Sociology concerns itself with the ultimate form of mental or psychic relationship ,
which links men to one another in soceity “
-Vierkandt
“Aim of sociology is to interpret or understand the social behaviour”
-Max Webber
CRITICISM
1. Formalistic school have narrowed the field of sociology, sociology should study not only
study the general forms of social relationship but also their content
2. The distinction between the forms of social relation and their contents is not workable. Social
forms cannot be abstracted from the content at all since social forms keeps on changing when the
contents change
3. Sociology is not the only science that studies the forms of social relationships other sciences
also do that.
4. The establishment of pure sociology is impractical. No sociologists have been able to develop
pure sociology so far. No science can be studied in complete isolation from the other sciences
The synthetic school

• Sociology is a synthesis of social sciences
• Durkhim says that sociology has three main divisions
➢ Social morphology
➢ Social physiology
➢ General sociology
THE SYNTHETIC SCHOOL

➢ SOCIAL MORPHOLOGY-Social morphology studies the territorial basis of the life of
people and also the problems of population

➢ SOCIAL PHYSIOLOGY-Social physiology has different branches as sociology of
religion, morals, law , economic life and language .
➢ GENERAL SOCIALOGY- It deals with the general social facts and its function. Its
function is the general formulation of general social laws
VIEWS OF MORRIS GINSBERG

➢ SOCIAL MORPHOLOGY-Social morphology deals with the quantity and quality of
population. It studies the social structure, social groups and institutions
➢ SOCIAL CONTROL- It studies the formal and informal as well as informal, means of
social control such as custom, tradition, morals, religion and law, court
➢ SOCIAL PROCESSES- Social processes study the different modes of interaction such as
cooperation, competition, conflict, integration, development etc
➢ SOCIAL PATHOLOGY-It studies the mal adjustments and the disturbances. It also
studies the on various social problems like poverty, beggary, unemployment,
overpopulation, crime etc

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Definition of Sociology

Sociology,V sem 1 Aalekhya Kandala

The two main schools regarding the scope of sociology

• The specialistic or formalistic school

Specialistic or formalistic school:

• It was led by German sociologists George simmel

Sociology,V sem 2 Aalekhya Kandala

“Aim of sociology is to interpret or understand the social behaviour”

The synthetic school

THE SYNTHETIC SCHOOL

Sociology,V sem 3 Aalekhya Kandala

VIEWS OF MORRIS GINSBERG

Sociology,V sem 4 Aalekhya Kandala

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