What is Sociology

 Sociology is combination of two words

 Socius (Latin means, companion, Society) and

 Logos (Greek means scientific study)

 Socius + Logos= Sociology

 Humans are social creatures.
 Throughout our evolution, from our days of foraging and hunting animals, we have tended to
live and work in social groups, which have become progressively larger and more complex.
 Our natural inclination to live and work together has led to the formation of civil societies,
which have been shaped by the increasing breadth of our
knowledge and sophistication of our technology.
 The nature of the society we live in influences our social behavior, affecting
virtually every aspect of our lives
 Sociology is the systematic study of social behavior and human groups.
 Basic premise that human life is Social life.

 Human beings constant involvement in interaction

 Social situations and different phases of life

 Sociology is the study of changing social situations

 The systematic study of human behaviour in social context.

 social causes are distinct from physical and emotional causes.

 Sociology was born of the modern ardor to improve society.

Albion W. Small (1854–1926).

 Sociology is the study of how individuals behave in groups and how their behavior is shaped by these
groups.

 This includes: how groups are formed; the dynamics that animate them; and how these
dynamics maintain and alter the group or bring about social change
 Sociology is also the study of reifications (a complex idea for
when you treat something immaterial — like happiness, fear,
or evil — as a material thing), or social constructions.
 the scientific study of human social life, groups, and societies
with emphasis on modern, industrialized systems

 Employs systematic methods of investigation

 Evaluation of theories based on evidence and logical argument
 Not modeled on the natural sciences
 Studying humans is fundamentally different
Definition

 It focuses primarily on the influence of social relationships upon people’s attitudes and
behavior and on how societies are established and change.
 Sociology is being defined differently by our sociologists and other’s each one of
course, has its own news about the nature and scope of the subject
 According to Ward “Sociology is science of society”.
 George Simmel opines that it is a subject which studies human
inter-relationship.
 Giddins is of the view that “Sociology is scientific study of society”.
 Max Weber has viewed sociology as “Science which attempts
imperative understanding of social actions”.
 Sorokin is of the opinion that 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.
 Ogburn has said that, “Sociology is concerned with the study of social life
and its relations to the factors of culture, natural environment, heredity and
group.”
 Durkheim while defining sociology has said that, “It is the science of collective
representation.”
 We may thus conclude these definitions with the definition of E.S.
Bogardus when he says that, “Sociology may be defined as the study of the
ways in which social experiences function in developing, maturing and
repressing human beings through inter-personal stimulations.”
 From all these definitions it becomes clear that sociology is concerned with social
relationships and studies society, human interactions, inter-personal and intra-
personal relations.

 It tries to study scientifically social institutions, organizations and systems.

 These definitions also make it amply clear that sociologists view the
subject differently and that there is no unanimity in this regard.
 Subject Matter

 while discussing its subject matter of sociologist, Sorokin said that, “It seems to
be a study, first of the relationship and correlation between various classes
of social phenomena” (correlation between economic and religious, family and
moral, judicial and economic, mobility and political phenomena and so on);
second that between social and non social (geographical, biological) phenomena;
third the study of general characteristics common to all classes of phenomena.
 Thus according to his view point sociology studies social events, relationships
between social and non social phenomena and generalized study of facts
common to all aspects of social life.
 The sociologist Dorothy Smith (1926 – ) defines the social as the “ongoing
concerting and coordinating of individuals’ activities” (Smith, 1999).
 Sociology is the systematic study of all those aspects of life designated by
the adjective “social.”
 These aspects of social life never simply occur; they are organized processes.
 They can be the briefest of everyday interactions—moving to the right to let
someone pass on a busy sidewalk, for example—or the largest and most
enduring interactions—such as the billions of daily exchanges that constitute
the circuits of global capitalism.
 If there are at least two people involved, even in the seclusion of one’s mind,
then there is a social interaction that entails the “ongoing concerting and
coordinating of activities.”
 Sociology as Science
What is a scientific study?
 For a scientific study it is essential that the whole study should be systematic and
without any subjectivity.
 A scientist is supposed to have a clear vision and a pointed approach. He should
have capacity to record unbiased decisions and properly classify data’s.
 He should also have vision to collect only such data as is useful for his study.
 He should conclude his findings after verification of data’s and not on morality
or certain pre-supposed philosophies, notions and ideas.
 The most important element of a scientific study is that a scientist should deal
with bear facts and not with ideal situations.
 Thus this study should be both factual and systematic.
 Then another element is that its results should have universal application.
 Then in a scientific study there should be cause effect relationship and it should
also be capable of making certain safe predictions.
 Now a question arises as to whether sociology is science or not.
 Those who support the cause of sociology as science plead that a present day sociologists must be
methodological. He must base his conclusions on impartially collected, analyzed and interpreted data. He
should also be willing to get his data tested anywhere to establish its validity.
 They also argue that like natural scientists, Sociologists are concerned with hard facts and not with ideal
situations.
 They try to analyses facts of social life as these are. They also believe that there are many social facts and
theories which the sociologists have developed after hard labor and these are universally applicable, under
similar circumstances.
 They also point out that like natural scientists, the sociologists are very much concerned with cause effect
relationship e.g. social stratification and social disorganizations are the outcome of certain causes, which have
their effects as well.
 As with the natural scientists, so with the sociologists, it is equal true that like the former the latter can make
some safe predictions.
 They thus argue that “sociology is a science which attempts the interpretative under-standing of social action
in order to arrive at a casual explanation of its causes and effects.
Scope of Sociology

 Today, sociology’s scope ranges from the theoretical study

of social processes, structures, and systems, to the
application of these theories as part of social policy
Scope of Sociology
 Sociologist and others differ what should be the scope of sociology.
 August Comte makes us believe that sociology should try to study social
phenomena on scientific lines. He has thus laid stress on scientific approach.
 Emile Durkheim has tried to separate sociology from other social science subjects
and also tried to give an independent status to this subject. In his own way Pareto
has tried to give it scientific orientation.
 According to him in sociology there should be no place for inferences. He is sure
that there is basic unity among various social phenomena.
 He is of the view that sociology is much of science and social problems should
and can be scientifically studied.
 Max Weber has, however, said that sociology should merely be interpretative
understanding of social actions and nothing beyond that.
 Specialist School of Thought: There are two main schools of thought about the scope of sociology. Formal
school of thought believes that scope of sociology should not be generalized but confined to the study of
some specific aspects of society. The exponents of this school wish to keep the subject pure and
independent. According to them it should deal with social relationships, social activities and processes of
socialization
 Max Weber, who is the chief exponent of this school of thought, has said that sociology should deal with
interpretations of social behaviors only.
 Vier Kandt, , who is another exponent of this school of thought, is of the view that sociology should
confine itself to the study of formal and not the actual behavior of the people in the society.
 Simmel has given an abstract concept of sociology, in which stress has been laid on social relationship
and social inter-actions.For him, every society is the mix of this two. Social relations are nothing but
social interactions between two individuals.
 He has said that society is not collections of individuals but it is essentially a psychic inter-action between
the individuals. It is sum total of social relations between the individuals living in it
 According to Simmel sociology should not be made a general science devoted to
the study of social relations in general. It should be confined to the study of specific
social relations because now these are being studied in the context of social
production and social heritage.
 Vone Wiese is another exponent of this school of thought. He believes that
subject matter of sociology is different from other social sciences. He does not
agree with the idea that sociology is combination of social sciences but it is a
subject which combines different social science subjects. For him sociology as a
special science has more importance than general sociology.
Synthetic School of Thought: The school of thought believes that sociology should study society
as a whole and not confine itself to the study of only limited social problems.
 Auguste comte believes that the scope of sociology should be considerably widened. According
to him the study of one aspect of society can lead to misleading results because all aspects of
society, like parts of human body, are inter-linked.
 Hobb-House and Sorokin also contribute to this view point. They too believe that Sociology
should study society as a whole. The supporters of this school of thought
agree that in our modern times no social science subject can remain isolated altogether ignoring
other subjects of study. The scope of sociology, they argue should be general and not narrow.
 Durkheim has gone to the extent of saying that “Sociology is science of collective
representation.”
 Sorokin is the main exponent of this school of thought. He is not satisfied with the traditional
views about sociology and thus wants to give it a new approach.
 According to him sociology is a systematic science and it has manifold inter-actions. It is
concerned with general facts of social life. He is keen to give systematic interpretation of society
 Because societies consist of a collection of individual people, there is an inevitable
connection between the structures of society
as a whole and the behavior of its individual members.
 Sociologists may. therefore, focus on the institutions and organization
of society, the various social groupings and stratifications within it, or the interactions and
experiences of individuals.

 Sociology is a comparatively modern discipline.

 Howard Becker defined sociology as:
the study of people
“doing things together.”

 This reminds us that society and the individual are inherently connected, and each
depends on the other
 Humans cannot be understood apart from the social context they live in (society, culture
and time + place)

 How society affects the individual and how the individual affects society.
 The world around us profoundly shapes and influences who we are, how we behave and
even how/what we think.

 It is the job of the sociologist to understand how this process works and to what effect.
 Humans cannot be understood apart from social context (i.e. society)

 Society makes us who we are by structuring out interactions and laying out an orderly
world before us

 Social Sciences are the disciplines that use the scientific method to examine the social
world, in contrast to the natural sciences, which examine the physical world.
Significance of Sociology

 Science of society (collective life, intimate and impersonal gathering)

 Understanding of Social issues & patterns of behavior

 Understanding the way society operates ( working of Social System, Social Structure &
Social Processes)

 Helps to understand our commonality, culture & society

Significance contd…

 Why we perceive the world, the way we do

 Focus on micro and macro level of society

 How and why society changes

 Provides perspectives (within which we frame understanding & study Social life
Significance contd…

 Studies role of institutions in society

 Indispensable for understanding and planning of human society

 Maintains and enrich culture

 Solution of social problems

Subject Matter of Sociology

 Social interaction
 Social Group
 Social Institutions
 Social relationships
 Human behavior
 Social system
 Social dynamics
Sociological Perspectives

 Social Functionalism

 Social Conflict

 Symbolic Interactionism
Social Research

 Quantitative

 Qualitative

 Mixed method