SOCIOLOGY HAND OUT #1: NATURE and SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY

"Sociology is the study of human social life, groups and societies. It is a dazzling and compelling enterprise, having as its subject matter our own behavior as social beings. The scope of sociology is extremely wide, ranging from the analysis of passing encounters between individuals in the street up to the investigation of world-wide social processes". Anthony Giddens ("Sociology", 1989).

What Is Sociology ?

Sociology is a detailed study about the human society, their interactions, reactions and their development cycle pertaining to the society.

However, the study of sociology is extremely complicated as you have to understand several aspects of the society. One is you have to clearly understand the structural aspects of the society, another is you have to understand how the society functions or works, and you also have to study what type of issue are affecting them. All these major factors can be broken down into several small fragments and each one can be studied in detail.

The study of social structures will help you understand how families work. What are their values and what is the role of education in their lives. The study of social systems will help you understand about culture, identity of individuals, social control and how some people are able to control the society using religion, race and caste. There have been several explanations to how to segregate human society. Some of them are feminism, right, race, religion, caste, color and functionality. The society has automatically arrived at a situation where one’s considered superior to another, by caste, or by ranking or by color.

When another human being is degraded, automatically it triggers several problems. This difference could be a result of being the minority among the society or due to economic or financial factors, but they have a deep impact on how the society functions. Politics and religious values also have a deep impact on the society as general.

What Is The Purpose Of Sociology ?

Sociology is the study of the behavior of society. However, several people have questioned as to what is the use of studying sociology and where it is applied.

The answer is that sociology is helpful to mankind as it explains several behavioral aspects of human behavior and also explains how human beings behave under common circumstances. The findings of sociology are invaluable to the field of psychiatry and also history. If one is able to determine the sociological factors behind a certain scenario, then they will find answers to several of the social problems. There are several problems in the world which are related to the society in general and not to an individual. Some of them are drug abuse, rape, sexual abuse, child abuse, alcoholism, and most important of all terrorism. So, why do problems like these arise?

The answer lies in the study of sociology. The answer for problems like terrorism is that if one community has been constantly suppressed over a period of time then that particular community can try to become dominant and also adapt to extreme methods like violence in the process. Terrorists are made by the society according to sociology. There are several such problems that are addressed by the study of sociology.

The purpose of sociology may be secondary from a clinical point of view, but it does help to conclude several of the common problems. The main purpose of sociology is to determine the cause of some of the common problems affecting the society.

What Is The Nature And Scope Of Sociology ?

Sociology is the study of the society that we live in. It analyzes the various kinds of behaviors under various patterns and under sociological influences.

How do the findings of sociology help us in our day to day lives? It helps us to a great deal because when we know what sociological factors are affecting us in a negative way, then we can minimize the damage by adapting to an alternative lifestyle. All humans in the current day world live under extremely pressurizing circumstances. So, sociology studies the social rules, and the role that humans play by living these rules. It also studies why human beings bind by these rules. Also, how does human social life impact their behavior in general is studied by sociology. In fact, whether we realize it or not, most of the problems that are caused in the society are due to human beings only. There are criminals, convicts, rapists, and murders. However, somewhere society has played an important and distinguishing role to have caused such psychological behaviors in people. Sociology also sheds light on how people should behave in a responsible way with others in the society.

All of us as human beings are sensitive creatures because we can express and feel emotions. These emotions can play havoc with the human psyche if misused or misunderstood. One has to understand the repercussions of it in a social environment and act responsibly. This brings us to the conclusion that society has to function responsibly keeping in mind the repercussions of social behavior.

Scope Of Sociology

There are two schools of thought with different viewpoints regarding scope and subject matter of sociology- formal school and synthetic school. According to formal school sociology was conceived to be a social science with a specifically defined field. This school had George Simmel, Ferdinand Tonnies, Alfred Vierkandt and Leopord Von Wiese as its main advocates. On the other hand the synthetic school with Durkheim, Hobhouse and Sorokin advocated a synthesis in form of coordination among all social sciences.

Formal School of Sociology

Formal school argued in favor of giving sociology a definite subject matter to make it a distinct discipline. It emphasized upon the study of forms of social relationships and regarded sociology as independent. According to Simmel sociology is a specific social science which describes, classifies, analyses and delineates the forms of social relationships or in other words social interactions should be classified into various forms or types and analysed. Simmel argued that social interactions have various forms. He carried out studies of such formal relationships as cooperation, competition, sub and super ordinate relationships and so forth. He said however diverse the interests are that give rise to these sociations; the forms in which the interests are realized may yet be identical. He emphasized on the process of abstraction of these forms from human relationship which are common to diverse situations. Vierkandt maintained that sociology should be concerned with ultimate forms of mental or psychic relationship which knit the people together in a society. According to Von Wiese there are two kinds of fundamental social processes in human society. Firstly the associative process concerning contact, approach, adaptation etc and secondly disassociate processes like competition and conflict. Apart from these two processes a mixed form of the associative and disassociative also exists. Each of these processes has sub-classes which in totality give approximately 650 forms of human relationships. Sociology should confine itself to the discovery of the fundamental force of change and persistence and should abstain from a historical study of concrete societies. Tonnies divided societies into two categories namely Gemeinschaft (community) and Gesellschaft (association) on the basis of degree of intimacy among the members of the society. He has on the basis of forms of relationship tried to differentiate between community and society. Max Weber also makes out a definite field for sociology. According to him the aim of sociology is to interpret or understand social behaviour. But social behavior does not cover the whole field of human relations. Indeed not all human interactions are social. Sociology is concerned with the analysis and classification of types of social relationships.

Criticism of formal School

Formal school has been criticized on the issue that it has emphasized on merely abstract forms and neglected the concrete contents of social life. Abstract forms separated from concrete relations cannot be studied. Ginsberg says that a study of social relationships would remain barren if it is conducted in the abstract without the full knowledge of the terms to which in concrete life they relate. Sociology doesn't alone study the forms of social relationship. Political science, International law also studies forms of social relationship. The conception of pure sociology is not practical as no social science can be studied in isolation from other social sciences.

Synthetic School of Sociology

Synthetic school wanted sociology to be synthesis of the social sciences and thus wanted to widen the scope of sociology. According to Durkheim, sociology has three principal divisions' namely-Social morphology, social physiology and general sociology. Social morphology is concerned with geographical or territorial basis of life of people such as population, its size, density and distribution etc. This can be done at two levels -analysis of size and quality of population which affects the quality of social relationship and social groups. Secondly the study of social structure or description of the main forms of social groups and institutions with their classification. Social physiology deals with the genesis and nature of various social institutions namely religion, morals, law and economic institutions etc. In general sociology the main aim is to formulate general social laws. Attempt is made to find out if there are links among various institutions which would be treated independently in social physiology and in the course to discover general social laws. Hobhouse perceived sociology as a science which has the whole social life of man as its sphere. Its relations with the other social sciences are considered to be one of mutual exchange and mutual stimulation. Karl Mannheim's divides sociology into two main sections-systematic and general sociology and historical sociology. Systematic sociology describes one by one the main factors of living together as far as they may be found in every kind of society. The historical sociology deals with the historical variety and actuality of the general forms of society. It falls into two sections-comparative sociology and social dynamics. Comparative sociology deals mainly with the historical variations of the same phenomenon and tries to find by comparison general features as separated from industrial features. Social dynamics deals with the interrelations between the various social factors and institutions in a certain given society for example in a primitive society. Ginsberg has summed up the chief functions of sociology as it seeks to provide a classification of types and forms of social relationships especially of those which have come to be defined institutions and associations. It tries to determine the relation between different parts of factors of social life for example the economic and political, the moral and the legal, the intellectual and the social elements. It endeavors to disentangle the fundamental conditions of social change and persistence and to discover sociological principles governing social life.

Why Is Sociology Important ?

Sociology is a complicated and valuable study of human behavior in the society.

Humans behave in a common fashion when it comes to common problems and also some of the behavior patterns of humans cause some common problems in the society. The fact that humans behave in a certain fashion depends on several factors like economic, environmental, parental, school, upbringing and the society that they grew up in. Did you ever think why some people become great leaders and why some become hardcore criminals? Society has a very big role to play in that and also parental upbringing simultaneously.

Sociology studies this intricate relationship between human beings who are individuals and the society. It is focused on several aspects like being an individual, family values, religious beliefs, color, race, case and ethnicity. These are just a few examples of factors influencing the human behavior in the society. Sociology also observes that people are very deeply tied to their individual or religious beliefs and that becomes their driving force in life. Anything in opposition becomes an enemy naturally. Also it studies why people hold on to such strong values that they can take up to destruction if need be.

Sociology actually has its roots in enlightenment. We realize several things and that is why we behave in a certain fashion. Sociology also studies this aspect of human realization and behavior change. Humans are changing or developing constantly and sociology studies these changes. It can help us as a society because we can address the issues affecting the society.