Sociology and the Study of Society

The Sociological Perspective

Another branch of the social sciences is the

discipline of sociology. Categorically,
sociology is the "scientific study of society,
including pattern of social relationship,
social interaction, and culture' (Cathoune
2002).
 The operative term SCIENTIFIC
refers to the methodological and
theoretical rigor that SOCIOLOGY
applies in its study of society and human
behavior. The term sociology was coined
by Auguste Compee in 1940 to refer to a
scientific inquiry that covers human social
activities.
 In 1959, C. Wright Mills coined the phrases
"sociological imagination" to refer to the ability
of sociologist to understand society
systematically. This ability involves the process
of detaching oneself from the common
understanding of society and creates an
alternative approach that would situate a behavior
or an event within a great social framework.
The clamor for social understanding
due to the rapid changes in social and
economic structures brought upon by
the French cemented the prominence
of sociological perspective in the field
of social sciences.
BIG IDEA
Sociology studies societies to promote
social changes, create new theories,
and document human behavior.
Sociological Concepts
Just like anthropology, sociology
also has a discipline based concept
that aid in the understanding of human
behavior and groups. The basic
concept that sociology interprets is
that of society.
SOCIETY

Society can be defined as a product

of human interaction as human
subscribe to the rules of their culture.
It is an organization that afters to a
humans need for belongingness in a
group.
The following table present the varying understanding of
society as prescribed by sociology.
Comparison of Theories on Society
SOCIOLOGIST PERSPECTIVE ON
SOCIETY
August Comte Society as a social organism possessing a
harmony of structure and function.

Emile Durkheim Society as a reality in its own right. Collective

consciousness is of key importance to society,
which society cannot survive without.

Talcoll Parsons Society is a total complex of human

relationship in so far as they grow out of the
action in term of mean end relationship.
George Herbert Mead Society is an exchange of gestures that
involves the use of symbols.

Morna Gersberg Society as collection of individuals unified by

certain relations to made of behavior that
marks individuals off from others who do not
enter into these relationship or who differ from
them in behavior.

George Douglas Cole Society as the complex of organized

association and institutions with a community.

Robert Macirer and Charles Society as a system of usages and procedures

of authority and mutual end of many groupings
Page and divisions of controls of human behavior
and societies.

Source, Shandra (2007)

The common terms that surfaced in these
definition are:
1. Social 6. Relationship
2. Structure 7. Symbols
3. Function 8. Exchange
4. Complex 9. Behavior
5. Collective 10. Institutions; and
11. System
Social Interaction

Within the framework of society is a

process called social interaction. This is a
compilation of WAYS and MEANS by
which human interact with cash rather a....
Interaction is more merely declined by
an actual physical subtract , as it covers
every human interchange that is within a
mutually subjective (relientation). This
implies that as long as the parties
involved are aware of each other,
interaction is possible.
There are layers of social interaction transpiring
simultaneously.
Several points can be made about social interaction.

1.space is not an issue. The protesters who are making a

dialog with the Chinese government are separated from
it by almost 3,000 kilometers.
2. There can be multiple and simultaneous interactions.
Am interaction can be participated in by at least two
parties or tens of thousands. Each party can be engaged
in multiple interaction with other parties.
3. A dialog can have an active end and an inactive end.
Note that the Chinese government did not respond to the
demands and statement made by the other party.
Nevertheless, despite the silence of the other party, such
an encounter is still considered as a social interaction.
4. Subject positionality is prevent in any interaction. The
responses (or the nonresponses) that individuals make in
relation to an interaction is determined by their
perception of their position in relation to the other party.
5. The meaning we ascribe to the actions of others are
informed by the values and norms that are upheld in our
society.

Social Organization

This concept refers to the interrelationships of parts of

society. As a society is an organization in itself, it is
structurally divided into layers of contexts and positions
that help perpetuate its existence. The positions created
within a society constitute the category of status.
Each status prescribes a set of accepted behavior that defined
the individuals responses and inclinations. This set is called
ROLES. The roles of government officials is to ensure that
the people's needs are addressed through government
projects and politics.

A GROUP is a basic unit of an organization. It involves at

least two individuals who are in constant interaction based
on their statuses and roles. Your school typically consists of
two groups; teachers, and students.
Institution are established when roles, statuses,
and groups are perpetuated within the context of
society. Institutions are the building blocks of
society, as it is through these that norms are
produced from the consistent exchanges of
individuals and groups. These institutions are also
in constant recreation as human interactions are
affected by external forces such as environmental
shifts.
Example of Institutions
•family
•marriage
•education
•religion
•government
Social Structure and Agency

This is the foundation of every society from which

emonates the possible roles, statutes, institutions,
and organization. It can e said that social structure
is the determining factor by which every other part
of society gains its context. The common Analogy
used to described social structure and the elements
of society is that of a building.
What provides the building with its design
and body are the institutions, statuses,
groups, and roles. The concept of culture can
be equated to the concept of social a structure
as it functions is the same capacity. This is to
say that culture defines the norms, values,
institutions, groups, and individuals behavior
within a society.
Note that this perspective renders
individuals to be incapable of asserting
themselves in a society, as they are
bound by the rules of its structure on in
the context, their culture. A divergent
perspective to this accommodates the
concept of agency.
According to Inden (2000) agency is.
This definition provides the argument that
though structure in place define the conditions in
which an individual interacts with others and
institutions, the individuals ate capable of
creating new systems and patterns of interaction.
As such, agency should treated as an active
word, it constitutes actions that are intended to
instigate action from institution that would alter
social structure.
Moore (2007) argues this, saying the
following; Agency is defined as individuals
or groups reflecting, acting, modifying and
giving significance to the teaching of
science in purposeful ways, with the aim of
empowering and transforming themselves
and us the conditions of their lives.This
agency is action oriented.
Subdisciplines of Sociology

Within the field of sociology are specific inquiries

on human behavior in groups studies. That involves
social structures such as institutions, social groups,
social stratification, social mobility, and ethnic
group fall within the scope of social organization.
The study of the impact of group life to a persons
nature and personality is the focus of social
psychology.
Social change and disorganization in
the branch of sociology that inquiries on
the shift in social and cultural
interactions and the interruption of its
process through delinquency, deviance
and conflicts.
Human ecology pursues studies that relate
human behavior to existing social
institutions. This is different from social
psychology and social organization in that
the social institutions in which human
subjects belong to are treated in the context
of an ecological environmental element that
defines human behavior.
Population or demography inquiries on the
interrelationship between population
characteristics and dynamics which that of a
political, economic and social system.

Applied sociology uses sociological research and

methods to solve contemporary problems. It often
uses an interdisciplinary approach to better
address social problems.
Methods in Sociology
There are two primary methodological perspective in
Sociology; Positivist and the Anti Positivist.

Positivist orientation- perceives society as a

quantifiable subject from which objective conclusions
can be made.

• Uses methods employed by the natural sciences to

understand social phenomenon.
• Auguste Compte who introduced this
perspective taking into consideration that society
is like an organism that could be measured
through logic and mathematics.
• This orientation is predisposed to statistical
analysis, quantitative methods such as survey are
employed by Sociologists to map a social
phenomenon.
• This type of orientation allows for a macro level
analysis of society
Example of a work that uses positivism by Durkheim
(1951) he identified four types of suicide that are triggered
by the type of society that one is having in.
Norm
Many Rules
Fatalistic

Left
Integration Right
Weak Ties Strong Ties
Egoistic Altruistic

No Rules
Anomic

Durkheim schema on suicide

According to Durkheim
(1951) individuals who fall
into the extreme of their
society are bound to commit
suicide. For example a person
who lives in a society that
promotes strong ties among its
members is prone to commit
altruistic suicide as an act of
preserving it.
Being part of societies that do not faster
strong ties among its members can
trigger an individual to commit
Egoistic suicide wherein the individual
feels isolated having no sense of a
community.
Third type of suicide is Anomic l, which
results from living in a society with na rules.
This context propels an individuals to
commit suicide as he or she experiences
moral and existential crisis based on the
unavailability of guiding principles through
which life can be lived.
Finally, there is Fatalistic suicide....
This type of suicide is due to overregulation
in society. Under the overregulation of a
society, when a servant or slave commits
suicide, when a barren woman commits
suicide, it is the example of fatalistic
suicide.
Coming from a Positivist orientation.
Durkheim argues that suicide can be
prevented, as it is not a matter of personal
choice but it actually a product of social
realities which can be altered to counter its
effect. This schema or suicide can be applied
in understanding all kinds of society, hence the
macro level theorizing that positivism can only
provide.
Alternately, the Anti Positivism orientation
promotes a subjective approach wherein social
phenomena are understood through individual
experiences.
• It counters the positivist assumption that general
laws can made to understand human behavior.
• Requires quantitative methods in gathering data
such as interviews, participant observations, and
other tools of ethnography.
The work on suicide by Pearson and Lui (2011)
presents the suicide of a village woman in China
named Ling. Using ethnographic process. Pearson
and Lui concluded that the typical western
orientation toward suicide, which focuses on
depression and other mental health related factors,
are not in the same operation among rural Chinese
women, as their suicide act is triggered by social
and economic structural conditions.
Unlike the work of Durkheim that has a
potential for general application in
understanding suicide phenomena
across geographic regions, the work of
Pearson and Lui remains to be
applicable to the case within the micro
level of analysis.
Value of Sociology for the 21st Century

Sociology was established as time when

society was changing drastically due to
technological and political developments.

Contemporary society is constantly facing

reality altering development as fraught about
by climate change.
Sociology finds its value in providing a
conceptual tool in understanding the plight of
human as they adapt to their varying environment
and social conditions.

Through scientific analyses of social phenomena,

sociology provides policy makers with concrete
bases fr decision that affect human population
and alter their social landscape.
BIG IDEA
Society is in a constant process of
change
One of the pressing sociological issues in the
Philippine is the case of unemployment youth
who are in the process of waithhood. These
youth are called Tambay.

Clarence Batan, a sociologist studying the

youth, conducted a sociological study of
Tambay in a marginalized town of Talien in
the province of Rizal.
• He found out that most of the youth
have employment aspiration, due to their
marginalized.
• Ge further argued that such
experiences perpetuate a web of crises
that promote intergenerational poverty
and marginalization.