Introduction to Sociology

Introduction to Sociology

Sociology is the systematic and scientific study of human social life.

Sociologists study people as they form groups and interact with one
another. The groups they study may be small, such as married
couples, or large, such as a subculture of suburban teenagers.
Sociology places special emphasis on studying societies, both as
individual entities and as elements of a global perspective.
In this lesson, you are presented with a brief introduction to
sociology as a social science.

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to

1. Explain sociology as a social science;

2. Explain fundamental sociological theories; and
3. Illustrate sociological imagination.

Sociology as a Social Science

Sociology “is a scientific study of human society, its origin,

structure, function, and direction.” It studies the influence that
society has on people’s attitudes and behavior. It also seeks to
understand the ways in which people interact and shape society.
The Origins of Sociology
Sociology is a relatively young science, beginning in late nineteenth-
century Europe during a time of great social upheaval. Intellectuals
such as Auguste Comte, Harriet Martineau, Emile Durkheim, and
others began to explore ideas for regaining a sense of community
and restoring order. After World War II, however, the greatest
development of sociology took place in the United States. Two early
contributors were activists Jane Addams and W.E.B. DuBois, who
helped focus people's attention on social issues.
Pioneers in the Study of Sociology
The early scholars who contributed significantly to the development
of Sociology as a young science are listed below:

Auguste Comte (1798 - 1857)

- He was born after the French revolution of 1789
- He proposed the Philosophical position of Positivism. He
theorized that physical science methods are regarded as the
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accurate means of obtaining knowledge, and therefore,

social science should adhere to the same.
- He developed the idea and coined the term "sociology."
- He was the founder of Sociology.

Harriet Martineau (1802 – 1876)

- She translated Comte’s work into English
- She spoke out in favor of the rights of women, the
emancipation of the slaves, and religious tolerance.
- Her book, "Society in America," examines religion, politics,
child-rearing, and immigration in the young nation.
- She emphasized the impact that the economy, law, trade,
and population could have on the social problems of
contemporary society.
- She said that intellectuals and scholars should not simply
offer observations of social conditions, but they should act
upon their conditions in a manner that will benefit society.

Karl Marx (1818 - 1883)

- He is considered one of the thinkers of the modern times
- He was a native German and later exiled to England
- He said that the sociologist’s task is to explain conflict
- That conflict is shaped by means of production
- He said that industrialization resulted in two classes: owners
and laborers.

Herbert Spencer (1820 - 1903)

- He grew up in England
- He proposed that there is a parallelism between how society
evolves in the same manner as animal species do
- This principle is attributed to "Darwin's Theory of Evolution."
- Through Spencer’s theory, it could be further said that man
as a member of society is in a never-ending competition and
the game's name is to win.

Emile Durkheim (1858 - 1917)

- He was the only person who studied the discipline in the
school of higher learning thoroughly.
- He provided insights into the social forces that contributed
to the rise of the global village.
- He proposed four types of suicide based on the degrees of
imbalance of two social forces: social integration and moral
regulation.
- He concluded that suicide is not an ordinary phenomenon.

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Max Weber (1864 – 1920)

- He focused on how the industrial revolution changed
thoughts and action and how it brought about a process
called rationalization.
- Rationalization refers to the way daily life is organized so as
to accommodate large groups of people.

Other sociologists:

Albion Small
- founder of the department of sociology at the University of
Chicago
- he established the American Journal of Sociology

W.E.B Du Bois
- a black American who conducted research on race relations
in the U.S.

Wright Mills
- urged sociologists to get back to social reform

Robert K. Merton
- he stressed that sociologists need to develop middle-range
theories as explanations of human behavior that go beyond
the particular observation or research but avoid sweeping
generalizations that attempt to account for everything

The Development of Sociology in the Philippines

Serfin M. Macaraig
- the first Filipino to acquire a doctorate degree in Sociology
and published a book entitled “An Introduction to Sociology”
in 1938.

Fr. Valentin Marin

- he introduced Sociology in the Philippines with the opening
of a criminology program at the University of Santo Tomas in
1950

Conrado Benitez and Luis Rivers

- among the first teachers of sociology in the Philippines

In 1952, Filipino pioneers in Sociology organized the Philippine

Sociological Society. The main trust is to collect, interpret, and
propose possible solutions to different Philippine sociological
phenomena.
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In 1957, the Community Development Research Council was

created to conduct and support social science researchers.

In 1960, Fr. Frank Lynch, SJ, founded the Institute of the

Philippines Culture at the Ateneo de Manila University.

In 1972, Xavier University was given credit as the first school which
open a Ph.D. program in sociology.

It was the University of the Philippines that offered a bachelor's

degree in sociology.

Three Major Perspectives in Sociology

Sociologists analyze social phenomena at different levels and from

different perspectives. Sociologists today employ three primary
theoretical perspectives: the symbolic interactionist perspective,
the functionalist perspective, and the conflict perspective. These
perspectives offer sociologists theoretical paradigms for explaining
how society influences people and vice versa. Each perspective
uniquely conceptualizes society, social forces, and human
behavior.

Sociological Perspectives
Sociological Perspective Level of Focus
Analysis
1. Symbolic Micro Use of symbols; Face-to-
Interactionism (small face Interactions
social
patterns)
2. Functionalism Macro Relationship between the
(large parts of society; How
patterns) aspects of society are
functional (adaptive)
3. Conflict Theory Macro Competition for scarce
resources; How the elite
controls the poor and
weak.

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Symbolic Interaction
The founding father is Mead (1863-1931), an American
philosopher.
The theoretical perspective supports that:

• People attach meaning to symbols; then, they act according

to the subject's interpretations

• Individual, social groups, meaning to the experience of life:

we negotiate to mean

• Meanings can change or be modified through interaction

and through time.
Structure Functionalism
Two words can give an idea of this approach: structure and
function. The founding fathers of this perspective are Comte,
Spencer, and Durkheim.
This theoretical perspective says that society is a stable, ordered
system of interrelated parts of the structures. Each structure has a
function that contributes to the continued stability or equilibrium of
the whole.
 Structures are explained as social institutions like the
family, the educational system, politics, religion, mass
media systems, and the economy
 Structures meet the need of society by performing different
functions:
 What would be the functions of above mentioned social
institutions? (in terms of manifest* vs. latent** functions,
Robert Merton, b. 1910)
 Dysfunction: a disturbance to or undesirable consequence
of some aspect of the social system
 Harmony & stability
❖ Manifest: the obvious intended functions of a social
institution (or social system)
❖ Latent: the less obvious, perhaps unintended functions
of a social structure
Cultural Theory
The founding father is Karl Marx.
The principles embodied in this theory are:
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• A materialistic view of society (focused on labor practices

and economic reality, we play by the rules (roles and
functions) of these social systems

• Unequal groups usually have conflicting values and

agendas, causing them to compete against one another.

• This constant competition between groups forms the basis

of the ever-changing nature of society.

Sociological Imagination

Sociological imagination is a new concept in social sciences

introduced by C. Wright Mills in 1959 in his book titled ‘Sociological
Imagination. This coined phrase is used throughout sociology today.
This 'sociological imagination is the concept of being able to “think
ourselves away” from the familiar routines of our daily lives in order
to look at them anew. Mills defined sociological imagination as “the
vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and wider
society.” It is the ability to see things socially and how they interact
and influence each other. To have a sociological imagination, a
person must be able to pull away from the situation and think from
an alternative point of view. It is also the willingness to view the
social world from the perspective of others. It involves moving away
from thinking in terms of you and your problems (private issues)
but focusing rather on the social circumstances that produce social
problems (public issues).
In short, sociological imagination is all about determining the
relationship between your ordinary lives and the wider social
forces. It is turning your private troubles into ‘public issues”.

Example of Sociological Imagination

We will see a common example. Suppose a boy is unable to find

employment and is worried about a loan that he needs to pay back.
He tries very hard to get a job, but he fails. Now, he joins a group
and engages in illegal and criminal activities. If you analyze this
case individually, then you may say that this boy did not try hard
enough to get a job and resorted to illegal activities to gain easy
money.
We analyze the issue:
Issue – Unemployment

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Private Trouble – When one person is unemployed, that is a private

trouble
Public Issue – When 5 million people are unemployed, that is a
public issue

If you see this case from the social imagination perspective, then
you would see that the larger forces, such as economic meltdown,
unemployment, the lack of regulation in the subprime mortgage
industry, etc., directly impacted the life of this guy. We could have
blamed the individual's personal character if very few guys went
through a similar situation. But when a significant number of youth
face the same problem, it becomes a social or public problem
where government policies about employment and banking need to
be looked at.
In the above example, you can analyze the problem by tracing the
root cause of the problem in society and find how this particular
issue developed. It is clear from the example of sociological
imagination that this concept tries to study how large social forces
influence individual behavior and actions of people living in that
society.
So, the next time you are confronted with a personal problem or
situation, you know how to connect it to the wider social
happenings. This process would help you find out long-term,
permanent solutions to some of the individual grave problems.

References

Acton, Ashton Q. (2014. Issues in international sociology and social

work research and application. USA: Scholarly Editions.Print
Difference Between Anthropology and Sociology.
www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/...anthropology-and-
sociology. Web. 06 June 2015.
Ferrante, J. (2014). Sociology a Global Perspective. 9th edition.
USA: Cengage Learning. Print
 Introduction to Sociology

Mauss, M. (2005). The Nature of Sociology Berghahn Series.USA:

Durkheim Press. Print
Sociology/Anthropology.
www.stolaf.edu/catalog/9697/socanthro.html. Web. 06 June
2015.