The Relation of Sociology and Psychology

The effort of social sciences is to get the understanding of the processes of the social life. In the

broad sense there is a little difference between so called natural science and social science. The

only difference remains is the rigidity in the Natural sciences and not in the case of social

sciences. The natural sciences are more accurate through the method of experimentation. On

other hand it seems to be limited in the case of social sciences, as it is depended upon other

methods , like observing the individuals or group of individuals, comparing them, and correlation

of social phenomena.

What is Psychology?

Psychology is the study of mental process or mind of individual or small group over a larger

society or culture. Psychology tends to study one person at a time to get a general understand of

society. It studies parts of the human experiences and the behavior. It leads with the

psychological process of human like thinking, learning and remembering. Modern psychologists

also studies motivation, emotion and feelings of a person . psychology mostly relies on

experiments in which a factor such as “social pressure” is manipulated to see what effect is has.

Moreover, it is very easy to conduct an experiment under the domain of psychology1 .

Psychology is concerned with the exploration of the depth of man's mind and behavior in

society. It is said that psychology shows the significance of the relationship between the

organism (individual) and environment and the response of the former to the latter. It is defined

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as "the study of man's mental life and behavior". It is the science of mind of mental processes. In

the words of Thouless, psychology is the positive science of human experience and behavior.

The aim of psychology is to arrive at the laws of mental life and behavior of human beings.2

Psychology was developed in the 1950s in reaction to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis. By

using phenomenology, intersubjectivity and first-person categories, the humanistic approach

sought to glimpse the whole person not just the fragmented parts of the personality or cognitive

functioning.Humanism focused on fundamentally and uniquely human issues, such as individual

free will, personal growth, self-actualization, self-identity, death, aloneness, freedom, and

meaning. The humanistic approach was distinguished by its emphasis on subjective meaning,

rejection of determinism, and concern for positive growth rather than pathology.3 In the words

of Thouless, psychology is the positive science of human experience and behavior. Psychology

examines more of the workings of the human mind, why persons think and behave as they do.

Some of the specific things that psychologists studies and researches are:

1. Stress

2. Memory

3. Grief

4. Creativity

5. Aging

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 6. Intelligence

7. Anger

WHAT is sociology?

Sociology is defined as:

The scientific study of human social behavior and its origins, development, organizations, and

institutions.

Sociologists mainly works in these fields

1. Urban planner

2. Affirmative action worker

3. Census researcher

4. Human resources manager

5. Public health supervisor

 6. Correction officer4

Sociology studies the socialization of man and the psychological factors responsible for

personality development. It deals that how a person behaves in society, learn and adopt symbols

from others. Experiment is difficult in sociology due to the complex nature of the problem

sociologists’ deal with. So they often use survey, etc to investigate the matter.5 Sociology studies

the social systems. Sociology tends to examine groups of persons (societies), communities, and

nations. Sociology is a science of social phenomena and social relationship. It is a science of

social group and social institutions. It is a science of collective behavior. It studies human

behavior in groups. Sociology looks beyond individuals and examines societies through the

specific lenses or associations. Sociologists have discovered through years of research that much

of societal behavior is dependent or dictated by some social relationships – gender, race, religion,

and social class. Each of these filters offers a unique and important perspective on culture and

society. Important issues about the environment, social and economic inequality, and vulnerable

populations including people with disabilities and the unborn are often brought to the public eye

by people working under the umbrella of sociology; they help the general population understand

why these issues are important, as well as understand any lasting impact they may have (or have

had) on society as a whole. Their primary responsibility is observing cultures and people groups,

researching current issues, and asking questions like, “How will these issues affect the continued

development or wellness of society?”6

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RELATION BETWEEN SOCIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY

Sociology is a special aid to psychology while psychology is also a special aid to sociology.

Sociology studies the social systems while psychology studies mental systems. The nature of

relationship between sociology and psychology still remains controversial.

There are two extreme views: J.S.Mill believed that a general social science could not be

considered firmly established until its inductively established generalizations can be shown to be

also logically deductible from laws of mind. Thus he clearly sought to establish primacy of

psychology over all other social sciences.Durkheim on the other hand made a radical distinction

between the phenomena studied by sociology and psychology respectively. Sociology was to

study social facts defined as being external to individual mind and exercising the coercive action

upon them, the explanation of social facts could only be in terms of other social facts not in

terms of psychological facts. Society is not simply an aggregate of individuals; it is a system

formed by their association and represents a specific level of reality possessing its own

characteristics. Thus sociology and psychology are totally separate disciplines.7 Both sociology

and psychology are concerned with the study of social groups, especially human groups their

organisation, decision and behavior. Sociology and psychology are both involved in solving the

existing social problems. Sociology helps psychology and psychology helps sociology.

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Sociology and Psychology are closely related with each other. Both are interrelated and inter-

dependent. sociology studies society where as psychology is concerned with human behavior, So

there are resemblances between psychology and sociology. Both are regarded as positive science.

These two disciplines have a great deal in common and are inter-related. It is difficult to

understand the inter-relations and the activities of human beings; without an adequate knowledge

of human psychology. In the same way, many truths of psychology would remain unintelligible

without a comprehensive idea about social relationships, behavior and activities. There is no gain

saying the fact that psychology trends support to sociology and the help sociology extends to

psychology, is by no means insignificant. In other words they depend on each other for their

existence. In this way, both psychology and sociology are deeply related to each other. 8 The

problem of psychology is to explain the experience and the behavior of the individual,. while the

problem of sociology is to explain the nature and the behavior of the group. As soon as interest

shifts front the individual to the group, it shifts from the purely psychological to the sociological.

The distinction between sociology and psychology, as we have seen, is peculiarly difficult to

define, if we recognize the validity of the psychological method in sociology, unless we frankly

recognize that the distinction between the sciences is one of problems. Psychology, as we have

said, studies the individual and his behavior, while sociology studies the group and its behavior.

But we cannot understand the group apart from the nature of the individuals who compose it.

The dependence between sociology ,and psychology is reciprocal. Individual psychology must

look to the study of group life for the explanation of much in individual behavior. It depends as

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much upon the psychology of society as the psychology of society depends upon it.9 Sociology

and Psychology are very closely interlinked interrelated and interdependent. Relationship

between the two is so close and intimate that Psychologist like Karl Pearson refuses to accept

both as special science. Both depend on each other for their own comprehension. Their

relationship will be clear if we analyze their inter-relationship and mutual dependency.

Sociology is a science of social phenomena and social relationship. It is a science of social group

and social institutions. It is a science of collective behavior. It studies human behavior in groups.

But psychology is a science of mind or mental processes. It is a science of human behavior. It

analyses attitudes, emotions, perception, process of learning and values of individuals. Sociology

receives help from Psychology. Psychology is a part of sociology hence without the help from

Psychology Sociology can’t understand itself fully and properly. There are many psychologists

like Freud, MacDougal and others who have enrich Sociology in many respects. Thus Sociology

and Psychology are mutually dependent on each other. One can’t comprehend itself without the

help from others. Besides there are some common area of study such as social disorganization,

public opinion etc. which are being studied by both Sociologists and Psychologists.

Differences:

However, inspite of the mutual relationship and dependence both the sciences differ from each

other in the following ways.

(1) Sociology is a science of society but Psychology is a science of mind.

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(2) Scope of Sociology is wide whereas scope of Psychology is limited.

(3) Society is the unit of study in sociology but individual is the unit of study in case of

Psychology.

(4) Sociology studies social processes whereas Psychology studies mental processes.

(5) Sociology studies and analyses human behavior from Sociological angle whereas psychology

studies and analyses human behavior from Psychological angles.10

(6) Sociology is general study while psychology is focused in particular studies of man ,mental

activities and his basic behaviour.The main differences lies in the approaches of the two

sciences.Sociology consider many factors responsible for human behaviour while psychology

likes to investigate those mental and psychological facts in an action that have caused it.

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