Module 4: Sociology and the Study of Society

The Sociological Perspective

Another branch of the social sciences is the discipline of sociology.
Sociology - scientific study of society, occluding patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and culture.
(calhoune, 2002)
Scientific term 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 Compte in 1830 to refer to a scientific inquiry that covers human social
activities. The inclination toward the use of common sense in understanding human populations and their activities was
challenged by the more accurate and tested conclusions provided by the sociological perspective.

In 1959, C. Wright Mills coined the phrase ―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.
Mills further urged that this imagination could be the conceptual tool by which people could unpack the maladies of
their society and address them.

Sociology - studies societies to promote social change, create new theories, and document human behavior.
(HELPS US UNDERSTAND HOW AND WHY OUR INDIVIDUALS PERSONALITIES CHANGE DEPENDING ON OUR
GROUP WE ARE IN) BEHAVE IN THE GROUP).

Sociological Concepts
1.Society 2.Social Interaction 3.Social Organization 4. 4. Social Structure and Agency

Just like anthropology, sociology also has discipline-based concepts that aid in the understanding of
human behavior and groups. The basic concept that sociology interprets is that of society.

1. Society - can be defined as a product of human interactions as humans subscribe to the rules of their
culture. It is an organization that caters to a human’s need for belongingness in a group.
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.
Talcott Parsons Society is a total complex of human relationships in so far as they grow out of the
actions in terms of means-end relationship.
George Herbert Mead Society is an example of gestures that involves the use of symbols.
Morris Ginsberg Society as a collection of individuals united by certain relations or mode of
behavior that marks individuals off from others who do not enter into these
relations or who differ from them in behavior
George Douglas Cole Society as the complex of organized associations and institutions with a
community
Robert Maclver and Charles Society as a system of usages and procedures of a authority and mutual aid of
Page many groupings and divisions, of controls of human behavior and liberties.

2. Social Interaction
- Process within the framework of society.
- This is a compilation of ways and means by which humans interact with each other within the confines of a
society.
Interaction is not merely defined by an actual physical contact, as it covers every human interchange that is within a
mutually subjective orientation. This implies that as long as the parties involved are aware of each
other, interaction is possible.

Elements of Social Interaction

1. Two or more than two persons
2. Reciprocal relationship among them
3. Influence on the event, behavior, brain of the persons.
(These three conditions interrelate the people among themselves and convert them into social groups.)

Types of Social Interaction

According to Young and Mack there are two types of social interaction between people and societies
1. Direct or Physical Interaction: it involves physical action among the individuals. Beating, biting, thrashing,
pulling, pushing, killing, scratching, boxing, wrestling, kissing etc. are the examples of direct interaction.
2. Symbolic Interaction: There are different types of relationships between people. It involves the use of
language and symbols. It means communication through a common language is symbolic process. This is the
most common method of human societies.

3. Social Organization
This concept refers to the interrelationship 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 consti tute the category of status. This may include
being a student, a son, and a parent.
Roles - each status prescribes a set of accepted behaviors that defined the individual’s responses and inclinations.
The role of a government official is to ensure that the people’s needs are addressed through government
projects and policies. If the government official fails to perform this role, then a conflict occurs as the norm was
not followed.
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. You interact with your teachers based on
your role as a student, Hence, your, manner of speaking and the content of your statements are different when you
are interacting with your classmates from when you interact with your teachers.
Institutions - are established when roles, statuses , and groups are perpetuated within the context of a society,
Institutions are the building blocks of a society, as it is through these that the 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. Family, marriage, education, religion, and government are all examples of institution.
4. Social Structure and Agency
This is the foundation of every society from which emanates the possible roles, statuses, institutions, and
organizations. It can be said that social structure is the determining factor by which every other part of a society gains
its context. The common analogy used to describe social structure and the elements of society is that of a building.

The building in itself can be considered as the society. The pillars and foundation of the building is equated to the
social structure. Remember that these parts provide the general framework of the building these determine its height,
width, and shape. What provides the building with each design and body are the institutions, statuses, groups, and
roles. The concept of culture can be equated to the concept of social structure as it functions in the same capacity.
This is to say that culture defines the norms, values, institutions, groups, and individual behavior within a society.

Subdiscipline of Sociology
1. Social Organization – studies that involve social structures such as institutions, social groups, social
stratifications, social mobility and ethnic groups.
 2. Social Psychology - study of the impact of group life to a person’s nature and personality.
3. Social change and disorganization - inquires on the shift in social and cultural interactions and the interruption
of its process through delinquency, deviance and conflicts.
4. Human ecology - pursues studies that relate human behavior to existing social institutions.

5. Population or demography - inquires on the interrelationship between population characteristics and

dynamics with that of a political, economic, and social system.
6. Applied sociology - uses sociological research and methods to solve contemporary problems.

Methods in Sociology
There are two primary methodological perspectives in sociology:
1. The positivist orientation perceives society as a quantifiable subject from which objective conclusions can be
made. As such, a positivist perspective uses methods employed by the natural sciences to understand social
phenomenon.
It was Auguste Compte who introduced this perspective taking into consideration that society is like an organism that
could be measured through logic and mathematics.

An example of a work that uses positivism is that of Durkheim (1951) on suicide, wherein he identified four types of
suicide that are triggered by the type of society that is living in.

Durkheim’s schema on suicide

1. Altruistic – individuals who fall into extremes of their society are bound to commit suicide.
(too much integration)
Ex. A person who lives in a society that promotes strong ties among its members.
2. Egoistic - social isolation leads a man to destroy himself, no sense of community.
(not enough integration)
Ex. Being part of societies that do not foster strong ties among its members)
3. Fatalistic – experienced in societies that have many rules.
(too much regulation)
Ex. Individuals who fail to comply with the rules of their society experience shame and disappointment.
4. Anomic – results from living in a society with no rules.
(not enough regulation)
Ex. Experiencing moral and existential crisis based on the unavailability of guiding principles through which life can
be lived.
2. The Anti-positivist Orientation promotes a subjective approach wherein social phenomena are understood
through individual experiences.
With this, it counters the positivist assumption that general laws can be made to understand human behavior.
Such orientation requires qualitative methods in gathering data such as interviews, participant-observations,
and other tools of ethnography.

The discipline of sociology engages its learners to use the scientific method in understanding society. From its
establishment in the 19th century to its contemporary application, sociology provides its users with a lens to
understand their altering social realities. Using either the positivist or anti-positivist orientation, sociologist study
societies to achieve several goals that include the following: promotion of social change, creation of new theories, and
documentation of human behavior. The subdisciplines of sociology illustrate its focus on human interaction within the
context of groups and structures.