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Handout 1

SOCIOLOGY, ITS NATURE & CHARACTERISTICS

WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?

“Sociology is the systematic study of human society and social interaction”.

It is a systematic study because sociologists apply both theoretical perspectives and research
methods (or orderly approaches) to examine the social behaviors.

Sociologists study human societies and their social interactions to develop theories. They are
interested in, how human behavior is shaped by group life and how, in turn, group life is affected
by individuals.

Sociology is a discipline which is concerned with human society and human social activities. It is
one of the youngest social sciences.

Auguste Comte, a French social thinker, is traditionally known as the ‘Father of Sociology’ as
he coined the term ‘Sociology’ in 1838. He is also considered as the founder of modern
sociology. He called it “Social Physics”.

Meaning of Sociology:

The term sociology is composed of two words;

o Latin word ‘Socius’ means companion or associate and
o Greek word ‘Logos’ means study.
o Thus etymological meaning of sociology is, “The science of society”.

Definitions of Sociology by Famous Sociologists:

1. ‘Sociology is the science of society or of social phenomena -L.F. Ward

2. The subject-matter of sociology is the inter-action of human minds’. -L.T. Hobhouse
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3. ‘Sociology is the study of the relationships between man and his human environment.’ -
H.P. Fairchild
4. ‘Sociology may be defined as a body of scientific knowledge about human relationships.’
-J. F. Cuber
5. ‘Sociology is a body of learning about society. It is a description of ways to make society
better. It is social ethics, a social philosophy. Generally, however, it is defined as a
science of society.’ -W. F. Ogbum
6. ‘Sociology is the science of collective behavior’. -R. E. Park and F. W. Burgess
7. ‘General sociology is on the whole the theory of human living together.’ -Ferdinand
Tonnies
8. ‘‘Sociology in its broadest sense may be said to be the study of interactions arising from
the association of living beings.’
9. ‘Sociology deals with the behavior of men in groups.’ – Kimball Young

“The main interest of sociology is the people, the ideas, the customs, the other distinctively
human phenomena which surround man and influence him, and which are, therefore, part of his
environment”.
Nature/ characteristics of Sociology:
In nature of sociology we investigate, what type of subject Sociology is?
Is sociology a science, or an art or what? To answer this question Robert Bierstedt enlisted the
following characteristics of sociology in his book “The Social Order”:
 Sociology is an independent science.
o Sociology has emerged as an independent science. Sociology like any other
discipline have its own area of study and not fully dependent on other discipline.
o It is not treated as branch of any other science like philosophy, History.
 Sociology is a social science not a physical science.
o Sociology belongs to the family of social sciences.
o Social sciences focus on various aspect of human society while physical sciences
deal with natural phenomena. Thus Sociology is a social science as it deals with
man and his social activities and social life.
 Sociology is both a rational and an empirical science.
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o It studies the social phenomena in scientific way.

o It is based on reason (logic) and observation.
 Sociology is a categorical and not a normative discipline.
o Sociology is value-free. It is only interested in ‘what is’ and not ‘what should be’
or ‘ought to be’.
o It is amoral as ethically neutral.
 Sociology is pure science and not an applied science.
o As a Pure science it is only interested in acquisition of knowledge, it has nothing
to do with application of that knowledge. Like Physics is a pure science while
engineering is its application.
 Sociology is relatively an abstract science and not a concrete science.
o It studies the society in an abstract (Theoretical not physical) way. Like,
Sociology is not interested in particular families but in family as a social
institution that exists in all societies.
 Sociology is a general science and not a special social science.
o Like Economics or Political Science, Sociology does not focus on only one aspect
of human activity. As it has to deal with society it includes all aspects of human
life in a general way.
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HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIOLOGY

Sociology is the scientific study of human social life, groups and societies. There was no
sociology as a distinct discipline before the advent of 19th century. As a distinct discipline it
emerged about the middle of the 19th century when European social observers began to use
scientific methods to test their ideas.
It is thought that following factors led to the development of sociology.
1. Enlightenment
2. French Revolution
3. Industrial Revolution
4. Colonialism/imperialism
5. Development of social sciences
1. ENLIGHTENMENT:
The intellectual heritage of enlightenment which facilitated the way of sociology is as under:
a) Society: A Human, Not Divine, Affair:
 Before enlightenment people believed that social structure was divinely devised.
 Anything from inequality to social disorder was believed to be due to God’s interference
in human affairs.
 The enlightenment thinkers were the first to understand that humans could alter society,
eliminate poverty, crime, injustice and inequality etc.
This concept greatly influenced the development of sociology in 19th century.
b) Scientific Approach:
The enlightenment also emphasized on scientific approach for understanding society.
 It helped in studying cause & effect of the evil in the society and bring for the facts, by
eliminating the past myths.
 Through scientific approach evil forces in society could easily be understood, isolated
and altered for the well-being of society.
Thus, Enlightenment Sociology took many believes and ideas; studied them, refined them and
changed them. It also began the study of Society as a phenomenon.
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2. FRENCH REVOLUTION (1789 to 1799):

 In 1789 the French Revolution began, and when it was finally over, Europe and the
World were transformed.
 This also brought great changes to society and was largely responsible for the
development of sociology.
 The French revolution also formed the basis for two important traditions which became
integral part of its study.
o Birth of Democratic society
o Inspiring New Sociological Traditions
a. BIRTH OF DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY:
o The French Revolution brought end to feudal society, tradition, power of church,
absolute monarchy and also to other exploitative elements in society.
o It ensured the triumph of middle class and hence proved to be a indication of
democracy.
b. INSPIRING NEW SOCIOLOGICAL TRADITIONS:
After eliminating the old traditions, the French Revolution introduced two new traditions.
a. The first is “Conservative Tradition.” This emphasized on concepts such as
order and solidarity.
b. The other is “Liberal/Radical Tradition.” This focused on problems of
inequality and conflict, power and social change. Society is described as a
struggle between the powerful and powerless.
Thus, the social changes and new social thought which are associated with French Revolution
provided rich material to the infant study of sociology at that time.

3. INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION:
The industrial revolution changed the European economy from agriculture based to more on
manufacturing, trading and money based.
 After the industrial revolution, the socio-economic power shifted from feudal to
industrialists of urban areas who owned large factories.
 The change in power structure of society and the emergence of new hectic and fast living
style with increased economic needs led to change in social relationships as well.
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The industrial revolution also brought forward massive urbanization.

 Masses of people migrated to cities in search of jobs. Pull and push factors were
instrumental in such migrations. In the countryside, due to the nature of agricultural
society, there were no occupations that could be alternatives to agriculture. Hence people
got pushed to look for new places whereas the urban/industrial places with new job
opportunities provided a pull to the same population.
 But this also narrowed down the job opportunities, competition between haves and have-
nots increased to such extent that it became a game of “Survival of fittest.”
 The city greeted them with horrible working conditions: low pay; long and exhausting
working hours; dangerous work; foul smoke; and much noise. To survive the vagaries of
life, families had to permit their children to work in these uncongenial conditions.
 The unemployment increased along with the inflation and poverty. These disturbances
paved way for social unrest and movements in political revolutions which provided a new
material for the science of sociology.
 The changes in social structure, social relationships and the massive urbanization also
paved way for rural and urban sociology.

4. Colonialism/imperialism:
The imperialism/colonialism stimulated the development of sociology.
 Europeans successfully conquered many parts of the world. They were exposed to
radically different cultures. Startled by these contrasting ways of life, they began to ask
why cultures differed.
 The European colonies in Asia, Africa and America brought Europeans into close contact
with the societies very different from their own.
 This gave birth to curiosity in Europeans to study these societies.
 The thinkers and scholars of the time showed keen interest in the nature of the newly
discovered societies, this in turn inspired the development of sociology.

5. Development of Other Natural and Social Sciences :

 Development of sociology was the success of the natural sciences.
 People moved to question fundamental aspects of their social world.
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 They started using the scientific method (systematic observation, objectivity) to the
study of human behavior.
 As the natural sciences developed then the other social sciences also developed. The
study of other social sciences like psychology, political science and economics greatly
contributed to the birth of sociology.
 The development of these sciences encouraged interest in society. Within due time; the
scientists, thinkers and scholars came to a notion that society and sociology needed to
become a specialty area in its own right.

Different Universities offered courses in sociology in 1890s. In 1895, the American journal of
Sociology began publishing, and in 1905 the American Sociological Society now called the
American Sociological Association (ASA) was founded. Currently, most sociologists are
members of the Association and gather at the association's annual meetings in order to address,
discuss, and debate new research in the discipline.
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Social Problem:
A social problem is any condition or behavior that has negative consequences for large numbers
of people and that is generally recognized as a condition or behavior that needs to be addressed.
This definition has both an objective component and a subjective component.
It may also be defined as “A social problem is an issue within the society that makes it difficult
for people to achieve their full potential.” Poverty, unemployment, unequal opportunity, racism,
and malnutrition are examples of social problems. So are substandard housing, employment
discrimination, and child abuse and neglect.
The term “social problem” is usually taken to refer to social conditions that disrupt or damage
society—crime, racism, and the like. “Social Problems” is the title of an undergraduate course
taught at many colleges; a typical course discusses what is known about a series of conditions
considered social problems.
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Sociology& common sense/Stenotypes

Stereotype
Stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular group of people that is shared by many but is
generally based on prejudice and will impact what people think about or expect from individuals
within that social group. For example, there is a stereotype that women cannot perform hectic
tasks. Stereotypes can be one of the factors that can affect differential achievement for different
social groups.
Difference between Sociology and Common Sense
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Sociology and other social sciences

Sociology is the science that deals with the study of human beings and their social relationships.
As it studies the different aspects of social life, sociology has been classified into different sub
division or fields the main subdivisions of sociology given by sociologists. Relationship of
sociology with other social sciences has been described as under:

1) Sociology and Political Science: Sociology is a general social science. It is the science of
sociology. It is considered that sociology is the study of social relationship and social
institutions. On the other hand political science is the study of state and government. Power
structure, political system, type of the government, its policies and international relation fall
in the domain of political science. It also employs the method of sociological research to
investigate the content of political behavior. It treats political institution as parts of the social
system. Political science provides laws to the society for social welfare, social development,
ensure peace, social order, harmony and removal of poverty and crimes while sociology
provides data which becomes bases for law making. Political sociology is an integral part of
sociology which has progressively transform political science in the directions of wider
attentions to imperial reality.
2) Sociology and Anthropology: Anthropology is the study of man and his environment
(culture). It is concerned with man in groups, races, people and their happenings. It is
considered the broadest social science as it studies both biological and cultural development
of man. It is commonly said that anthropology is the study of culture while sociology is the
study of society, that’s why some sociologists call them ‘twin-sisters’. One cannot study
society without culture and culture without society because both go hand in hand and cannot
be separated. Anthropological studies are used by sociologists and sociological studies are
used by anthropologists.
3) Sociology and History: History is derived from the Greek word “Historia” means
knowledge acquired by investigation. History is the study of the past- specially the people,
events, societies and problems of the past. All the human societies have their history. Both
history and sociology are closely related with each other as John Seely says that history
without sociology has no fruit and sociology without history has no root. While studying
history one has to study society likewise one has to study history if he is interested to study
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the society as a whole. Sociologists has to study history while obtaining information
regarding pat events, situations, and the development of different social institutions like
family, state etc.
4) Sociology and Economics: Economics is the study of production, consumption and
distribution of goods and services. It studies the economic activities of different societies, the
economic process and relation between structures of society and their economic activities.
Both are closely related with each other as without understanding economic structure,
activities and problems it is impossible for the sociologists to study social phenomenon and
social problems of the individuals. Relationship of sociology and economics is so close that
one cannot exclusively state that unemployment, poverty, crimes and corruption are
economic problems or social problems. Even production and distribution of goods which is
filed of economics is studied after taking into consideration the social needs and social
structure of the particular society. In sociology one also studies those economic matters
which are even not studied by the economists such as the exchange of cash like prize, gifts
and dowry system.
5) Sociology and Psychology: Psychology is the study of human mind and behavior. Its main
focus is mental process and behavior of individuals. In sociology one studies social
interactions of individuals which is definitely affected by the internal psychology of the
individuals. So to study the social interaction which is the domain of the sociology one has to
study the psychology to understand individuals behaviors which may form social relationship
or vice versa. Solution to different social problems such as crime, juvenile delinquency and
gambling require knowledge of psychology as well. Study of individual behavior without
understanding his social setting and study of society without taking into consideration the
individual behavior is impossible. It is concluded that sociology and psychology are
interlinked social sciences.
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Perspective:
Perspective means a view or an outlook or an approach or an imagination (of the world). While
sociological perspective means the special point of view of sociology that sees general patterns
of society in the lives of particular people. Hence sociological perspective means an approach to
understanding human behavior by placing it within its broader social context.
Theory
It is a statement of how and why specific facts are related. The job of sociological theory is to
explain social behavior in the real world.
Structural Functionalism:
The structural-functional approach owes much to Auguste Comte, who pointed out the need to
keep society unified at a time when many traditions were breaking down. Other sociologists who
contributed a lot in this sociological framework were Emile Durkheim, and the English
sociologist Herbert Spencer (1820–1903). Spencer compared society to the human body. Just as
the structural parts of the human body—the skeleton. Muscles, and various internal organs—
function interdependently to help the entire organism survive, social structures work together to
preserve society. The structural- functional approach, then, leads sociologists to identify the role
of various institutes of the society and their functions. It is actually framework for building
theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and
stability. According to this sociological perspective society consists of different parts (social
institutions) and each part has its own specific functions. Function of all these parts (social
institutions) are interrelated and interconnected. Social solidarity, stability, development and
order can be maintained only if these parts function properly in their domain and in integrated
way. As its name suggests, this approach points out the following:
Social order
Social integrity
Solidarity of the society
Social cohesion
In short it can be said that the main goal of the sociologists who use this approach, is to figure
out “what makes society tick.”
Critical Evaluation:
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In the mid-1900s, most sociologists favored the structural-functional approach. In recent

decades, however, its influence has declined. By focusing on social stability and unity, critics
point out, structural-functionalism ignores inequalities of social class, race, and gender, which
cause tension and conflict. It is concluded that structural functionalism approach is appropriate to
understand how society works but it is unable to define social dysfunction and the causes for
occurrence of social change as well. In general, its focus on stability at the expense of conflict
makes this approach somewhat conservative.
As a critical response, sociologists developed the social-conflict approach.

Social Conflict:

The Social-Conflict Approach

The social-conflict approach is a framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of
inequality that generates conflict and change. Unlike the structural-functional approach this
approach highlights inequality and change which is always present in the society. According to
the other types of conflict approach such as gender-conflict and race-conflict, sociologists
investigate how factors such as social class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, are linked
to a society’s unequal distribution of money, power, education, and social status. A conflict
analysis rejects the idea that social structure promotes the operation of society as a whole, rather
it focuses on some social patterns benefit only few people while hurts others.
Thee major assumptions of the social conflict are given as under.
 Society is in a perpetual state of conflict between haves (bourgeoisie) and haves not
(proletariat).
 The conflicting groups in the society competes for limited resources
 There is an ongoing conflict between dominant and disadvantaged categories of people—
the rich in relation to the poor, white people in relation to people of color, and men in
relation to women.
 People on top try to protect their privileges by any mean while the disadvantaged try to
gain more for themselves.
Example of a conflict analysis of our educational system shows how schooling carries class
inequality from one generation to the next. The young people from privileged families get the
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best schooling, which leads them to college and later to high-income careers. The children of
poor families, by contrast, are not prepared for college and, like their parents before them,
typically get stuck in low paying jobs. In both cases, the social standing of one generation is
passed on to the next.

Many sociologists use the social-conflict approach not just to understand society but also to bring
about societal change that would reduce inequality. As Karl Marx asserted, “The philosophers
have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.”
Critical Evaluation:
The conflict analysis focuses on inequality, it largely ignores how shared values and
interdependence unify members of a society. Another critic is that conflict theory pursue only
political goals. However it is evident that both, the structural-functional and the social conflict
approaches paint society in broad strokes—in terms of “family,” “social class,” “race,” and so on
but ignore individual behavior, relationships and experiences.

The Symbolic-Interactionism
This approach deals with micro level orientation, which means a close-up focus on social
interaction in specific situations. George Herbert Mead introduces this perspective to the
sociology. He explored how our personalities develop as a result of social experience. The
symbolic-interaction approach, is a framework for building theory that sees society as the
product of the everyday interactions of individuals. The symbolic-interaction approach has roots
in the thinking of Max Weber (1864–1920), who was of the view that there is a need to
understand a setting (soxiety) from the perspective of people living in it. According to this theory
human beings live in the world of symbols. They attach meaning to everything from the words to
the wink of the eye and then they act according to their own interpretation. Interaction is
effective only if the senders and the receiver have the same meaning for the specific symbols.
Main assumption of this approach are as under:
 Symbols are the basis of social life
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 Without symbols we would not be able to perceive in terms of relationships such as

aunts, uncles, employers, teachers etc. Only because we have these symbols we are able
to explain what such relationships entail.
 Only because of symbols we are able to coordinate our actions with others and to plan for
a future date, time, and place.
 Without symbols there will be no books, movies, no schools, no hospitals, and no
governments.

So it can be said that symbols make social life possible.

Critical Evaluation:
This approach is helpful to understand the micro level structure of the society which reminds us
that society basically amounts to people interacting. That is, micro-level sociology tries to show
how individuals actually experience society. But on the other this approach totally overlooks the
widespread influence of culture, as well as factors such as class, gender, and race.