Links

What is Sociology?

You often hear the question asked or you ask it yourself. I wonder why they are behaving that way? There are many answers offered. In fact, we answer that question for ourselves based on our personal experience, what we have learned from those whom we think are sources of authoritative knowledge or from some other knowledgeable source of information. The answers might suggest that the explanation is located in basically two places – within the person herself/himself or in her/his environment. These explanations are found in the academic disciplines including anthropology, biology, chemistry, psychology, religion and sociology to name a few. All of these points of view have interesting and valid points to make regarding the answer and, when taken together, give us the most accurate or complete answer. In sociology, the focus of the answer is on the socio-cultural environment. We suggest that a way to answer the question of why people behave in particular patterns is to examine their group environment. What groups do they belong to? How did they get to be members of these groups? What are the beliefs, knowledge, values, rules used by the groups to determine what they and their members do? How do the members of the group influence one another regarding their behavior. Sociologists are interested in studying how groups get established, maintained and changed. Also, it is of interest to examine what influence groups have on individuals. They conduct their studies using social science methods to try and get the most objective and accurate information that they can get.

You can look at your own life and use the sociological imagination to more clearly understand your everyday life. What are the groups to which you belong? How did you become a member of those groups? What are the beliefs, knowledge, values, and rules of those groups? How do those groups influence you and the other members of those groups?