The post Enculturation appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>An individual often adopt the social behavior from people around him For instance, a child born and raised in pious Muslim family will frequently go to mosque, offer five time prayers and recite Quran. Whereas, a child born and raised in religious Christian family will go to church and read bible and may behave according to his religious education. But how an individual learned about their religion? And why the child born in Muslim family doesn’t go to church instead of mosque? Because since childhood they observe their parents, siblings and relatives taking part in religious rituals. As well as, they are being taught what to do or what not to do — What is right or what is wrong — which conduct is virtues or which conduct is vicious? Culture is transmittable, knowledge of culture such as norms, values, beliefs, clothing, foods, art, music, dance and language are passed on to the new generation. The process through which cultural knowledge transmitted to new generation is called enculturation.
Even in organizations and firms knowledge is transmitted from one generation to another via socialization suppose, Spencer and Allan work in the same law firm. Spencer is experienced lawyer and senior partner in the law firm. He has handled many cases over the years. Whereas, Allan is a fresh graduate who had joined the law firm as Spencer assistant. Allan observes and study Spencer case work and help him with the cases. However, after few years Allan get promoted to the position of junior partner in the same law firm. Most client prefer Allan to handle their cases if Spencer is not available or busy with other client cases. Why do clients prefer Allan over other lawyers of the firm? Because every client knows that, Spencer has transmitted his knowledge to him and Spencer has high success rate in the corporate cases. So what do we learn from this example, Allan interacted with Spencer for many years and learned from him, how to peruse corporate cases.
The post Enculturation appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>The post Political Institution appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>Political institution include both politics and government. There are many political systems in the world however, the most eminent and applied systems are as follow, democracy, republic, communism, socialism, dictatorship and monarchy.
In democracy people have the power to elect their representative and the head of state.
Republic is the political system which is close to democracy. In this system people choose their representatives and the representatives choose the head of state.
This is the type of political system in which one person rule over the country. That person is king or queen and he or she is not elected by the people but inherited the positing from his/her predecessor.
Communism is the system in which the head of state take ever decision but the resources of the country is equally distributed among the people and people cannot own private property everything belongs to the whole community, It’s a classless and moneyless system.
It is an authoritarian system where a single individual rule the country without the approval of people.
Socialism is the system in which the focus is on the benefit of whole society. The people have common ownership of the production based on the people needs and economic demand.
The post Political Institution appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>The post Gender Roles in Sociology appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>Roles learning starts from childhood by, socialization. Usually male babies is dressed in blue and female babies is dressed in pink. Furthermore, the toys with which the children play are different for both sexes, parents buy toys for boys such as, guns and superhero figures, on the other hand, they buy toys for the girls like, dolls and dress up apparel. Toys may not seem to be having any impact on the behavior, however, it does have impact on the behavior of children. The kind of toys children play with promotes the normative behavior.
The masculinity and femininity roles continues as we grow. Males usually outnumber females in certain professions such as, politics, law enforcement and military. However, female outnumber the male in nurturing profession such as, social work, healthcare and childcare. The professional choices of male and female are not their personal preference, however, it is to meet the expectation of the society.
The post Gender Roles in Sociology appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>The post Difference between Sex and Gender appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>Sex is assigned to male and female on the basis of biological makeup. If a baby is born with male genitalia, he will be identified as, male at birth and if the baby is born with female genitalia, she will be assigned as female at birth. Biological characteristics do not differ in different societies. All Female in every society menstruate and lactate after giving birth to a child. However, gender roles are different for male and female in different societies and cultures. In western society women roles are not different than male role though, in Middle Eastern society males are supposed to be the bread winner and female are supposed to do household chores. In Some societies male and female dressing style are unisex though, in others dress code of male and female differ from each other. Gender refer to the different roles and responsibilities of male and female assigned by the society, according to their cultural norms.
The post Difference between Sex and Gender appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>The post What is Social Structure? appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>Social structure can be defined as the organized set of social institutions and recurrent patterns of relationships among individuals within institutions that together create society. Usually, our daily life encounters have similar patterns. Each day we interact with our family members at home (brothers, sisters and parents) or we come across same people at school or college — university or office (friends, colleagues and teachers). These patterned or repeated social interactions are called social structure.
Moreover, every society comprises of five basic social institutions including, family, politics, economy, religion and education. These basic social institutions have established norms that defines the appropriate behavior, status and roles of individuals within a particular institution. Each individual has different status and roles within different social institutions. Institutional norms specify individual roles in accordance with their status for instance, at home an individual status may be of son or daughter, brother or sister, husband or wife and father or mother. But at work he or she might be janitor or president of the state.
Furthermore, social structure can be found at every level of society. It could be found in peer group, family, recreational groups, Public Corporation, Private Corporation and so on. Individuals with in these groups have patterned relationships which are repeated Day by day. These relationships are either enforced via formal norms or through customs. However, sociologist study Social structure on three levels these include, macro, maso and micro level.
At macro level social scientist study the social structure via analyzing social institutions and their interdependence to identify how these factors form patterns of social relationship that are repeated day by day. Family, economy, politics, religion, media, law and education are interconnected social institutions which together form the social structure of society. Individuals’ relationships are organized by social institutions through established norms. Institutional norms regulate behavior of individuals. It defines set of appropriate behaviors, status and roles of individual in a given institution.
Social institutions organize patterned relationships among individuals. These relationships have hierarchical order that result in power differential. Hierarchical positions grant some individuals more power than others in a given institution and social relationship. For instance, institution of family is the organization of different social relationships and roles such as, father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, etc… members within institution of family hold power in accordance with their hierarchical position. Usually, parents stand at the top of hierarchical ladder within family because of customs, status, roles, age and financial position. Therefore, they hold greater amount of power to make family decisions. Moreover, corporations or educational institutes organize social relationship among individuals such as, teacher and student —chancellor and teachers — employer and employee etc… however, an individual acquires the amount of power consistent with his or her hierarchical positions in a given institution or relationship. For instance, If we analyze the social relationship between chancellor and teachers at university. Chancellor holds more power compare to teachers because he stands at the top of hierarchical ladder. Therefore, he obtains the ability to formulate and change university policies. On the other hand, teachers cannot do so because their hierarchical position does not grant them authority of policy making. Moreover, teachers cannot defy the orders of chancellor. Whereas, chancellor could ignore and not consider the suggestions or concerns of teachers.
Like individuals some institutions or organization obtain more power than others. As discussed earlier that social institutions are interdependent. Malfunctioning of one institution can disorganize the entire structure of society. The actions or operations of individuals or institutions who obtain greater amount of power determine the structuring of individuals lives and society. For instance, in some societies women do not have a right to seek education which implies that, such societies have established gender biased norms. Which grant more privileges and power to men compare to women. Discriminatory institutional and social norms may give rise to social problems such as socioeconomic stratification. Social stratification is not merely product of class system but the outcome of systematic racism, sexism and other types of discrimination as well.
Maso level social structure refer to the institutionalized social networks. Social institutions organizes social relationships which determine the formation of different social networks and groups. The nature of social networks depend on the patterns of relationships organized by social institutions. Such social networks are the manifestation of meso social structure. Systematic Racism, sexism and other types of discrimination within social institutions result in Socioeconomic stratification. Social networks where relationships among individuals are structured by, difference in level of wealth, social status, ethnicity, race and level of education are the expression of social stratification.
Micro level Social structure refer to daily social interaction among individuals. Social interaction occurs on daily bases among peers, family members, colleagues etc… Institutional norms and customs shape patterned relationships further these relationships shape social interactions among individuals. For instance, we can use informal language in our peer group however, we cannot use informal language when we interact with our teachers, parents or elders.
The post What is Social Structure? appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>The post Positivism in Sociology appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>Comte was interested in the establishment of social theories, which can be tested scientifically. His motive behind the approach was to unveil the natural laws which could be practically applied to the society. He believed that, natural sciences like, biology and physics prepare the ground for the development of social science. According to August Comte, universal laws can be discovered in sociology similar to natural sciences universal laws, for example “law of gravity” in physics.
There are five core principles of positivism, which are given below.
• The logic of analysis are similar in all the branches of science.
• The objective behind analysis is to determine, predict and explain the problem.
• Research ought to be based on empirical observation by human senses.
• Science is not based on common sense.
• Science should be examined unbiasedly by logic.
The post Positivism in Sociology appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>The post Structural and Functional Perspective in Sociology appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>Structural and functional perspective can be better understand by the reader, from a practical example; people earn money from working different jobs, they pay taxes on their income to the Government. Government invest those taxes on the welfare of society such as, provide health facilities, educational facilities and provide security to the life and property of people. Parents want their children to get better education, job, healthcare and security of life and property, for which they are completely dependent on the Government. However, Government is dependent on people taxes too (who want all those services for their families) to satisfy their basic needs. Family and government are two different functioning social institutions of society, however, have influence on each other, both can’t operate without each other. According to “Parsons” in a healthy society, all the parts of society work together and have influence on one another, to produce a stable state; termed as, dynamic equilibrium.
Sociologist prime concern is to determine how societies work? Sociologist who view society from Functional perspective, conduct their research on the basis of, three basic assumptions; which are given below;
1. Stability; The major criteria for evaluating social pattern, is its contribution in the stability or maintenance of society.
2. Harmony; part of organism work similarly as part of society in harmony, for the betterment of society.
3. Evolution; adaptation of change in accordance to the evolving needs of society social structure and eliminating the outdated one.
Structural functionalist “Robert Merton”, refer to positive consequences of social structure as functions whereas, refer to the negative consequences of social structure as dysfunctions. Furthermore, there is also distinction between consequences. The intended or planned consequences (functional or dysfunctional) of social structure are conceptualized as manifest consequences whereas, the unintended or simultaneous consequences (functional or dysfunctional) are categorized and conceptualized as latent consequences.
To get a better grasp on the functions of social structure, let’s put the assumptions of the theory in to a example; consider, if the legislature of the state pass a sexual harassment law or bill, which includes that, perpetrator will be terminated from job effective immediately, has to pay a heavy fine in court and has to do few years prison time. If we evaluate this social action from functional perspective; manifest functions consequences of social action (sexual harassment bill) would be protection of women, against sexual, psychological and physical violence in the work place. Whereas, manifest dysfunction would be women wrongly accusing her colleague and boss, for personal interests. Latent dysfunction of social action (sexual harassment bill) could be, wrongly accused person may lose his job, saving for his children education and may serve time in jail for the crime he did not commit. Latent function of social phenomenon could be, it may build confidence in conservative communities to allow women to work and trust government with their protection. Remember that, functional theory is based on the assumption that any social actions which are proven to be, contributing factor for the maintenance of status qua, are considered to be functional. Moreover, those social actions which do not contribute in the maintenance and stability of status qua, are dysfunctional. However, functionalist are interested in the study of how social structures or institutions work together, for the core purpose of creating a society with order and stability.
The post Structural and Functional Perspective in Sociology appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>The post Characteristics of Sociology appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>Sociology is not a branch of any discipline but an independent discipline itself. It is not a physical science but a social science. It is the study of social universe rather than physical universe. Moreover, sociology has its own research methodology and subject matter limitation.
Sociology comes into the category of social sciences not physical sciences like, physics and astronomy.
The primary concern of sociology is to study; how and why individuals behave the way they do within a society? And what are the short and long term consequences of their social behavior? Sociologists examine patterns of human social behavior indiscriminately, they avoid value judgments. While sociologists conduct social research they do not judge other cultures by comparing it with their own culture, because it compromises the reliability and validity of the study.
Sociology is not a concrete science of social events however, it examines the patterns of social interaction as well as, the factors which influence the development and maintenance of those patterns these include, culture, social institutions, social organization, associations, social roles and statuses.
Sociology does not focus on any particular area of society or a specific social events like other social sciences disciplines do. For instance. Political science focusses on the study of politics and political events. Furthermore, it is not either like history for example in history, war is explain particularly as an event such war of Plessy, Afghan war, world war 1 etc…. whereas, sociology is generalized science and study war generally as a social phenomenon. Sociologists study impacts of war on the social life of the people.
Sociology does not focus on a specific aspect of human behavior, it almost cover every aspect of human life. Which are, social interaction, institutions, groups, culture, demographics, social organization, evolution, associations and social roles.
Rational and empirical science;
Social knowledge can be obtained from two methods which are “empirical” and “rational study methods”. In “empirical method” the knowledge is obtained from the following process; hypothesis is developed with the help of observations, moreover, data is collected, concerning hypothesized social event or problem; there are many methods of data collection. However, there are two types of data; primary data and secondary data. After data collection, data is tested with the help of scientific statistical method and analysis, to prove the hypothesis right or wrong. Whereas in rational method, theories are supported with logical reasoning.
The post Characteristics of Sociology appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>The post Definitions and Origin of Sociology appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>Sociology has been defined from different perspectives by sociologists’. Ward and graham Sumner defined sociology as, “the science of society”. Whereas, F.H Giddings defined it as “the science of social phenomena”. According to Emile Durkheim, sociology is “the science of institutions”. Simmel; considered sociology as “the science of social relationships”. Weber described sociology as “the study of social action”. Park viewed sociology as “the science of collective behavior.
In the light above definitions, we can define sociology as, “the study of society”. Society is the product of social interaction, groups, associations, institutions, (political, economic, education, religion and family) etc. individuals within a society interact with one another to fulfill their needs which lead to the formations of groups, associations and institutions. Social institutions are established and increased, due to increase in the need of people within a society. Furthermore, social institutions play an important role is satisfying the needs of people. Institutions are interdependent, without one others cannot survive. If one institution is dysfunctional it creates problems in the entire social system. Moreover, People have different roles and statuses within social institutions. If they fulfill their responsibilities in accordance with their role and statuses, institutions will function smoothly and will be able to achieve its objective.
Each social institution has its own culture. Rules (Norms) of institutions are formulated on the bases of its culture. Norms are an important factor in the smooth functioning of an institution. It is a blue print for its member’s behavior. Without norm every institution would be disorganized and dysfunctional. There would be confusion among the members about their roles, statuses and objective.
“August Comte”, a French thinker, laid the foundation of the discipline sociology. He observed the rapid social change in European society, post French and industrial revolution. However, there was no discipline at the time; to identify and resolve the social issues which exist within a society. Issues such as, inequality, social change in relationships, conflict, power and power struggle amongst social strata’s. August Comte observed that people in France progressed in material culture but lagged behind in non-material culture. Which had created chaos and unrest in a society. During this social and emotional unrest in the society, August Comte came forward, and laid the foundation of the discipline “social physics”, later sociology. He believed that, there should be a discipline which should study the social issues scientifically and find their solution. He also introduced the scientific method for the study of sociology known as “Positivism”.
However, some authors believe that “Ibne-e-Khaldoon” was the founder of sociology. He was a historian, belonged from Tunis. In his book “Muqa’dima” he discussed the concept of “Illm-ul-imran”, which is defined as the study of people. He believed that, “no one can write history absent the study of “illm-ul- Imran”. There were many ancient Greek philosopher, like Plato, Aristotle and Herodotus, who also discussed the subject of society and social issues, though, Augusta comet was the one who introduced scientific method of research in sociology, therefore, he had been bestowed with the title of “Father of sociology”. On the other hand, ibne- khaldoon method was distinct from Augusta Comte, for obtaining sociological knowledge, which was based on logic and event association. He believed that, historical social, political and economic events are associated with each other, all those events have cause and effect relationship with one another. Sociologists refer to this method as, “inductive logic method”.
The post Definitions and Origin of Sociology appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>The post What is Sociology? appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>Before attempting to explain sociology let us discuss the misconceptions people often have regarding the subject. When people hear the word sociology they relate the subject to social welfare or helping poor and unfortunate. Some people relate sociology to socialism and some think that sociology is the study of people. However, the word sociology is the combination of Latin and Greek words. The word “socio” is derived from Latin word “socius” which has various meaning including, association, companionship and society. Whereas, the word “logy” is derived from Greek word “logos” which literally means “word or to speak about” but, the term is interpreted as study or science.
We can define Sociology as the scientific study of society and human behavior. It is among one of the pivotal branches of social sciences. Subject matter of sociology is based on empirical research. Society is the product of social interactions, culture, groups, associations, social institutions, etc… In other words, society can be defined as the group of people who share same culture and live in defined geographical territory. Moreover, Sociology covers every aspect of society. Whether, its interaction between two people or, relationship between two societies. People of different societies may behave differently in a similar situation and sociologists tend to determine the patterns which influence the behavior of individuals within a society.
Furthermore, Society can be studied on both micro and macro level. For instance, on micro level sociologists might study or analyze, the accepted way of communication in small groups it could be the group of students or the group of professional bankers. On macro level, sociologist might study or analyze how social media or electronic media influence the behavior of people within a society or in different societies.
To comprehend the definition of sociology readers must understand the two concepts; society and culture. “Society” refers to a group of people who live in defined geographical area and share similar culture. Whereas, “culture” refers to the way of life shared by a group of people which include, daily routine and everyday interactions. Furthermore, sociologist study culture via the concept social imagination. The concept was pioneered by C.W Mills. According to Mills social imagination is the relationship between the individuals’ behavior and experiences. In other words, it determines the influence of culture and social structure on individuals’ behavior, choices and perception.
The post What is Sociology? appeared first on Sociology Learners.
]]>