Sociology

Sociology

Topic 5

Sociology

Sociology comes from two latin words:

Societas = society

Logo = study

The object of study of Sociology

is society.

Understand society and how it works.

Sociology can be seen as

• the cause and effect of social relations between individuals and these social groups as well as customs and institutions that emerge from these relationships and the effect of these groups and organizations (De la Torre, 2006). 

Multiple Choice

Do you remember who is credited as the creator and main exponent of sociology?

• Emile Durkheim

• Auguste Comte

• Max Webber

• Karl Max

Main exponents of sociology

Auguste Comte

Herbert Spencer

Emile Durkheim

Karl Marx

Pierre Bourdieu

Concepts used in Sociology

•Social group

•Role

•Association   

•Community

Methods used in sociology

• Positive or descriptive

• Comparative or indirectly experimental

• Pure or ideal

• Historical materialism

• Structural functionalist

Positive or descriptive

Auguste Comte

Society should be study like sciences

Its main focus is the empirical observation

Scientific: it formulates laws

Comparative or indirectly experimental

Emile Durkheim

Instead of studying isolated facts they should be compared.

Makes comparisons between various groups and social phenomena in order to discover the differences and similarities. 

Pure or ideal

Max Weber

Proposes an ideal type that accentuated the most typical features of a historical phenomenon to see it more clearly. 

Ideal categories are hypothetically specific individuals (individuals, social situations, changes, revolutions, institutions, classes), made with the most important elements of the researcher to perform accurate comparisons. 

Mental creations are called ideal because they exist as an idea (De la Torre, 2006).

Historical materialism

Karl Marx

Proposed the study of society through class struggle culminating in communism.

Structural functionalist

Talcott Parsons and Merton

Based on positive and negative functions of social structures.

Bibliographic references:

•Cielo, S., Castro, B. & Zaragoza, S. (2011). Introducción a las Ciencias Sociales. México: Santillana. 

•De la Torre, F. J. (2006). Introducción a las ciencias sociales: un nuevo enfoque (2a ed.). México: McGraw Hill Interamericana.