What does sociology study?

Sociology is a comprehensive subject that studies the structure, function, occurrence and development of society through social relations and social behaviors. It has changed from anthropology, which mainly studies the origin, organization and customs of human society, to a discipline that studies the development of modern society and the organized or group behavior in society. In sociology, people do not exist as individuals, but as members of social organizations, groups or institutions.

catalogue

1 overview

2 history

3 Science and Mathematics in Sociology

Four main theories

5 social research methods

Sociology and other social sciences

Seven main sociological themes

8 main figures in sociology

9 sociological theory

10 Sociology School

1 1 social science branch

12 See Synonyms at 0

13 related documents

14 external link

[Edit] Overview

Sociology appeared in the19th century as a response to the prominent contradiction of modernity. The contradiction of modernity lies in the fact that the world is getting smaller and smaller and more integrated, while the personal world experience is getting more and more divided and dispersed. Sociologists not only want to know what brings social groups together, but also want to know the development process of social disintegration in order to "correct". (This view is mainly held by Durkheim School in sociology, while other schools, especially Frankfurt School, do not discuss social treatment methods, because they think that the treatment schemes proposed for social diseases are often imposed on the vast majority of people with the concept of a small group, which can not only solve the problem, but also make it worse. )

Today, sociologists' research on society includes a series of studies from macro-structure to micro-behavior, including race, nationality, class and gender, to the study of individual social relations patterns as detailed as family structure. Sociology is divided into more and more detailed research directions, including crime and divorce, as well as interpersonal relationships and other micro aspects. Sociologists often use quantitative research methods to quantitatively describe the overall structure of a society, so as to study quantitative models that can predict social changes and people's responses to social changes. This research method, initiated by Radas F lazarsfeld, is now one of the main methodologies of sociological research. Another school of sociological research methods is qualitative research, including data collection methods such as participation in observation, in-depth interviews and group discussions, and analytical methods based on grounded theory and content analysis. Some sociologists engaged in qualitative analysis believe that this is a better method because it can strengthen the understanding of "discrete" society and unique humanities. This method never seeks consensus, but can appreciate each other's unique ways and learn from each other's strengths. The mainstream view is that quantitative and qualitative research methods are complementary, not contradictory.

[Edit] History

Comte invented the word sociology. Sociology is a new academic category. It spans economy, politics, anthropology, history and psychology. Its significance lies in finding the source of human knowledge and philosophy.

The word "sociology" was first coined by Auguste Comte, who tried to unify all humanities disciplines including history, psychology and economics with a physical method, so as to establish a discipline that can stand the test of scientific rules. At first, he called this new discipline "social physics". His main contribution is to finally separate the social sciences from the humanities. His sociological concept is typical of18th century: he thinks that all human activities will go through different historical stages, and if a society can grasp this stage, it can prescribe effective prescriptions for social diseases.

Max Weber's first sociological work was written by herbert spencer, who was an English philosopher in the middle of19th century. In the United States, 1890 Elements of Sociology of the University of Kansas is the first course of sociology [1], [2] and [1892] The University of Chicago was founded by Abian Small, the first independent university college in the United States, and he also founded the American Journal of Sociology [3]. 1895, the University of Bordeaux in France established the first sociology school in Europe. 1904 the London school of economics and political science established the first sociology department in Britain [4]. 19 19 Max Weber established the first sociology department at the University of Munich. 1920 Florian Znaniecki established the first sociology department in Poland.

The first international cooperation in sociology took place in 1893. At that time, René Worms established the "International School of Sociology" and finally merged with the International Association of Sociologists established by 1949 [5]. Founded in 1905, the American Sociological Association is the largest sociologist association in the world today.

From 19 to the 20th century, a number of classic sociologists appeared, such as Karl Marx, Ferdinand Tonnis, Emile Durkheim, Pareto and Max Weber. Like Comte, they don't consider themselves sociologists. Their work involves religion, education, economy, psychology, ethics, philosophy, theology and other academic fields. Of course, they are very influential in sociology, especially Karl Marx, who is an important giant in economics.

Comte's early theoretical research method is to imitate the method of studying natural science and apply the same methodology to explore social phenomena. Emphasize that experience, positivism and scientific methods are the solid foundation of sociology. This methodology is called positivism.

In the early19th century, the study of social life by positivism and naturalism was questioned by German neo-Comte philosophers such as Dilthey and Heinrich Likel. They believe that nature is different from the social world, and human society has unique categories such as meaning, symbols, rules, moral norms and values. These elements have created human culture. According to this view, Max Weber developed "anti-positivism" explanatory sociology, emphasizing that the object of sociological research is the subjective meaning of human behavior. It is closely related to anti-naturalism, which makes sociological research pay special attention to the value of people and culture. This has led to an indistinguishable debate between subjective research and objective research, which has affected interpretation research. The internet age has also spawned a new branch of sociology-public sociology.

Finally, natural science has not actually replaced other social sciences, but has become another form of emphasizing objects and methods. Today, sociologists usually study human organizations and social systems through comparative methods, especially in the study of complex industrial social organizational structure. From the 20th century to 2 1 century, sociological research should also be an era of rapid progress.

[Editor] Science and mathematics in sociology

Sociologists often analyze groups such as social organizations, religious organizations, political organizations and business organizations. They study the interaction between social groups, trace the origin and development process, and analyze the influence of group activities on each member. Sociologists are concerned about the characteristics of social groups, the interaction between groups or members, and the influence of social characteristics (such as gender, age and race) on daily life. These social research results can help educators, legislators, managers and social workers to solve social problems and formulate public policies. Most sociologists have many majors, such as social organization, social stratification and social mobility, ethnic relations, education, family, social psychology, cities, rural areas, politics and comparative sociology, gender roles and relations, demographic geography, gerontology, criminal psychology and sociological applications.

Today, sociology studies human organizations, social groups, social interaction and so on, using a large number of comparative methods. The development of sociology has brought additional demands to other sciences, which is very important for the study of modern industrial society. In recent years, inspired by anthropology, it has accelerated the study of multiculturalism and multi-ethnicity.

On the other hand, sociology is developing into micro-social structure, such as race, social class, gender and family. Because there are many crimes, many family problems and great social pressure, sociology is urgently needed to find a solution.

Sociologists study social relations and predict social changes through quantitative research. They hope to have a deeper understanding of social operation through qualitative research, such as interviews and group discussions. Some sociologists are debating how to strike a balance between the two and fill the gap between them. For example, quantitative research describes large-scale social phenomena, while qualitative research describes how individuals understand large-scale social phenomena.

[Editor] Main theory

In social theory, some abstract and even complex theoretical frameworks are often used to explain and analyze social styles and macro-social structures. Social theory always has a disturbing relationship with classical disciplines, that is, most important sociologists have never held university positions. Nowadays, social theory is regarded as a branch of social science, covering anthropology, economics, theology, history and many other scientific fields. The first social theory was born almost simultaneously with sociology. Comte, the father of sociology, founded the first social theory-social evolution theory. /kloc-in the 0/9th century, the three major social theories were social evolution theory, social circulation theory and Marxist historical materialism. Although they are now regarded as outdated, they have produced new theories, such as new evolutionism, modern sociobiology, post-industrial social theory and multilateral theory.

Different from the objective natural science, social theorists rarely use scientific methods and other factual methods to prove their arguments. On the contrary, they all use some assumptions in the face of very big social trends. However, these assumptions take a long time to prove. This is the focus of critics' criticism. For deconstructionists and post-modernists, they even question that all research and methods are wrongly inherited. Many times, social theory is considered unprovable.

However, social theory is the biggest part of sociology. Objective scientific research often supports the explanation of social theorists. Statistical research based on scientific methods found that although women and others are engaged in the same occupation, there is a big income gap. This has become the premise of feminist complex social theory. In a word, especially for the followers of pure sociology, social theory makes such an appeal because its focus has shifted from the individual to the society itself and some social forces that can control our lives. This sociological insight has been focused on students and people who are dissatisfied with the status quo for many years, because it assumes that social structure and style are arbitrary or controlled by powerful social groups. This means the possibility of change. This implies that people at the bottom of society have been unfairly oppressed.

[Editor] Social research methods

Social Research Association collects empirical evidence through various methods, including questionnaire survey, interview, participant observation and statistical research.

The difficulty faced by different methods is that they are all based on the theoretical basis adopted by researchers to explain and understand society. As a functionalist, Emile Durkheim likes to explain everything with a large-scale social structure. If he is a symbolic interactor, he is concerned with how people understand others. Marxists or neo-Marxists turn everything into class struggle. Phenomenologists just think about how the public can establish their own meaning to reality. When faced with real social problems, all parties often argue about who is right and who is wrong, but in fact they will combine different methodologies.

Sociologists are interested in the Internet for four reasons. 1) It is a research tool. For example, online questionnaire survey replaces paper questionnaire. 2) Become a discussion platform. 3) It is a research topic in itself. Research on Internet Sociology: Online Community and Virtual Community. 4) Changes in social organizations due to the Internet, such as large-scale social changes from industrial society to knowledge society.

[Editor] Sociology and other social sciences

At the beginning of the 20th century, sociologists and psychologists studied industrial society and made contributions to anthropology. It should be pointed out that anthropologists have studied industrial society. Today, sociology and anthropology mainly focus on different theories and methods, rather than objects.

Sociobiology is a new science that integrates sociology and biology. Although it was quickly accepted, there are still many controversies because it tries to explain social behavior and structure by evolution and biological processes. Sociobiology is often criticized by sociologists for relying too much on the influence of genes on behavior. Social biologists say that there is a complex relationship between nature and feeding. Therefore, sociobiology is closely related to anthropology, zoology and evolutionary psychology. This is still unacceptable to other sciences. Some social biologists, such as Richard Macharek, require sociology to study non-human society.

Sociology is related to social psychology. The former cares about social structure, while the latter cares about social behavior.

[Editor] Main sociological themes

Group organization: family-community-village-market town-city-tribe-country-group-culture. ..

Groups and organizations

Primary social groups

domestic

be near

Children's play group

social organizations

bureaucratism

Social system: relatives-marriage-economy-politics-law-religion-education-culture-sports. ..

Social process: cooperation-competition-war-reform-revolution-public opinion-social values-social integration. ..

contact

social role

Norms and anomalies

social change

Stratification and flow

urbanization

modernization

Social problems: employment-ethnic division-crime-environmental pollution-population-immigration-racial discrimination-violence-poverty. ..

[Editor] The main figures in sociology

Auguste Comte (Auguste Comte)

Emile Durkheim

Herbert Spencer

Karl Marx

Max Weber (Max Weber)

Tonnis

Georg Simmel

Mannheim

Pareto theory and method

Malinowski

pelter

William sumner (william sumner)

william isaac thomas

Zlanetsky, florian

Parsons

merton

Smelser

Gans

Mills

Mead

Lewis Coser

George Casper Homans

Blau

Emerson

Gofman

Shu ci

Harold Garfinkel

Adorno

Erich fromm

Herbert marcuse.

Juergen Habermas (Jurgen Habermas)

Michel Foucault

Lyota

Lv Xian Fitz

Bourdieu

Anthony Giddens

Elias (Hebrew Prophet)

Clifford Geertz (cultural anthropologist, Clifford Geertz)

Fei Xiaotong

[Editor] Sociological theory

Social organism theory

Social development theory

Social justice theory

Social exchange theory

Social interaction theory

Social evolutionism

Social balance

Social cognitive theory

social nominalism

social realism

Social learning theory

sociocybernetics

structural functionalism

Conflict theory

Sociological school

Historical social school

School of Social Statistics

Branch of sociology

Sociological history

educational sociology

History of social thought

Sociological method

Social survey methods and social statistics

Experimental sociology

Sociology of mathematics

Applied sociology

Professional sociology, industrial sociology, medical sociology, urban sociology, rural sociology, family sociology, environmental sociology, youth sociology, aging sociology, criminal sociology, sociology of deviance, women's issues, ethnic issues, social issues, social masses and stratification issues, community, social security, social work, micro-sociology, political sociology, religious sociology, sports sociology, development sociology and population sociology.

comparative sociology

Social geography

cultural sociology

Sociology of art, sociology of knowledge and sociology of morality.

Historical sociology

economic sociology

military sociology

social psychology

History of social psychology, experimental social psychology

public relations

social anthropology

Organizational sociology

sociology of development

Welfare sociology

demography

Population economics, population sociology, population theory history, population history, population geography, population ecology, regional demography, population system engineering, population forecast, population planning, population policy and family planning.

[Edit] See:

Psychology-Information Science-Politics-Socialism-Law of Social Development-Social Structure-Talent Science

[edit] related literature

Weber (Germany), Basic Concepts of Sociology, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2005, ISBN 7563352058.

Ip Chi Shing, What is Sociology, Yangzhi Cultural Undertaking Co., Ltd., 2005, ISBN 9578187181.

George Raiser (USA), Contemporary Sociological Theory and Its Classical Roots, Peking University Publishing House, 2005, ISBN 730 1087985.

Jonathan Turner (USA), The Structure of Sociological Theory, laurel Books Co., Ltd., 200 1, ISBN 95755 1498x.

Sociology (version 10), prentiss Hall Publishing House, 2004, ISBN 0131849182.

Piotr Sztompka，Socjologia，Znak，2002，ISBN 8324002 189

Sociology: a guide to reference and information sources. Third edition. Lyttleton, Colorado, Library Unlimited Company, 2005, ISBN 1563089475.

Dialogue between anthony giddens and anthony giddens, School of Politics, Cambridge University, 1998. Introduce classical sociology well.

Anthony giddens, sociology, political science, Cambridge.

Anthony giddens, Human Society: An Introduction to Sociology.

Robert Nisbet, Sociological Tradition, London, Heineman Education Books, 1967, ISBN 1560006676.

Evan Willis, Sociological Exploration: An Introduction to Social Life Research, 3rd edition, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1996, ISBN 08 13523672.

Andrey Korotayev, Artemy Malkov and Daria Khaltourina, Introduction to Social Macrodynamics, Moscow: URSS, 2006. ISBN 5-484-004 14-4 [6]。