What is Sociology?

We as kind-hearted beings have always been curious approximately the sources of our experience behaviour. Attempts to understand this relied on ways of thinking that were passed d take from propagation to generation. These ideas were often expressed in religious terms or move from well-known myths, superstition and traditional beliefs. The objective and systematic remove of homophile behaviour and society is a recent instruction dating from the 1700s. A key development was the use of comprehension to understand the world and this climax brought closely a radical change in outlook and understanding.Just analogous physics, biology, chemistry and other disciplines, sociology emerged as part of this important intellectual process. The origins of sociology were the serial of sweeping changes ushered in by the two great revolutions of the 18th and nineteenth century Europe. These events transformed the way of life mercifuls had maintained for thousands of years. The French Revolution, 1789 marked the ideas and values, such as liberty and equality, over traditional societal order.This was the Industrial Revolution, the broad spectrum of loving and economic transformation that surrounded the development of new technical innovation. This ca utilize an influx of migrants causing a rapid enlargement of urban argonas, forming new amicable relationships dramatically changing the face of the fond world. in that respect were a few singulars who contributed to early sociological thinking hotshot in particular was a French author, Auguste Comte (1798-1857) who actually coined the word sociology.He argued that sociology routine of tail and should study society and social phenomena following the patterns and procedures of natural sciences. Another reader was Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) and he had a more lasting impact on sophisticated sociology than that of Comte. Some regard Durkheim as the first sociologist to apply statistical methods to the study of social phenomena. Throughout his career, Durkheim was primarily concerned with how society would maintain impartiality and coherence in the modern era, when things equivalent religion could no long-life be assumed.His book Suicide (1897) is a very well-known piece of literature. These sociologist developed ideas into how we could study humans and the world in which we live. Sociology is seen as being the study of human social behaviour and its origins, development, organizations and institutions. It is a social science which uses various methods of investigation and is to develop a body of knowledge about human social actions, social structures and functions. The traditional focuses of sociology include social stratification, social class, social mobility, religion, law and deviance.With all aspects of human activity it is affected by interplay between social structure and individual agency, which means sociology, has gradually grow its focus to further subjects such as health, internet and political economy. There are two non-sociological explanations of human behaviour, naturalistic and individual explanations. The naturalistic speak to suggest that humans behave as a product of genic disposition programmed by nature, e. g. / race, motherhood, gender (etc.)We bump off for granted that all women are maternal and want to become mothers and be just like their own mothers but this is not always the case. The individual approach is on that sees human behaviour as a result of psychological make-up of the individual person, eg/ people who commit suicide have their own in-person argue for doing so. This persons suicide may not solely be a personal choice but may have other social factors associated like religion. This is what sociology is all about, challenging the unknown and looking at things from a disparate perspective, Sociology defamiliarises the familiar (Z.Baumen 1990 Thinking Sociologically p15)Sociologist look at these behaviours from all assor ted perspectives and challenges what we believe to common sense theories. To make sense of human humankind sociology attempts to make sense of the human condition through analysing the manifold webs of human interdependency as opposed to the naturalistic or individualistic approach. It disturbs the solace quiet way of life by questioning what we usually take for granted. It can be said that the first wisdom of sociology is this things are not what they seem (P Berger 1963 Invitation to Sociology p34)To gather information we use sociological methods called quantative and qualitative info. Quantative data is presented in the form of numbers and statistics macro-sociological perspective. This helps to go beyond personal impressions and opinions and is do in the form of social surveys, questionnaires and structured interviews, e. g. / The Kinsey report on the sex of Americans (1948-1953) Qualitative data however is to tell us why and methods used are usually interviewing people to build up an understanding of a respondents point of view rather than a generalized opinion on their behaviour.There is also participant observation and this is observing someone in their own environment and learning what life is like for them, e. g. / The Paulo Case. Sociology deals with a factually manifest subject matter, depends upon empirical research, and involves attempts to formulate theories and generalizations that will make sense of facts (Giddens electron orbit of Sociology p6) The use of concepts are needed to detect things accurately and precisely and to describe and address abstract and immaterial social phenomena such as individualism, social class and globalization, etc.As you can see from this essay sociology is a very important study and without it we wouldnt question human behaviours or the society adjoin us. It helps us to gain a better insight into who we are and why we are the way we are and how others can have an effect on each and every one of us.