Unit_1._Introduction_to_Sociology_[Autosaved].pptx

Sociology as a Discipline
Each of us is a social being. We are born,
fully develop into human beings, and
typically live out our lives in a social
environment.

Sociologists study the influence of
social factors on behaviour

Latin and Greek word
• Socia meaning society
• Logia meaning ‘study of …..’
Therefore, sociology simply means
____________________________

What is Sociology?
Sociology is the systematic study of
society and social interaction
[Kendal 2012].

Sociology – a disciplined approach (which is
scientific in nature) to understanding society
and social life. Sociologists study patterning of
interaction among people, with an emphasis on
group contexts and broad societal forces
(Chalfant & Labeff. 1988)

The Focus of Sociology
• the group not individual (compare with psychology).
• interaction between people – the ways in which
people act towards, respond to, and influence one
another.
What we think, how we feel, and what we say and do are shaped by our
interactions with other people.

A basic premise of sociology is that human
behaviour is shaped by the group to which
people belong and by the social interaction
that takes place within these groups.

Sociology as a discipline concerns itself with:
(a)Social acts
(b)Social relationships
(c)Social organization
(d)Community
(e)Institutions in society.

Sociology and Common Sense
Common sense knowledge guides ordinary
conduct in everyday life. However, many
common sense notions are actually myths.

Common sense refers to ideas that are so
completely taken for granted that they have
never been seriously questioned and seen to
be sensible to any reasonable person
[Ballantine & Roberts 2015]

The difference between common sense and sociology is
that sociologists test their beliefs by gathering information
and analysing the evidence in a planned, objective,
systematic, and replicable (repeatable) scientific way.
Example

Circle True or False
• Lower-class youths are more likely to commit crimes than middle-
class youths according to statistics.
T/F
• People who are regular Christian church goers are less likely to be
involved in theft than people who do not go to church.
T/F

Sociology challenges the
obvious and assesses the
evidence and arguments
for and against any
particular position which is
advanced.

Sociology and Critical Thinking
Thinking sociologically is a form of critical
thinking that involves:
• Objectively assessing ideas, statements, and
information.
• Defining problems,

• Looking beneath the surface of commonly held
assumptions,
• Questioning assumptions,
• Logically and systematically analysing evidence,
• Recognizing biases,

• Avoiding knee-jerk reactions to issues and arguments,
• Forming reasonable solutions to problems,
• Developing tolerance for a certain amount uncertainty
and ambiguity.

Sociological thinking in relation to health :
Provides new ways of seeing and understanding
aspects of health and health care that you
previously took for granted or never even noticed.

Offers an opportunity to think about and adjust
your own beliefs and care practices by taking into
account the often-neglected sociological factors
and societal contexts that influence health and
illness and our professional responses to it.

It will challenge the status quo and questions or
exposes established social arrangements and
unequal power relations.

In order to ‘think sociologically’ in your care practice
you will need to develop systematic doubts about
everyday common sense and taken-for-granted
explanations that are part of the contemporary
health field.

Sociological thinking required taking a
closer look at our social world.

Simply put, sociological thinking involves
asking questions and questioning
answers.

The Sociological Imagination
Sociology is a discipline that tries to place
individual experience in a larger social
context.

C. Wright Mills (1959) called this sociological
imagination: the ability to see our private
experience, personal difficulties, and
achievements as, in part, a reflection of
structural arrangements of society and the
times in which we live.

He suggested that many of the things we experience
as individuals are really beyond our control. They
have to do with society as a whole, the way it is
organized, and its historical development

Society as a whole: personal troubles versus public issues
The sociological imagination helps us distinguish
between personal troubles and public issues.
Public issues are problems that affect a large
number of people.
Example
Widespread child malnutrition in a community as a
result of high prices of energy-protein food

Personal troubles are private problems that affect
individuals and these problems must be solved by
individuals within their immediate social setting.
Example
Only two nursing students failing end –of –semester
examinations out of 150 is a personal trouble for the
two students.

However, sometimes personal troubles may be related to
public issues.
Example:
• The individual dying of kidney failure faces a very
personal tragedy, and yet this is also a public matter if
we look at lack of both human and material resources in
our hospitals

The way society is organized
The way society is organized based on social
factors such as gender and class has an
effect on peoples’ behaviour.

Example:
• Class: poor living and working conditions
make people sicker, and poorer people die
earlier than their counterparts at the top of
the social system.
• Gender: gender relations where it is mostly
women who are disadvantaged in relation to
health issues.

Historical perspective
It allows us to understand the distinctive nature of
our present society by comparing it with the past.
The way society is structured and organised is
located in history.

Examples
• Historical changes in patterns of social life can explain
changes in patterns of illness and disease.
Example ____________________________________________
• Doctors take a patient’s history: a patient’s or client’s
personal biography locates the person’s experiences and
behaviour historically.

Key points
• Be sceptical, questioning and critical
• Focus on how ‘the social’ affects health and health
care (and social life generally)
• Contest ‘individual’ explanations of health and
illness experience.
• Put issues into a historical perspective

The Subject Matter of Sociology
The emergence of sociology
• The central ideas of the major pioneers of
sociology, to a significant extent, continue to be
central concerns today.

Auguste Comte (1798 – 1857)
• The founding father of sociology
• Positivism: the belief that society can be studied
and analysed using scientific methods through:
• observation,
• comparison,
• experimentation,
• historical method

•An understanding of society requires a
concern for:
•sources of order and continuity
(social statics)
•sources of change (social
dynamics).

Herbert Spencer (1820 – 1903)
He used an organic analogy to explain social
stability; like human beings, society is composed of
inter-rated parts that work together to promote its
wellbeing and survival.

An individual has a brain, a stomach, a nervous
system, limbs etc. a society has an economy,
religion, politics, education, and family.

Just as these parts make essential contributions to
the functioning of the human body, social
institutions are crucial for a society’s functioning.

Karl Marx (1818 – 1883)
• He was repulsed by the poverty and inequality that
characterised the 19th
Century.
• Poverty was not a natural or a God-given condition but
poverty and inequality were man-made condition
fostered by private property and capitalism.

All industrial societies ultimately would
contain only two social classes:
• the bourgeoisie: those who own the means
for producing wealth in industrial society
• the proletariat: those who labour for the
bourgeoisie at subsistence wages.

• Class conflict – conflict between the
bourgeoisie and the proletariat which
would produce a classless society without
exploitation of the power-less by the
powerful.

Emile Durkheim (1858 – 1917)
• Central to Durkheim’s sociology is the concept of
social integration.
• Social integration refers to the density of social
relationships, literally the number of relationships
that exist among a collection of people.

• The more people are connected to one
another, the stronger and more meaningful
are the sentiments that emerge out of these
relationships.

• Durkhiem argued that social integration is
necessary for the maintenance of the social
order and for the happiness of individuals.

In The Division of Labour in Society (1893/1964),
Durkheim examined social solidarity, the tendency of
people to maintain social relationships.

Mechanical Solidarity
Social unity that comes from a consensus of values
and norms, strong social pressure for conformity,
and depend on tradition and family.

Organic solidarity
Social unity based on a complex of highly
specialised roles that make members of a society
dependent on one another. Found in modern society.

In his classic study of suicide, Durkheim
demonstrated that social life must be explained by
social factors rather than by individualistic ones.

He was among the first to stress the importance of
using reliable statistics to examine theories of
social life.

Max Weber (1864 – 1920)
Knowing patterns of behaviour is less important
than knowing the meaning people attach to
behaviour.
•

• Weber’s emphasis was on the subjective meanings
of human action which could be accomplished
through a method he called:
• Vesterhen – understanding the behaviour of others
by putting oneself mentally in their place.

He strongly counselled sociologists to conduct:
• Value-free sociology – concern itself with
establishing what is, not what ought to be.

Value-free research – personal biases
are not allowed to affect its conduct and
outcome.

Authority- in particular the rational-legal authority
based on impersonal rules that have been rationally
worked out and formalised.

Unit_1._Introduction_to_Sociology_[Autosaved].pptx

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