The Sociological Viewpoint Towards Social Problems, Research Paper Example

To the extent that sociology is itself a specific and autonomous discipline, this means that it possesses its own particular methods, concepts and practices in relation to its object of study. Such an observation immediately provides two points of entry to the question of the “sociological viewpoint” in general: firstly, sociology itself has its own unique object of study. Secondly, sociology has a particular approach to this object of study that allows us to identify such an approach as sociological. In regard to the first point, there are therefore various subject matters that the sociologist will deem to be worthy of investigation from the framework of sociology. In regard to the second point, the sociologist will think through this subject matter in a manner that is sociological. This of course is itself an insufficient definition, in so far as sociology itself presents different approaches, such as Marxist sociology, feminist sociology and functional sociology. In this viewpoint, to understand what makes sociology sociology is to understand what unifies such diverse approaches to a common object of study. This also means understanding how sociology arrives at its common object of study.

The best way to illustrate this is to understand how sociology identifies its initial subject matter. Comte, understood to be the first sociologist and the one who coined the term, understood that sociology, as the name indicates, had its object of study society in general. However, more importantly, Comte’s innovation that establishes sociology as a specific discipline is based on the idea, using the words of Elias (1970) that “the science of society was a new kind of science.” (p. 36) Sociology, therefore, was distinct in its methods and concepts: social phenomena had to be understood through a new paradigm.

Hence, the founding of the discipline means that there are certain inadequacies regarding the study of society through other viewpoints that was deemed apparent. As an example, a religious viewpoint would take phenomena such as suffering and poverty in society as a reflection of the natural order, or as penance for some type of transgression against God. Sociology attempts to provide a different perspective on this viewpoint, one that is at once more scientific, since it relies on observation and also empirical data, hallmarks of the scientific method.

The sociological study of suicide makes clear the innovations and fresh perspectives on subject matter that the sociological viewpoint offers. Suicide as a phenomenon seems at first glance to be a deeply autonomous and personal choice; Durkheim never tried to formulate the concept in relation to society. As Morrison  (2006) explains this innovation, “Durkheim was able to conceptualize the existence of the social framework outside the individual and the role it played in the cause of suicide.” (p. 207) Crucial to Durkheim’s investigations was the understanding that suicide was more often practiced by those from affluent backgrounds: it was not therefore the result of material shortcomings. Rather, Durkheim employed a concept of “social integration”, trying to tie the causes of suicide to the extent to which individuals possess firm social bonds. The poor, therefore, are less subject to suicide, to the extent that they have strong social bonds, such as a family; it is the concept of social bond that defines the possibility of suicide. What Durkheim tried to isolate was the extent to which there are links of “individuals to persons and things outside themselves.” (Morrison, 2006, p. 208) From this perspective, therefore, sociology analyzes a phenomenon such as suicide through the absence or presence of social relations and integration and how this affects the individual, as opposed to beginning from, for example, a religious and metaphysical perspective that emphasizes some transcendent world over the very real and everyday existence of the society, or from some individual basis of suicide which views it as merely a product ultimately of individual choice.

Durkheim’s sociological approach leads to new ways to treat a problem such as suicide: emphasis is made on communication and the social bond. For example, in the case of military suicides, using sociological concepts such as the social fact, treatment has emphasized “peer-to-peer counselors and mental health professionals…available to service members” (Kendall, 2011, p. 45) and “phone or internet video chats”, (Kendall, 2011, p. 45) What such treatment plans clearly bear the influence of is the legacy of the sociological viewpoint, whereby social bonds and questions of the extent of social integration clearly shape ultimately individual choices.

At the same time, the sociological viewpoint cannot be simplified: it is an intricate network of possible causal relationships. For example, sociology may incorporate direct causal explanations, such as depression, leads to suicide. (Kendall, 2011, p. 43) However, with Durkheim, the advance is made to what is termed an “inverse causal relationship”, (Kendall, 2011, p. 43) whereby it is a lack of something, in this case, social integration, that causes suicide. Furthermore, there is a “multiple-cause explanation”, (Kendall, 2011, p. 43) whereby models such as causal and inverse causal relations may be grouped together. This ultimately implies a fourth concept: the “hypothesized relationships between variables”, (Kendall, 2011, p. 43) where the sociologist attempts to understand how these various potential causes interact on an even further level. This is evidenced in suicide, where all these various causes may potentially exist in a single case.

Such concepts help prevent sociology from merely being a simple set of concepts that are applied to phenomena to be studied, but instead is a complex interweaving of viewpoints. The sociological viewpoint is therefore possible to change and experimentation. As a standard rule, though, it does emphasize the presence of what Durkheim called the social fact, as evidenced in phenomena such as suicide: understanding how social facts relate to each other provides the initial impetus for sociological investigation.

References

Elias, N. (1970). What is Sociology? New York: Columbia University Press.

Kendall, D. (2013). Sociology in Our Times. Stamford, CT: Cengage.

Morrison, K. (2006). Marx, Durkheim, Weber: Foundations of Modern Social Thought. London: Sage.