What Is Sociology, Essay Example

Sociology has many different philosophical theories that sociologists utilize to explain the study of sociology and how it applies to everyday life.  Sociology is the study of the actions and reactions of humans and the intricate design of social constructs that govern how people live and operate.  We view sociology everyday by our own interactions with other people and even the very laws and social rules that tell us what is acceptable and unacceptable for society to function correctly.

The functionalism philosophy is an “application of the scientific method to the objective social world and use of an analogy between the individual organism and society” (McClelland, 2000).  Functionalists would argue that there is a real world that can be analyzed and objectively viewed from a “value-free” point-of-view.

Interactionism was originally developed by Max Weber and George H. Meade.  While functionalists focus mainly on society as their basic subject for analysis, interactionists concentrate on analyzing humans and their interactions with one another as it is believed that humans simply are reacting to other humans’ behaviors.  Because of this human-based viewpoint, this philosophy concentrates more on the aspects of social life instead of a broader understanding of society as the main concentration.

Conflict theory is the third main philosophy utilized by sociologists in the field of sociology to analyze the world.  First of all, conflict theorists view “society as a struggle for resources and power” and believe that “change is inevitable, often beneficial and can be violent” (Hodges, p. 3).  In essence, this philosophy suggests that there is a constant conflict between individuals and groups of individuals for power and social status.  Conflict theorists attempt to analyze the world from a macro-sociology viewpoint and mainly focus on society in general, although the actions and reactions of individuals and groups is also closely analyzed through this philosophy as well.

References

Hodges, J. (n.d.). The Sociological perspectives. Presentation, Department of Sociology, Montgomery County Community College, Blue Bell, PA. Retrieved from http://faculty.mc3.edu/jhodges/soc101chapter1.ppt

McClelland, K. (2000, February 21). Theoretical perspectives in sociology. Retrieved from http://web.grinnell.edu/courses/soc/s00/soc111-01/introtheories/IntroTheoriesIndex.html