Sociology: Identity
Identity has been defined as 'a sense of self that develops as the child differentiates from parents and family and takes a place in society.' (Haralambos et al., 2008, p665) The communities are widely considered to have gone through multifarious fundamental alterations; namely, from urban industrial capitalism economy to post-industrialism economy; from modernity to postmodernity. This essay will critically examined the view with regard to contemporary individuals are no longer firmly bound into fixed communities rather having a greater choice as to identify with each other. Initially, the nature of communities' shift will be analysed, followed by discussions of the factors and manifestation of theories inherent. Industrial capitalism seems to be eventually steered to urbanization of society. In particular, construction of manufactories and basic transportations such as railways had contributed significantly (Fulcher and Scott, 2007, p501). In days gone by, manufacturing sector which emphasized on production and consumption of goods, involved great deals of physical and nature resources; thus, it acquired numerous manual workers, as a result of which industrial societies were emerged to be neighbouring factories due to long working period. The workers socialized within centralised area and had shared basic lifestyle and culture (e.g. folk culture), which gradually formed
Introduction to Sociology - questions and answers
Introduction to Sociology Unit One Assessment Section One . Describe in full what Sociology is. Sociology is a critical study of society and the social world we live in, It is a study of Me, You, People and Institutions. It investigates and analysis things such as social problems, social behaviour, culture, culture differences, human behaviour as groups and also on larger more predominant behaviour as a society on a whole. This study uses a lot of different methods in order to investigate the way society works and why humans do the things they do as a society. 2. Identify and explain one difference between Sociology and Common sense. Common sense is not based on fact, it is almost a set of beliefs learnt from experience and other peoples. Sociology is based upon research and scientific evidence. 3. Identify two differences Sociology and Psychology. Sociology looks at society on a large scale, where Psychology studies an individual. Psychology can be said to be a science that deals with individual mental behavior. Sociology on the other hand a science that deals with the development of human society. 4. Describe one similarity between Sociology and Psychology. Both Psychology and Sociology study human behavior, which is how they are similar. Having said that, Psychology goes a little deeper and tends to defines behavior as normal or abnormal. 5. Sociology is a
Is geography a science?
Is geography a science? Science, by definition, is: '...the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment...' 1 Geography is divided into physical and human dimensions; in the past, physical geography had taken pre-eminence over the latter due to the need of geographers to establish their discipline as an actual educational subject in colleges and universities. They therefore needed to impress upon the world its yummy importance as a science 5, which held much weight at the time, but can geography still be based in the world of natural sciences or has it shifted to that of a more social basis? As the subject in itself is now no longer entirely devoted to the simple science of, for example, gauging how fauna and flora evolve, it is important to evaluate whether geography has changed into just another extension of sociology and economics or whether it still as scientific as ever, even with these changes. The sciences relating to the physical world, like, are so collectively termed as physical geography. The natural sciences are those that focus on how the world and the organisms, including humans, living on and within it operate. The social sciences are those that centre more with humans and their role in the world; the difference between the two is often a very narrow line. Geography in the past has
Durkhiem is frequently referred to as a positivist, Webber as the founder of interpretative sociology. Critically compare and evaluate their methodological contributions to sociology.
Contempory Social Theory Student No: 0012286 Durkhiem is frequently referred to as a positivist, Webber as the founder of interpretative sociology. Critically compare and evaluate their methodological contributions to sociology. This essay will be examining the methodological contributions both Durkheim and Weber have provided to sociology. It will briefly observe what Positivists are and how their methodologies influence and affect their research. It will also consider what interpretative sociology is, and why their type of methodology is used when carrying out research. It will analyse both Durkheim's study of Suicide and also Webers study of The Protestant work ethic, and hopefully establish how each methodology was used for each particular piece of research, and why. Emile Durkhiem, in sociology terminology is considered to be a Functionalist, in addition to also being a Positivist, however, strictly speaking, Durkheim was not a Positivist. This is because he did not follow the positivist rule that states that sociological study should be confined to observable or directly measurable phenomena. Functionalists believe that in order for society to function correctly, there need to be shared values to help maintain social order. Society is viewed as a stable, orderly system. This stable system is in equilibrium and reflects societal consensus where the majority of
When and why was sociology invented?
When and why was sociology invented? Before answering this question, I believe that it is important to first fully understand what is meant by sociology. The term was first used by the Frenchman Comte and was defined by Comte as "reasoning about the social", however this is not too precise and so sociology can be defined as "the study of human social life, groups and societies" (Giddens). Thus, sociology is a science which aims to discover and explain the varying trends that create and effect our current social relations and suggest possible futures. A catalyst is usually required to inspire the 'better' sociology (that is the sociology that was created first and has stood the test of time) and this usually comes in the form of a large and important event, such as a coup. Sociology has also been hugely influential since its inception and has helped to form the society we live in today, for example if it wasn't for the writing of Marx; communism might never have been created and the world would be a very different place. The aim of this essay is to explain what caused people to start to think and question why society is the way it is. However, why this occurred is directly linked to the changes during the period of time and the question is a very broad one, thus I believe the best way to approach this is to look at the major events which brought about this relatively new
Critical Annotated Bibliography in Sociology
Critical Annotated Bibliography Durkheim, E. (1970) 'Preface' to Suicide a Study in Sociology London: Routledge. In this introductory chapter, Durkheim expresses his interest in developing the conduct of sociology. He sees the main problem to be that sociology is mainly built on philosophical generalities, and does not answer specific social questions. He proposes a methodology that will give the science of sociology clear baselines and actual results. In his book, Durkheim applies these suggestions and illustrates how sociology should be conducted, and strictly draws conclusions that reveal to us the way in which we should be able to approach the problems of society. This study has been presented in such a way that it is possible to evaluate the relevance and accuracy of its definitions and conclusions. Durkheim stretches the importance of sociology far more than being merely a tool to fix the world, but it is a lens, through which we see reality as a collective reality, one comprised of individuals who are determined by their realities. Durkheim's work is a major milestone in the study of sociology and has influenced research ever since. Engels, F. and Marx, K. (1969) 'The Communist Manifesto' in Selected Works, Volume One, Moscow: Progress Publishers, pp. 98-137. The Manifest is a declaration of the power and ideology of Communism, and analyzes the problems of class
Outline and evaluate the usefulness of adopting a scientific approach to the study of sociology.
David Rowley Outline and evaluate the usefulness of adopting a scientific approach to the study of sociology First we need to now what science is: science is having a theory. And be collecting data through empirical means and being able to test it, while being objective. From that you would think that adopting a scientific approach to the study of sociology would be useful, while anti-positivists would argue that it is useful, but impossible. Anti-positivists/ Interpretivists reject the scientific method and believe it is impossible to use it on human society because it is impossible to avoid using values. Scientific approaches are also used in natural sciences like chemistry, biology, and they use the hypothetico-deductive method, and so it was used by Comte and Durkheim because it was the fashion of the time, but they altered this because they realised humans can not be studied in laboratories. So Durkheim can up with the comparative method, which involved collecting secondary data and dismissing laboratory experiments. Early sociologists such as Comte and Durkheim believed sociology should be a science of society and a lot of modern theories are based on adopting a scientific approach to sociology, such as Durkheim demonstrated on his work on suicide. Durkheim collected data on suicide statistics and compared them to produce a set of laws on suicide which said the more
GCSE Sociology Coursework
Introduction I have decided to study whether boys are more disruptive, in the classroom, than girls. This topic appeals to me because I am still in full time education and find it interesting to analyse the behavioural differences between the two genders and whether this is reflective of recent GCSE results. During my school years experience, I have found males to be more disruptive: calling out; shouting; hitting and physical violence. I think that females are more likely to disrupt the lesson by talking to each other. I would like to study this further; hence my reasons for choosing this topic. Some of the questions I have in my mind at the beginning of my enquiry are whether teaching is biased towards female education. If this is so then this might suggest a reason for high levels of achievement amongst females, in comparison to males. I believe that females out-perform males in schools because they are either more ambitious or more mature. In my opinion, males tend to be less focused and easily distracted, perhaps by females, or just by a lack of interest in the topic at hand. I am going to set
Major trends of Sociology
Describe and analyse briefly three major trends of sociological theories Sociological theories and perspectives seek to explain or understand the way in which society functions. (Haralambos 1995, p7) defines a sociological theory as "a set of ideas that claims to explain how society or aspects of society work". This essay will examine the similarities and differences between three of the main theories Functionalism, Marxism and Interactionism. All three are traced back to theories adopted by sociologists in the nineteenth century. Marxism came from the German philosopher Karl Marx (1818-1883); Functionalism was originally derived by Auguste Compte (1798-1857). It was then developed further by Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) and Interactionism was developed by Max Weber (1864-1920). Each theoretical approach has to some extent been shaped or influenced by the approach of others and many sociological perspectives display marked similarities, or a range of differences that can be traced to a reaction against previously held ideas. It would be foreseeable that such a broad subject as sociology should give rise to a variety of approaches: it would be impossible to categorise the vast amount of social change that has occurred over centuries by attempting to apply a single theoretical approach. Functionalism, or structural consensus, was developed as a concept by the French
How useful are experiemnts in sociology?
How useful are experiments in sociology? In this essay I will explore how useful experiments are to sociologists. There are two different types of experiments field experiments and lab experiments which can be useful for sociologists. Both provide some advantages because they can show the relationships between cause and effect. However there are many different problems with both field and lab experiments that include the ethics, sampling, the experimenter and the Hawthorne effect. However they are not very popular as they can draw up many problems when carried out on people. When studying people ethical issues arise, it is hard to find a representative samples, the experimenter and Hawthorne effects also apply. In this essay I will discuss the two main experimental techniques and the advantages and disadvantages of using each giving examples of where sociologists have applied experimental techniques. Additionally I will show how positivists and interpretivists differ in their approach experimentation. The advantages of using lab experiments are that they are highly reliable because they can be repeated several times with the same results. This is because the original experimenter can specify exactly which steps were followed, so it can be repeated in the future. It is also a detached method so the researcher only manipulates the variables and records the results. This
