Essays On Sociology

Sociological Theories Essay
Sociological theory creates ways to understand the social world by having different theories to
explain understand social life. It aids to make sense of this social world. It draws together a wide
range of perspectives to help provide the fullest picture. (Macionis & Plummer p.36) It shows that
one theory can explain something that another cannot. My aim is to answer this question with
reference to both functionalism and conflict theory. This will be done by comparing and contrasting
both theories in relation to their perspectives on both suicide and gender discrimination as social
issues relevant to this day and age. Functionalism and conflict perspectives are both macro theories.
This means that they focus on the big picture, for...show more content...
(Turner, p.112) Functional analysis established itself as a way of 'bringing to light the significance of
the institutional order and connecting it with the unintentional consequences of social action.
(Turner, p.121) On page 35 of Back et al. it states that Durkheim's argument is that classification is a
process of 'marking–off', of showing things that are related, but have distinct points of difference to
another. Functionalism assumes that society's social institutions perform important functions to
help ensure social stability. Rapid social change threatens social order, but slow social change is
desirable. Durkheim believed that the individual has no way of limiting passions, so the moral
authority of society must do this. Individual aspirations are limited two ways, by socialisation and
social integration. Socialisation helps us learn the rules of society and the need to cooperate.
Social integration allows us to integrate into society and reinforce our respect for its rules. These
both, as stated by Durkheim create a strong collective conscience. Suicide, as an example of a
social issue, is explained with the functionalism perspective by not focusing on the individual
unhappiness, but instead on the group rates of suicide resulting form external forces. This may be
caused by normlessness, which may result from periods of rapid social change, and people find it
hard and unclear about how to deal with problems in their life. This frustration
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What is Sociology? Essays
What is Sociology? After reviewing the article titles given for this first assignment, I believe they
indicate that Sociology, generally speaking, is not only a study of diversity or commonality in traits
among people; it is also a science about factors in a person's life and how these factors culminate
responses. Interestingly enough, its topics of concern seem to be directly determined by current and
common events of the world. Through the invention and expansion of new ideas, popular trends and
fashions through time, Sociology adapts to responsibly to service the very subjects of interest it
studies; for, even the slightest change of a person's daily experience can have an insurmountable
impact on attitude, personal growth, family...show more content...
How has Sociology changed? According to the Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary (2010),
Sociology is referred to as ".the systematic study of the development, structure, interaction, and
collective behavior of organized groups of human beings" (para. 1); however, the transformable
qualities of this science are not represented by this definition, as they should be. To best understand
these changes, we must first consider changes within people as study objects; for as previously
stated, Sociology changes in ways which are commensurate to changes in the world around it.
For example, during the 1970's, single parent households did exist, but these arrangements were
considered to be the exception, not the rule. In contrast, today's family structures are as diverse as
the people within them. Given that it has become routine for some parents to live separately, and
couples of same sex marriages are now common place, unique areas of consideration have opened up
and are in need of further scrutiny. Through updated theories and advanced equipment, inventive
techniques have been applied to study people adjoined to the modernized world they live in. Also,
social sciences have fundamentally altered their beliefs of acceptability and acknowledged

Essay on Sociology and Life
Socio–Autobiography
(What my life is –what I make of it with the help of Biological and a Sociological Mix – A slice of
my of life)
Author: Nancy Gutierrez
Written for my Sociology Class Culture and Society
Instructor: Joan McGowan
My family traditions and values have influenced my biological and cultural views and values. My
life and career goals bear resemblance with my parents ' life and expectations influenced by class
and culture. Yet have been structured by Sociological concepts.
The older I become the more I clearly feel life is beginning to make sense. Looking back at my
childhood I feel as I was living life all while being contained. I was born in Texas and raised in
Indiana, in a town where speaking Spanish...show more content...
Hispanic cultural) or the names. All I knew was that they were making me wish I had been born
into another culture just to fit in. I soon realized they were ignorant out of lack of Education on
Diversity and Race. They were prejudice and they showed signs of being ethnocentric, they
assumed that their own culture and way of life was superior to all others. (Schaefer, 2009) I took it
upon myself to educate myself, realizing that change starts with me. (TCO 5, 6, 7 & 8)
As I sit here and work my way backwards through life's challenging faces, I have to also include if
it had not been for those indifferences I would not have persuade change within my own life. My
life at home became more and more challenging and I struggled to gain perspective of whom I had
allowed others to mold me into. I became very defiant in the marriage and my husband at the time
was very intolerant towards differences in change of what he was taught were gender roles that were
set in stone. He became abusive and harsh towards my learning and educating me. Making it
impossible to create a role model whom would teach my son that mind sets are breakable and it is
better to challenge them if one feels they are unjust and used to hold one down. I learned I had to go
around rather than through for the time being and found Educational programs that would aid me in
making this possible. I played along with his gender

Sociology as a Science Essay
Sociology emerged in the eighteenth century after a period of intense cultural, social and economic
changes. As people began to try to understand these changes, there came a period called the
Enlightenment. This is also considered by Hamilton (1992) to be a "time characterised by the
development of distinctively modern forms of thought about society and the realm of the social."
The Enlightenment encouraged a new way of thinking marked by application of reason, experience
and experiment to the natural and social world. Sociologists approached the study of society and
change by using scientific means as they were inspired by the recognition of the value of scientific
principles and procedures....show more content...
They believe that sociology is a science as it is based on the principles advocated by the early
scientists and shares common assumptions. Positivist strongly believe that only science can
provide an objective truth or facts, and a good example of this is Durkheim's study of suicide, in
which he proved that sociology can relate to scientific topics. The metanarrative of science which
existed in the past, to a certain extent shows how it was used by early sociologists as a
conceptual framework for their work, therefore adopting science as it was considered to offer
more scope than religion. Auguste Comte is considered the founding figure of positivism, and was
inspired by the need to make sense of the rapid social change brought about by the industrial,
agricultural and political revolutions taking place across Europe. As they believe that human
behaviour is determined by social constructions beyond their control such as laws and social facts,
positivists claim these are a product of the way in which societies are organised. Therefore, they
believe that sociology should be a scientific discipline based on logic and methods of the natural
sciences. When positivist sociologists collect information and data from the social world, they
usually do so with a hypothetico–deductive approach, which is considered a

Essay on Socialization
Socialization Socialization is the process by which culture is learned; also called enculturation.
During socialization individuals internalize a culture's social controls, along with values and norms
about right and wrong. Socialization is a complex process that involves many individuals, groups,
and social institutions. AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION There are four main agents of socialization
family, school, peer groups (friends and collogues), and mass media. The family is the single most
important agent of socialization because the family is the first and most continuous social world for
infants and children. The family provides the child's initial social identity in terms of race, religion,
social class, and gender. In time,...show more content...
The peer group shares with the school the important function of allowing the child to be away
from the family where the child learns different models of behavior as well as well as new
relationships and values they might not have learned in their family life. Peer groups also allow
the opportunity to discuss interests that adults may not share (clothes, music). The peer group also
teaches children how to deal with conflicts. The agents of socialization discussed above (family,
school, and peer group) are all involved in interactive and personal contact. Mass media on the
other had are various impersonal modes of communication intended for large audiences (e.g., radio,
television, motion pictures, newspapers). Mass media can have an enormous effect on our
attitudes and behavior. The media influence socialization by providing additional and alternative
role models as well as social norms and values. It appears that most influential mass medium today
is television. A positive view of television is that it provides an excellent medium of instruction and
an entertaining way of expanding the horizons of children by exposing them to places and events
they may not be able to experience first hand. The negative view of television is that it makes
children more passive and less likely to use their imagination; it stresses the unrealistic nature of
many

Essay about Sociology
Sociology is a field which developed over a millennia ago, but it was not until the nineteenth
century that it came into the fore as a bona fide social science, in need of its own classification apart
from other social sciences. Sociology, 'the study of the process of companionship';(pg.396,
Ambercrombie,Hill,Turner), is a discipline, which is not exclusively independent in and of its self,
yet borrows from many other disciplines such as: history, geography, and anthropology.
'American sociology is fundamentally analytical and empirical; it proposes to examine the way of life
of individuals in the societies &#8230; prefers to explain institutions and structures in terms of
the behavior of individuals and the goals, mental states,...show more content...
A powerful group is usually able to coerce or manipulate subordinate classes (through force, threat of
force, withholding of jobs, or other means) because of the dominate group's influence over basic
institutions in the society ( such as the economy, government, courts, and police)(pg.88, Kerbo).';
The critical–conflict theorist, I feel is the most plausible is Karl Marx and his Marxian view of social
stratification and inequality. Marx viewed capitalism as a mode of production that results in the
exploitation and virtual enslavement of the wage laborer by the owner of capital. 'Marx recognized
various modes of production and considered each to be associated with a particular social structure
(pg. 348, Marx).'; Capitalism as a mode of production consisted of two factors, the means and modes
of production. The means of production incorporate ' the material, instrument, and product of
labour,'; and these determine the relations of production which are the 'relative position[s] of these
individual groups'; to one another (pg.161, Marx). Capitalism, Marx believed, was fueled by greed
for increased wealth at the expense of laborers and to the ultimate destruction of the entire system.
Marx said that capitalism would, 'create bourgeois society (pg.363, Marx).'; The combination of the
influence on the social structure and structural changes produced the social structure that
fundamentally characterizes

Reflection In Sociology
After taking a Sociology class this semester, I learned a lot of about the different topics and
concepts in this course and how they are related to our society, which has changed my perspective
as well as how I view and see the meaning of my surroundings. I would also think about what would
be going on inside a specific person's mind and how he or she was feeling. After learning about
different concepts in Sociology and watching the videos presented in class, it became easier to just
stop and think about a person, wonder who that person was, and be curious about that person's life
story. We pass by people all the time every day, but we never really know what is going on with
them and don't really think about it or care since it is so...show more content...
It is crazy to hear that the top richest people in this world have the same wealth as the poorest 3
billion people in this world. Even though rich countries are giving aid to poor countries, the huge
gap difference between their wealth is due to large corporations form rich countries taking more
money from poor countries, and this really explains a lot why poor country never have the chance to
actually thrive. The thought that poor people should be able to come up from where they came
from, which is a thought in many people's minds, especially those who have money, isn't all that
simple.
The activity we had to do for homework with the Sorting People stood out to me as well and
made me realize that classifying and judging people based on how they look and guess what their
races and ethnicities are solely by appearance, is not the right way to categorize people. I learned
that the majority of my guesses were wrong, and after reading about the people's mini bios, I then
realized that people's races and ethnicities are not determined by their physical looks. Appearance
doesn't always tell you about someone's ancestry or self–identities of themselves. "Race" cannot tell
where someone came from, what they are good at, or even how their personalities and behaviors are
like.
It was also very interesting to learn about different cultures, especially during the movies we watched
in class about adoption. It shows how culture along with the beliefs,

Sociology In Sociology
Sociology is the study of groups of people and how society interacts with them. There are many
people out there that have done research or contributed in some way to sociology. Not just on
people, but things like religions, countries, genders, race, and many more. Many things play in
the role to form us and our society. Here in America, we have Trump as our president and we eat
burgers and french fries, but over in japan they grow lots of their own food and eat it like potatoes
with vegetables and chicken. Different things happen around the world and we just can't seem to
think there is other things out there than what we just do or what we call ourselves and so forth.
We don't think about how our society affects us and how we affect society. Society can affect us
in a positive way or even a negative way. A positive way society can influence us is if the
president said all schools in the United States have to have extra curricular activities and the
government will fund it. This could be great for a poor boy in San Joaquin, California who really
wanted to be on the track and field team, but his school did not have it because they couldn't
afford it. This would have kept him out of trouble in the past, but when it finally was available by
the government, he joined and it kept him out of trouble and he worked much harder in school. A
negative way society can impact us is Obama's health care act. Now that they are trying to get rid of
it, many people will have to go without

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