Sociology

Now that we have learned the basic rules of anthropology (click here to read) it is time to learn about the basic ideas of sociology another really important aspect to understand psychology.

Sociology is the study of human society, in other words, a social group (social life, people, institutions, etc.). It is focused in 3 basic ideas:

     1. The ways societies shape human behavior
     2. How an individual behavior has influence in society
     3. Social change

It began after the French Revolution (1789-1799) when people saw an enormous change in a society and wondered why this was happening. Karl Heinrich Marx (1818-1883) was the father of modern sociology, introducing this concept to the world.

Lets focus on the sociological perspective. Sociologist study their own society, they learn about a society that is natural to them, the same culture, the same way of behaving. This prevents them from seeing the strange from what they consider the norm. Sociological perspective means seeing the general in the particular, the strange in the familiar. Looking at your own society as if you were a stranger. Charles Wright Mills (a sociologist from the USA, 1916-1962)  called this term sociological imagination.

Durkheim stablished sociology as an academic discipline (he studied the relationship between the society and people commiting suicide). He thought that in order to create a conclusion, you need to find a pattern in your investigation, or if not, your study would not make sense.

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