Introduction What Is Sociology?

A Level Sociology
Teaching Notes
for Students
Culture and Identity
1. Introduction To Sociology

Introduction.
Chris.Livesey !!!.sociology.org.u" #age $
Introduction What Is Sociology?
1. Most, if not all, A-level Sociology students begin their course with a fairly vague
idea about what is involved in the study of society. A copy of the syllabus is an
initial starting point because it maps-out for you the areas you will be studying
during your course. owever, it doesn!t tell you a great deal about what Sociology
is. "his #ntroduction, therefore, is designed to help you identify the sub$ect matter of
Sociology and, to help us do this we will be loo%ing at four main ideas&
a. An initial definition of Sociology as a sub$ect.
b. "he types of questions that sociologists as%.
c. The Sociological Perspective 'how Sociology differs from other social
sciences(.
d. "he difference between Naturalistic 'or commonsense) and sociological ideas
and e)planations.
A. The Su%&ect 'atter of Sociology.
1. As # noted above, Sociology is the study of human societies. #t is usually classed
as one of the social sciences 'along with sub$ects li%e psychology( and was
established as a sub$ect in the late 1*
th
century 'through the wor% of people li%e the
+rench writer Auguste ,omte(.
owever, the sub$ect has only really gained acceptance as an academic sub$ect
in the -.
th
century through the wor% of writers such as /mile 0ur%heim, Ma) 1eber
and "alcott 2arsons 'all names that, for the present, probably mean very little to
you(. 3ne name that you may have heard of - 4arl Mar) 'the founder of modern
,ommunism( - has probably done more to stimulate people!s interest in the sub$ect
than anyone else, even though he lived and wrote '1*1* - 1**5( in a period before
Sociology became fully established as an academic discipline.
Sociology, therefore, has a reasonably long history of development '16. - -..
years( although in 7ritain it has only been in the last 8. - 5. years that Sociology as
an e)amined sub$ect in the education system has achieved a level of prominence
e9uivalent to or above most of the other sub$ects it is possible to study. At present,
appro)imately 5.,... students sit an A-level Sociology e)am, ma%ing it one of the
most popular A-levels in our society.
-. 0efinitions of the sub$ect are not difficult to discover and although, as you will
see, a precise definition is not always easy to come by, each of the following have
sufficient in common for us to draw some sort of overall conclusion about how
Sociology can be defined.
a. :insberg '"he Study of Society, 1;8;(&
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Introduction What Is Sociology?
Sociology may be defined as the study of society< that is of the web of human
interactions and relationships.
b. Sugarman 'Sociology, 1;=*(&
Sociology is the ob$ective study of human behaviour in so far as it is affected by the
fact that people live in groups.
c. :iner 'Sociology, 1;>-(&
"he purpose of Sociology is the scientific study of human society through the
investigation of people!s social behaviour.
d. ?it@er 'Sociology, 1;>;(&
Sociology is the study of individuals in a social setting that includes groups,
organisations, cultures and societies. Sociologists study the interrelationships
between individuals, organisations, cultures and societies.
e. :iddens 'Sociology, 1;*;(&
Sociology is the study of human social life, groups and societies. #t is a da@@ling
and compelling enterprise, having as its sub$ect matter our own behaviour as social
beings. "he scope of sociology is e)tremely wide, ranging from the analysis of
passing encounters between individuals in the street up to the investigation of
world-wide social processes.
f. Aawson and :arrod '"he ,omplete A-B Sociology andboo%, 1;;=(&
Sociology is the study of individuals in groups in a systematic way, which grew out
of the search for understanding associated with the industrial and scientific
revolutions of the 1*
th
and 1;
th
centuries.
8. # have deliberately provided a relatively large number of possible definitions to
enable you to get some initial flavour of the sub$ect matter of Sociology.
#n addition, you should be able to identify the common themes in each definition
that will help us to focus our attention more directly on the 9uestion 1hat is
SociologyC
Identify the major common themes in the above definitions.
5. #n the above definitions there are two basic themes we can identify and
investigate further&
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Introduction What Is Sociology?
a. What sociologists study
Sociology is the study of the social world. #t involves studying human beings and
their patterns of behaviour. #n order to do this, we focus on the way people form
relationships and how these relationships, considered in their totality, are
represented by the concept of a society.
#n this respect, the focus of the sociologist!s attention is group behaviour. "hat is,
the effect that the groups people $oin or are born into 'family, wor%, education and so
forth( have upon people!s social behaviour.
%. )o! sociologists study the social !orld.
"he definitions included words li%e scientific, systematic and objective -
ideas that tell us something about the both the way sociologists study social
behaviour and the %ind of %nowledge they are trying to produce about social life.
1hile we will develop these ideas in much greater detail in another part of the
course '"heory and Methods(, we need to note a couple of things about them now.
a. Objective basically means that sociologists try to create %nowledge that is
factual, rather than simply based on opinion. #n simple terms, sociologists try to
avoid personal bias intruding into their research. "o do this, they use&
b. Systematic ways of studying social behaviour. 7y this is meant that sociologists
try to use methods of research '9uestionnaires, observations, e)periments and so
forth( that are governed by certain rules of evidence. +or e)ample, a sociologist will
try to test his or her ideas in some way. 1e will see an e)ample of this in a moment
when we loo% at the difference between Naturalistic 'commonsense) and
sociological e)planations of human behaviour.
6. "o summarise this section, therefore&
Sociology is a social science concerned ith the study of human social
relationships and the various ays these relationships are patterned in terms
of social groups! organisations and societies.
#n the ne)t section we can loo% briefly at the different types of 9uestions sociologists
use in their study of the social world.
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Introduction What Is Sociology?
+. Sociological ,uestions.
1. 3ne of the main characteristics of any A-level course of study is that e)aminers
demand that you, as a student, develop the ability to demonstrate two basic forms
of %nowledge&
a. -irstly. the a%ility to understand and de/onstrate the difference %et!een
facts and o0inions.
"acts, in this respect, are things that are true, regardless of whether or not we
would li%e them to be true. +or e)ample, it is a fact that, at the end of your course,
you will be e)amined. ow well you do in these e)ams will determine the grade you
are awarded at the end of your course. "his is a fact because it will happen to you
regardless of whether or not you want it to happen.
3ne ma$or characteristic of factual %nowledge is that it is considered true
because we have tried to test it in some way 'for e)ample, through observing
something over time( and found that we cannot show it to be false.
+or e)ample, # have observed various sociology courses over time and found it to
be true that there is always an e)amination at the end of the course. "his is not to
say that facts are always true for all time 'for e)ample, sometime in the future
sociology grades may not be awarded on the basis of end of course tests - they
may be e)amined in some other way(. owever, given certain specified conditions a
fact is a statement that is true whilst those conditions apply.
Opinions, on the other hand, can be generally defined as ideas that may or may
not be factual or true. An opinion is simply a statement we ma%e that we believe to
be true, regardless of whether or not we have any evidence to support it.
+or e)ample, # may have the opinion that you are the most intelligent group of
students # have ever taught, but the only way to confirm this opinion is to test it in
some way 'by e)amining you, for e)ample(.
Sociologists, therefore, attempt to produce factual %nowledge about human
behaviour. "hat is, we try to generate statements about the nature of the social
world that are not only true, but we are able to demonstrate that these statements
are true.
#n basic terms, therefore, factual 9uestions relate to hat we %now about the
social world. #t is important to remember this idea, since it will form the basis for a
great deal of your wor% during the course.
%. Secondly. the a%ility to de/onstrate ho! factual "no!ledge is created and
its significance in ter/s of the social !orld.
At A-level, it is necessary - but not sufficient - for students to both separate facts
from opinions and be able to demonstrate a sound %nowledge of these facts.
Sociology, at this level, is not a simple memory test '#f # can memorise enough facts
# will pass the course(, but clearly factual %nowledge is very important.
owever, sociologists are interested in how facts are produced, by whom and for
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Introduction What Is Sociology?
what purpose. #n this respect, sociologists as% theoretical 9uestions.
A theory, for our purpose, is something that e)plains the relationship between
two or more things. +or e)ample, it is a fact that in 1;;6 appro)imately 1=.,...
marriages in 7ritain ended in divorce. Sociologically, we would li%e to %now hy this
happens - for e)ample, what is the cause D what are the causes of divorceC
1e can only e)plain facts by constructing possible e)planations 'theories( and
then testing our theory against reality 'facts(. +or e)ample, a very basic theory in
this instance might be that #f a man and a woman are both in their teens when they
marry, they are more li%ely to divorce at sometime in the future 'something that,
statistically, happens to be true(.
Another e)ample might be the fact that men have larger brains than women. A
theoretical 9uestion for sociologists might be why is this a fact 'the answer is that,
biologically, men are generally larger than women. #n terms of brain si@e to average
body weight, female brains are actually proportionately largerE(.
-. "o help us understand the social world, both factually and theoretically,
sociologists use another form of 9uestioning, that of comparison. ,omparative
9uestions have two main forms&
a. A comparison between two different societies 'for e)ample, is the divorce rate
different in 7ritain and +rance - and if so, whyC(.
b. A comparison between the present and the past in the same society 'sometimes
called historical or developmental questions(. +or e)ample, is the divorce rate in
modern 7ritain higher or lower than 1.. years ago - and whyC(.
,omparative 9uestions not only help us to develop factual %nowledge about the
social world, they can also help us to test theoretical 9uestions. +or e)ample,
comparatively we %now that in 1;;6 the number of people who divorced was&
1=.,... in 7ritain.
. in /ire 'Southern #reland(.'"here were no divorces in /ire in that year(.
#hat theory could you construct that might e$plain these facts%
8. "o complete this section, we can relate the ideas noted above to your course of
study. #n particular, we can note the way the different types of 9uestions that
sociologists as% relate to and correspond with the s%ills that the /)amination 7oard
re9uires you to develop throughout the duration of your course. #n this respect,
there are five ma$or s%ill domains outlined by the 7oard&
a. 2no!ledge.
b. 3nderstanding.
c. Inter0retation.
d. A00lication.
e. 4valuation.
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Introduction What Is Sociology?
1e can relate these s%ill domains to sociological 9uestions in the following way&
Fou have to demonstrate sociological "no!ledge and this involves a mastery of
factual information. #n order to interpret the significance of factual %nowledge, you
have to understand sociological theories. 7y combining these two s%ills
'"no!ledge and inter0retation( you are a00lying sociological theories to the
construction of factual "no!ledge. Additionally, in any area of the course there will
usually be a number of different theories that compete to e)plain some aspect of
the social world and you have to evaluate them 'that is, weigh up the strengths and
wea%nesses of each theory( against one another to arrive at some conclusion
about their relative worth. +inally, by using each of the four s%ills in combination, you
will arrive at an overall level of understanding that is sociological in origin.
1e can summarise the above in the following terms&
3nderstanding consists of your ability to&
,reate "no!ledge 'factual information or plausible e$planations about some
aspect of human behaviour(. "o create %nowledge you have to&
Inter0ret sociological theories correctly. "hat is, you have to understand them
and
A00ly your "no!ledge and understanding in order to e)plain some feature of
human behaviour. +inally, you need to loo% critically at the theories you use,
thereby
4valuating their strengths and wea%nesses, advantages and disadvantages and
so forth.
"inally! if this all seems a bit complicated at the moment it ill be much clearer
once you start to use the various s&ills in the or& you do on the course.
Chris.Livesey !!!.sociology.org.u" #age 6
Introduction What Is Sociology?
C. The Sociological #ers0ective.
1. A perspective can be defined as a way of loo%ing at and seeing something. "o
have a perspective, therefore, means to loo% at something 'whatever that thing
might be( in a particular way. +or sociologists, the thing we are loo%ing at is the
social world - in effect, the various ways that human beings behave in a social way.
"hus, when we tal% about GsocietyG or the social world what we are really referring to
is the behaviour of human beings - the real ob$ect of study for Sociologists.
-. 1hen we tal% about the sociological perspective, therefore, we are tal%ing about
the particular way that sociologists, as opposed to non-sociologists, try to
understand human social behaviour.
"his is not to say that all sociologists necessarily loo% at the social world from
e)actly the same perspective 'or viewpoint(, not that sociologists are always in
complete about what they are seeing, how behaviour could or should be understood
and so forth. As we will see, the sociological perspective is made-up of a number of
9uite different sub-perspectives. owever, it is possible - and at this stage of your
course desirable, to identify a number of common ideas which most, if not all,
sociologists believe. 1e can note these as follows&
a. )u/an %eings are social ani/als. "hat is, we need to co-operate with others in
some way to produce the social world in which we live.
%. )u/an social %ehaviour is learned, not instinctive. #n this respect, the argument
is that we have to learn, from the moment we are born, how to be not $ust a human
being but also a recognisable member of the society into which we happen to have
been born.
c. To understand hu/an social %ehaviour !e have to focus our attention on
the grou0s to !hich 0eo0le %elong. "hese groups are many and varied, as we will
see in a moment, but the largest group to which people belong is a society.
d. Sociology is a 0ers0ective that loo"s at the totality of relationshi0s in an
individual7s life. #n this respect, sociologists do not restrict their studies to a single
dimension of an individual!s life 'economics, politics, history, geography, psychology
and so forth(. Although each of these is significant and interesting, to varying
degrees, it is only by loo%ing at how these relationships affect each other that we
can arrive at a complete picture of human social behaviour.
8. "his final idea leads us briefly to consider other, possibly complimentary, social
sciences. Fou should note that sociologists do not re$ect out of hand the
contributions of writers in areas such as economics, politics and psychology.
owever, the e)istence of sociology as an academic discipline is based on a
recognition that human beings are not one-dimensional beings but rather multi'
dimensional beings.
Chris.Livesey !!!.sociology.org.u" #age 8
Introduction What Is Sociology?
+or e)ample, in our society people wor% 'economic dimension(, have the
opportunity to vote in elections 'political dimension(, live in different areas of the
country 'geographic dimension( and so forth. 1hat interests sociologists, for
e)ample, might be the relationship between these three dimensions 'for e)ample,
how does the area in which a person lives affect the type of wor% they do and how
does the type of wor% they do affect how they vote in electionsC(.
#f the sociological perspective differs from that provided by other social sciences,
it is evident that it also differs from a final perspective we have to consider, namely
that of Haturalistic or ,ommonsense e)planations of the social world. "he basic
ideas # have $ust noted invariably put sociologists in opposition to commonsensical
interpretations of human behaviour. "herefore, by investigating some e)amples of
commonsense ideas about the social world it will allow us to&
a. 0emonstrate more effectively the idea of a sociological perspective.
b. Show how Sociology provides a greater understanding of human behaviour.
9. Sociology and Co//onsense.
1. ,ommonsense ideas and e)planations represent a form of social perspective
since they claim to represent the things that everyone %nows about the social
world and D or human behaviour. "hese ideas, whatever they may be, are not
necessarily incorrect, but they do tend to have one characteristic that sets them
apart from sociological forms of %nowledge, namely that commonsense ideas are
simply assumed to be true.
Sociological %nowledge, however, has greater validity than most forms of
commonsense %nowledge because it has been tested through some form of
observation. #n simple terms, sociologists try to base their statements about human
behaviour on evidence rather than simple assumption.
-. "here are two particular points to note when you consider the following ideas&
a. Sociological %nowledge is fre9uently at odds with what everyone %nows, mainly
because it is the product of theory development and testing.
b. Sociological %nowledge is not simply the statement of the obvious using lots of
long, complicated, words whose main purpose is to obscure the fact that all
sociologists are really doing is ma%ing simple, self-evident, statements.
8. 1e can illustrate some differences between commonsense and sociological
perspectives by e)amining a number of commonsense statements about various
forms of human behaviour. "his short test should give you an insight into the
difference between %nowledge that is produced sociologically and %nowledge that,
however plausible, obvious or self-evident it may appear, doesn!t necessarily give
us a true picture of the social world.
Chris.Livesey !!!.sociology.org.u" #age :
Introduction What Is Sociology?
(ead the folloing statements and ma&e a judgement about their truth or
falsity)
1. 'en and Wo/en.
a. * oman al&ing alone at night is in greater danger of se$ual assault or
rape by a stranger than a oman in a familiar place ith a man she &nos.
b. +en are naturally more aggressive than omen.
c. ,"alling in love- is a natural human emotion. Therefore! romantic love has
e$isted in all societies at all times.
d. .y teaching children about se$ual relationships! the education system
encourages young people to e$periment se$ually! leading to an increase in
teenage pregnancies.
e. +a&ing contraceptives available to teenagers through school clinics ill
encourage them to be more se$ually active because they ill not have to
orry about unanted pregnancy.
(. -a/ily Life.
a. In .ritain /00 years ago the family as less li&ely to brea&'up through
divorce and single parent families ere very rare.
b. The high divorce rate in our society indicates that marriage as an institution
is under threat in our society.
c. Single parent families are mainly created by young mothers ho choose not
to live ith 1 marry the father of their child.
*. Wor" and Welfare.
a. .ritain is more prone to stri&es than any other similar industrial country.
b. In countries that have a #elfare State! the poor become dependent upon
government handouts and lose the ill to or&.
1. Cri/e.
a. *rmed robbery is more dangerous to the victim than unarmed robbery.
b. The deliberate &illing of one human being by another human being has
alays been seen by society to be rong.
c. * criminal is someone ho has bro&en the la.
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Introduction What Is Sociology?
*nsers
1. 'en and Wo/en.
a. "he 1omen!s Safety Survey '1;*6( showed that&
6.I of se)ual assaults and -6I of rapes involved strangers.
Most rapists are %nown to the victim. "he most li%ely rapists include a casual
ac9uaintance, boss D supervisor, friend, wor%mate, family member or neighbour.
"he most common places for rape or assault are, in order of fre9uency&
"he victim!s home.
A street or alleyway.
"he assailant!s home.
b. All humans beings have the capacity to be aggressive. 1e need this ability in
order to motivate ourselves. owever, when tal%ing about male and female
aggression what we are tal%ing about is the socially-inappropriate use of
aggression, rather than aggression itself. 1hile it is true that men 'and young men
in particular( tend to use violence as a means of problem-solving more readily in our
society, this is a result of cultural factors and e)pectations.
#n basic terms, men have more freedom than women in our society 'their
behaviour is less tightly controlled by others( and aggressive behaviour, up to a
point, is more socially-acceptable or encouraged in men than women.
owever, the fact that not all men are overly aggressive and that many women
have shown themselves capable of e)treme forms of violence demonstrates that a
tendency to socially-inappropriate aggression is not something that people are born
with.
c. Although se)ual attraction may be universal 'that is, present in all human
societies(, this is not the same as love. #n many societies, for e)ample, people do
not marry for love. indu!s, for e)ample, practice a system of arranged marriages
where the marriage partners may %now little or nothing about each other prior to
their marriage. Some religious sects 'the Jnification ,hurch, for e)ample( arrange
marriages for their members simply by telling the prospective partners who they will
marry.
#n addition, in our society the idea of romantic love is relatively recent. #n the
past people married for economic reasons 'to protect their wealth and power or to
create families that could wor% together on the land(.
Chris.Livesey !!!.sociology.org.u" #age 1$
Introduction What Is Sociology?
d. :overnment studies in olland and 7ritain show the opposite to be true. olland
has the lowest rate of teenage pregnancies in /urope, whilst offering school
children the most se) education. #n 7ritain, the reverse is true.
3ne of the reasons for this might be that in 7ritain there is a tendency to see
children as innocent until corrupted by adults. "hat is, the idea that children are
blissfully ignorant of se) until adults tell them about it, thereby e)iting their curiosity
and encouraging them to e)periment.
e. Moore and ,aldwell, in a review of the relevant studies, argue that, if anything,
this practice reduced the level of teenage se)ual activity and significantly reduced
the level of teenage pregnancy. "hey argue that where teenagers are better
informed about se) they are less inclined to either indulge in se)ual activity out of
curiosity D ignorance or are more willing to limit their se)ual behaviour.
(. -a/ily Life.
a. Anderson 'ow Much as "he +amily ,hangedC( argues that compared with
now families in 7ritain 1.. years ago&
0id not brea%-up through divorce, mainly because it was not possible to legally
gain a divorce unless you were male, very rich and very influential.
According to the 1*61 ,ensus, 1*I of households were headed by a single
parent 'mainly through things li%e the death of a partner, separation and so forth(
compared with ;I in 1;*1.
b. Koseph 'Sociology +or /veryone( argues that&
;.I of people who divorce remarry, which suggests that marriage itself is not
unpopular. ?ather, people have different e)pectations of what marriage involves.
#n the past, divorce was not possible for the ma$ority of the population. 2eople in
unhappy marriages simply separated from each other. Since they could not legally
remarry, this distorted the figures for marriage in the past.
c. 0ivorce and the death of a partner are the main causes of single parent families
in 7ritain. #n addition, appro)imately 1.I of all single parent families are headed by
a man.
Chris.Livesey !!!.sociology.org.u" #age 11
Introduction What Is Sociology?
*. Wor" and Welfare.
a. :overnment statistics show two things&
1or%ing days lost to industrial disputes fluctuate from year to year 'if an industry
employing many thousands of wor%ers is involved in a stri%e, this inflates the overall
figure for a society(.
#n 1;*=, for e)ample, the J4 ';. days lost to industrial disputes per 1...
employees( lost fewer days to stri%es than&
:ermany '>.. days lost per 1... employees(.
,anada '=;.(.
#taly '8;.(.
Australia '-5.(.
Sweden '1>.(.
JSA '1-=(.
b. 0uncan 'Fears of 2overty, Fears of 2lenty( has shown that the ma$ority of
people classed as poor at any given time will not always be poor. ?esearch by both
the 7ritish and American governments has shown that poverty is something that
tends to affect people at different times in their life-cycle. +or e)ample, people can
be plunged into poverty by the death of the main breadwinner, or through the birth
of children. As their lives change, people can move out of poverty. #t is generally
untrue that the ma$ority of the poor are poor through choice.
#n addition, the ma$ority of the unemployed do not wor% because&
"hey are temporarily unemployed between $obs.
"hey are unable to wor% through disability or age.
"here are no $obs for them in the economy.
1. Cri/e.
a. "hio 'Sociology( notes that an unarmed robber is more li%ely to hurt the victim
because the victim is more li%ely to resist during the course of the robbery.
b. Humerous e)amples to the contrary e)ist&
#n war time, deliberate %illing is encouraged, not condemned 'in fact, a soldier will
be condemned if they do not carry-out deliberate acts of %illing(.
#n many countries ,apital 2unishment is routinely carried-out by the State.
#n 7ritain in the past, the %illing of a peasant by a member of the aristocracy
could be considered regrettable, but not a matter for punishment.
Chris.Livesey !!!.sociology.org.u" #age 1(
Introduction What Is Sociology?
c. "he term criminal actually refers to someone who has been identified 'or
labelled( as such. #t is a social category that refers to people who have been
convicted of a criminal offence.
#t is probable that, in 7ritain, everyone has, at some point in their lives bro%en the
law. owever, the vast ma$ority of these law brea%ers are not charged or convicted
and so neither they nor society considers them to be criminals.
Additionally, an un%nown number of people are falsely convicted for crimes they
did not commit.
4. Conclusion.
1. "he main point of the little test you have $ust done is not to ridicule commonsense
e)planations. ?ather it is to demonstrate that&
a. "he purpose of sociology is to add to the sum total of human %nowledge about
our behaviour.
b. 4nowledge that is produced through testing and e)amination helps us to e)plain
more than %nowledge that is simply based on faith, assertion or opinion.
c. 4nowledge that everyone %nows is not by definition false. "he ob$ective of all
social science is to produce valid %nowledge - %nowledge that paints an accurate
picture of human behaviour, meanings and motives 'thereby adding to the sum total
of what everyone %nows to be true in a society(.
-. #n the ne)t section of the course we can start to develop some of the ideas
discussed in the first part of the course. #n particular, we can start to develop the
idea of a sociological perspective in more depth, concentrating on two main ideas&
a. +irstly, the way in which sociologists have developed an understanding of the way
human societies are organised. "his will involve a discussion of the concept of
society, as well as concepts such as culture and socialisation 'how we learn how
to be members of a culture and society.
b. Secondly, an initial outline of the way the general sociological perspective can be
further refined by loo%ing at differences of perspective and interpretation within
Sociology.
Chris.Livesey !!!.sociology.org.u" #age 1*