Reflection Paper on Sociology

Sociology is the study of social life and consequences of human behavior.  Since
all human behavior is social it investigates how people interact within a groups,
organizations, and societies. It gives a new interpretation on the world, creating new
ideas and critiquing the old.
The sociological imagination helped a person cope with the social world by
empowering them to step outside their own personal view of the world. The sociological
imagination if used, individuals are forced to see, from an objective position, events that
influence behavior and attitude.
Applied sociology uses information about society or actions to solve social issues
and solve real-world problems. Applied sociologists use sociology to address a specific
issue for a specific individual or group of people. This form of practice applies
sociological principles and methods to enhance human social life by using analyzing
and suggesting grounded in theory.
The term sociology was first used by Frenchman Auguste Comte in the 1830s
when he proposed a synthetic science uniting all knowledge about human activity.
Comte believed society developed in stages. Comte described The Law of Three
Stages as follows(a)theological stage where people took religious views of society,
(b)metaphysical stage where people understood society as natural (not supernatural)
and (c)the scientific or positivist stage, where society would be governed by reliable
knowledge and would be understood in light of the knowledge produced by science,
primarily sociology.
Harriet Martineau was an early observer of social practices a writer who
addressed a wide range of social science issues from economics to social class, and
women’s rights to government.
Karl Marx was a German social philosopher and economist. Marx believed that
societies grew and changed as a result of the struggles of different social classes as
they sought control over the means of production.
Émile Durkheim believed that sociologists could study objective “social facts.” He
also believed that through such methods it would be possible to determine if a society
was “healthy” or “pathological.” Durkheim attributed the differences to socioreligious
forces rather than to individual or psychological causes.
A theoretical perspective is a set of speculation about reality that inform the
questions we ask and the kinds of answers we arrive at as a result. It can also be
thought of as a frame, which serves to both add and remove certain things from our
point of view.
 Structural Functionalism is a sociological theory that explains why society
functions the way it does by emphasizing on the relationships between government,
law, education, religion, etc.
Social conflict theory is a Marxist-based social theory which argues that
individuals and social classes within society interact on the basis of conflict rather than
consensus. The higher class will try to maintain their privileges. Whereas the lower
class are interested in is in gaining access to the resources of the higher class.
Symbolic interaction was created by George Herbert Mead and Charles Horton
Cooley. Mead argued that people's selves are social products, but that these selves are
also purposive and creative. Three assumptions frame symbolic interactionism:
(1)Individuals construct meaning via the communication process.(2)Self-concept is a
motivation for behavior. and(3)A unique relationship exists between the individual and
society.
Herbert Spencer was a British sociologist who was known for his contributions to
evolutionary theory and for applying it outside of biology. Spencer coined the term
"survival of the fittest." Spencer helped develop, one of the major theoretical
frameworks in sociology,the functionalist perspective.
Social Darwinism is a set of ideologies that emerged in the late 1800s in which
Darwin’s theory of evolution was used to justify certain political or social views. Social
Darwinists believe in “survival of the fittest”—the idea that certain people become
powerful in society because they are innately better.
The sociology of science was a field that Robert Merton was very the interactions
and importance between social and cultural structures and science. He carried out
extensive research developing the Merton Thesis, often referred to by the acronym
"CUDOS". They include: (1)Communism: the common ownership of scientific
discoveries,.(2)Universalism: according to which claims to truth are evaluated in terms
of universal or impersonal criteria, and not on the basis of race, class, gender, religion,
or nationality;(3)Disinterestedness: according to which scientists are rewarded for acting
in ways that outwardly appear to be selfless; and(4)Organized Skepticism: all ideas
must be tested and are subject to rigorous, structured community scrutiny.