Lesson 2:

Sociological Perspective of the Self

INTRODUCTION

What is SOCIOLOGY?

- a study of human social relationship and institutions

- study of how human action and consciousness

both shape and are shaped by surrounding
GLOBAL LEVEL - Population Growth and Immigration
- War and Peace
- Economic Development

SOCIETAL LEVEL - Crime and Law

- Poverty and Wealth
- Schools and Education

PERSONAL LEVEL - Romantic Love

- Family Conflict
- Religious Faith
People who are experts in this field are what we call
SOCIOLOGISTS
What do SOCIOLOGISTS do?
emphasize the careful gathering and
analysis of evidence about social life

observing the everyday life of groups

conducting large-scale surveys

interpreting historical documents;

and etc.
The research methods and theories of sociology provide valuable insights into
the social processes that shape human lives, as well as societal challenges in
the modern world.

THE SOCIAL IMAGINATION

(term coined by Charles Wright Mills)

The ability to see and understand this connection between broad

social forces and personal experiences.
 EXAMPLE
A guy gets rejected in an interview and resorts to illegal activities.

DISCRETE ANALYSIS

- if you look at this case individually, you might conclude that this boy did not try hard
enough to find work and instead turned to illegal activities for easy money.

IN SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION PERSPECTIVE

- if you see this case with the sociological imagination perspective, then you would see
that the larger forces such as, economic crisis, and over employed.
SOCIOLOGY STUDENTS
are trained to:
- think critically about human social life

- ask important research questions

- design good social research projects

- carefully collect and analyze observed data

- formulate and present their research

findings

- help others understand the way the social

world works and how it might be changed
for the better
 MAIN BRANCHES OF SOCIOLOGY
THEORETICAL SOCIOLOGY

a supposition that intends to consider, analyze, and/or explain

objects of social reality from a sociological perspective. It includes
micro theory or small/middle/large theory.

HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY

the study of social facts and social groups. It studies the

background of any social event. How and when different social
groups or organizations originated.
SOCIOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE

the newly emerged branch of sociology indicates that our knowledge is

the product of social phenomena.

CRIMINOLOGY
branch of sociology that studies the criminal behavior of individuals or
groups. Origin of crime its types of nature, causes, as well as law,
punishment, and police come under this study.

SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION
this branch studies the structure of the religion in the social system as no
society is free from the influence of it. It analyses the social behavior of
human beings.
SOCIOLOGY OF ECONOMY

studies the production, distribution, consumption and exchange of

goods and services. This branch also studies the economic activities of
the society in which the focus is given about the socio-cultural factors.

RURAL SOCIOLOGY

this branch of sociology studies the way of life of rural people as the
rural population is higher than the urban. The patterns of life such as
behavior, belief, culture, tradition norms, values, etc. are totally
different than of urban people.
URBAN SOCIOLOGY

branch of sociology that studies the way of life of urban people. It

gives information about the social organizations and institution of
urban society as well as social structure and social interaction.

POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY

this branch of sociology studies different political moments of society.

It includes the study of different political ideology (view), their origin,
development and functions.
SOCIOLOGY OF DEMOGRAPHY

demography is the scientific, mathematical, and statistical study of

population. It studies about the size, situation, composition,
density, distribution, and measurement of the population.

SOCIOLOGY OF LAW

Sociology of law and legal system are considered as the part of

society, as social institution. Law is one of the very important means
of social control. Law is related with other different social subsystems.
Such as economy, nature of distribution, authority, and structure of
family kinship relationships.
INDUSTRIAL SOCIOLOGY
this branch of sociology is concerned with the industrial relationship of the human
beings. It studies the different industrial organizations and institutions.

Apart from the numerous fields of sociology stated above, other different branches are also
emerging day by day as sociology is a very broad social science. Some of their names are listed
below:

- Sociology of Family - Sociology of Art

- Sociology of Race - Sociology of Culture

- Sociology of Occupation - Sociology of Development

 - (February 27, 1863 – April 26, 1931) an
American philosopher, sociologist, and
psychologist, primarily affiliated with the
University of Chicago, where he was one of several
distinguished pragmatists.

- one of the founders of SYMBOLIC

INTERACTIONISM

- considered as the Father of American

Pragmatism

- one of the pioneers in the field of social

psychology
- the individual is a product of an ongoing, pre-existing society, or more
specifically, social interaction that is a consequence of a sui generis (means
“unique”) society.

- self arises when the individual becomes an object to themselves.

- In joint activity, which Mead called social acts, humans learn to see themselves
from the standpoint of their co-actors. A central mechanism within the social
act, which enables perspective taking, is position exchange. People within a
social act often alternate social positions.

- In children's games there is repeated position exchange, for example in hide-

and-seek, and Mead said that this is one of the main ways that perspective
taking develops.

- Mead states that "the self is a social process,"

- Mead presented the self and the mind in terms of a social process.

- Individual organisms take in the collective attitudes of others in the form of gestures
and react accordingly with other organized attitudes, just like gestures are taken in
by the individual organism.

- This process is characterized by Mead as the I and the Me.

- The 'Me' is the accumulated understanding of "the generalized other"

- For Mead, existence in community comes before individual consciousness. First one
must participate in the different social positions within society and only subsequently
can one use that experience to take the perspective of others and thus become
'conscious'.
PREPARATORY STAGE during this stage the infant simply imitates
the actions and behaviors of the people
(Birth-2 years old) that the infant interacts with.

for the Play stage, it is the time where children begins to interact with
PLAY STAGE other with which certain rules apply, these rules often time does not
(2-6 years old) adhere to any set of standards but rather are rules that are set by the
children themselves.

The final stage where are characterized by the ability of the

GAME STAGE
children to recognize the rules of the game and be able to identify
(6-9 years old) their roles and the roles of the others that is playing with them.
THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION

NO QUESTIONS PLEASE
ANY QUESTIONS?