INTRODUCTION TO

SOCIOLOGY
By

MWENYA PETER
LECTURER- LMMU
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this lecture, students should be able to:
1. Define sociology
2. Understand sociological perspectives
3. Distinguish between sociology and common sense
4. Trace the origins of sociology
5. Define key sociological terms and concepts: culture, status, roles,
social group, social institution, social stratification and social
control.
DEFINITION
• Sociology is ‘the systematic study of human society and
social interactions’.
• The word “sociology” is derived from the Latin word
socius(companion) and the Greek word logos(study of or
explanation)
DEFINITION CONT’D…
• The word ‘systematic’ implies that sociology is a social
scientific discipline that studies society, and as a discipline it
offers its students specific methods of investigating,
explaining and understanding how patterns in society are
created and how they change over time.
• Society shapes what we do, how we do it, and how we
understand what others do.
THE GOAL OF SOCIOLOGY
• Sociologists attempt to answer the following questions:
1. Understand how society works
2. Explain why people do the things they do, in the way that
they do them.
3. A central concern of the discipline of sociology is the study
of the relationship between individuals and society, i.e.
how people act and impact on the society they live in and
vice
IMPORTANCE OF STUDYING
SOCIOLOGY
1. A sociological understanding of the world . . . enables us to
consider how our lives are intertwined with others.
2. It enhances our ability to see the world from other
viewpoints
3. It enables us to engage with people from different
backgrounds.
4. It also encourages us to become more tolerant and
sensitive to cultural differences’.
5. Sociology as a subject appeals to those who wish to
challenge their assumptions and to go beyond common-
sense explanations by applying science
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Culture
• ‘Culture refers to the ways of life of the members of a
society, or of groups within a society.
• It includes how they dress, their marriage customs and
family life, their patterns of work, religious ceremonies and
leisure pursuits’
COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
1. Symbols
2. Language
3. Values/beliefs
4. Norms
5. Material culture
STATUS
• Status refers to the social positions a person can occupy
within a society or within a small social grouping.
• For example, in society a person can occupy the status of
mother, sister, student, doctor etc.
• Each of us in real life occupies numerous statuses and we act
accordingly, because each status we occupy has certain kinds
of behavior associated with it.
• When you occupy the status of doctor there are certain kinds
of behavior expected of you that would not be expected of a
disc jockey.
ROLES
• ‘Each status in society is accompanied by a number of norms
that define how an individual occupying a particular status is
expected to act.
• This group of norms is known as a role’
• When we occupy a certain status in society we have
functions to serve roles to play.
• Social roles help us to organise and to regulate our
behaviour.
• Teacher, dentist, waitress are all examples of occupational
roles, while grandfather, aunt, daughter provide examples of
family roles
SOCIAL GROUP
• Social gatherings of people such as an audience or a crowd
do not constitute a sociologist’s definition of a group.
• To be part of a group, members must agree on a number of
characteristics springing from shared common interest or
interaction with one another, and the group must have a
sense of identity and some degree of structure.
• Two types of groups have been distinguished by sociologists:
primary groups and secondary groups
SOCIAL INSTITUTION
• Sociology is concerned with the study of social institutions.
• Institutions are various organized social arrangements which
can be found in all societies.
• Sociologists speak of institutions when referring to the
family, education, politics, religion and so forth.
• The concept can generally be applied to ‘social aspects of
social behavior regulated by well established, easily
recognized and relatively stable norms, values and law’
SOCIAL INSTITUTION CONT’D…
• ‘Sociology tries to understand how these various social
institutions operate, and how they relate to one another.
• For example, the influence the family might have on how
well children perform in the education system’.
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
• Social stratification refers to ‘a system by which a society
ranks categories of people in a hierarchy’.
• Most societies the world over have some form of
stratification that results in some groups of people being in
superior positions.
• Such positioning in a ‘hierarchy’ allows certain groups to
enjoy considerably more power, prestige or access to
resources such as health, education etc. than others.
SOCIAL CONTROL
• ‘The processes of socialization and social control are
fundamental to the equilibrium of the social system and
therefore to order in society’
• When people do not abide by the rules or behaviour
expectations of a certain society they are disciplined.
• Social control aims to create social order.
• It can take many different forms but falls into two broad
categories: informal and formal.
SOCIALIZATION
 Socialization is a term used by sociologists, social
psychologists and political scientists to refer to the process of
inheriting and disseminating ideologies.
 Socialization is thus ‘the means by which social and cultural
continuity ae attained or the life-long process by which
culture is passed on from one generation to another.
Society

 Society is a large group of people who live together in an

organized way, making decisions about how to do things and
sharing the work that needs to be done.
Sub-Culture

• In Sociology, a subculture is a group of people with a culture

(whether distinct or hidden) which differentiates them from
the larger culture to which they belong.
Norms

• Social norms are the accepted behaviours within a society.

• The term has also been defined as "the rules that a group
uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs,
attitudes and behaviors”.
• These rules may be explicit or implicit.
• They have also been described as the "customary rules of
behavior that coordinate our interactions with others."
Beliefs

• Beliefs are the assumptions we make about ourselves, about

others in the world and about how we expect things to be.
• Beliefs are about how we think things really are, what we
think is really true and what we therefore expect as likely
consequences that will follow from our behaviour.
Values

• A value is a belief, a mission, or a philosophy that is

meaningful to the person.
Customs

• In Sociology, a custom is a group or pattern of habitual

activity usually transmitted from one generation to another
Practices
 

• Habit; custom: e.g. it is not the practice here for men to wear
long hair.
Social system

• It is a society considered as a system organized by a

characteristic pattern of relationships or a social system is a
set of people bound in a society.
Traditions

• It is a belief, principle or way of acting which people in a

particular society or group have continued to follow for a
long time, or all of these in a particular society or group. 
Myth

• It is an ancient story or set of stories, especially explaining in

a literally way of the early history of a group of people or
about the natural events and facts.
• This belief is usually false or a misconception.
Health Beliefs and Practices and Their Influence on Health

• Traditional beliefs regarding specific health behaviours have

profound effect on the people who believe them.
• These beliefs will be talked about in details as follows;
Beliefs and the causes and treatment of disease and illness

• There are many folk beliefs about the causes of illnesses.

• Certain illnesses are believed to have a natural origin such as
overeating, poor diet, excessive drinking of alcohol,
infections, and accidents.
• Some illnesses are felt to be caused by spiritual and moral
imbalances.
• Evil spirits caused by thoughts against the dead are believed
to be the origin of some diseases
Cont’d…
• Certain persons (Witch sorcerers) with extraordinary powers
are thought to be able to cast spells which cause illness.
• Additionally, a person may become ill if someone looks at
him /her with wickedness ".
• From these beliefs, come terms such as the “evil eye, or
magical fright”.
Cont’d…
• Persons suffering from afflictions caused by a witch or "the
evil eye" can be cured by one of two traditional healers –uch
as the Mang’angas, (the spiritual healer) or the Hilots
[prophets], the massage healer.
• The Hilots uses three forms of treatment: faith healing
through prayer, herbal medicines and massage and body
manipulation.
Cont’d…
• People would also seek treatment from a local priest for
illnesses of a supernatural origin
• Religion and prayer play an important role in people’s health
practices, and that miraculous cures are believed to be
possible.
• For example, Africans believe that wearing an lucky charm
provides protection and counteracts witchcraft practices.
Effects of traditional medicine

• The following are some of the effects of traditional

medicines
• There is no scientific backing on herb doses
• Diagnosis is usually assumption based hence wrong disease
treatment is likely.
• Most traditional healers are unprofessional hence do not
know the herb adverse effects.
Maintenance of health and health care
delivery
• Many people fall sick because of poor maintenance of the
very health they enjoy.
• For example; very few busy working people ensure that they
have balanced diet, very few individuals have good drinking
habits
• Others despite their knowledge of the consequences, still
engage in smoking
• Few people take fluids as required by the body.
THE END
Thank you!!