Look @ Sociology and You

                                            Look @ Sociology and You

Sociology can be defined as the study of groups and their interactions. As opposed to psychologists, who like to focus more one on one related problems, Sociologists like to study big groups of people and try to understand why they are the way they are, and even try to make a connection between those groups of people and the past history. As C. Wright Mills talks about in his “The Sociological Imagination” article, “Seldom aware of the intricate connection between the patterns of their own lives and the course of world history, ordinary people do not usually know what this connection means for the kinds of people they are becoming and for the kinds of history-making in which they might take part.” The way we are brought up, the conditions in which we are brought up, the neighborhood in which we are brought up, the people who helped raise us, etc, all plays a role in the way we function and the way we work independently, and also as a society. But how is all this information helpful to us? By studying society and gathering information about how we work as a group, how is it helping us as an individual and as a whole society?

Many moons ago, the term sociology was coined (1780 to be exact) by Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes; and since then many other sociologists have had their input into what sociology means and how it is shaping us for the better or for the worse. Sociologists have had their agreements and disagreements for example- Karl Marx thought that society changed due to the struggle of the different social classes and the inequalities of capitalism. Philosopher Herbert Spencer rejected Karl’s ideas and theories of class difference and struggle, and he believed that a government was needed in order to control capitalism. George Herbert Mead “argued that how and individual comes to view himself or herself is based to a very large extent on interactions with others.” For decades, there have been people interested in the study of society as a whole, and it is interesting to learn how their (sociologists) theories and views have changed,

“Invitation to Sociology” by Peter Berger (1963) gives us a closer look at what sociologists enjoy doing, and gives us some examples about what kind of people might be interested in sociology (curious ones). He states that the curiosity of us who are interested in sociology, can go as far as “listening to gossip, peek through keyholes, and look at other people’s mail.” But that “curiosity” is really just us being passionate for knowing why people are the way they are and how that affects society as a whole. Sometimes that curiosity we possess can leads us to have to think out of the box and do things a little out of the ordinary. Our passion for sociology also makes us different from other working people because we are living and breathing sociology both on the job and off the job. We enjoy finding out the unknown, new discoveries fascinate us and we are not shy about our interest for human beings and their actions.