Review of Sociology

Answer# 2: Sociology is defined as the systematic study of human society. At the heart of sociology is a distinctive point of view called "the sociological perspective."

Sociologists view society in much number of ways. Some sociologists focus mainly on family solving problems on issues of marriage and divorce and some sociologist's focus on issues like government and business matters. While some focus on social and political issues. What matters the most is that sociologists attempt to observe social phenomenon from every aspect. Sociologists study everything from small events to larger events. In today's world, sociologist study society in 3 different levels of perspectives which are the symbolic interactionist perspective, the functionalist perspective, and the conflict perspective.

Symbolic interactionist perspective

In symbolic interactionist perspective, sociologist's studies about the symbols used by everyone in daily life activities. They study how a symbol differs from people to people and how people interact with each other. As per the symbolic interactionist, people understand with the help of symbols and act accordingly. Certain words can symbolize many meanings differing from people to people. Conversation is an interaction of symbols. The symbolic interactionist at times may neglect the words in the larger picture in the society.

The functionalist perspective

As per the functionalist perspective, each member of the society is interdependent and contributes to the functioning of the society together. Functionalists believe that the society is grouped together on the concept of social consensus, in which all the members has to agree and work together to make the society successful. There are two types of functionalist perspective which are:

Mechanical Solidarity: It is a form of social cohesion where people maintain common beliefs and values in same types of work.

Organic solidarity: It is a form of social cohesion where people are interdependent but hold different values and beliefs such as in large cities.

The conflict perspective

It focuses on negative, conflicted and ever changing aspect of society. It believes to force social power on the poor and weak. It tends to solve all the conflicts relating to race, gender, political and economic issues of the society. "The theory ultimately attributes humanitarian efforts, altruism, democracy, civil rights, and other positive aspects of society to capitalistic designs to control the masses, not to inherent interests in preserving society and social order."

Sociology mainly includes social interaction between two or more people. The members of a society include interaction between different people around the world. It observes the organization