Introduction to Sociology

1. Core Concepts and Context

Defining Sociology

Sociology is the scientific study of human interaction. More fully, it is the systematic study of social behaviour and human groups. Its primary focus is on the influence of social relationships on people's attitudes and behaviour, and on how societies are established and change. Everyday illustrations of this focus include practices such as tattooing and piercing, which are socially patterned rather than purely individual choices.

The central orientation of the discipline is the group over the individual. Sociologists attempt to understand and explain human social behaviour by studying the groups to which people belong. This distinguishes sociology from psychology: whereas psychology is the study of what goes on inside individuals, sociology addresses what goes on between them.

The Domain of Sociology: Human Interaction

Sociology is the study of interactions and relations among human beings. Its scope ranges across levels of social life:

• Simple face-to-face interactions, such as conversations, dating behaviour, and a student asking a professor to delay a term paper deadline.
• Formal organisations and their functioning.
• The functioning of whole societies.
• Relations among societies, including cooperation, conflict, and competition.

Sociology can therefore be viewed as the study of our rules for living together.

Why Study Sociology?

There is a more pressing need for sociological insight today than at any previous time in history. This generation faces several unprecedented dangers, including nuclear winter, which in a matter of seconds can seal the doom of the human race; overpopulation; starvation; terrorism; and, alongside these, crime, inflation, unemployment, prejudice, and national debt.

The picture is not completely gloomy. These are also times of great achievement: space exploration and humans landing on the moon, drones, globalization, and science eradicating smallpox and syphilis. Humans today face both trying challenges and promising opportunities.

If we assume that the class favours peace over war and prosperity over hunger and deprivation, the question becomes what determines how this turns out. Before asking what the answer is, we must ask where the answer is likely to come from.

Where Answers Come From: The Limits of Military Technology

Humanity has tended to look for answers to how peace can prevail over war and suffering within the domain of military technology, that is, by creating weapons that would preserve peace. This approach has repeatedly failed:

• When Hiram Maxim invented the first fully automated machine gun in 1884, he believed he had brought an end to war. On the contrary, the machine gun only made killing more efficient.
• Some felt the invention of the aeroplane would mark the end of war. Orville Wright said that when he and his brother built and flew the first man-carrying flying machine, they thought they were introducing an invention that would make further wars practically impossible. As the residents of Dresden, London, Pearl Harbour, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Baghdad, and Tripoli were to learn, the aeroplane only made war more deadly.

The point of this discussion on war and peace is that what we need to know to establish peace around the world is not likely to come from military technology. If such an answer is to be found at all, we must look elsewhere: in the study of why people relate to each other as they do, sometimes peacefully, sometimes hostilely. That is the domain of sociology.

Rules for Living Together

Our needs and wants — food, shelter, security, companionship, satisfaction — are always scarce and create endless possibilities for conflict and struggle. Human beings are not constructed like ants or bees in such a way as to ensure cooperation. As a rule, human beings develop rules to establish order in the face of chaos. Many times humanity agrees on these rules voluntarily, and sociology is the study of how these rules emerge.

Examples of such rules include:

• You cannot marry your brother, sister, or mother.
• You cannot drive on the right side of the road.
• You must pay taxes.
• You must shake hands when you meet.

Most of these rules were here before you and I showed up, and they will be here long after our exit. We do not remember taking part in the enactment of these rules, but we voted for them by obeying them.

Socialisation and the Persistence of Rules

The persistence of our rules is largely a function of one generation teaching them to the next generation. This process is called socialisation. Socialisation is the process of learning the rules through the use of positive and negative sanctions, that is, rewards and punishments.

Arbitrariness and Reification

Fundamentally, all the rules we are talking about are arbitrary. Different rules would work just as well elsewhere; for example, driving on the right works well in the USA. The rules are not eternal and universal truth. Nevertheless, we tend to reify our acts, pretending that they are real and natural. It is in the same realm that we reify our rules of interaction. Reification is a product of internalisation. An example is a person driving past traffic lights at three o'clock in the morning, obeying the signal even when no other road user is present.

Rule-Breaking and Rule-Change

Notwithstanding all of this, sociology is also the study of how we break the rules. The study of how rules are broken is closely related to the study of how rules change over time. In summary, sociology is the examination of the rules that govern our living together: what they are, how they arise, and how they change.

The Focus of Sociology

Sociology focuses on:

• How social relationships influence people's attitudes and behaviour.
• How major social institutions affect us.
• How we affect other individuals, groups, and organisations.

The Sociological Perspective

The sociological perspective helps us to see general social patterns in the behaviour of particular individuals. It allows or forces us to look beyond the outer appearances of our social world and discover new levels of reality. It also encourages us to realise that society guides our thoughts and deeds, and to see the strange in the familiar.

Sociology as a Science

Sociology is described as the scientific study of human interaction and as the systematic study of social behaviour and human groups. The claim that sociology is a science rests on this characterisation: it proceeds scientifically and systematically rather than through casual observation or personal opinion. Its subject matter — human interaction, social behaviour, and human groups — is studied in an organised and methodical way, and its findings concern the influence of social relationships on attitudes and behaviour and the ways societies are established and change.

Sociology and Common Sense

Sociology is not common sense. Common sense consists of everyday, taken-for-granted assumptions about social life. Sociology, by contrast, is the scientific and systematic study of human interaction, social behaviour, and human groups, with a central focus on the group over the individual. It examines how social relationships influence people's attitudes and behaviour. The sociological perspective requires looking beyond the outer appearances of the social world and discovering new levels of reality, and it encourages us to realise that society guides our thoughts and deeds. Where common sense relies on what seems obvious and familiar, sociology systematically examines the rules that govern our living together — what they are, how they arise, and how they change — and studies how those rules are broken and how they change over time.

2. Theories and Key Thinkers

The approved notes for this topic do not present formal sociological theories or named theorists as a separate body of content. The conceptual apparatus established in the notes is as follows.

The Sociological Perspective

The sociological perspective is the distinctive way of seeing that sociology cultivates. It helps us to see general social patterns in the behaviour of particular individuals. It allows or forces us to look beyond the outer appearances of our social world and discover new levels of reality. It also encourages us to realise that society guides our thoughts and deeds, and to see the strange in the familiar.

The Group Over the Individual

The central orienting principle of the discipline is the focus on the group over the individual. Sociologists attempt to understand and explain human social behaviour by studying the groups to which people belong. This principle organises the subject matter: the influence of social relationships on people's attitudes and behaviour, the effects of major social institutions on us, and the ways we affect other individuals, groups, and organisations.

The Distinction from Psychology

The notes draw a clear boundary between sociology and psychology. Psychology is the study of what goes on inside individuals. Sociology addresses what goes on between them. This distinction locates sociology in the domain of human interaction: interactions and relations among human beings.

The Concept of Socialisation

Socialisation is the process of learning the rules through the use of positive and negative sanctions, that is, rewards and punishments. It explains the persistence of rules across generations: one generation teaches them to the next.

The Concept of Reification

Reification is the tendency to pretend that our acts and our rules of interaction are real and natural, when in fact they are arbitrary. Reification is a product of internalisation. The example of driving past traffic lights at three o'clock in the morning illustrates how deeply internalised rules can govern conduct even when no external enforcement is present.

The Concept of Arbitrariness of Rules

All the rules of living together are fundamentally arbitrary. Different rules would work just as well elsewhere; driving on the right works well in the USA. The rules are not eternal and universal truth. This concept underpins the sociological study of how rules arise and change.

Named Figures in the Notes

The notes mention two historical figures in the context of the discussion of war and peace and the limits of military technology:

• Hiram Maxim, who invented the first fully automated machine gun in 1884 and believed he had brought an end to war.
• Orville Wright, who said that when he and his brother built and flew the first man-carrying flying machine, they thought they were introducing an invention that would make further wars practically impossible.

These figures are not presented as sociological theorists. They appear as illustrations of the argument that answers to the problem of peace are not likely to come from military technology, and that the study of human interaction is the proper domain of sociology.