Sociology

Sociology is defined in one way as, the scientific study of the nature and structure of society and human social behavior. This definition simply means exactly what it implies; sociology is a science - A behavioral science to find out what society is and not what it should be. A major goal of sociology is to establish a relationship between individuals and society.

Sociology can be broken down into two levels of analysis, macro and micro sociology. First, macro sociology deals with studies of broad features of a society. For example social institutions, which coordinate a human behavior, based on some social need. Secondly, micro sociology studies the smaller features of society. For example, face to face situations and other forms of social interaction.

A social institution can be summarized into a service set up to provide humans with basic needs. The major institutions break down as follows; government, religion, economics, education and most importantly family. Social interaction is based on previously established rules. These rules allow two people who never met, to interact with one another in a meaningful way. The interactions occurs everyday, an event in which people consciously and unconsciously attach meaning to a situation, then interpret what other people are saying and finally respond to the situation.

There are three major theoretical perspectives that deal with society and its existence, they are the functionalist, conflict and symbolic interactionist. Each has separate views on society as a basis of being. When broken down the theories themselves give an oversight of what message they are trying to deliver.

The functionalist perspective, when first examined its clear to see that this theory is based on function. A functionalist will explore questions considering the order and stability in a society. They believe that every part of a society has a meaning and a purpose, whether it is good or bad. For example crime in the United States plays a particular role in our society. If it weren't for crime, there would have never been the development of police and correctional jobs. It shows that even though crime is not an integral part of our society, with out it there would be no creation of jobs. Thus, functionalists believe that a part of society would not exist if it did not serve a purpose. A functionalist view on the outsourcing of American jobs to Mexico would conclude that the creation of jobs along the U.S./ Mexican border would increase wages for Mexican employees, it would also create poverty and pollution into surrounding areas.

The conflict perspective focuses on conflict as a fact of life and the most important factor for social change. Conflict has many forms like physical confrontation, disagreement, and tension to name a few. Theorists conclude that competition is a catalyst for conflict. Dominant groups in a society will compete with the inferior for scarce resources, when achieved the dominant will protect their claims with conflict. After which an explanation is given to justify the actions of the dominant group, known as a faÐ*ade of legitimacy. Conflict theorists