But what exactly does that mean? The human fascination with the world started many, many eons ago. We have been searching for meaning since the beginning of time. Traditional answers are not enough for us anymore. We need the cold, hard facts. Our advancing technology has helped further our quest for the juicy details. We use our machines to constantly probe the earth searching for fossils or other keys to the past. What we might find helps us understand how previous societies lived.
To help curb our curiosity, we, as a society, have created two sets of sciences. The first is natural sciences, such as biology, geology, chemistry, and physics. These sciences are used to try to explain and predict the events of the environment. The other is social sciences, such as anthropology, psychology, political science, sociology, and economics. These sciences are used to objectively understand the social world.
How the different scientists approach the topic at hand is what differentiates them from another. While sociology is similar to the other social sciences, it has its differences. Sociologists, like historians, try to set the influential social contexts; but primarily concentrate on present events. Sociologists do not focus on one specific social institution like political scientists and economists do. Compared to anthropologists, sociologists focus on contemporary societies as opposed to older societies. Finally, psychologists focus on internal variables while sociologists focus on external variables when figuring out what influences society.
I will now use the possible thought processes to try to explain suicide. A historian would possibly look at what happened in the person’s life before they made that decision. Were they depressed? What could have happened that made life undesirable? A political scientist could question the possible influence of government. Were they feeling suppressed? An economist would look at the financial aspect. Were they feeling useless because they lost their job and couldn’t provide for their family anymore? An anthropologist would look to the society. Did society put too much pressure on this individual? A psychologist would try to understand what was running through their mind. The victims thought pattern could be a mix of the above mentioned. Finally, a sociologist would look to society like an anthropologist did. Were they pressured by their family, friends, or school to succeed? Does their lifestyle have anything to do with this?
There are two different types of sociology. The first type is structural and the second is interactional. Structural sociology places the focus on the group, such as a religion. These types of sociologists are interested in figuring out how membership in a group influences our attitude and behavior; as in voting or stances on other social issues. Interactional sociologists place greater emphasis on individuals. They observe behavior when the subject is with other people. They also interview people. The observations they take lead them to drawing conclusions about people’s attitudes and influential parts of their lives.
Just like in every science and/or math class, sociologists use qualitative and quantitative data. Some sociologists use statistics and numbers to represent people’s behavior. They put emphasis on quantitative data. Others focus on how people construct their world. They look at the ideas and attitudes that are developed. These sociologists put emphasis on qualitative data.
C. Wright Mills talks about “the sociological imagination”; but what is that? According to Mills, the sociological imagination will aid its possessor in understanding the bigger historical picture. The social imagination teaches society the idea that the individual can grasp the concept of his own experience and gauge his fate only by finding himself during his time. Using the sociological imaginations, we are able to grasp history and biography and relate the two through society.
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