Paste your essay in here…Sociologists define society as the largest social organization in which people exist on a regular basis. Within each society there are many organizations, groups and relationships. A nation is a set up with political structures such as laws, armies, and land boundaries, under which many different types of societies can. In Ten Questions: A Sociological Perspective, Charon states that “society then is probably best defined as the largest social organization that individuals are socialized into and that is necessary for social patterns (social structure, culture, and social institutions)” (44). In the United States, it can be argued that there are many existing societies under one nation. Things like poverty and segregation can contribute the forming of multiple societies. Immigrants who come to America often settle in Geographic areas with other immigrants from the same country. They set up their own small society before becoming part of the larger society.
Within each society there exists a social structure. As people interact with each other they begin to define where they are in relation to others. Their jobs and positions of authority in the communities teach them to act in a certain way. Basically, a social structure is a set of positions, workers in relation to bosses, children in relation to parents, interns in relation to paid employees. The classes are also defined in terms of economics, the working classes in relation to the upper middle classes and so on and so on. There are thousands of existing positions in society and social structure helps society create order in what could otherwise become chaos. Sociologists study many different types of structures in society including but not limited to gender, political, economic, corporate, families, gangs, marriages, friendships, and so on. Each position defines its role. We learn as children that a teacher’s role is to help us learn, a policeman’s role is to protect society, a doctor’s role is to help people feel better. Once we have learned the roles of each position we know what to expect when we encounter them. We understand what we are expected to do should we take on one of these positions. From these positions we gain a perspective, a way in which we see ourselves and others. For example; as a volunteer at the Heart Center in Stony Brook Hospital my view of the Hospital might be very different from the doctors, nurses, patients and visitors to the hospital all of us viewing it from our own perspective depending on the role we played. Third every position brings an identity, the title assigned to us. When I introduced myself as an intern to visitors inquiring after their loved ones in the heart center. It was with the intention of letting them know that my role was very limited. I was of course willing to help them as much as I could be inquiring for them if necessary but I had limited access to information and no authority at all. I was not a doctor, nurse, aid or even a paid employee. Which brings us to the fourth point of social structure which is rank. Rank for better or worse” attributes power, prestige, and even privilege to the position (p.53).” Clearly revealing my identity as an intern also spoke to the visitor that I was ranked close to the bottom. Unfortunately for me I was dealing with very distraught people who were sometimes boarding on the hysterical and my low rank seemed to afford them permission to vent. I often felt that if I had introduced myself as a doctor I would’ve been afforded much greater respect. A doctor after all is regarded as part of our upper class and are given more respect, more power and more prestige. Thinking about all of that reminds me of when I was a young girl and I use to go to work with my mother and help her out in her preschool class. At that time, I thought what a fun and wonderful job. Like many young children I wanted to be just like my Mom. One day I was sitting in the counselor’s office at school chatting with her about life when she asked me what I would like to be when I grow up. My immediate response was that I wanted to be a preschool teacher like my Mom. I can still remember the look of surprise and disappointment on her face as she told me that surely, I did not want to be a preschool teacher. That I was too smart to set my sights so “low”. Why with my grades I should of course be thinking about being a doctor or a lawyer, something with much more “prestige”. Clearly to my counselor’s way of thinking my Mother’s job was very low on the rating scale. I have since changed my dreams and aspirations but I certainly hope it was not due to this woman’s off-handed and insulting remark.
Social structure basically organizes people, it gives people a place and a role, teaches people how they should behave and what is expected of them. It’s often a rather unfair system, many talented people end up in jobs that are too easy for them and many less talented ends up in high paying prestigious positions they are unqualified for. Even though it does create much inequality amongst people it does aid in creating an interdependence on one another. Each job is often somehow dependent on another to survive. How would a family with both parents working to pay their bills be able to do so without adequate childcare such as my own mother helped provide. She cares for children of doctors, lawyers, teachers, dentists, businessmen and so on. These high-ranking individuals become dependent on many lower ranking ones and vice versa. When my mother got breast cancer or even when I was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome and many other auto-immune problems we in turn became dependent on many doctors for our survival. I like to think this was the catalyst for my desire to study medicine.
Charon sums up his take on social structure by saying that “Structure (relationships, positions) sits alongside culture (agreed-on rules, beliefs, values), and they reinforce one another, both contributing to control over the individual, cooperation and interdependence among individuals, and order in society.” “Both are necessary for the continuation of society and every organization.” p.55
So, we know what society is and that social structure is how it is organized but how do sociologists go about studying society? In Ten Questions Sociological Perspective, Joel M. Charon asks this very important question. “What is the truth when it comes to the human being?” he goes on to say that, “he is suspicious of anyone who argues that he or she knows the truth when it comes to the human being.” (quote from p.2.) He believes that the study of society is an “an academic discipline, an attempt to seek knowledge and understanding through painstaking and critical investigation.” (quote from p,3.) Sociology desires to answer questions about mankind, their development, structure and the way that they function with, debate, research and most of all uncertainty.
Whereas other disciplines seek to answer societies problems through introspection and individual psychology, sociologists seek answers to individual problems with reference to what’s happening in society at large. For instance. recently there have been several shootings where one individual has opened fire on an unsuspecting crowd and killed many innocent people. People everywhere were shocked, saddened and wondered out loud what was wrong with this person. How did they become so deranged and dare I say even evil? A sociologist, might think along those line as an initial reaction to a tragedy but then they would have to ask what was happening in society that allowed an individual to behave in such a way? Sociologists ask questions based on the premise that we are social beings and we cannot minimize the importance of society in understanding the human condition. When we study different societies, we can see trends toward certain behaviors based on the society that people are living in. For example, in some African tribe’s women think nothing of walking around in public without a shirt or bra on. Whereas here in America we would be shocked to see a woman in the mall, grocery store or anywhere other than perhaps certain beaches, walking around half naked. While it is an individual choice whether to put on a shirt, clearly our decision to do so or not to do so is heavily influenced by the society in which we grow up.
So how do we study sociology as a science. What are the parameters? Can it even be called a science? In other words, what is the yard stick or commonality that all good sociologists adhere to when studying such a vast subject as society. Where the variables are almost impossible to control and account for. This is a question I have asked myself many times. How do we come up with proof for all the marvelous theories that exist today in the world of sociological academia? If we look back at our ancient Greek philosophers they taught us that it wasn’t enough to spout Truths or falsehoods of ideas but that any idea or theory must have a common measuring stick. Something to test out the theory and that something was what they coined “rational proof”. Today it is termed “logical proof” (p.7) The idea being that you cannot simply accept or reject a “truth” based on how you feel. It must be measured using logic and you must be willing to accept the outcome despite what you think you already know. How do our great social thinkers account for built in bias?
So many people enter into the study of sociology believing they already have a firm grasp on their knowledge of people and society. Unlike Math where the outcomes are very specific and easily checked, Sociology has infinite variables. It’s hard to get people to question what they know let alone help them to recognize that a rooted point of view might not actually be empirically true. Socrates, one of the greatest Greek philosophers of his time, attempted to accomplish this task by asking lots of questions. He simply allowed his questioning to unravel a person’s strongly held beliefs. Rather than proving something to be true his questioning tended shed light on what was not true.ng what was not true.
August Comte (1798-1857) took this type of questioning even further and suggested that even in the study of society we should use a scientific approach. In addition to coining the phrase Sociology, Comte believed that the science of society must be founded on “careful observation” p.9 “to understand what society actually is irrespective of what people want it to be. This is the reason for sociology, and this has been its strength.” p.9
As a result, Sociologist today largely rely on empirical proof, i.e. careful observation, when testing their theories and ideas about society. They may begin with a rational idea but there must be a way to test it through careful observation, historical reference or records, election results or what we see repeated in everyday life. It is this type of proof that is widely used today throughout all the sciences. This careful observation must be recorded and able to be shared in such a way that it can be tried and tested by others. We can observe subjects or experiments in a laboratory or natural environment. Sociologists tend to use the natural environment through ways such as questionnaires, news reports, magazine articles, letters, diaries, speeches given, or by asking the same set of questions to different and similar groups.
I found one of Charon’s examples especially unsettling as I am interested in the medical field and that was David Phillips and Gwendolyn Barkers study from 2010 of medical mistakes. in Studying over 200,000 death certificates between 1979 and 2006 in the U.S. they discovered that there was a spike of deaths in July caused by medical mistakes. They breaded their research and found that countries with teaching hospitals all had about ten percent high death rates in the month of July. Upon further investigation, they confirmed their hypothesis that only teaching hospitals had the higher rate and it was due to incoming new medical residents. Yikes, I think If I’m sick in July or August I’ll try to avoid Stony Brook Hospital.
Most sociologists agree that social science is tricky to study. Unlike the study of minerals in water, rocks or other physical entities, the study of human behavior, ideas or values is not easy. Sociologist must keep a wide and varied view of science. They must be open to looking at a problem from different angles and sometimes through different means to help verify their outcomes. “Weber contends that all scientists must be prepared to see their own ideas overturned with new evidence in their own lifetime, especially scientists who study the human being.” p.15 He feels that with each study there are some conclusions but none that are absolute. Each answer brings new questions, new variables are introduced and new ways to study are founded. People then agree and disagree on these answers and the debate goes on and on. Sociology then is a forum for new thinking, new discoveries and new ideas to be tested throughout time.
Objectivity in science is critical. In sociology, it is nearly impossible but social scientists do their best to adhere to strict rules of science. There must be a question, a hypothesis, a way to test the hypothesis and the arrival of a conclusion based on the empirical evidence provided from said test. Rules of science talk about using samples, observing carefully, controlling the study, collecting and interpreting data accurately and reporting results and conclusions in a way that other scientists will understand and be able to duplicate.
As human beings, we possess many biases. There are biases that we are not even aware of. This is true of scientists as well. Scientist may set up their experiments and environments based on their biased way of thinking. The questionaries’, control groups, articles we choose and their conclusions may be skewed toward the researcher’s beliefs. The careful observer can only be honest and on the lookout for potential biases. They must endeavor to examine each other’s work with a critical eye to uncover biases.
Two assumptions in science help us in critically evaluating our work, Natural law and natural science. The theory of natural law states that things happen in our world in a predictable pattern. They believe in studying and understanding the past as a way of predicting the future. Natural law states that things in nature follow a certain order and do not happen in a haphazardly way. We can generalize about illness, lifespans, plants, energy, and all living things because we believe them to be somewhat predictable. Science exists to help us understand these things and scientist continually uncover new patterns and new answers, never fully satisfied and always looking for more answers.
Sociologists assumes natural law and believes that human beings are a part of nature and therefore can be somewhat predictable. When people interact they form societies, structures and systems that were mentioned earlier. We can look back in history at old ways of thinking. What people use to believe about poverty, suicide, racial and gender inequalities and so forth. It was once believed that people born to poverty were meant to be there and that only selfish people committed suicide. Through our sociologist’s efforts we have learned that poverty is a result of inequality and perpetuated by those who would like to hold onto their prestige and power and that suicide rates always go up in societies where individualism is stressed and exalted. This information is the result of careful study of the natural order and not simply random events or the result of supernatural forces.
Natural cause assumes that order is governed by natural law. Gravity is part of natural law. If you drop two objects from the same height at the same time they will hit the ground at the same time regardless of their weight. This is an example of natural law. We have learned that germs are responsible for disease, Tourette’s is inherited, low income areas have higher crime rates. Through experimentation scientist wish to line dependent variables with independent ones. To show that if this exists (dense populations) this will likely happen (overcrowding and pollution). Sociologist accept that human belief and action have causes. They seek to find the causes through societies actions. It’s hard to find absolutes in human beings. What really causes them to think, feel and act the way they do. However, sociologists find “tendencies” and “probabilities. They will often call a cause an “influence” or “contributing factor”. (p.20)
Sociologists have come a long way in convincing society that there are societal causes for human behavior. It was Durkheim work on suicide that made people start thinking differently about suicide. That the rates of suicide went up in a more individually driven industrial society made people realize that isolation was a large contributing factor. With the uses of our scientific model and natural law and natural causes our sociologist strive to be as objective as possible. Even if bias exists it does not negate research that has been done in a scientific manner. After all anyone who wishes to disagree or disprove a theory can always duplicate the research and offer up new variables. It is this openness in the field of sociology that allows us to take an honest look at ourselves and our beliefs.