SOCIOLOGY

SOCIAL SCIENCE I
SOCIOLOGY IN PHILIPPINE SETTING

SOCIETY, CULTURE WITH FAMILY
PLANNING

Why Study Sociology
1. To obtain factual information about our society and different aspects of our social life.
2. Enables us to learn the application of scientific information to daily life and problems.

3. Develop the capacity to see through some of the folk, traditional and conventional wisdom our of society.
4. Sociology performs its most important function when superstition and misinformation are replaced by accurate knowledge about human behavior WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?
•Sociology is the science of society and the social interactions taking place. It focuses attention on all kinds of social interaction involving social acts, social relationships, social organization, social structures, and social processes. The social facts it gathers include the recurrent and repetitive forms of behavior: the attitudes, beliefs, values, norms, and social institutions which make up the social order. Sociology studies not only the structure and function of social organization but also the changes which take place within it.

•It studies a wide variety of current issues and problems. Sociologists are interested in the study of family relations, separation and divorce, ethnic relations, population problems, poverty, agrarian reforms, labor relations, social mobility, vice and crime, etc., in the same way that social reformers, psychologists, social workers and public administrators are concerned with them;

but unlike them, sociologists mainly gather objective data and do not initiate reforms. As a discipline, sociology takes a neutral position, carefully avoiding bias that would affect its findings and conclusions.
It views problems objectively and scientifically. AREAS OF SOCIOLOGY

1. Social Organization – this includes the investigation of social groups, social institutions, social stratification and mobility, ethnic relations, and bureaucracy. Subspecialties ate the sociology of economy, work, agriculture, industry, religion, politics, education, health and welfare, and recreation. 2. Social Psychology – this field is concerned with the study of human nature as the outcome of group life, personality formation, and collective behavior. It studies how group behavior affects the individual and vice-versa.

3. Social change – Social organization and social disorganization – this area involves the study of change in culture and social relations and ongoing social problems.
It covers such areas as socialization, personal pathologies, delinquency and crime, family conflicts, population problems, religious problems, educational issues, underemployment and unemployment, poverty, civil liberties and subversion, political process, competition, reform and revolution, ethnic strifes, health and welfare problems, mass communication, the impact of natural disasters, and war.

4. Human Ecology – this is an area which is currently catching world awareness although it is one of the oldest fields in
American sociology. It studies the behavior of a given population and its relationship to the group’s social institutions. These studies have shown, for example, the incidence of mental illness, alcohol and drug abuse, crime and prostitution in urban and blighted areas, and the exploitation as well as the preservation of natural resources.

5. Population studies – this field is concerned with population count, composition, change, and quality as they influence the economic, political, and social systems, and vice versa.
6. Sociological theory and research – this field is concerned with the discovery, development, and replication of research tools that will test the applicability and usefulness of the principles of group life as basis for the regulation of the social environment.

7. Applied sociology – the findings of pure sociological research may be applied to such various fields as marriage and family counseling, child development, juvenile delinquency, criminoalogy, penology, social work, education, communication, propaganda, industrial relations, marketing, mental health, ethnic relations, mass media, and environmental preservation.

HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC
SOCIOLOGY

1. Auguste Comte (1718 – 1857), a native of southern France, was the son of a government worker. His studies in Paris focused on mathematics and the natural sciences. He was expelled for joining a rebellion against the school’s administration before finishing his course. Comte was greatly influence by Saint-Simon’s ideas, a precursor of a Marxist version of socialism, a system where the means of production and industry are owned by the people. When Comte was accused of plagiarism, which he denied,
Comte’s relationship with Saint-Simon ended.

2. Karl Marx (1818 – 1883), a native of
Germany, descended from a lineage of rabbis. Although he went to college with the intention of practicing law, he shifted to philosophy after involvement with a radical anti-religious group. He wrote for a radical publication several articles on inhumane social conditions which aroused the attention of government officials who opposed his views. He eventually lost his job because of his writings. He went to
Paris, met leading radical intellectuals, and completely converted to socialism.

3. Herbert Spencer (1820 – 1903), the son of a school teacher, was born in England.
His education consisted mainly of mathematics and the natural sciences. He shifted jobs from that of a railway engineer to a draftsman, and eventually a journalist and writer. He was mainly concerned with the evolutionary nature of changes in social structure and social institutions. He argued that human societies go through an evolutionary process like the process Darwin described in his Theory of natural selection and coined the concept “survival of the fittest.” He espoused the belief that human societies evolved according to the principles of natural laws. Societies that adapt to their surroundings and can compete will survive; those that do not will meet difficulties and perish. 4. Emile Durkheim (1858 – 1917) was the first French academic sociologist to be conferred by the University of Paris the first doctor’s degree in sociology in 1892, and 6 years later, the first to hold a chair in sociology. He taught and became a prolific writer and critic.

5. Max Weber (1864 – 1920), a native of
Germany , was the son of a wealthy German politician. His studies were in law and economics at the University of Heidelberg where he obtained his doctorate at the age of twenty-five. He wrote significant books, best known among which are The Protestant
Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, The
Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism,
Theory of Social and Economic
Organization, and Methodology of the
Social Sciences. Weber’s works dwelt on the significance of subjective meanings people give to their interactions with others.

MAJOR THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
OF SOCIOLOGY
1. The Evolutionary Theory
Evolutionary theory purposes that societies, like biological organisms, develop through phases of increasing complexity and, as ecologists point out, are independent with their environments.
Along with their other early theorists,
Spencer argued that evolution was progressive and that natural selection resulted in the survival of the fittest, enabling strong societies to survive and the weak ones to perish.

2. Structural Functional Theory
Durkheim, Weber, Cooley, Thomas and Pareto were the early advocates of early structural functionalism although Parsons and Metron are credited for further expounding on the theory. Other proponents are
A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, Marion Levy, and Robert Bales. Structural functionalism has otherwise been referred to as the social system theory, equilibrium theory, or functionalism. 3. Conflict Theory
Marx’s works initiated the conflict theory shared by recent scholars, C. Wright
Mills, Lewis Coser, and Ralph Dahrendorf, who proposed that society can best be studied through conflict and power struggle. Marx maintained that history was a series of class struggle between the owners of production and workers, the dominant and the dominated, the powerful and the powerless and that the structure of society was determined by economic organization, and ownership of property, in which personal

beliefs, cultural values, religious dogmas, institutional organization and class hierarchy were reflected. Inequalities in the economic system would bring about revolutionary class conflict when the exploited classes realize their present inferior status and rebel against the dominant property owners and employers. 4. Symbolic Interaction Theory.
George Herbert Mead, theorized that humans are set apart from animals because of their ability to use language and to create and acquire social institutions, societies, and cultures.

5. Exchange Theory
The exchange theory has economic, anthropological, psychological and sociological underpinnings. Is basic orientation is that life is a continual occurrence of rewards and costs exchanges.

SOCIOLOGICAL INQUIRY
Sociological inquiry, like any scientific activity, is like playing a game. It has goals to achieve, rules to follow, and strategies to work out in order to obtain a high probability of success . It involves participants – the players and the spectators. The players – the scientists, their assistants, and other workers – play as a team to yield results. The spectators, either interested or disinterested, appreciative or inappreciative, benefited or unbenefited, are the recipients of the results. It is also the systematic analysis of the motivations and behavior of individuals within groups, the study of social groups as a whole and of such institutions as the branches of government, the church, a profession, a trade union, a hospital, or recreational unit.

THE BASIC GOAL OF SOCIOLOGICAL INQUIRY
To obtain understanding of the observable social world. The ultimate result is the accumulation of scientific knowledge, describing what it is, or the reality that surrounds man. (Timasheff and Facey
1956).
Sociological inquiry is concerned with the repetitive patterns in human behavior, presented according to logically related hypothesis and supported by empirical evidence. FUNDAMENTAL PROCEDURES IN
SOCIOLOGICAL INQUIRY
1. Defines the problem. Our social world is made up of broad and complex phenomena. Above all else, researchers have to locate and evaluate what is already known about this prospective area of inquiry. Thereafter, it is necessary for them to delimit the scope and breadth of the problem and to define the phenomena to focus on.

FUNDAMENTAL PROCEDURES IN
SOCIOLOGICAL INQUIRY
2. Gathering of the data. In order to meet the fundamental aim of sociological inquiry, a more immediate goal is to provide a simulation or a model that can be shown to correspond to certain principles, a sample of the total population to represent the whole as accurately as possible. The researcher also chooses the techniques to identify and record the data to be studied.

FUNDAMENTAL PROCEDURES IN
SOCIOLOGICAL INQUIRY
3. Analysis of data. This involves the testing of the hypothesis or answering questions or assumptions with facts that have been gathered. At this stage, the problems of measurements arise.
4. Verification. Further checking and verification of findings are necessary.

CULTURE

WHAT IS CULTURE?
Edward Tylor (1871:1), who defined culture as a complex of a whole, which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by people as members of society. LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
-refers to the “systematized usage of speech and hearing to convey, communicate, or express feelings and ideas” (Eshelman and Cashion 1983:83)

CULTURE AS A MODE OF ADAPTATION
Culture enables people to adjust to their physical as well as social environment. Culture enables the members of society to develop ways of coping with the exigencies of nature as well as ways of harnessing their environment. People also have to learn to relate themselves with others in order to survive.

ELEMENTS OF CULTURE

Culture is made up of many elements which are interrelated with each other and unified into a whole in order for all its aspects to function effectively. The major elements of culture are knowledge, social norms, beliefs, values, and material things.

1. KNOWLEDGE – the total range of what has been learned or perceived as true is knowledge. Culture includes natural, supernatural, technical and magical knowledge
2. SOCIAL NORMS – in our ordinary activities like eating, talking and greeting, dressing, sleeping, cooking, courtship, rearing of children, studying, working, spending one’s leisure time, and in some special occasions like weddings, burials, Christmas or Lenten season, there are prescriptions or standards or behavior expected to be

. A norm is an idea in the minds of the members of a group put into a statement specifying what members of the group should do, ought to do or are expected to do under certain circumstances.
3. FOLKWAYS – are commonly known as the customs, traditions, and conventions of a society. They are general rules, customary and habitual ways and patterns of expected behavior within the society where it is followed, without much thought given to the matter. 4. MORES – are special folkways which are important to the welfare of the people and their cherished values.
They are based on ethical and moral values which are strongly held and emphasize. 5. LAWS – are formalized norms, enacted by people who are vested with governmental power and enforced by political and legal authorities designated by the government. 6. COLLECTIVE FORM OF BEHAVIOR –
Fashion, fads, crazes, and other passing fancies operate primarily as forces of social change, yet they may be considered short-lived social norms. They demand compliance at the time they operate.
7. SANCTIONS – are s system of reward and punishment.
. REWARDS are positive sanctions for those who behave properly.
. PUNISHMENTS are negative sanctions for those who behave improperly.

8. VALUES – are abstract concepts of what is important and worthwhile.
9. BELIEFS – embody people’s perception of reality and include the primitive ideas of the universe as well as the scientist’s empirical view of the world. Beliefs such as superstitions, and those that relate to philosophy, theology, technology, art, and science are usually incorporated into the whole vast body of knowledge which has been accumulated through time. 10.TECHNOLOGY AND MATERIAL
CULTURE – Aside from the nonmaterial aspects of culture, which includes language, social norms, values, and beliefs, there are certain material techniques and products utilized by societies.
Technology refers to techniques and know-how in utilizing raw materials to produce food, tools, shelter, clothing, means of transportation, and weapons.
The material objects that are the products of technology are called

11. THE ORGANIZATION OF CULTURE
1. Culture universals – are the culture traits, complexes and patterns shared among all members of a given population. 2. Specialties – the behavior expectations confined to certain subgroups which often requires unusual skill or training and reflect the division of labor and hierarchy of statuses in a culture.

3. Alternatives – the behavior expectations which permit a certain range of choice in human behavior and specify the tolerable variations in behavior.

12. SUBCULTURE – smaller groups which develop norms, values, beliefs, and special languages which make them distinct from the broader society.
13. ETHNOCENTRISM = a belief that one’s group is at “the center of everything and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it.”

14.XENOCENTRISM – When some persons reject their group or some part of its culture, we call this case reverse ethnocentrism or xenocentrism. This is the idea that what is foreign is best and that one’s lifestyle, products or ideas are inferior to that of others. 15.CULTURE SHOCK – When people encounter another culture whose patterns of behavior are diverse form their own, they might get disoriented or disorganized. It is a situation that brought about by unfamiliarity, lack of understanding, and inability to communicate with the society they come in contact with.

16. CULTURAL RELATIVISM – When people come in contact with another culture, they observe that its patterns are different from their own. Their tendency is to judge the new ways as strange, exotic, weird or immoral.
Culture is relative and no cultural practice is good or bad in itself.
The concept of cultural relativism states that cultures differ, so that a cultural trait, act, or idea has no meaning or function by itself but has meaning only with its cultural setting.