Chapter 1

Chapter One:
The Study of Sociology

Why study sociology?
-to obtain factual information about our society
and different aspects of our social life.
-enable us to understand our society more
objectively and to see our place in it.

Why study sociology?
-broadens our experience as we learn to discard
our prejudices and become more understanding
of the customs of other people and as we realize
that the truth is relative and “good” and “bad”
behavior depends upon the norms of conduct of
the society in which behavior takes place.

The promise of sociology, according to C. Wright
Mills(1956:12) is that with all the problems and
confusion of modern life it can help us
understand what is happening to us and why
such social phenomena occur.

Sociology performs its most important function
when superstition and misinformation are
replaced by accurate knowledge about human
behavior.

The Science of Sociology
All the fields of study started as definite
attempts to answer questions about one’s
environment, one’s relations to it and one’s own
nature.
Theologians have sought to explain our
relationship with God and prescribe right
actions in accordance with God’s will.

Scientists have tried to understand and explain
our physical environment and our physical
being.
Philosophers have sought through logic the
causes a principle of reality and conduct of life.

Social philosophers contributed to our
understanding and appreciation of our society
initially through institutions, authority,
traditions, and common sense.
The “knowledge” derived from these sources
were not always reliable at times they were
partially true.

Between 18th and 19th centuries, the social
sciences grew out of social philosophy.
The social sciences drew heavily on the scientific
logic of the physical sciences that were yielding
fruitful results.
The newest of these specialize social sciences
was sociology.

Sociology is the science of society and the social
interaction taking place.
Sociology as a science tries to analyze and
explain the patterns of group life and to
discover the basic structure of human society
and the forces that lead to social change.
(Broom, Selsnick and Darrock 1981: 4)

All social sciences deal with the
study of human behavior.

Areas of Sociology
Sociology may be divided into seven areas for
purposes of research and teaching.
(Hauser 1962:909-919)
These are:
Social organization – this includes the
investigation of social groups, social
institutions, social stratification and mobility,
ethnic relations and bureaucracy.

Areas of Sociology
Social psychology – this field is concerned with
the study of human nature as the outcome of
group life, personality formation, and collective
behavior.
Social change – social organization and social
disorganization.

Areas of Sociology
Human Ecology – This is an area which is
currently catching world awareness although it
is one of the oldest fields in American sociology.
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.

Areas of Sociology
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.

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

The Relationship of Sociology to the Other Sciences
Sciences may be categorized into two broad
areas: natural sciences and the social sciences.
The natural sciences include
-the biological sciences, such as biology, botany,
zoology, and bacteriology, which study both human
and nonhuman living organisms
-the physical sciences such as astronomy, geology,
chemistry and physics, which examined the non
living physical characteristics of the world.

The social sciences deal with human relationships,
social systems, and societies but differ from each other
in their emphasis and mode of analysis.
 Economics - is concerned with the human activities
related to the production, consumption, and
distribution of goods, services, and wealth within
societies.
 Political science - is concerned with political
processes, power struggle, and governments,
voting patterns changes from previous elections
and the nature of the voters.

 Anthropology - covers physical, cultural and social
anthropology. Physical anthropologist study a wide
range of cultures, from primitive to modern, through
the examination of artifacts and the genetic changes
of human and non human aspects of life.
 Psychology - is mainly interested in a wide range of
psychological and behavioral processes such as
learning, human and personality development,
perception, emotion, cognition, motivation,
creativity, personality disorders and mental illness.

 History-is primarily descriptive of the chronology of
significant past events. Sociology makes use of the
data and information that is provided by historians,
history uses the sociological approach.
The natural and social sciences may be further
divided into the “pure” and “applied” sciences.
• Pure sciences - is mainly concerned with the
pursuit of knowledge and truth for its own sake
without considering its practical use.
• Applied sciences - focuses on the search for
solutions to practical problems

History of Scientific Sociology
It was between 1760 and 1825 that Henri Saint-
Simon wrote his ideas on the science of society
based on the assumption that the law of human
behavior could be determined in the same
manner that the law of nature had been arrived
at by astronomers, physicists, biologists,
geologists, chemists, and other natural scientist.

Most significant of the forerunners of
sociology are:
Auguste Comte(1718-1857)
a native of Southern
France, was the son of a
government worker. His
studies in Paris focused
on mathematical and
natural sciences.

- 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.
- advocated the idea of positivism or the use of
the empirical investigation to understand social
phenomena.

- The progressive develpoment of science was
analyzed in his law of the three stages:
- Theological or fictitious,metaphysical or abstract,
and scientific or positive
- Each mental stage of humanity has an
accompanying type of social organization and
political dominance.
- The supernatural is the basis for explaining and
understanding everything in the theological
stage.

- he believed that social physics or positivism
would be the key to humanity’s ongoing program.
Being a product of the social revolution and social
unrest of his time, he classified the existing
sciences into a hierarchy, placing social physics at
the top as the “queen of the sciences.”
- he also believed that sociology was the means
which a more rational and just society could be
achieved.To him goes the credit of being the
father of sociology,having a coined the term
sociology.

Karl Marx(1818-1883)
a native Germany
descended from a lineage
of rabbis. Although he
went to college with the
intension of practicing law,
he shifted to philosophy
after involvement with
radical anti-religious
group.

– he went to Paris, met leading radical
intellectuals and completely converted to
socialism. With Friedrich Eagels, a long time
friend, he wrote the Communist Manifesto in
1847.
– he believed that social conflicts,stuggles and
strifes were at the core of society and could
cause social change.

– he said that all history was branded with
economic determinism, that all change, social
conditions, and society itself were based on
economic factors, and that economic
inequality has resulted in class struggles
between the bourgeoisie.

Herbert Spencer(1820-1905)
the son of a school teacher,
was born in England. His
education consisted mainly
of mathematical and the
natural sciences. He shifted
jobs from that of a railway
engineer to a draftsman,
and eventually a journalist
and writer.

Herbert Spencer(1820-1905)
– 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.”
– Spencer was concerned about the problem of
objectivity in the social science---the problem
of bias and other difficulties that sociologist
often encounter in their work.

Emile Durkheim(1858-1917)
was the first French
academic sociologist to
be conferred by the
University of Paris the
first doctors degree in
sociology in1892,the first
to hold a chair in
sociology. He taught and
became a prolific writer
and critic.

Emile Durkheim(1858-1917)
– he defined social phenomena as social facts
that have distinctive social characteristics and
determinants and social facts as “every way of
acting, fixed, or not capable of exercising on
the individual an external constraint.” such as
customs, laws and the general rule of behavior
which people accept without question.

Max Weber(1864-1920)
a native of Germany,
was the son of a
wealthy German
politician. His studies
were in law and
economics, he
obtained his doctorate
at the age of twenty
five.

Max Weber(1864-1920)
– he believed that qualitative, subjective methods
as well as objective, quantitive methods should
be used in the study of social actions. A
“sympathetic understanding verstehen, of the
mind of others” Weber said was understanding
human action by examining the subjective
meaning that people attach to their own behavior
and behavior of others.
– he also contented that these could be treated
objectively and scientifically.

The Major Theoretical Perspectives
Evolutionary Theory
—Proposes that societies, like biological organisms,
develop through phases of increasing complexity
and, as ecologists point out, are interdependent
with their environments.
—Can provide the underpinnings for judging the
outcome of varied social forces, understanding
current changes, and predicting the future.

Structural Functional Theory
—Referred to as the social system theory,
equilibrium theory, or functionalism.
—The component parts of a social structure are
families, neighborhood, associations, schools,
churches, banks, countries, etc.
—Role expectations and behavior have to be
learned through the socialization process.

Structural Functional Theory
—Functionalists aver that each social system
tends to have balance or equilibrium.
—Merton identified the functions of a social
system as what the system does and the
outcomes arise from a certain type of
structure and he claimed that not all functions
of a social system ensure its equilibrium.

Conflict Theory
—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.

Conflict Theory
—Dahrendorf and Coser said that the integrative
and constructive feature of conflict lay in a
state where people with common needs and
interests unite to work for goals that bring
about social change for their own welfare.

Symbolic Interaction Theory
—Is reflected in every socialized individual and that
its external forms and structures are likewise
reflected through the social interactions
occurring among individuals at the symbolic level.
—Language consists of symbols representing
physical objects that abstract ideas and is used
for communication.
—George Herbert Mead a significant contributor to
the development of symbolic interactionism.
—It provides the bases for decision-making or
problem solving.

Exchange Theory
—Its basic orientation is that life is a continual
occurrence of rewards and costs exchanges.
—The basic assumptions of this theory are:
a. Most human stratifications are derived
from the actions of other humans.
b. New associations are started because they
are expected to be rewarding, and old
associations continue because they are
rewarding.

Exchange Theory
c. When we received rewards or benefits
from others, we are obliged to reciprocate by
supplying benefits to them in return.
d. In general, giving is more blessed than
receiving, because social credit is preferable to
social indebtedness.

Exchange Theory
—George Homans a proponent of the exchange
theory, advocates a view congruent with that of
behavioral psychologists.
—Peter Blau’s assumption of the exchange theory is
more symbolic interactionism, maintaining that
exchanges happen within the symbolic level, being
more subjective and interpretative.
—Humans and Blau both believe that what is
significant in exchange is the mutual expectation
that equal reciprocation occurs.

Sociology in the Philippines
—Three stages in development of sociology in the
Philippines: the stage where sociology was
viewed as social philosophy, when it was
regarded as a problem or welfare oriented and
when it finally geared more forward scientific
orientation.
—The transition of the Philippines from Spanish to
an American Colony made anthropology and
sociology the means of guiding colonial
administrators and settlers, instead of scientific
endeavors to monitor the change in Philippine
society.

—Two significant conditions, the persistence of
traditionalism and the lack of a strong belief
science can be a strong force in studying and
rendering social realities.
—Fr. Valentin Marin- was introduced the sociology
in the Philippines
—Serafin N. Macaraig the first Filipino to acquire a
doctorate degree in sociology and to write a
sociology textbook, An Introduction to Sociology,
in 1938.

—By the 1950s the scientific orientation started to seep
slowly into sociology with the increased number of
educational exchange program grantees, the
establishment of social science research centers and
councils, the growing frequency of conferences, and
the publication of professional journals.
—In 1952, Filipino educators and visiting professors in
the Universities, the main objectives of which were to
increase knowledge about social behavior, to gather
data on social problems for their possible solutions, to
train teachers and researchers, and to develop
cooperation among social scientist from the Philippines
and those from other countries.

—In 1957, the community Development
Research Council (CDRC) wad created to
conduct or support social science researches.
—In 1960, the Institute of Philippine Culture was
Founded at the Ateneo de Manila University
by Fr. Frank Lynch, S.J. who was its moving
spirit.
—During 1960s and 1970s, empirical research
was developed and this centered mostly in
well-known colleges and universities.

—University of the Philippines was the first school
to offer a major in sociology.
—In 1968, the Philippine Social Science Council was
formed to meet a felt need for improving the
quality and relevance of the social science.
—The PPSC Research Committee strongly believed
that the Filipino social scientist has made
significant contributions to society and urged
them to continue with their tasks under the new
social order.

—Leaders and Decision-makers need scientific
knowledge as basis for policy-making and program
implementation.
—Gelia T. Castillio a rural sociologist, says that “
sociology’s greatest challenge lies in the creative
translation of practical problems into researchable
ones which will yield answer or solutions to practical
questions which have been asked by developers. “
—Randolf David one of the prominent Filipino
sociologist, succinctly depicts in his paper “Philippine
Underdevelopment and Dependency Theory” , the
social realities that Filipino sociologists have to grapple
with.

—The main focus of sociologists is to take a firm
and conscious position of neutrality.
—Foremost task is to discover and organize
knowledge about human behavior, and
therefore they must remain value free.
—The activist sociologist, on the other hand,
challenge this position and argues that it is
impossible to be “value-free” in contemporary
society.

—In recent years, sociologist have become less
hesitant to voice out their findings, thus helping
shape public policy.
—Each students and practitioner of sociology will
have to decide for himself the role he or she will
pursue:
—One of deep involvement in social problems and
in findings solutions to these problems, or that of
discipline commitment to the development of
reliable, valid, objective knowledge about society.

Chapter 1

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Chapter 1