The “Stop and Frisk” policy, the emergence of new political factions, how Twitter influences everyday communication-these are all examples of topics that sociologists might explore. Sociologists identify and study patterns related to all kinds of contemporary social issues. Do people in the United States view marriage and family differently over the years? Do they view them differently than Peruvians? Do employment and economic conditions play a role in families? Other sociologists are studying the consequences of these new patterns, such as the ways children influence and are influenced by them and/or the changing needs for education, housing, and healthcare. Some sociologists study social facts-the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and cultural rules that govern social life-that may contribute to these changes in the family. (Credit A: Paul Brody/flickr B: Tony Alter/Wikimedia Commons) families may be very different in makeup from what was historically typical. Increasingly, single people and cohabitating couples are choosing to raise children outside of marriage through surrogates or adoption.įigure 1.3 Modern U.S. While 15 million mothers still make up the majority of single parents, 3.5 million fathers are also raising their children alone (U.S. Today, the percent of unmarried couples, same-sex couples, single-parent and single-adult households is increasing, as well as is the number of expanded households, in which extended family members such as grandparents, cousins, or adult children live together in the family home. The “typical” family in past decades consisted of married parents living in a home with their unmarried children. Sociologists try to identify these general patterns by examining the behavior of large groups of people living in the same society and experiencing the same societal pressures.Ĭonsider the changes in U.S. Cultural patterns, social forces and influences put pressure on people to select one choice over another. To a sociologist, the personal decisions an individual makes do not exist in a vacuum. Studying Patterns: How Sociologists View SocietyĪll sociologists are interested in the experiences of individuals and how those experiences are shaped by interactions with social groups and society. The error of treating an abstract concept as though it has a real, material existence is known as reification (Sahn, 2013). Sociologists take care not to treat the concept of “culture” as though it were alive and real. Remember, though, that culture is a product of the people in a society. However, the social acceptability of marriage relative to the person’s circumstances also plays a part. In the United States, this choice is heavily influenced by individual feelings. One illustration of this is a person’s decision to marry. It’s a way of seeing our own and other people’s behavior in relationship to history and social structure (1959). Wright Mills described as an awareness of the relationship between a person’s behavior and experience and the wider culture that shaped the person’s choices and perceptions. Sociologists often study culture using the sociological imagination, which pioneer sociologist C. It includes everything produced by a society, including all the social rules. Culture encompasses a group’s way of life, from routine, everyday interactions to the most important parts of group members’ lives. The term culture refers to the group’s shared practices, values, and beliefs. In contrast, a macro-level analysis might research the ways that language use has changed over time or in social media outlets. For example, a micro-level study might look at the accepted rules of conversation in various groups such as among teenagers or business professionals. Sociologists working from the micro-level study small groups and individual interactions, while those using macro-level analysis look at trends among and between large groups and societies. Sociologists study all aspects and levels of society. A group of people who live in a defined geographic area, who interact with one another, and who share a common culture is what sociologists call a society. Sociology is the scientific and systematic study of groups and group interactions, societies and social interactions, from small and personal groups to very large groups. Figure 1.2 Sociologists learn about society while studying one-to-one and group interactions.
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