Sociology is the study of group life. Many of the questions that tantalize us are questions about people in groups. Why do lovers quarrel? What makes for a stable family? How do we develop effective work groups in industry? Why is there so much poverty in the U.S.? How do groups make decisions? How do people experience aging in America? What are the consequences of inequality in the lives of children? How do different cultures approach food scarcity? What factors contribute to the election of a President?
Sociology as a discipline attempts to answer these questions by using the tools of science. Those tools start out with one's fresh, inquisitive nature. Ask questions. Examine circumstances carefully. Develop some guesses about the relationships among things, and then, most of all, seek evidence to support or disconfirm those presumptions. Second, sociologists build upon the thinking and theoretical frameworks that sociologists have generated as historical contributions to the life of the science. And, third, the discipline of Sociology provides a perspective on the world--a lens through which to examine social processes and the link between personal experience and the larger social reality.
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Last updated: April 10, 2008