Sociology is the study that helps us in understanding the structures and dynamism of the society, how they relate to the patterns of human behavior and the dynamism of human being. The study helps individuals to appreciate how various forms of social structures such as communities, organizations, social categories like race, age sex and other different social institutions which comprises of the political, religious, economics and kingship determines human actions, attitudes and opportunities.
Sociology also evaluates how individuals or collective constructs, uphold and change social organizations in different manners. Sociology gives people a new perspective in the way they view the world. Sociology is very exciting subject that uses various research methods to study sociological phenomenon and equips students will relevant skills that prepare them for various lucrative job opportunities.
Sociology is exciting as it helps individuals to comprehend how societies operate in a source of power. It helps people to identify the opportunities and challenges that surround their lives and thus, view the society as a human creation that is subject to change. There is no group that can remain stagnate and hope to progress.
In order to progress economically, politically and socially groups have to adapt to the changes occurring in the social and physical environment accordingly. Occasionally this change is accompanied by conflicts between the traditional and the new ideas.
Sociology is regarded as liberating because it helps people to understand that they are not responsible for their life situations solely, but learns how society shapes their world and brings more opportunities. Sociology is also regarded as being full of fun, for instance when people looks at their families, school live, they recognize certain patterns that they were not able to identify there before. Learning sociology helps one to view the world around them in a new dimension that never existed there before (Carriers in Sociology 6).
Sociology is associated with sociological imagination that enables individuals to shift from one perspective to another. For instance, it gives individuals the ability to shift their imagination from a political view into psychological orientation. The sociological imaginations helps in application of imagination thought that inquires and answers sociological questions.
This enables individuals to view sociological phenomenon from a different perspectives. It helps people to understand that social outcomes are determined by the social context, social actions and actors. This means that certain social things in the society lead to certain social outcomes.
The motives referred here include individuals’ norms and motives. The social context represents social institutions such as a country or the time period. The social actions are the things that people do that affects others in the community. It is generally accepted that the things that people do are determined by `the situation they are in, the values they hold, how those people they interact with act and how all these relates to certain outcomes.
Thus, sociology helps people understand how social things interact and influence each other. Sociology also helps people to appreciate how sociological situations occur because of the manner in which social circumstances and people differ. It helps in investigating the things in the society that have resulted to some outcomes and comprehend the causes that triggered the outcomes.
The factors that determine these outcomes include the social norms that include the manner in which certain people want to benefit from certain situations. The motives behind the pursuits, social context and the people they associate with are equally important. Sociology acknowledges that what individual do is determined by all the factors that bring forth some sort of outcome (Carriers in Sociology 16).
Sociology is generally known as being very applicable sublet in our day-to-day activities. This is because sociologist conducts scientific research on social relationships and challenges that range from small groups of people to national societies or global social networks.
Sociology focuses on patterns of behaviors and tries to examine how position of different people within a certain group affect what people do. It tries to examine those people that have power and those that do not have it. Sociology explains the reason why different people interact with each other and belong to groups. They also explains how groups functions, how decisions are arrived at, who have and does not have power and lastly how people in a group solve their conflicts.
It is sociologically believed that people are social beings and thus, people seek to be in contact with each other. They need to interact with one another and their conduct is subject to being influenced by behaviors of others as they equally influence other peoples in one way or another. Sociology is thus, interesting because it educates people why they require groups to succeed.
Sociologist conducts their researches on various topics that range from macro-structures that organize the society like ethnicity, race, class and gender to institutions such as family. They also conduct researches on social processes and change, social problems like crimes and justice systems.
Similarly, they also conduct researches on micro-processes such as interpersonal interactions. Sociologists employ various methodologies to study the aforementioned issues. The most common method they use to study the sociological problems is the survey research method that involves quantitative analysis of the data collected.
Other Sociologist uses qualitative methods and ethnographic method. Occasionally, sociologist uses a combination of two or more methods which complements each other. For instance, a sociologist may opt to use a quantitative method to describe general patterns and also use qualitative methods in the same research to understand how individuals perceive and respond to these patterns.
Sociologists get their data from various sources concerning the diverse subjects they research on such as the demography, economy, crime, culture among others. Such data is mostly gathered and availed by governments, social sciences scholars and students from different disciplines.
Many sociologist researches do not require collection of original data from the field as there are many bodies that gather relevant sociological data for various reasons. Thus, sociologist can use these data by exploring, analyzing them accordingly to deduce relevant inferences.
Some of the sociological data sources that are available to sociologists include the Historical sources which are used to conduct researches that entail parallel investigation of a theory. Another data source is the census data. This contains statistics data of all kind. Generally every nation conducts an official population census after a certain time span which is mostly after every five or ten years. There are some other nations that conduct some special type of census such as economics, agricultural, trade or governments.
Censuses are particularly conducted to provide relevant data that are important to the government in order to understand the economical, social condition and challenges present in concerned governments so that to enable it budget accordingly to address the challenges identified. Research survey is another important source of sociologist data. It is usually employed to explore issues that pertain to attitudes, values and beliefs, motivations among others.
Survey mostly tries to find out the factors that causes specific phenomenon by studying variations in variables across cases and recognizing behaviors that are associated with it. Many nations conduct such surveys on regular intervals. Field and ethnographic research occurs in the natural setting and entails use of primary data, where relevant information is gathered through interviews and observations.
Ethnographic research is considered as a sociological field research that offers a descriptive account of the social life and culture in certain social system. It usually involves qualitative data analysis method. Its examples include the research on no-western cultures and ethnographers’ research of sub-cultures within western societies like drug cultures, sex workers among others (Sociological research and its data sources par. 7).
Sociology is an important field since it offers various options where one can get employment opportunities. Fresh Sociology graduates are mostly employed as teachers and researchers in high institutions. Sociologists are also known to occupy applied sociology jobs in many social institutions in the private or government sector.
It is noted that majority of sociologists work in businesses, governments and social service agencies. The kind of jobs that sociologist get depends on the level of their education and areas of their specifications. Sociology graduates who look for employment immediately after college gets jobs as administrative assistances or in social services.
For those who posses masters or doctorates degree, they get employments as college teachers, clinicians, consultants or researchers. The duties of a sociology professor vary with the institutions and the level of courses provided. The lecturing just takes one part of a professor’s time, but in addition professors uses some of their times preparing for classes, advising students, keeping abreast of new research in the field ,conducting research studies and having them published.
In businesses, most sociologists apply their knowledge and research skills in the human research department or either to address organizations challenges. In government institutions, sociologists provide relevant data such as population projections for health care and education planning.
Sociologists that works in the social service agencies such as police departments helps the police departments to address deviate behaviors. Those sociologist that work in social agencies in the health sector assists in patient-doctor interactions (Understanding Our Social World 5).
Sociology addresses the most challenging issues that affect us in our day-to-day activities. Thus, it is an ever expanding specialization that provides various opportunities for scholars. Sociology addresses issues such as social inequality, forces for social change, patterns of behavior and how social systems operate. Therefore, sociology acts as a very strategic carrier path for scholars since it offers them diverse opportunities for sociologists.
Most sociologists apply their sociological perspectives to a wide variety of jobs that range from health professions, social services, and criminal justice to government institutions. Since the sociology subject is quite fascinating, it provides an opportunity for preparations for careers in politics, journalism and public relations. Majority of the students that take sociology do so because they figure it as an important foundation for carriers such as medicine, education, law, counseling and social work (Carriers in Sociology 5).
Works Cited
“Carriers in Sociology.”Sociology Uoregon edu.2 October, 2009, Web.
“Sociological research and its data sources.” Web.
“Understanding Our Social World.” The Scientific Study of Society. 7 August, 2010. Web.29 August, 2011.