Social Thought

Historical Analysis: From Social Thought to Sociological Theory

Social Thought: Meaning and Definitions

Characteristics of Social Thought

Development of Social Thought

Importance of Social Thought

Sociology and Social Thought

Sociological Theories: Meaning, definitions, Types and Nature

Theoretical Perspectives of Sociology

Historical Analysis: From Social Thought to Sociological Theory

Man is not only a “Social Being”, but also a Reasoning Animal: Man is not like other animals. He is an animal of extra-ordinary abilities and capacities. He is the final product of organic evolution and as such has greater capacities to adjust himself to the environment. He not only adjusts himself to the environment, if need arises, he even modifies the environment to suit to his conveniences. Other animals cannot do this; they can only adjust to the existing environment and their failure to do so would ultimately result either in their death, or in their running away from the situation.

Man’s life is multifaceted. He claims himself to be a “social animal”, a “political animal”, a “cultural being” and so on. He is also called a “thinking animal” or a “reasoning animal.”

Man with the help of his more evolved brain and greater intelli­gence has been thinking about a number of things. The physical world itself posed a big puzzle for him. In the beginning, various natural phenomena such as birth and death, day and night, health and ill-health, rotation of seasons, etc…. constituted the content of his thinking process. In course of time, he shifted his attention towards various non-physical things. It is impossible to prepare an exhaustive list of things which man’s mind today is pre-occupied with. No such attempt is made in this book either.

Social Thought as a By-product of Social Interaction. Man does not live in isolation. He is social in nature and always prefers to live in the company of other men. Sociality or sociability has become an essential and inextricable aspect of his life. The individual and society are hence inseparable. Man’s life is interwoven with society. Sociality or sociability has been the central problem in sociological discussions. “Why man depends on soci­ety?” — is a pertinent question for which we have different and even contradictory explanations. Each aspect of man’s social life must have been the result of at least some people’s experiences, mutual adjustments, and experiments. People must have been directly or indirectly, and explicitly or implicitly thinking about the ways in which they could share their feelings and emotions, prob­lems and challenges, miseries and maladies, etc., from the very beginning. They must have also tried on their own the ways of facing the problems and challenges of life, to secure some amount of stability for their social life and contentment for their individual mind. The thought that they have entertained in this regard, no matter how irrational and unscientific it is, could be referred to as “social thought.”

Social Thought: Meaning and Definitions:

In simple words, it can be said that “social thought” essentially refers to the thought con­cerning the social life and activities of man. Sociologists have given their own definitions of social thought among which the following may be cited:

1. According to Bogardus, “social thought is thinking about social problems by one or a few persons here and there in human history or at the present.”
2. According to Rollin Chambliss, “social thought is concerned with human beings in their relations with their fellows.”
3. H.E. Jenson defined social thought as “the totality of man’s thought about his relationship and obligations to his fellowmen.”
4. According to William P. Scott, “social thought refers to any relatively systematic attempt to theorise about society and social life, whether it be classical or modern, scientific or unscientific.”

Characteristics of Social Thought

Following are the characteristics of social thought:

1. Social Thought is Societal Thought: Social thought is basically the thought regarding societal issues or matters. It is concerned with the ways in which people live together and face collectively their problems and challenges. These thoughts may themselves have solutions to these problems.

2. Social Thought is Not the Sum Total of the Thoughts of all the Members of Society: Social thought has evolved out of the capacity for critical and analytical thinking of a few scholars, rationalists, scientists and philosophers. People of average intelligence can hardly enrich the existing social thought. Only a handful of people can delve deep into the social matters, events, and problems and form opinions and theories about them. Bogardus thus comments: “However, the developing and perfecting of new ideologies are usually the work of scholars, somewhat removed from the turmoil of the hour. Social thought thus is the product of social crisis and of scholarly analysis and synthesis.

3. Social Thought need not necessarily be Scientific Always: Social thought touches upon various aspects of our social life, experiences, conclusions, opin­ions, assessments, valuations, etc. All these cannot be put to scientific tests to assess their validity and dependability. In spite of this deficiency they have their own practical importance.

4. Social Thought is not the same everywhere: Social thought has been immensely influenced by factors such as time, place, environment and conditions. Social thought normally arises in part from the nature of the prevailing social condi­tions. To understand it properly the student must know the times which furnish the setting for it. “A thorough going knowledge of the culture and of the social, economic, political and religious standards of a people is a minimum essential for a social thought.”

5. Every Human Community has given its Own Contribution to the Development of Social Thought: Social thought is not the monopoly of any particular community. At the same time all the nations or communities have not contributed equally to its enrichment. For example, the ancient Indian, Chinese, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Hebrew civilisations of the East and the ancient Greek and the Roman civilisations of the West, have given commendable contributions to the realm of social thought. The rural and the tribal people also have played their role in the enrichment of social thought.

6. Social Thought is Continuous in its Development: Social thought has been found to be consistent in its development. As Bogardus has pointed out, “the history of social thought rises out of the beginnings of human struggle on earth and with jogged edges extends along the full sweep of the changing historical horizons.”

7. Social Crises or Hardships have always provided Motivation for the General Social Thought: Social thought usually finds its initial expression during social crises. When “prosperity” reigns and people are, in general, satisfied, new social thought is at ebb tide. But when social condi­tions are marked by gross injustices or when social changes come rapidly due to inventions, wars, or other basic disturbances, the thinking about social life and problems is highly stimulated and new ideas or systems of ideas, that is, ideologies, are originated.

8. Other Characteristics:

(i) Social thought though continuous is very slow and gradual in its development. We do not find fast developments taking place in this field as in the realm of physical sciences.

(ii) Major portion of the social thought is not found to be preserved in the form of books but in the unwritten forms such as folklores, folksongs, legends, myths, folktales and so on.

(iii) “Social thought is abstract” – says Bogardus. All thinking is abstract and social thought is no exception to this general rule.

(iv) Social thought has not always been utilitarian and beneficial to mankind. It has been, at times, abused by some people to serve their own ends. For example; (i) The theory of inborn superiority of the Aryan Race advocated by Nazis of Germany; (ii) The ideologies such as Gandhianism, social­ism, secularism, etc. are being abused by different people in India today for different purposes.

Development of Social Thought

Social thought is not something that emerges suddenly or abruptly. Its development is slow and gradual. Old thoughts form the basis for the new ones. New thoughts do not completely negate the old ones. Many a times we find the combination of the old and the new. Social thought in its historical development can be stated to have undergone at least four important stages namely:

1. Stage of Folklore

2. Stage of Social Philosophy

3. Stage of Social Theory

4. Stage of Social Sciences

1. The Stage of Folklore: Pre-literate people were also inquisitive. They thought about the dramatic phases of life, and they sought their own explanation. Their imagination worked out only supernatural explanations. They reasoned about the daily occurrences of life in concrete and personal terms.

Archaeological records indicate that the pre-literate people had a simple and crude awareness which had its own social implications. Early mythologies speak of the importance of social bonds which early people had developed among themselves. The proverbs of the primitive people give us some idea about social property and social responsibility. Folktales, folksongs, etc., give us ideas about the primi­tive man’s family, life, his religious beliefs, social organisations such as clans and so on.

There are enough proofs to say that primitive man’s mind entertained social thinking. Commu­nal property was the outcome of communal thinking. Group dances, feasts, festivals, building en­terprises, celebrations, etc., denote a social spirit. Warfare, which they engaged in, indicates tribal loyalty and group spirit. Folkways of these people mirror their notions of societal welfare. All these things reveal the beginnings of social thought. Though it appears premature today, it had its own prominence then.

2. The Stage of Social Philosophy: Just as human society proceeded from simplicity to complexity, human thinking also started becoming more complex. Early people started thinking in terms of facing the challenges in a better manner, and finding solutions to the social problems more efficiently. In their efforts to do so, their thinking style underwent a change. It got ascended from the stage of folklore to the stage of social philosophy.

In the stage of social philosophy, large number of poets, philosophers, moralists, spir­itual leaders, metaphysical thinkers, social visionaries, social reformers and others expressed their views, and enriched human thought. Their views influenced the ways of life then and also of the future generations. The views of Manu on Varnashrama system, the opinions of Kautilya on politics, the beliefs of Confucius on ideal family, and practical morals, etc., could be cited here as examples.

3. The Stage of Social Theory: In the stage of social theory, there is scope for discussion, logic, analysis, appreciation, ac­ceptance, rejection and so on. The views or ideas expressed or advocated by a philosopher or scholar need not necessarily be accepted by all as though it is “divine”, “unchangeable” and “ultimate.” The views of Manu, Aristotle, Cicero, Confucius and others were taken for granted in the beginning. As years passed on, social theoreticians like John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Rousseau, Karl Marx, Adam Smith, Ferguson, Machiavelli, Montesquieu, and a host of others established their own theo­ries regarding human society and its dynamics.

Jeremy Betham’s “Utilitarianism”, Thomas More’s “Utopianism”, Spencer’s “theory of social evolution”, Marxian “theory of classless society”, Huntington, Lombroso and other social geographer’s “theory of geographic determinism” can be mentioned here as examples.

4. The Stage of Social Sciences: It is very difficult to say when exactly the stage of social sciences began, because different social sciences emerged at different times. Example: Political science and history are pretty old social sciences, whereas anthropology, psychology and sociology are quite new. The success at­tained and the progress registered in the field of natural sciences also provided inspiration for the social thinkers to emulate the same in the field of social sciences.

The methods that helped the physical sciences to attain success were also borrowed to understand and analyse the social world in a scientific manner. This new approach added precision, credibility and dependability to the so­cial sciences. Most of the social sciences have now obtained a stage in which they stand on their own, have their own field of study, and pursue their own approach.

They have modified the scientific method and procedure to suit to their needs and conveniences. Sociology, which has joined the family of social sciences at a later stage has also made an impressive beginning and progress in its studies.

Importance of Social Thought 

Social thought is the product of human thinking. Man has been thinking about society, social environment, social events, happenings, developments, problems, etc. from the beginning. Even the primitive man had his own thinking about society. With the progress of civilisation, man’s thinking became more and more complex. The study of social thought assumed importance in various re­spects.

1. Social Thought Provides Information about the Present Social Scene: Study of social thought is important because it gives an idea about contemporary social sci­ence, environments and circumstances of a particular society. It mirrors the environment of a soci­ety at any particular point of time or during a particular period.

2. Social Thought Throws Light on Social Problems: No society is free from problems. Any society experiences many types of problems. So­cial thought usually finds its initial expression during social crisis. When “social conditions are marked by gross injustices or when social changes come rapidly due to inventions, wars or other basic disturbances, then thinking about social life and problems is highly stimulated and new ideas or systems of ideas, that is, ideologies are originated.”

3. Social Thought Helps Solve Social Problems: Social thought not only provides information about social problems encountered in differ­ent societies and different times but also about the efforts made by these people to solve them. This knowledge can be of great help in solving the problems of our own age. Indeed, no contem­porary social problem can be grasped fully without an extensive knowledge of the social history of thought.

4. Social Thought Helps Common People Also: It is true that “the developing and perfecting of new social ideologies are usually the work of scholars somewhat removed from the turmoil of the hour.” But in our practical life, the common people are also involved in fighting against the social problems; such as, corrup­tion, divorce, dowry, environment pollution, youth unrest, etc.

5. Social Thought has Lessons to Teach: Social thought helps man in rectifying the blunders committed in the past. Both man and soci­ety are making mistakes. Mistakes are committed both at the individual and social level. These misdeeds or erroneous acts can be rectified by experience. Neither an individual nor any collective group can have all types of experiences. Social thought, indeed, is nothing but a narration of the experience of societies at different points in history.

6. Social Thoughts Influence Our Life, Our Thoughts, Values and Ideologies: Thoughts have tremendous impact on our life and doings. Plato said long back “ide­ologies rule the world.” J.M. Keynes had recognised this fact when he said, “The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else”. It is an acknowledged fact today that social thinking has its impact on religious, philosophical, psychological and even physical thinking.

7. The Unfading Influence of the Old Thoughts: In the realm of the physical world normally new knowledge completely dominates the old knowledge and sometimes its traces are washed away. Such a thing does not happen in the realm of social thought. Age old thoughts relating to the subtle topics such as God, ideal con­ditions of the state, man’s ultimate purpose in life, role of spirituality in life, etc., still hold their sway. Very often we make references to them in our discussions and debates.

8. Old Social Thoughts may give Rise to New Ones: Progress in the field of social sciences does not automatically and inevitably lead to the destruction of the old social thoughts. On the contrary, many a times, old thoughts may trigger new ones, or new interpretations are given to the old ones. No society finds it relevant to reject out rightly the old thoughts to accept new ones.

Sociology and Social Thought

The terms such as “social thought”, “sociology” or “sociological thought” or “social theory”, “sociological theory” though are not one and the same, are closely interrelated. It is true that roots of sociology are to be found in social thought and social philosophy. Social thought itself provided the stimulus for the establishment of sociology.

Further, the pioneers of sociology, like Comte, Durkhiem, Spencer, Weber, Marx and others were more recognised during their lifetime as social thinkers than as sociologists. In spite of the affinity between social thought and sociology or sociological thought they are not one and the same. The main differences between the two can be briefly examined here:

1. Sociology and Social Thought: Difference in Meaning: “Sociology” is the science of society. Its main purpose is to study human life, activities and relations in a scientific way. It is an independent science by itself and applies scientific method to its studies.

Whereas social thought is nothing but societal-thought; it is the totality of man’s thought about his relationships with his fellowmen. According to Bogardus, it is co-equal with social prob­lems. As and when social problems cropped up, the social thought sprang up. Social thought is a kind of thought and it need not necessarily be classical or systematic in its nature.

2. Sociological Study is more scientific whereas Social Thought is more general in Nature: Sociology has become a relatively well established social science. It is able to make a scien­tific analysis of human society, its structure, function, organisation, institutional network, changes, challenges, problems and so on. Sociology is now recognised as an empirical and a rational sci­ence. It tries to be “value-free” in its approach and objective in its findings.

Social thought, on the contrary, is bound by the values, norms and the expectations of the people of a particular epoch. There is no insistence on it to be scientific. Plato’s “idealism”, Hin­dus’ concept of “Rama Rajya”, Marx’s “Communism”, Bentham’s “Utilitarianism” or Gandhiji’s “Sarvodaya”, etc. for example, represent high thoughts, but they are not considered as scientific. They are either regarded as value-based or imaginary or even ideological. Social thought is more based on logic, imagination, intuition, and capacity of creative thinking, whereas sociology is based on science, rationality, empiricism and reality.

3. Sociology has a Limited Range while Social Thought is More Pervasive: Sociological thoughts or theories have limited range. They are applicable to limited con­texts. They contain issues or themes which are basically social in nature. On the contrary, the scope of social thought is wider. It is all-inclusive, because it may incorporate in itself knowl­edge that is not only social but also spiritual, moral, political, economic, psychological, philo­sophical, and so on.

4. Social Thought is Ancient Whereas Sociology is Modern: Social thought is old when compared with either sociology or sociological thought. The his­tory of social thought is very ancient and it begins from pre-historic times, whereas the history of sociology and sociological thought is very short; it begins from the time of Auguste Comte.

5. Other Differences: (a) Social thought adopts no scientific criterion of validity whereas in the case of sociology or sociological thought there is definite validity criterion.

(b) Only the people with specialised skills and training can make contributions to the realm of sociology whereas, any knowledgeable person whether he is a scientist or an artist, a philosopher or a social reformer, a psychologist or an educationist, an uneducated man or an educated one, an ordinary man or a genius, can enrich the field of social thought.

(c) Thinkers who contributed to the realm of social thought were known as social reform­ers, social philosophers, social visionaries, social revolutionaries and so on, but not as soci­ologists. The era of sociology and sociologists began only in the middle of the 18th century.

George Ritzer thus writes, “in any case, none of the thinkers associated with those eras thought of themselves, and few are now thought of, as sociologists… It is only in the mid­dle and late 1800s that we begin to find thinkers who can be clearly identified as sociolo­gists.”

Sociological Theories- Meaning, Definitions, Types and Nature

Sociological theories are statements of how and why particular facts about the social world are related.They range in scope from concise descriptions of a single social process to paradigms for analysis and interpretation. Some sociological theories explain aspects of the social world and enable prediction about future events, while others function as broad perspectives which guide further sociological analyses. Sociologists develop theories to explain social phenomena. A theory is a proposed relationship between two or more concepts. In other words, a theory is explanation for why or how a phenomenon occurs.

Sociological theory is developed at multiple levels, ranging from grand theory to highly contextualized and specific micro-range theories. There are many middle-range and micro-range theories in sociology. Because such theories are dependent on context and specific to certain situations, it is beyond the scope of this text to explore each of those theories. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce some of the more well-known and most commonly used grand and middle-range theories in sociology.

Kenneth Allan proposed the distinction between sociological theory and social theory. In Allan’s usage, sociological theory consists of abstract and testable propositions about society. It often heavily relies on the scientific method, which aims for objectivity, and attempts to avoid passing value judgments. In contrast, social theory, according to Allan, focuses on commentary and critique of modern society rather than explanation. Social theory is often closer to Continental philosophy; thus, it is less concerned with objectivity and derivation of testable propositions, and more likely to pass normative judgments

Different people see Sociological & theory in different ways. Different people have regarded different aspects of sociology as theory and students are also involved because their works are based on theories. How do we define a theory? In other to give an answer to this question, we must have some definition which must help us in this task.

Meaning and Definitions of Sociological Theories

1.  According to Abraham Kaplan, “theory is a way to think about a disturbing situation which allow us to change or modify our habits or replacing by new ones as the social situation demands”.
2.  According to Merton, “sociological theory refers to those statements which are logically interconnected and from which empirical uniformities can be drawn”.
3.  According to Humans “theory is a set of concepts is which descriptive concepts states that what is the theory about and operative concepts shows the properties of theory nature. It means that theory is a set of propositions (statements) which form a deductive system”.
4. According to Thomas Ward he has a comprehensive definition, that, “theory is a logical deductive and inductive system of concepts and statements which gives a relationship between two or more variables and from which testable hypothesis can be drawn”.
5. Ritzer defined sociological theory as, “set of interrelated ideas that allow for the systematization of knowledge of the social world. This knowledge, he noted, can then be used to explain the social world and make predictions about the future of the world.”

It is concluded from the above definitions that, “theory is a set of proposition, interconnected and form a system of deduction and induction also show the way to further observation and experiment”.

CHARACTERIST1C OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

Theories are thoughts and ideas used to explain particular Social phenomenon or situations in society. It is a set of systematically related propositions aimed at explaining a particular situation. They are thoughts, ideas, or conceptual schemes used to solve societal problems. A theory is good and useful when it is able to solve problems successfully.

1. Sociological theories attempts to explain and investigate problems, issues or events within the context of observable social phenomenon, they attempt to offer scientific and theoretical explanation which on the basis of the past have immediate applicability and are also capable of application to similar problems in the future. All theories attempt more than anything also the question “Why”.
2. All contemporary sociological theories are selective in their analysis of social phenomenon. No one theory con interest or explain a total social phenomenon, such as; the Grand Theory by Talcott Parsons and middle range theories by Robert Merton.
3. Contemporary sociological theories must be empirically grounded. They are not merely thoughts or speculations. They are not “armed chair theories” but are based on observable facts that can be subjected to scientific observation and analysis. They are thoughts backed by verified fact or knowledge.
4. Sociological theories tends to state scientific and observable relationships between variables usually between the dependent and independent variables.

5. All sociological theories attempts to solve the problem of order in the society,
6. All contemporary sociological theories deal with social phenomenon that are either imposed or generated by the individuals and these imposed or generated phenomena must either be subjective or objective.

Finally, any sociological theory that does not fall into these set of categories is not qualified to be called a sociological theory.

Types of Sociological Theories:

Different sociologists have classified sociological theory into different types. According to Boskoff in a volume entitled “Modern Sociological Theory” classified into two types:

1. Social theory
2. Non-social theory

Humans identifies the two types of theory:

1. The Normative Theory
2. Non-normative theory

Non-Normative theory is further classified into:

1. Structural
2. Functional
3. Psychological theories

Helmut Wagner classification is as under:

1. Positive sociological theories.
2. Interpretative sociological theories.
3. Non-Scientific Or evaluative social theories.

Stanley Cohen; (1968) in his book “Modern Social Theory” out lined four broad types of theories and they are as follows: –

1. Analytical Theory: These are like theories of mathematics or logic which may state nothing about the real world but consist of some sets of axiomatic statements which are true by definition and from which other statements ore derived for example Adam Smith’s their on human economy which stress that people tend to maximize their gains while minimizing their losses.
2. Normative Theory: These theory elaborates a set of ideal state of which one may aspire for example, ideologist fall within this category Normative theories are subjective in the sense that they deal with the ideal or what ought to be rather than what is.

4. Metaphysical Theory: These are theories which are beyond the senses in other words, they have no empirical foundation. A good example is Darwin’s theory on Evolution of man and Malthusian’s theory of population.
5. Scientific Theories: This is ideally a universal empirical statement which exacts a causal connection between two or more variables (or types of events). At this simplest, it has this form e.g. whenever x occurs they Y occur X = Y. Scientific theories are universal because it state something about the condition under which some events or types of events always occur.

Every sociologist has its own classification but most of them are agreed on the following various types of sociological theory:

1. Formal & Informal Theories: Formal theories are based on the structured and organized set of assumptions and propositions which are derived through systematic and Scientific Methods. Formal theories are open for verification in the field. In formal social theories are unstructured and unorganized based on the individual personal thinking and likes and dislikes. No strict logic and scientific methods are used in informal theories.
2. Descriptive & Explanatory Theories: The descriptive theories are simple and theoretical which gives answer to the questions, what, how, and where. Explanatory theories are clear, specific and logical. It gives explanatory theories are clear, specific and logical. It gives explanation through cause and effect relationship between two independent and dependent variables. These theories gives full explanation of the concepts.
3. Ideological & Scientific Theories: Ideological theories are based on some ideologies. It is a biased type of theories and qualifies the philosophy of biasness. It have its own aims and contents those particular contents which are in favour and support the some ideology while it does not contain. The propositions which goes against its philosophy. Scientific theories are empirically testable, objective and neutral and also is a source of information. These theories are based on scientific observations and philosophy.
4. Intuitive & Objective Theories: Intuitive means immediate understanding without reasoning. These theories are based on the personal experience and long concentration of the scholar. In intuitive theory the contents cannot be repeated by scholar in a particular discipline. Intuition has been a source of many discoveries and inventions both in natural and social services but this cannot be repeated by an average researcher. The objective theories maintain the fundamental requirements of objectivity of all costs. The researcher or scholar does not include his personal feelings and attitudes into the theory. The researcher remains a neutral person and deeps the objectivity of the theory in mind. These are basically the experimental theories.
5. Inductive & Deductive Theories: In sociology the inductive theories are used commonly. These are based on observations. Inductive theories focus on from particular to general. Deductive theories are based on classical logic and self-evident truth. It focus on from general to particular.
6. Microscopic & Macroscopic Theories: The microscopic theories study the minutes things. These theories focus on a few individuals, small groups, role, status etc. These theories goes into depth and study the small things thoroughly. While the macroscopic theories are general theories which covering all human societies. These study things at large and high level. These theories work on the global basis and making generalization.
7. Structural Functional & Conflict Theories: Structural functional theories are the explanation of functionalist who are trying to bring order, integration, equilibrium and harmony in the social structure. These theories gives explanation about the structural aspects of a social situation and describes that how the normative order is functioning is that social structure.

Conclusion: Dynamic aspects of the social phenomena. The normative order is consider as a problem and social system is not based on harmony, peace and order. There exists opposition, conflict and tension in the social structure. So, these theories defines the conflict aspect and situation of the social system. We conclude from the above discussion that every types of sociological theory is workable in a given time and place. All types of social theories are very important for the structure and function of a social system.

Theoretical Perspectives of Sociology

Sociologists view society in different ways. Some see the world basically as a stable and ongoing entity. They are impressed with the endurance of family, organised religion and other social institutions. Some sociologists see society as composed many groups in conflict, competing for limited resources. To other sociologists, the most fascinating aspects of the social world are the everyday, routine interactions among individuals that we sometimes take for granted.

These different perspectives of society are aft the ways of examining the same phenomena. Sociological imagination may employ any of a number of theoretical approaches in order to study human behaviour. From these approaches, sociologists develop theories to explain specific types of behaviour. A theory is a set of ideas which claims to explain how something works. A sociological theory is therefore a set of ideas which claims to explain how society or aspects of society works.

There are three perspectives which are mostly used by sociologists and can be described as follows:

• The Functionalist Perspective
• Conflict or Marxist Perspective
• Interactionist Perspective

1. Functionalist Perspective: The ‘functionalist perspective’ which is often referred to as ‘functional approach’ or ‘structural-functionalism’ or ‘functionalism’ has been associated with the work of sociologists such as Talcott Parson, Robert K. Merton, Kingsely Davis and others. Functionalist analysis has a long history in sociology. It is prominent in the work of August Comte and Herbert Spencer, two of the founding fathers of sociology. It was developed by Emile Durkheim and subsequently by Radcliffe-Brown, Davis and Moore and refined by Talcott Parsons. In the view of functionalists, society is like a living organism in which each part of the organism contributes to its survival. The basic unit of society and its various parts are understood primarily in terms of their relationship to the whole.

According to functionalist view, various parts of social structure have functions for the maintenance and survival of the system. In determining the functions of various parts of social structure, functionalists are guided by the following ideas. Societies have certain basic needs or requirements which must be met if they are to survive. These requirements are known as functional prerequisites. The parts of social structure are to see how the basic requirements are to be met.

From a functionalist perspective, society is regarded as a system. A system is an entity made up of interconnected and interrelated parts. From this point of view, it follows that each part will in some way affect every other part and the system as a whole. If the system is to survive, its various parts must have some degree of fit or compatibility.

Parsons formulates the concept of ‘functional imperatives, arguing that there are four crucial functions that every society must perform, otherwise the society will die These are (1) Adaptation, (2) Goal attainment (3) Integration and (4) Pattern maintenance. These four functions constitute the scheme known as AGIL.

2. Conflict/Marxist Perspective: In contrast to functionalists’ emphasis on stability and consensus, conflict sociologists see the social world in continual struggle. The conflict perspective assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of conflict or tension among competing groups. Such conflict need not be violent; it can take form of labour negotiations, party politics, and competition among religious groups for members, or disputes over cuts in the federal budget.

As we saw earlier, Karl Marx viewed struggle between social classes as inevitable, given the exploitation of workers under capitalism. Expanding on Marx’s, sociologists and other social scientists have come to see conflict not merely as a class phenomenon but as a part of everyday life in all societies. Thus in studying any culture, organization or social group, sociologists want to know who benefits, and who dominates at the expense of others.

They are concerned with the conflicts between women and men, parents and children, cities and suburbs, and whites and blacks, to name only a few. In studying such questions, conflict theorists are interested in how society’s institutions including the family, Government, religion, education, and the media-may help to maintain the privileges of some groups and keep others in a subservient position.

Like functionalists, conflict sociologists tend to use the macro-level approach, obviously, though, there is a striking difference between these two sociological perspectives. Conflict theorists are primarily concerned with the kinds of changes that conflict can bring about, whereas functionalists look for stability and consensus. Throughout most of the 1900s. American sociology was more influenced by the functionalist perspective. However, the conflict approach has become increasingly persuasive since the late 1960s.

One important contribution of conflict theory is that it has encouraged sociologists to view society through the eyes of these segments of the population who rarely influence decision making. Early black sociologists such as W.F.B. Du Bois provided research that they hoped would assist the struggle for a racially egalitarian society. Du Bois had little patience for theorists like Herbert Spencer who seemed content with the status quo (Rudwick, Black well and Janowitz). Feminist scholars have not only challenged stereotyping of women; they have also argued for a gender-balanced study of society in which women’s experiences and contributions are as visible as those of men (R. Collins, Cook, Fish, James.)

3. Interactionist Perspective: The functionalists and conflict perspectives both analyze society at the macro level. These approaches attempt to explain society wise patterns of behaviour. However, many contemporary sociologists are more interested in understanding society as a whole through an examination of social interactions at the micro level – small groups, two friends casually talking with one another, a family and so forth.

The interactionist perspective generalizes about fundamental or everyday forms of social interaction. From these generalizations, interactionists seek to explain both macro and micro-level behaviour. Interactionism is a sociological framework for viewing human beings as living in a world of meaningful objects. These “objects” may include material things, actions, other people, relationships and even symbols.

Focusing on the micro-level permits interactionist researchers to better understand the larger society. For example, interactionists have studied the sometimes less-than-honest bargaining practices of automobile dealers and condominium salespeople. The researchers conclude that broad social and economic pressures on dealers and salespeople (such as the limited profit margins of car dealers) force some to employ dubious selling techniques (Farberman, Katovich and Diamond).

George Herbert Mead is widely regarded as the founders of the interactionist perspective. Mead taught at the University of Chicago from 1893 until his death in 1931. Mead’s sociological analysis like that of Charles Horton Cooley often focused on human interactions within one-to-one situations and small groups.

FUNCTIONS OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES

Theories in any discipline have certain function which they perform in investigation info societal problems,

1. It extends the Scope of the original empirical findings by showing the interrelationship between various variables.
2. It provides facts for the accumulation of both theory and research findings.
3. If increase the fruitfulness of research through the successive exploration of the implicajiohs of research findings.
4. lt introduces a ground for the predictions.
5. It entails precision which is derivable from test-ability or verification The importance of precision in theory was stated by R.K, Merton when he wrote those theories which admits a precise precision confirmed by observation taken on strategic importance since they provide an initial basis for choice between competing hypothesis.

The Importance of Sociological Theory

The importance of sociological theory lies in how it gives us a way to speak about, describe and interpret various behaviours. Many of the facts that we take for granted about ourselves as human beings in an organized society have come to us through the study of sociological theory.

A theory is a proposed relationship between two or more concepts. In sociology, theories are statements of reason why particular facts about the social world are related. The scope of the social issues in question may range from exact descriptions of a single process to examples or models for analysis and interpretation. Some theories attempt to tell us about the possible outcome of future events in the social world, while others function as broad perspective which guides further sociological analyses. The importance of theory in the area of sociology cannot be overemphasized. Theories such as the social conflict theory, structural functionalism theory, positivism theory, field theory, rational choice theory, and so on, were developed to explain social phenomena.

In sociology, a theory states the hypothesis of a set of entities or relevant system, and permits statements on the possible or envisaged outcomes on their future states. As captured in Little (2010), a theory may also specify probabilistic relations among entities, giving rise to statements about the distribution of possible future states of the system. Little (2010) also noted that a theory provides a set of “bridge” statement that permits the theorist to connect the consequences of the theory with predictions about observable state of affairs.

Sociology is an examination of human beings in social contexts. It entails observing how people in specific communities interact, and surveying and conducting experiments to yield new data on which to build sociological knowledge. Interconnectivity or interdependence is the main characteristic of a society. Sociological theories are frameworks explaining how certain aspects or elements of society are interconnected to the larger processes or environment. Application of theories helps determine the interdependent aspects of the co-existence of individuals or groups. Theories in the area of sociology will help people understand how society works and how they can be a useful part in it.

Furthermore, theories helps in decision making with regards to factors affecting a certain community as wrong decisions often result from inadequate knowledge of the structure and other peculiarities of the society. These wrong decisions may have a far-reaching impact on people’s lives. In addition, addressing societal problems such as alcoholism, high criminal rate, requires decision makers to have a fair knowledge of the problems and their root causes. Vassos, while contributing to the subject, stated that sociological theories provide insights on social issues, thereby enabling appropriate relevant authority to adequately and effectively tackle the problems. Sociologists focus on how a society is structured, how each and every individual works as part of the whole, how society has changed over the years and predictions of future changes. In essence, sociological theories help people understand society and knowledge of the world as it grows.