Welcome to
Principles of Sociology
Babar Ali Qalbani | Monday & Wednesday
02:15PM – 03:45 PM
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‘Travel leaves you speechless, then
turns you into a storyteller’
Ibn-e Battuta
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Foundations of Sociology
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Origin of the Phrase - Sociology
• August Comte (1798-1857) was the first social scientist to use the
term sociology.
• So comes from the Latin word socius – meaning society, association,
companionship, or togetherness – and Greek word logos – meaning
study or science.
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What is Sociology?
█ Sociology: Scientific study of social behavior,
culture and human groups.
█ It focuses on:
– How relationships influence people’s
attitudes and behavior
– How societies
develop and change
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Sociology and
the Social Sciences
• Study influence that society has impact on people’s
attitudes and behavior
• Seek to understand ways in which people interact and
shape society
• Examine social relationships scientifically.
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Types of Sociology
• Basic / Pure Sociology: Sociological research for the purpose of
making discoveries about life in human groups, not for making
changes in those groups. ( study and observe)
• Applied Sociology: The use of sociology to solve problems – from
micro level (e.g., classroom interaction and family relationships) to
the macro level (e.g., crime, poverty). Involves field work.
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Human Interactions
We, as human beings depend on other human beings to form a part of
society.
Belongingness, sense of security, interests, common interests, race,
heredity, origins, believes, ethics, moral values are some common
bases of formations for a society.
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Historical Overview
• Even ancient people tried to figure out how social life works.
• They too, asked questions like why war exists, why some people are
rich and other poor, or why some are more powerful than others?
• They based their answers on superstitions, myths and even position
of stars. They did not test their assumptions.
• Science, in contrast, requires theories that can be tested by research.
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Early Contributors
• August Comte
• Emile Durkheim
• Karl Marx
• Max Weber
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Emile Durkheim and Social
Integration
• Emile Durkheim succeeded in getting sociology recognized as
separate academic discipline.
• Showed how social forces affect people’s behavior.
• Conducted research on suicide rate: found that each country has a
different suicide
• Also found that different groups within a country have different
suicide rates. Males compared to females.
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Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Society divided between two classes that clash in pursuit of interests.
Emphasized group identification and associations that influence one’s
place in society.
Max Weber (1864-1920)
Focused on bureaucracy as the most efficient way to organize large
organizations, governments, and businesses. Examples, leaders
personality and qualities and style of work environment.
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Sociology in context to
Psychology
• Sociologists have also looked to the field of psychology for insights
that help inform their understanding of the socialization process.
• Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) made important contributions that early
socialization is critically important to personality development.
• In addition, he focus on conscious perceptions, identifying
the importance of the unconscious mind.
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Psychology and Sociology
The id is made up of our basic biological drives and needs. They are self
centered rather than socially centered. Most basic craving.
• The ego is our “self,” our personality, which balances the urges of the
id with the requirements of society. Through socialization, we learn to
compress our id and develop the ego.
Tells us what is right, what is not.
• Example: Not eating when in classroom.
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Psychology and Sociology
• The SUPEREGO consists of our internalized social controls, culture,
Values, and norms. It provides guidelines for making judgments.
It strongly focuses on moral outcomes in accordance to belief system
Example : Cheating in exams from online sources is quite easy, but
morally it is wrong to cheat.
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Other Psychological
perspectives
• Cognitive development
• Examines how children develop the ability to learn, understand, and
engage in logical thoughts.
• Moral development
• Examined how people progress from the observations, to understand
others stand points and develop an abstract sense of fairness through
the passage of time.
Based on social and cultural norms, rules, and laws.
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What is Sociological Theory?
• Theory: Set of statements that seeks to explain
problems, actions, or behavior
• Effective theories have
explanatory and predictive power
• Theories are not final statements
about human behavior
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After Hiroshima, Japanese as nation
became aggressive towards USA.
Life after Chernobyl explosion was
never the same for Soviet Union
(Russia).
FIFA world cup bought a Non-Hydrocarbon socio-
economic change to Qatar
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Global Social issues
• Poverty and Homeless – One quarter of the world faces poverty issues, as much as
clean drinking water, basic health and education. Example. Africa.
• Climate change – Global warming, glaciers melting and natural calamities are some
reasons. Example. Very frequent floods in Japan and Korea.
• Over population - United States has more immigrants than any other country; 13.6%
of the U.S. population identifies as an immigrant. Example. China and India
have the highest population in world.
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Global Social issues
• Immigration complexities - Research says that United States has more immigrants
than any other country; 13.6% of the U.S. population identifies as an immigrant.
Example. Migrating from under developed countries to 1st world countries.
• Civil Rights and Racial Discrimination – Human rights and bifurcations in the basis
of people’s color and ethnicities. Example. African American racism in USA.
• Gender Inequality – This remains one of the leading issues globally, women have
witnessed much more discrimination then men.
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Sociology in
the Global Community
Would you willingly pay more for a cup of tea/coffee if you knew that the
worker who picked the leafs/beans would benefit from the higher price?
Diamonds
– Diamonds are the most unique and most experience commodity one can
own. Do you know the process and workers involved in this business risk
their lives to extract this valuable element for you,
would your re-think before buying a diamond next time ?
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Major Theoretical
Perspectives
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Major Theoretical
Perspectives
█ Functionalist perspective
█ Conflict perspective
█ Interactionist perspective
Functionalist Perspective
█ Emphasizes the way parts of a society are structured to
maintain its stability
– Talcott Parsons (1902–1972)
• Viewed society as vast network of connected parts
• Each helps maintain the system as a whole
Functionalist Perspective
– Manifest functions: Institutions are open, stated, conscious functions that involve
intended and recognized consequences of an aspect of society. Directly approaching
the aim.
– Example. hospitals are expected to provide better healthcare to the people.
– Higher education helps make future brighter for the generation.
– Latent functions: Unconscious or unintended functions that may reflect hidden
purposes of an institution or act. In directly.
– An example of latent function can be that in a hospital the doctors while treating a
patient suffering from a certain kind of incurable disease somehow saves the patient,
thus, discovering a new method of treating that particular disease.
Functionalist Perspective
█ Dysfunctions: Elements or processes of society that may disrupt a social system
or reduce its stability.
Example.
• Poverty
• less deserving getting paid higher.
• Illegal immigration into a country.
Conflict Perspective
█ Assumes social behavior best understood in terms of
conflict or tension between competing groups. Conflicts
occur in the society due to competition.
█ Differences can be on the basis of Attitudes, beliefs, values
and needs.
█ Can also be on the basis of personal differences and sub
cultural vs national cultural difference.
Conflict Perspective
• The Marxist view: Conflict is part of everyday life in all societies
• Conflict theorists interested in how institutions may help maintain
privileges of some groups and keep others subservient.
• Societies have a tendency of being in conflict.
• Distribution of power and wealth remains unequal.
• Powerful groups dominate other social aspects of society.
• Example: Using power and contacts get their works done easily.
Conflict Perspective
█ The British India - Colonization
– The British: Policy makers, tax collectors, dominated on the
local men, utilizes most of the natural resources like land
and resources.
– The natives: In pain and poor condition, less privileged,
depend on the British policies.
– So because of this inequality it evoke frustration and lead to
war of independence.
Interactionist theory
As human beings, we associate perception and social values and norms with individuals when we interact with them
in different time and settings.
For example.
• When a chemical engineer introduces him/herself , we will recall all the set of associations we have with that
field or knowledge.
• We then start to judge and look at her/his body language.
– Humans viewed as living in a world of meaningful objects
█ Generalizes about everyday forms of social interaction to explain society as a whole
Nonverbal communication: Includes
gestures, facial expressions, and postures
Interactionist Perspective
█ George Herbert Mead (1863–1931)
– Regarded as founder of interactionist perspective.
Gave emphasis on symbolic importance of learning.
– Human being react on the basis of meaning that thing
holds for them.
█ Erving Goffman (1922–1982)
– Dramaturgical approach:
People seen as theatrical performers
Dramaturgical approach
People take up their social roles, as if on stage.
Maintaining successful interaction with the perceived expectation.
Audience
• Front stage:
Impression management: We present appearance in order for the other person to establish an impression about
us, emphasis is given to non-verbal.
Example: wear a suit to look more professional, be physically/ mentally fresh if a person is a Yoga teacher.
Body language like – an army men may stand active and maintain strong eye contact while interacting.
• Backstage : act behind the audience can be totally different, for example a lawyer may get frustrated while
resolving case back in his office, then his presentation in the court room.
• Team performance: A collective approach by team mates in order to run the show smoothly.
We eventually, with our social roles, status, talent and creativity comes together and literally give the performance
of the life. That is the social reality.
Dramaturgical approach
Examples of Team roles
Students behave as a team to maintain the decorum of
the classroom.
Reality show judges coordinate and perform
as a team to give a collective decision
End of Lecture
Thank you
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