Tag: basics

Journalism is the gathering of news and information about the state of society, such as current events, trends and issues. Journalists report these news stories aiming to inform large numbers of people through media outlets like newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the internet. In some ways, good journalism and sociology have a lot in common, as both seek to collect information about society, try to avoid deliberate bias, present the information in a balanced and fair way, and the use of evidence they have collected to justify the conclusions they reach. However most journalism is biased and exaggerated, just to attract a larger audience.

Sociology is concerned with studying many things which most people usually already know something about. Everyone will have some knowledge and understanding of family life, the education system, work, the mass media and crime, simply by being part of and being a member of a society. This leads many people to assume that the topic studies by sociologists and the explanations that sociologists produced are really just common sense or what “everyone knows”. However this is a very mistaken assumption.

Biology or naturalistic explanations are those which assume that various kinds of human behaviour are natural or based on in-nate (inborn) biological characteristics, but if it were so then everyone on planet earth would have the same behavior regardless of where we lived, as people’s biological doesn’t change between societies.

Like sociology, psychology also studies people and has a range of research techniques and theories to support itself. However psychology tends to focus on the behaviour of individuals, why they come to think and behave as they do and how their minds work.Sociology on the other hand focuses more on social groups, community, organizations and social institutions as a whole.

Feral Children are children who, for one reason or another, miss out on some important stages of human learning as they have been removed from human contact and the normal processes of human socialization. They remain unaware of human social behaviour and language from a very early age and therefore fail to develop the behavioural aspects that we would regard as being human

Social processes are the various influences that control and regulate human behaviour, and help to keep societies running more or less smoothly and with some day-to-day stability. Two important social processes are socialization and social control.

It refers to the socialization that takes place beyond the family and the close community. It is carried out through agencies of secondary socialization such as the education system, the peer group ( a group of people of similar age and status ), the workplace, the mass media and religious institutions.

Primary socialization refers to socialization during the early years of childhood, and is carried out the family and the close community. It is during primary socialization that children first begin to learn about the basic values and norms and other features of the culture walling up the way of the life of the society they belong to. They also begin to acquire the sense of who they are an individual.

An individual is identified by the following:

▪️ Their age
▪️ Their sexual preference
▪️ Their gender
▪️ Their education
▪️ Their nationality
▪️ Their religion
▪️ Their income and the social class they belong to
▪️ Their occupation and workplace
▪️ Their health
▪️ Their ethnicity
▪️ The region they live in
▪️ Their family
▪️ Their preferred leisure activities
▪️ The goods that they purchase
▪️ How they dress-up

The consensus theory is the approach adopted by functional sociologists. It seems society as a whole working unit, quite similar to a human body. It suggests that just like the human body where every organ depends on the other one in some way to work harmoniously, so does the society. It believes that every individual and institution, they rely on each other to function properly.

The conflict theory is an approach that sees society as having many social issues and differences, with inequalities in wealth, power and status. All creating conflict between individuals and groups.

The Macro approach is one that focuses on the large scale structure of the society as a whole, while the micro approach is one that focuses on individuals and very small groups of people.

Social problems are tackled by the application of social policies. A social policy refers to the plans and actions of national local governments and various voluntary agencies designed to solve social problems and improve the life chances the citizens living in it.

Social problems are matters that are in some way harmful to members of the society, and that need something to be done to sort them out or the social balance would collapse, causing a chaos in the society. They cause difficulty, resentment and instability in the society and harm its individuals.

Racism is believing or acting as though an individual or a group is superior or inferior on the grounds of racial or ethnic origins, usually based on skin colour or other physical characteristics, and suggesting that groups defined as inferior have lower intelligence and abilities.

A stereotype is a generalized, over simplified view of the features of a social group, allowing for a few individual differences among its members. The assumption that all members of the group share the same features, attitudes and behavioural similarities.

“The Hidden Curriculum” refers to the attitude and behaviour which is taught through the school’s organisation and teacher’s attitudes but which are not part of the formal timetable.

Social control is the process of persuading or enforcing individuals to conform to the values and norms of a society.

Role Conflict is the conflict that arises between the successful performances of two or more roles at the same time.

Consumer goods are products and services that people buy to satisfy their need and desires, such as food, clothes, furniture etc.

Identity is about how individuals see and define themselves and how other people in their sociological environment see or define them.

Culture refers to the language, beliefs, values and norms, customs, roles, knowledge and skills which combine to make up the way of life of any society.

Objectivity means approaching topics with an open mind, avoiding any king of bias, and being prepared to submit research evidence that could prove the research of sociologists of the past, wrong.

Process by which individuals acquire the knowledge, language, social skills, and value to conform to the norms and roles required for integration into a group or community. It is a combination of both self-imposed (because the individual wants to conform) and externally-imposed rules, and the expectations of the others.

Roles are the patterns of behaviour which are expected from people in a society.

Norms are social rules which define correct or appropriate behaviour in a society or group.

Values are general beliefs about what is right and what is not.

Customs are social behavioural rules that have existed for a long time.

Sociology is the systematic study of human groups and social life in modern societies. It is concerned with the study of social institutions.