Sociology and Human Behaviour

HM321
Sociology Not common sense or
Stereotypes
Dr. Cedric Aimal Edwin

Grading
What is the Standard?
Prerequisites

Assignments: 10%
Quiz:
5%
Mid-term: 30%
Project:
20%
Final:
35%
Total:
100%

What is Sociology?
1. What is sociology?
Weird field
American Individualism Vs The Power of the Social

Emile Durkheim: Suicide

Emile Durkheim: Suicide

A: Altruistic Suicide
- excessive integration of individuals by social forces
- suicide bomber
B: Fatalistic Suicide
- Too much regulation
- Slavery
C: Egoistic Suicide
- occurs when people feel totally detached from society.
- No goals outside the self = meaningless
- elderly in the United States
D: Anomic Suicide
- occurs when the disintegrating forces in the society make individuals feel
lost or alone
- Loss of social norms, limits, regulations = frustration
- Teenage suicide

Norms
- Moral rules, standards for behaviour in a
society of group

Defining the Sociological

Perspective
Sociology is the scientific study of
human society and social interactions.
What makes sociology scientific?
Levels of Understanding Drug Use
Personal experience
with drug use

Awareness of friends
and associates patterns
of drug use

Systematic study
of a random
sample of drug
users

The Sociological Imagination

C. Wright Mills coined the term
sociological imagination to
refer to ...the vivid awareness
of the relationship between
private experience and the
wider society.
C. Wright Mills

Sociology and Common Sense

Common sense assumptions are usually based on very
limited observation.
Moreover, the premises on which common sense
assumptions are seldom examined.
Sociology seeks to:
use a broad range of carefully selected observations; and
theoretically understand and explain those observations.

While sociological research might confirm common

sense observation, its broader base and theoretical
rational provide a stronger basis for conclusions.

Sociology and Science

The Scientific Method

Science is ...a body of

systematically arranged
knowledge that shows
the operation of general
laws.
As a science, sociology
employs the scientific
method

Analyze Data

Gather Data

Choose research design

Formulate hypotheses

Review of literature

Sociology and the Social Sciences

The Development of Sociology

Sociology emerged as a separate
discipline in the nineteenth century
This was a time of great social
upheaval due largely to the French and
Industrial Revolutions
Several early sociologists shaped the
direction of the discipline

Plagiarism and the University as an

Institution
What is plagiarism?
Why is it wrong?
What will happen?