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Importance of sociology
Impact of multiculturalism in society
Importance of sociology
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Sociology is the study of groups of people and how they interact with each other. The scientific study of social life, social change, social causes and the consequences of human behavior. Sociology is a science because it uses the scientific method to establish truth. The term of sociology is taken from the words “socio” and “logos," socio means society and logos mean science. Therefore, sociology is a study of human interaction in a social life. Sociologists seek to analyze and explain why people interact with others and belong to groups. They also examine the causes of social problems and how they can be addressed. Events in our social world affect our individual lives. Many individual problems are rooted in social or public issues. Social …show more content…
Most physical or hard sciences such as physics, biology, and chemistry are considered more legitimate because unlike hard sciences sociology has not resulted in being able to engineer predictable social results. Though the task of understanding human behavior is more difficult than understanding the natural world. It is extremely difficult to predict any one individual’s behavior or response to their circumstances. Like hard sciences, sociology has made important discoveries about human behavior that have eased human suffering and provided important insights into both individuals and groups. Through rigorous methods, sociologists answer the questions many people have about how humans behave and interact. Social studies do better at predicting larger patterns of behavior over time. Human interaction shapes our physical health and medical conditions. Our geography and physical environment also affect our interactions with one another as well as our individual behavior, and how we are impacted by our environment in ways shaped by our social circumstances. Scientists and sociologists can help us understand the role that power and politics play in …show more content…
The goal is to learn the purposes and consequences of practices and behaviors of the group being studied, instead of judging cultural practices and social behavior as good or bad. This term does not require that social scientists accept all the beliefs and behaviors of the societies they study. Some behaviors or idea from other cultures can be difficult to understand, being tolerant and understanding is not always easy. It can be difficult to maintain when we 're confronted with cultures whose practices or beliefs conflict with our own. Though imposing these values on people with a different culture is ethnocentric and, therefore, has become controversial. A key component of cultural relativism is the concept that nobody, not even researchers, comes from a neutral position. The way to deal with our own assumptions is not to pretend that they don 't exist but rather to acknowledge them, and then use the awareness that we are not neutral to inform our conclusions. Sociologist study these other cultures to understand why their beliefs, values, rules and language are different. By doing so we open up so much more and learn from the upbringing and culture of others. As for how we differentiate and how we are
Culture Relativism: putting aside any judgment or beliefs against a culture different from one’s own culture. In the narrators experience he is able to collect his thoughts and understand that their way of life is different from his own and that he must not judge them in order to truly understand them.
Having an ethnocentric attitude changes how we view other cultures and limits our capability to be culturally relative to others not a part of our own. Ethnocentrism by definition is the “evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of
After analyzing cultural relativism over the semester, I have come to the conclusion that cultural relativism under anthropological analysis defines every single culture with some aspect of worth as viewed by an individual within that society. Franz Boas, termed the “Father of American Anthropology”, first introduced the concept of cultural relativism. He wanted people to understand the way certain cultures conditioned people to interact with the world around them, which created a necessity to understand the culture being studied. In my words, cultural relativism is the concept that cultures should be viewed from the people among that culture. When studied by anthropologists, cultural relativism is employed to give all cultures an equal
Sociology is the study of the relationships that humans have with each other and social institutions. It aims to understand the links that exist between individuals and the social structures around them and also the functions that these social institutions perform in society.
We live in a world that nothing is, as it seems. Every one is raised within societies that have different cultures and subcultures. We conform to the norm and judge the not norm as influences come from media, peers, authority, and so on because we grow into ethnocentrism people. It takes great self-awareness to separate ethnocentrism when looking at any subject matter because our social norm runs deep. But it is imperative to gain cultural relativism if you want to understand any culture outside your
Ethnocentrism can be defined as an individual’s belief that the ethnic group or cultural they identify with is superior to all others. “The ethnocentric person judges other groups and other cultures by the standards of his or her own group” (Schaefer 34).
Ethnocentrism is when one culture judge’s another culture by the standard of their own (Health, 2001). Stereotypes, biases, and prejudices against other people are all in a sense a form of ethnocentrism (Astle, Barton, Johnson, & Mill, 2014). It is okay to be proud of your own culture, but you need to remember to do so in such a way, that you are not putting down any other culture (Arnold, 2016).
Webster’s dictionary defines ethnocentrism as “The tendency to evaluate other groups according to the values and standards of one's own ethnic group, especially with the conviction that one's own ethnic group is superior to the other groups.” When first reading this definition, one would naturally agree that ethnocentrism does exist in our world and society, often confusing it with patriotism. However, many do not realize that ethnocentrism is, has been, and continues to be a leading cause for violence in America. Different ethnic groups such as African Americans and Native Americans have suffered through years of violent crimes against them because of the white man’s ethnocentric views of themselves when compared with other races and cultures.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, cultural relativism is ‘the theory in which beliefs, customs, and morality exist in relation to the particular culture from which they originate and are not absolute.’
I think everyone should ask themselves what is sociology? I believe that sociology is the scientific study of social behavior or society, including its origins, development, organization, networks, and institutions. This is a huge topic to cover. Sociology explains the way people act and think, based on
Before I started taking the course of sociology I wasn’t really expecting to learn anything, it was just supposed to be an easy online class. However, that was not the case. It challenged my mind. I started to see sociology all around me, starting with family, then friends, and how I see things overall in general. The fact that we have an everyday life in which there are patterns in ways of living is what sets a platform for a sociological breakdown and for being a part in what we do. A better way of understanding ourselves. We use sociology in many ways every day. One central and important study of sociology is the study of everyday social life. Everyday life and sociology are definitely two different words and situations, but they tend to hold a close relationship. While sociology is the study of the human interaction, everyday life consists of everyday human interaction. Everyday life is filled by human beings interacting with one another, ideas, and emotions. Sociology studies the interactions with all of these and shows how mere interaction resulted in things such as ideas. For an example, race and ethnicity are important concepts in the field of sociology and are ones that are studied a great deal. Race plays a large role in everyday human interactions and sociologists want to study how, why, and what the outcomes are of these interactions. Current sociological theories focus mainly on how there are many different factors in our everyday items of life, like movies. We were assigned a final to write a review for a movie in sociological form. The movie that was on the list that also happened to be one of my favorite movies, Toy Story. When we were assigned the assignment, I never thought about how in-depth it was with sociol...
Ethnocentrism, as stated above, means the belief that one’s own culture is above and beyond all other cultures. Although this is somewhat of a shallow definition, it still provides an adequate explanation of a very complex issue. We see ethnocentrism every single day, in all aspects of life. The United States of America is a prime example of ethnocentrism is action. The people of this country have a tendency to disregard other cultures, instead believing that American culture is the only way to go. This is not to say that this is how everyone thinks, although most people, at one time or another, have had thoughts along these lines.
Sociology is a study of society social life, social change, and social causes and consequences of human behaviour and allows us to gain an understanding of the structure and dynamics of today’s society, looking at the interlinking links patterns of human behaviour. Sociology looks at the in which social structure and institutions affect our everyday life. Sociological imagination was founded by C. Wright mills in the 1950`s it is an overall understanding of that some of the things that happen in society may lead to a particular outcome. Mills said it is “the vivid awareness of the relationship between experience and wider society.” sociological imagination can also be defined as the ability to look at how sociological situations can unfold due to how everyone is different. The way we behave is shaped by the situation that we find ourselves in, the values and norms that we have and the way that other members of society act around us. It is also a way of thinking about how things in society have led to a particular outcome, and understanding of what led to that specific outcome. Sociological imagination is an ability to look at things socially and how they interact and influence each other gaining an understanding of different cultures and class systems.
What are the chief accusations against ethnocentrism? Ethnocentrism, its critics claim, imposes a Western conceptual schema on non-Western forms of life, whose concepts often fail to fit the non-Western realities they purport to describe. This problem, however, is not peculiar to ethnocentrism, but is analogous to the problem of conceivability in the philosophy of the mind and the problem of obstacle-concepts in the philosophy of science in general. As the latter appears to be slightly less controversial, I will address it first.
What is Sociology one might ask, Sociology is the study of human behaviour, collective action, interaction, and the consequences of these behaviours, actions and interactions. We study sociology. “ Things are not what they seem”, Peter Berger. Was a famous statement and the of sociology ams to prove it. Sociologists aim to “look behind curtains” to understand the complexity of society. Sociologist want to find out why people react and behave in certain ways. Its important for us to study sociology because its essential for peaceful and prosperous living. The study of society helps us analyze the quality of our everyday lives such as: Inequalities in the wealth of nations and classes, problems in gender relations, ethnic, racial and religious