The Sociologic Relationship Between Population, Socioal Structure and the Individual

The Sociologic Relationship Between Population, Socioal Structure and the Individual

Sociology is the scientific study of human social activity. In the effort to study human social activity sociologists brake it down into objects of analysis. The three objects of analysis are population, social structure, and the individual. Each can be differentiated but each is also integrally related to the other two.

As an object of analysis sociologists defines population as an aggregate of people in a geographical area that has size and longevity. The size has a lower limit of two and no upper maximum. Longevity varies and has a lower limit of zero with no known upper limit. Populations are by definition made up of individuals. The study of human population is termed demography. Demography studies the size and composition of a population, as well as migration and location of the population. Demographers track birth rates and death rates and monitor the population growth and try to explain them in terms of the social system's development. A good example is the Malthusian theory in which population increases geometrically and the resources increase arithmetically resulting in a lack of resources resulting in famine and war. Fortunately the theory is flawed in that it does not consider social factors such as artificial contraception and the burden of large families in a post industrial society. The way a population interacts with the environment creates a social system. The social system draws on the population and affects the population. An example of this is in India where the ratio of men to women is 108 (108 males to every 100 female) while the sex ratio of most other nations is below 100. The cause for this disparity ...

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...l acts with children. Socialization internalizes these norms in the individual shaping the resulting personality of the individual. Lack of exposure to a social system result in someone who is not human as in the cases of Anna or Isabelle, two girls isolated at birth for 5 and 6 years respectively. Both these girls lacked any ability to speak, smile or even laugh. They lacked all aspects of personality. In effect they were not human as a result of their isolation. However exposure to the social system changed them rapidly toward being human.

In summary: population is an aggregation of people in a geographic area, a social system is two or more roles tied together by relationships of interdependence, and individuals are humans with the ability to symbol and the personality that they have developed. Each object of analysis greatly affects the other two.