Download Sociological Questions

Sociological
Questions
The Sociological Questions
• Sociologists tend to focus
on the massive shifts in
the behaviours and
attitudes of groups and
whole societies.
• They see change as an
inevitable process.
• They are preoccupied
with whether social
change is patterned and
predictable, or arbitrary
and irregular.
The Sociological Questions
• The major question
that fascinates
sociologists is:
How does social
change come about?
The Sociological Questions
• Sociology developed
three main ways of
explaining social
change:
• From decay
• From cycles of growth
and decay
• From progress
The Sociological Questions
• From decay- social
change was seen as
being caused by decline
or degeneration
• From cycles of growth
and decay- societies
go through cycles of
growth and decay.
• From progress- social
•
change occurs as a result
of the phenomenon of
continuous progress.
Each new society builds
on the experiences of its
predecessors, and social
institutions change as a
result.
The Sociological Questions
• Since the nineteenth
century, some social
scientists began to
believe that social
change was caused
by a single factor or
by interplay of many
factors.
The Sociological Questions
• Reductionist theorysocial change
occurred as a result
of one factor
or
• Determinist theory- a
specific factor
determines the nature
of social change that
takes place.
The Sociological Questions
• Sociologists believe that
human behaviour is generally
patterned and therefore
potentially predictable. It is
important for them to identify
patterns.
• People within societies tend to
behave according to societal
norms (customary types of
behaviour). Therefore, the
extent to which a society will
accept social change is
predictable.
• Modernistic societies are more
likely to experience and accept
change than more traditional
societies
The Sociological Questions
• Sociologists tend to
•
•
•
•
look at one or more
of four aspects of
social change in their
studies:
Direction of change
Rate of change
Sources
Controllability
Direction of Change
• Is it positive or negative
change, and who says so?
Rate of Change
• Is the degree of change
•
•
•
slow, moderate or fast?
Is it radical change over a
short period, or slow
change that will continue
for decades?
Is the rate of change
slowing, staying steady,
or increasing?
What factors are affecting
this rate?
Sources
• What factors are behind the influences?
• (they might be exogenous influences,
coming from another society into this one,
or endogenous influences, coming from
within the society itself)
Example  Demographic Group
Controllability
• To what degree is it
possible to engineer or
restrict social change ?
(e.g. how to eliminate
gang-violence, child
abuse, poverty, the
divorce rate, teenage
smoking, drug-abuse,
etc.)