Sociology class - Essay Example

How can sociology help us understand how the world works and our roles in it? Sociology provides a systematic manner of studying the society. It provides us detailed knowledge about the working and activities of the world. Sociology leads us towards a better understanding of our own society, cultural norms, differences and similarities that exist. It also provides us with the information on the distribution of wealth, power and rights. Sociologists are, hence, in the search of the underlying factors that affect the lives of the people.

They contribute to understand the most apparent and hidden influences to improve the lives. They form opinions based on their studies and researches conducted in the society with different samples of people. They use a rationalized approach to know and understand the social relationships that exist. They do not accept what is apparent of the social players but aim at identifying through constant efforts and investigations the actual but hidden reasons and influences of those actions. The study of sociology, hence, provides us with a new and better way to see the world, the societies and the people dwelling in.

Sociological theories are the basis which helps in developing our understanding of the world. These theories are formed on the basis of the relationships that exist between two variables, elements of society or aspects of lives. The theories involve the basic understanding of how a change in one variable or aspect affects the other element, character group or aspect of the society. This way, we build up the understanding of changes that may be good or bad for our social life. The society consists of people and people have different perspectives, thoughts and values on different issues.

However, society of a particular region is build up with a number of different perspectives. Sociology further helps us in understanding these differences of thoughts and viewpoints. This understanding develops the basic knowledge of the conflicts that arise within the social constructs and helps us in maintaining a level of understanding whereby minor conflicts and differences are resolved by the people themselves. Sociology, hence, helps us in studying our relationship with other members of the society, knowing their values, understanding their respective roles and so on.

It hence, helps in forming our opinions about the world clearer and vivid. The sociological studies are not only helpful in understanding the relationships in general but also give knowledge of the various stereotypes, ethnicity, cultural diversity, gender difference, age factors and so on. The understanding of these factors leads to our basic and advanced knowledge of the functions that each member has to carry out. An example of such an understanding is the role of woman as a gender class who has much of the responsibilities related to the household.

Women are supposed to play a major role in the development and nurturing of the children. They have the responsibility to maintain the house. However, recent changes have evolved the role of women and they are, now, more burdened with an additional responsibility of helping the family financially by working, stepping in the business field and so on. The cultural norms, attitudes and relationships around us help in understanding our basic role in the house, community and the environment. The expectations of people lead to our understanding of what is expected of us.

We formulate our actions and reactions in the light of the roles bestowed upon us by the society. The study of sociology helps in enlightening these basic concepts and roles with vivid reasoning to maintain the stability of our actions in carrying out those roles. Sociology further illuminates the negative concepts that have been adopted as a part of our culture and helps us in changing the definition of those roles by changing our own actions. Society consists of people and people can change the social norms.

Sociological theories and concepts help us in understanding the positive and negative elements of our roles and call for an action to change the negativity element attached to it. The role theory, for instance, is the sociological answer to our role in the society. The role theory emphasizes on the expectations of the society and peers which formulate our actions. Role theory, hence, answers the question on understanding our roles. It simplifies the concept of our role to the expectations of people.

An individual performs different roles in different places. For instance, at home, he has to obey parents, take some responsibility of financial burden when he enters the adulthood, show love affection and feeling for other members and so on, whereas, his role as a professional at the workplace differs. The workplace rules and regulations should be followed by the same person with less or no emotional involvement with the people. The professional behavior is adopted which translates the basic duties related to that roles.

In conclusion, we can say that, sociology answers the most basic questions as well as the most complex ones related to our daily lives. The social and cultural limitations are applied on all individuals. Sociology helps us in understanding those boundaries, our roles as per the expectation of different group of people and the society as a whole.