Sociology

:Meaning
The term "socio" society while "logy" means study. So sociology is mean
.as the study related to the society

:Definition
The science of society, social institutions, and social
relationships; specifically: the systematic study of the development,
structure, interaction, and collective behavior of organized groups of
.human beings

:Scope
There are two schools of thought with different viewpoints regarding
scope and subject matter of sociology- formal school and synthetic school.
According to formal school sociology was conceived to be a social science
with a specifically defined field. This school had George Simmel, Ferdinand
Tonnies, Alfred Vierkandt and Leopord Von Wiese as its main advocates.
On the other hand the synthetic school with Durkheim, Hobhouse and
Sorokin advocated a synthesis in form of coordination among all social
sciences.

Formal School of Sociology:

Formal school argued in favor of giving sociology a definite subject matter
to make it a distinct discipline. It emphasized upon the study of forms of
social relationships and regarded sociology as independent. According to
Simmel sociology is a specific social science which describes, classifies,
analyses and delineates the forms of social relationships or in other words
social interactions should be classified into various forms or types and
analyzed. Simmel argued that social interactions have various forms. He
carried out studies of such formal relationships as cooperation,
competition, sub and super ordinate relationships and so forth. He said
however diverse the interests are that give rise to these societies; the
forms in which the interests are realized may yet be identical. He
emphasized on the process of abstraction of these forms from human
relationship which are common to diverse situations. Vierkandt
maintained that sociology should be concerned with ultimate forms of
mental or psychic relationship which knit the people together in a society.
According to Von Wiese there are two kinds of fundamental social
processes in human society. Firstly the associative process concerning

contact, approach, adaptation etc and secondly disassociate processes

like competition and conflict. Apart from these two processes a mixed
form of the associative and disassociative also exists. Each of these
processes has sub-classes which in totality give approximately 650 forms
of human relationships. Sociology should confine itself to the discovery of
the fundamental force of change and persistence and should abstain from
a historical study of concrete societies. Tonnies divided societies into two
categories namely Gemeinschaft (community) and Gesellschaft
(association) on the basis of degree of intimacy among the members of
the society. He has on the basis of forms of relationship tried to
differentiate between community and society. Max Weber also makes out
a definite field for sociology. According to him the aim of sociology is to
interpret or understand social behaviour.But social behavior does not
cover the whole field of human relations. Indeed not all human
interactions are social. Sociology is concerned with the analysis and
.classification of types of social relationships
Synthetic School of Thoughts:
As against the specialist school the
synthetic school wants to make sociology a synthesis of the social
sciences or a general science. Sociology is the science of sciences and all
the sciences are included in its scope, it synthesizes all of them. According
to the synthetic school, the scope of sociology is encyclopedic and
synoptic. The viewpoints, which are reflected in geographical, biological
and economic determinism, these sociologists have advised to make
sociology comprehensive and wide. In the words of Motwani," Sociology
".thus seeks to see life full and see it whole

:Relation with Other Sciences

:Sociology and History

Sociology

History

Is is abstract discipline of human

experience and nature

It is concrete discipline of human

experience and nature

Sociology tries to find out the general law

of the society

It tries to narrate the past events In

chronological order

Sociology is analytical and interpretive

science

History is descriptive science

Sociology is general science as it tries to

establish generalization

History is particular science as it seeks to

establish the sequence of events.

Society is comparatively young science. As History is aged social science which have
it has the history of just two centuries.
very long history

Sociology and Psychology:

Sociology

Psychology

Sociology is general science.

Psychology is particular science.

Sociology studies the society from sociological Psychology studies the individual behavior.
point of view.
It analyses social process.

It analyses mental process.

The scope of sociology is wider as it studies all The scope of physiology is comparatively
aspects of human beings and society.
narrower as it studies only the mental aspects
of society.
Sociology studies social organizations and
institutions with their social relationships.

Physiology studies individual as the members

of society.

Experimental method is rarely used in

sociology.

Experimental method is mostly used in

Psychology.

Sociology and Economics:

Sociology

Economics

Sociology is the general science

Economics is particular science

Sociology is abstract in nature

Economics is concrete in nature

Sociology considers human as social being

Economics considers human as Economics

being

The scope of sociology is wider. As it is

considered with all social relationship

The scope of economics is comparatively

narrower as it is concerned only with
economic activities

Sociology is a young science as its history is

short

Economics is old aged science as it has a long

history

Sociology studies human in sociological

prospective

Economics studies human in economical

prospective