Sociology as a Science

Introduction

Sociology is a social science that critically analyzes the development and theoretical understanding of empirical investigations and various methods. It focuses on culture, mobility, law, religion and other aspects that affect or influence relationships. It involves quantitative and qualitative techniques. This essay seeks to discuss different aspects and attributes that affect or are impacted by the aspects stated above and the effects of sociology on the society.

Definition of Terms

Society can be described as a group of persons who share a virtual territory and have persistence relationships. This simply means that the society is categorized by relationship patterns between or amongt individuals who share a common territory, cultural expectations or political attributes. Society uses chemical modules, anatomy organs and health in nursing.

Culture can be described as an act which involves intellectual development and educational or moral faculties. It can also be described as a unique pattern of knowledge, behavior and belief which is related to knowledge transmission for many generations .Nursing professional practice requires an excellent culture to set values (Norton, 2011).

Social patterns are trends in the society. These trends and behavior may be for different subjects such as sex, race age or country. A professional nursing practice is founded on social patterns such as integrity, discipline and social justice.

Socialization is a process that entails the formation of personality. In this way, the person involved is able to adapt to cultural norms, develop attitudes and beliefs and share the beliefs and expectations required from them. In order to internalize values and behavior, professional socialization is encouraged.

Stratification is a process or concept that involves group classification of persons. These groupings are based on the economic and social conditions at a certain time. The entry into nursing practice requires the registered nurses to remain stratified.

Commonalities of Societies

Existence of Some Form of Community

Community is an occupational, religious or a social group which shares common interests and characteristics and perceives itself as different or distinct from other groupings or communities. The existence of communities helps to understand the community’s culture in order to build the community. These cultures do not only influence the views of the people from the community but also influence their loyalties, hopes, fears, humor, values and worries. This simply means that culture is a very strong aspect in a community and people’s life as well. It is important to note that in order to build strong and powerful communities that will attain or accomplish significant change, the groups of people must work together with a common goal. This is because a community is build up with unique cultural groups which have unique perspectives and strengths which the community can benefit from (Willis, 1996). However, the community must work towards overcoming ethnic divisions such as racism. This is because divisions will only lead to violence, misunderstandings and loss of opportunities. The decision making process in the communities must be effective and efficient in order to help the formulation of solutions.

It is, therefore, important that all the members of the community appreciate the cultural diversity, envision a culture that will not only influence the people but also make the members feel like a part and parcel of the community. This will help to set the goals which will help greatly in building a diverse coalition, resolving differences and building relationships between cultures.

Opportunity for Social interaction

It is important to note that social development collusions between aspects related to individual, collective and existence of human phase choices. The collective phases help to develop, perpetuate, preserve, compel and compare the individual members’ perspectives. This will encourage the members of the community to contribute their energy, abide traditions and support the community fully. Human interaction signifies exchange of views. This simply means that all interactions are viewed as a form of exchange. Exchange requires sacrifice and motivation and it is attached to a particular object. The object may be in form of labor or material things. However, exchange is also a creative process which involves exchanging materials with natural objects or nature. Opportunity for social interaction involves primitive exchange, value, price, and exchange of cultural foundations.

Social interaction can be described as a form of dynamic sequence that changes social actions between groups or specific individuals who react differently or modify their actions from their partner’s actions. Every interaction must have good communication strategies and feedback.

Presence of Social Institutions

Social institutions are simply people organized relationships. However, some social institutions deny and alienate other communities or groups. Critics argue that the presence of social institutions does not in any way mean that the institutions have organized behavior. In other words, an institution can be described as a social system which functions differently and is a unique to other institutions. Therefore, an institution is a culture cross section which entails values and beliefs. The functions of social institutions are to understand organic life and maintain social order in the social institutions. There exists many commonalities amongst the institutions and the approaches taken plus the related study areas.

Social institutional theory is a theoretical posture that is based on the legitimacy, rational myths and isomorphism. Structures such as norms, rules, routines and themes are established through social structures. These form a basis for social behavior guidelines. In this case, social institutions represents wider prospect of the social structure. Relationship oriented activities are very common in social institutions and approached related to commonalties are used. In contrast, it is important to note that values and attitudes depend largely on the differences between two worlds or two institutions. For example a military function is very different from a civilian world. These two worlds differ from the norms and rules that govern each world and are different from each other. In order to maintain the dominance of the military world and encourage the liberal civilian world, there must be professionals. However, it is necessary that these two worlds operate separately from each other. On the other hand, these social institutions must corporate in order to attain the socialization aspects. It is clear that there exists a cultural and connectivity gap between the two worlds. However, there is grave danger that arises from these gaps. The big question is ‘’ why the gap really matters?’’ Well the connectivity and the cultural gap limit a particular country from maintaining peace and qcuiring effective force in the military. In the United States, it has been argued that a civilian-military relationship that lacks understanding is unhealthy. The only way to correct this problem is by narrowing the gaps that exists between two different worlds or social institutions in order to achieve a common goal. There also exists many different structural

Social Control of Deviance

Social control involves the efforts which are made by the community or an individual in order to conform to a certain norm. These efforts include the variance ways in which deviant behavior is responded to. Social control can be classified in many different forms. These forms include internal, external, formal, informal and semi formal. Internal social control involves the process in which the norms of a society are internalized and widely accepted as legal and valid. The agents involved in this form of social control are the family, schools and mass media. It is important to note that the primary function of the family is to help children and young adults to internalize the society norms. In this case, any person who goes or acts against these norms is aware that they are getting involved in a wrong behavior which in this case is behavioral deviance. External social control is a deviance process that deals with those who are involved in deviance in order to bring them back in to the right path. This process involves the use of a system of sanctions, punishments and rewards. However, this system relies heavily on coercion, force and punishment which are not pleasant social control aspects to experience. Informal social control involves the interpersonal actions. These actions are used to remind the persons involved that their deviance upset or displeased someone else. In this way, the individual or persons involved will be able to make behavior adjustments and seek approval from parties involved. However, this very complex social control process entails disapproval. This simply means that social controls do not bring norm conformity. In this case, it is important to introduce formal social controls.

Formal social control uses criminal justice system agents to bring conformity. However, it is important to note that informal and formal social control systems can work together. On the other hand, semi formal social control is administered by the government and professional controllers. However, this type of social control does not fully represent bureaucratic organizations. In view of this, the main social life foundation is informal social control but it is not a very clear part of a control perspective.

Existence of Social Groups

The existence of social groups has attracted prejudice against the groups. Prejudice is judgments which are preconceived towards social groups due to age, social class, ethnicity, race, sex and disability among many others. It is important to note that many different people identify themselves according to different groups. In this way, unusual resistance and unreasonable attitude only cause discrimination among the people in the groups. Many people obtain social identity from joining these groups. This is because the groups conform to the same norms, share the same objectives and share the same goals. However, existence of social groups encourages many different people to discover differences and similarities between them and other people from the same group. In this way, the group may show favoritism and discrimination against other members of the group who are of a different sex, age, and race or suffer from a disability.

Characteristics of American Societies

It is important to note that native American societies 150 years ago were not only neglected but was also a dynamic element of change. This is simply because history comes from the age and time. Native American history has shaped the present and the past popular mythologies. History helps the modern world to reveal misconceptions and myths in order to make corrections. Native Americans made many contributions to medicine, education, food, architecture, ecology and art. They also developed and created the foundations of religious beliefs, established political and social organization systems and participate in the natural environmental reshaping to benefit them. This simply means that the American society 150 years ago helped to develop unique cultural and social characteristics of the Unites States. These characteristics include social habits, cuisine, music, art, religion among many others. However, the recent developments in the modern American times focus on cultural diversity. In America today, the Americans refer to themselves as a social class which entails occupational prestige, income and educational attainment. These aspects have greatly influenced the culture in America.

The values, distinctive lifestyles and the consumption patterns can be associated with different cultural class in the modern America. In this way, behavior is greatly influenced by the social class or the group of persons with higher life expectancy, lower infant mortality rate, increased health consciousness, higher incomes, better access to health facilities and the individual’s social identity.

Factors that contribute to Social Stratification

Stratifications are inequalities which are institutionalized in status, wealth and power of individuals from the same social system. This simply means that individual inequality status is very common and can be found in every place. The factors that contribute to social stratification are differences in class positions, impact of education facilities, and access to adequate nutrition and medical care, lack of employment opportunities, gap between the rich and the poor and class, power and status inequality. The social impact of social stratification is that opportunities and life experiences depend on social class or category. This simply means that individuals from the same group are ranked differently. This is why social stratification causes many social problems and social inequalities.

Impact of Social Stratification

As much as there is imbalance in the social world, human beings did not choose where to be born or whom to be born. In this case, different people are born in different circumstances. Sometimes it is difficult to justify discrimination and social stratification. However, it is clear that circumstances are used in the modern world to dominate society. Many critics have tried to rationalize human behavior but it all boils to inequalities in the society. The greatest danger or impact of social stratification is not the imbalance or the ability to fight against the system but that people will give up their fight against the impact of social stratification.

Social stratification helps to set up unique structure of individual roles and ensures that people know their place in society. It may not be fair but it focuses on the individual’s ability, social class and education. It also impacts the size or increase of employees in a particular organization or industry, increases promotional rates through corporate growths, impacts demography in relation to career outcomes, impacts technology by increasing variance and the average level of the employees skills and experiences, impacts organization environmental in relation to employment stability and management interests and impacts unionization in relation to monopoly of power (Ramutsindela, 2004).

Social Institutions as a Change Action in the Society

Social change is not only inevitable but also elusive in nature. Social institutions help in the philosophies of change. This is because social institutions formulate communication in order to find the root of any problem, they formulate a code that ensures that the goal culture is achieved, and implement plans which help to organize the group and adopt visions which expose the group or society to change and growth. Social institutions also encourage cultural transformation and establish the visions of it. Social institutions have also made interesting scientific changes in relation to complexity theories and anthropology.

Conclusion

Sociology involves relationships and encounters between many different people. This helps to greatly impact and shape the lives of the persons involved. It also greatly impacts the global perspective of the society and the economic development of it. Sociology increase interconnection and makes distinctions of social problems faced in the United States of America and other countries. This paper has not only highlighted these aspects but has also analyzed them.