What is Sociology?

Sociology is an attempt to understand the social influences that help shape our lives. What are these "social influences"?

These social influences are the roles we perform every day (mother, father, pupil, worker, etc.) and the social groups we all belong to and participate in (black, white, middle class, Catholic, etc.). Think about yourself. Does the fact that you are a daughter, a teenager, a scholar, etc., affect the way you feel about abortion, about education, about politics? And if it does, what does this mean for you? You may be working class, Hindu, black, male. Or upper class, atheist, of mixed descent, gay. Whatever. How does your membership of these groups, and the way in which you see yourself in relation to these groups, affect your ideas, beliefs and behavior?

As important, how do your ideas, beliefs and behaviour affect these groups?

An Industrial Sociologist may look at ways of improving relations between workers and management in a large company. The Sociologist would ask such questions as why do management have a particular approach to labour relations and workers a different on? Does their different class background affect the way in which they see, and behave in, the world? How do we overcome the problems resulting from these different perceptions and positions?