Sociology Daily Answer Writing (12-12-2022)

Questions

1. Human psychology provides the base for the study of social life. How?   10
2. What are micro-sociology and macro-sociology? How could the two be related?  10

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Model Solutions

Q1. Human psychology provides the base for the study of social life. How? 10

Model Structure
(Question is about Sociology vs. Psychology. We should also elaborate the role of human psychology (NOT the subject) in the study of sociology)

Introduction

• Define Sociology and Psychology

Main Body

• Both depend on each other for their own comprehension. Their relationship will be clear if we analyse their inter-relationship and mutual dependency
• Differences
  • Sociology is a science of social phenomena and social relationships. It is a science of collective behaviour. But psychology is a science of mind or mental processes (individual behaviour)
• Sociology receives help from Psychology-
  • Psychology is a part of sociology hence without the help from Psychology Sociology can’t understand itself fully and properly.
  • Collective behaviour can’t be understood without understanding human behaviour at micro level.
    • Eg. Religious revivalism can be understood when one understands the need of individual to find answers to challenges posed by modern lifestyle (stress, sadness, lack of purpose in life, etc)
  • There are psychologists such as Freud, MacDougal and others who have enriched Sociology in various aspects.
    • E.g. Freud tried to explain the role of primary socialization in behaviour of humans as adults in society
  • Almost every social problem and social phenomenon has a psychological basis for the solution of which sociology requires the help of psychology.
• Influence of human psychology:
  • Various dimensions of social life are associated with human thoughts
    • E.g. Work culture can impact family life → impact human thoughts (vice-a-versa)
  • Various schools of thought in Sociology have emerged because of the nature of the human mind. For example, Functionalism studies cooperation and Marxism studies conflict.
  • Interpretative sociology is a peek into an individual’s psyche
    • Social action theory (Weber)
  • Marx’s theory of Alienation

Conclusion

• A new branch of knowledge has developed with the combination of sociology and psychology which is known as social psychology.

Q2. What are micro-sociology and macro-sociology? How could the two be related? 10

Model Structure:
Introduction

• Define Sociology

Main Body

• Micro and macro sociology are two aspects of sociology which can be broadly defined and differentiated on the basis of their sphere of study.
• Macro sociology deals with studying society as a whole. Phenomena are studied and its causes, implications, outcomes etc are explained for the whole society. For example Durkheim explained seemingly a personal act of suicide in terms of society i.e. causes, trends etc of suicide are explained based on norms, values etc of society. Other examples of macro sociological theories are Sorokin's cyclical theory, Marx's historical materialism, Parsons social system etc.
• Gradually sociologists started shifting from "prophetic" to "prescriptive" sociology. Sociology was used to explain social behaviour at an individual's level. Like G.H. Mead's symbolic interactionism is related to an individual's mind and how his personality is shaped due to social interaction.

Conclusion

• But society is a collection of individuals who shape it by their action and are in turn shaped by it. This is where micro and macro sociology are linked. Merton's theory on deviance and conformity explains this aspect where he says how individuals' acceptance/rejection of societal norms affect crime rate.

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