Definition of sociology - What it is, Meaning and Concept

Before entering fully into the definition of Sociology, what we have to do is determine the etymological origin of that term.Specifically, its background is in Latin and more exactly in the union of the words socĭus , which would come to be translated as "partner or individual", and lodge that has several meanings among them "study".Therefore, starting from this we could make a literal translation that Sociology is the study of the partner or individual.

sociology is a science that is dedicated to the study of social groups (a group of individuals living together in various types of associations.) This science analyzes the internal forms of organization , the relationships that the subjects maintain with each other and with the system, and the degree of cohesion existing within the framework of the social structure.

For example: "My son wants to study Sociology when he finishes high school" , "Last night I saw on television a very interesting debate about sociology" , " The president may be a great economist, but he knows very little about sociology.”.

It could be said that sociology has been around for a long time before it was developed as a science or its object of study was delimited.In the fifth century BC, Herodotus dedicated himself to making complete descriptions of the customs and rituals of various peoples. Ibn Jaldun (1332-1406), for his In part, it was he who proclaimed the notion of Ilm el Iytima (the science of society or of the social).

Auguste Comte , meanwhile, was responsible for shaping the concept of sociology, when in 1838 he presented his Positive Philosophy Course .Sociology was consolidated as an autonomous science just in the mid-nineteenth century.At the late twentieth century, different schools and dominant currents began to differentiate.

In this sense it is interesting to make a small parenthesis to establish that Sociology throughout history has not left indifferent.Therefore, great thinkers of all times like the German Max Weber defined it as the science that takes care of a very specific mission.

For that discipline, what it does is to face social action in order to be able to undertake the explanation causally, from a knowledge approach called interpretive, both its development and its effects.

Sociology can be studied from different methods: the qualitative , which includes detailed descriptions and explanations of behaviors, situations and subjects, and which can also include the account of the participants told by them themselves; and the quantitative method, which is in charge of the variables that can be represented by numerical values ​​(numbers) and that allow to look for possible relationships through the statistical analysis.

As for the main sociological paradigms, the functionalism (which states that social institutions are collectively developed to meet the needs of society), the Marxism (the theory of conflict), the structuralism , the symbolic interactionism and the systems theory .

Thus, today it is very frequent that this science of the individual is used to carry out interesting studies around latent aspects in our society that concern us or interest us.In this sense, it is frequent that sociological studies are carried out to determine the behavior of young people in the face of drugs or alcohol.Through these, data will be obtained on the ages at which they begin to consume, the reasons that lead them to drink or if they feel pressured by their group of friends to do it.