It is difficult to define what sociology is, simply because the field of study is so immense. On one level, the study is easily explained: it is a focus on how human beings interact with one another in social settings. It is investigation into how these interactions shape behaviors and thinking, both in individual and collective terms. This in itself, however, opens up an enormous range, and sociology is then concerned with all aspects of social realities. Religion, politics, cultural and cross-cultural matters, family dynamics, gender issues and roles, commercial interactions, and class structures are then only a few of the subjects – vast in themselves – within the wider field of sociology. In plain terms, it is the science dedicated to exploring what drives human behaviors as human beings engage in contact with one another, as the “social” is essentially all the ways in which people come together. It centers on how such interactions influence, and are influenced by, the behaviors of the individuals involved.
There can be no overstating of the variety of studies within sociology, as this goes to how the sociologist conducts their work. For example, sociology often deals with issues of global meaning, such as environmental concerns or international conflicts. Regarding the former, the sociologist engages in the appropriate research of gaining the facts of the environmental issues and then correlating them with cultural, political, and economic factors. In this case, factual information combines with social analysis; the ways in which different nations address the environment, supported by the policies and public movements in place, then permit the sociologist to determine associations between the two, and see how the issue seems to be unique to each culture, or similar to others. With matters of war, the elements are many and interrelated. Economic realities, for example, are usually critical in such conflicts, so the sociologist examining a state of war must investigate as well how commercial concerns drive the conflict behaviors on this scale. Then, it is necessary that political agendas, the forces of individual leadership, the evolution of public support or lack thereof, and a variety of other factors be considered if the war itself is to be comprehended in a social sense.
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"What Is Sociology?".
No matter the subject, the sociologist typically employs any number of methods, including observation and note-taking, conducting surveys on large and small scales, analyzing data from polls and census reports, assessing historical records, and interviewing. All of this goes to gaining a more clear understanding of human behavior in general; it is very much about the “why” of what people do and, again, in arenas ranging from the relationship between a married couple to a massive cultural conflict. This is in fact why there is no limit on methodology, for the sociologist must turn to whatever resource best reveals the motivations and influences behind the specific issue. Not unexpectedly, sociology concerned with family dynamics is likely to emphasize more personal investigation and rely on interviews and case studies. At the same time, the value is also based upon perspective, so it is necessary to have an understanding of the wider reality of family interactions within the culture or internationally.
It is in fact interesting that sociology is typically grouped among the social sciences, when the reality should actually be the converse. That is to say, the specific social sciences of economics, education, communication, psychology, anthropology, and others all inherently exist within the domain of sociology because each reflects the need to understand the relevant behaviors and shaping forces. Media, for example, is a social science, but there can be no valid study of it without efforts to understand what media means to people, which in turn goes to how it is generated and evolves. The same is true of psychology, for a comprehension of an individual nature relies on the social forces shaping that nature and reacting to it. All of this being the case, and with the virtually limitless range of methods employed by sociologists, it is then reasonable to claim that sociology is in essence the study of humanity itself, and in all its manifestations.
