Sociologists are divided as to whether social action or the social structure better explains the social reality. The approach in which social action is more important is the Interpretive approach, and the approach in which the structure is more important is the Positivist-Structuralist approach.
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Social facts are created collectively by society. They are exterior, inevitable and limiting for the individuals. In other words, the social facts are the acting, thinking and feeling patterns which are out and above of the individuals and have the power to force themselves to the individuals. (...) Because the social facts impose themselves upon individuals, deviation from social facts can result in various types of sanctions. (...) They are the creation of human activities or actions, however, they are not the product of conscious intentions, and they are the unanticipated consequence of human agency. Examples of the social facts are the social institutions, statuses, roles, laws, beliefs, population distribution, urbanization, language, religion etc. For example, violence against women is a social fact. Poverty, marriage, urbanization, class structure, subcultures are also examples of social facts.
Sayfa 9Kitabı okudu
(A) social group is a set of people who share common goals and interests, who are interrelated and who have a continuous interaction for a while. (...) The groups may be permanent or temporary. (...) Social groups have control over their members. This control is often exercised by group norms.
Sayfa 10Kitabı okudu
Self: When they are born, individuals do not have any idea about who they are. In time, they learn what other people think about them and they learn to think in the same way. (...) According to sociologist George Herbert Mead, the theorist of The Theory of the Social Self, the self is developed by three phases. These phases are the language, the play, and the game. The language phase allows individuals to respond to each other’s opinions or emotions. Emotions like anger or happiness, and opinions about a person or a subject are conveyed through the language. The play phase develops self by developing self-consciousness through role playing. During the role-playing, individuals learn to internalize other people’s perspectives. The game phase develops self by allowing individuals to learn and follow the rules of the activity (the game). Thus, individuals learn that there are rules and regulations to follow in order to be considered successful in an activity.
Sayfa 11Kitabı okudu
A status is the rank, the position that one holds in the society. (...) Statuses are divided into two basic types. These are ascribed and achieved status. The statuses that the individual has in birth, are ascribed statuses. Sex, age, race, ethnic group are examples of ascribed status. The statuses that individuals gain during their life, are achieved statuses. The achieved statuses are gained by individuals’ knowledge, abilities, skills, or sometimes luck.
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Society expects specific behaviors from people who hold specific statuses and these expected behaviors are called “roles”. Roles are composed of the rights and assignments appropriate to the social status. (...) Depending on the number of their statuses, individuals may have multiple roles. For example, a man may have the roles of a father, a son, a worker and a trade unionist. If one or more of the roles of the individual do not sort together, role conflict occurs. For example, if a policeman father makes a bust and comes across his son among the criminals, he will live a role conflict. If he acts as a good father and bestows privilege on his son he won’t be a good policeman; but if he acts as a good policeman and arrests his son, he won’t be a good father.
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Social values are the standards that we consult to know what is wrong and what is right. (...) The values are the criteria that guide individuals to choose between alternative courses of action.
Sayfa 12Kitabı okudu
Norms are the rules resultant of values; they are binding expectations of behaviors. In other words, norms are the visible and invisible rules of conduct. They define how to behave in accordance with what a society has defined as good, right, and important. (...) Folkways indicate the appropriate behavior in the daily life practices of a given culture. They are relatively weak norms and their sanctions are not very heavy. (...) On the other hand, mores are strong and important norms of the society. The members of the society believe that mores should be obeyed in order to maintain the society. As a consequence, their sanctions are quite heavy. The strongest mores are often legally protected with laws. (...) While folkways do not include moral principles, mores embody the moral principles of the society of the group.
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Sanctions are the anticipated consequence of violating the rules and the norms. They are used to make members of the society follow the norms. Thus, sanctions are mechanisms of social control. (...) Sanctions may be positive or negative.
Sayfa 12Kitabı okudu
Socialization is the interaction process in which the individuals learn the language, values, norms, attitudes, knowledge and skills, in short, the culture of the society they live in. (...) There are two functions of the socialization process. The first is to develop the self; the second is the transmission of culture to new generations. Societies reproduce themselves by transmitting their values, social actions, the cultural heritage from generation to generation (Coser et al., 1983:106). Through the process of socialization, societies make every generation learn the values and norms and fulfill the expectations of that society. (...) Internal social control is the social control that we impose on ourselves. (...) Socialization must not be confused with socializing. Socializing is interacting with other people, the members of the family or workplace, or friends. Socialization is the process in which the individual learns how to be a member of the society he/she lives in, the process that prepares them to function in social life.
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