Sociology is the field of study that deals with the social changes, social life, human behavior and its consequences, social causes and effects to society. Sociologist scrutinize all the groups in the society, from teenagers subcultures to cults, families to school, social classes and gender. The types of questions that might be an interest to a sociologist would be the type of questions that are ofcourse related to their scope of study. For example, they maybe interested in entertaining questions which pertains to a certain culture or practice that may be just occurring in a particular place.
Though not all topics may be social problems, some can be just clarifications and explanations of why certain social conflicts arise, its causes and effects to every citizen of the place. Social and sociological problem both occur in a society. A social problem is a problem in a society wherein not all people view it as a problem. For example, people who do not smoke thinks that smoking in public places is a social problem that needs to be dealt with, but smokers do not see it as a social problem.
Another example is that, older residents may consider burglary and murder a social problem if many incidents are recorded in their place, but for a child, she/he may not take it as a social problem. On the other hand, sociological problem pertains to a conflict or a problem in the social system of a place. Usually it has its social origin. Macrosociology is the the study of sociological phenomena in a large scale, meaning social structures such as institutions and organizations. Alternatively, microsociology deals with the study of one person’s though processing, interaction with the society and its association with sociological theories.
Social Sciences are cluster of disciplines that uses scientific method to study the areas of humanity quantitatively and qualitatively. Some disciplines under social sciences are anthropology, education, economics, geography, history, law, linguistics, political science, psychology and sociology. All of the said disciplines are related with the study of the areas of humanity, however these disciplines differ in their scope of study, such as linguistics pertains to the study of social aspect of human language, while geography pertains to the study of human and physical geography.
Descriptive studies refers only to studying the informative side of a given situation, like getting the necessary information needed in studying its sociological aspect. Usually it includes the cause and effect in a social set up. On the other side, analytical studies pertains to the analysis of why such social acts happen. It critically analyzes the situation, not just giving the cause and effect but by digging deeper unto the situation. While evaluative studies are studies conducted in order to measure and know the effects of an action in a society.
For example, burglary had been frequent in a certain town, then the Police Department conducted several checkpoints, curfews in order to solve the problem. An evaluative study may be conducted to know if the Police Department’s response lessens the burglary rate. Public sociology starts from studying the fundamental sciences of topics that are politically relevant, then applying its concepts in the society. This concept can be used in any social problems that we encounter today. Using this, social problems can be defined, well understood and solutions can be applied.
References
http://www. bookrags. com/research/macrosociology-eos-03
