An Individual in Society - Essay Example

Task A society is collection of people living together in a region and following the same rules. Human beings are considered tobe social since most of their activities take place within the communities they live in. This gives people the reason for studying the interactions between humans. The approaches that are commonly used to explain human habits are the individualistic and the naturalistic theories (O’Donnell, 2000). The naturalistic notion implies that people’s behaviors are inherited while the individualistic notion suggests that humans are not the same. According to this theory, human behaviors get their influence from an individual’s exceptional psychological traits (Ferguson, 2009). An example of a naturalistic concept people have come to live with is the concept of falling in love between couples and their eventual marriage. An individual is a single person having his own unique characteristics and behavior. The individuals collectively form a society and create regulations through their governing bodies. This regulations are used to control the behaviors of the individuals within these communities. Individuals have different characteristics that range from having different values, cultures, beliefs and backgrounds. Social identity refers to the various ways in which different individuals are differentiated in their relations within the societies (Wallace and Wolf, 2006). Society changes refer to the modification of the order in the society. It refers to progresses made socially or the society’s evolution. Social change can also refer to the changes in the society along with the changes in the modes of doing business. The forces of change within a society are plenty and range across the literary, religious, fiscal, systematic and technological fields. Social changes are usually seen across nature, the institutions and among the peoples’ relations (Wallace and Wolf, 2006). Changes in the cultural sector include changes in the way people do things in the society. Religious changes includes shifts in the peoples beliefs and superstitions. For example, the shift of one’s faiths from Christianity to Islamic and vice-versa. Changes in the economic sector involve issues such as the rise in the people’s unemployment levels, increases in salaries along with improvements in their living standards. Political changes include the changes in the people’s leadership along with the governing styles. Scientific changes are the changes made in inventing new products and solutions to existing problems (O’Donnell, 2000). Finally, technological changes include advances in the technology people are using currently to perform their activities. Change in the society occurs as a result of individual efforts along with the collaboration of the members of the community. Change should come from within an individual for it to be effective .There are, however, groups of humans that have come together to fight and promote for changes within their societies. Change comes as a result of human sustaining suffering for a long period of time. This eventually leads us into deciding how to alter the situation. The objectives of the change are subject to the people who want it within their societies (Ferguson, 2009). To effectively bring changes to the community, the necessary information on different issues should first be collected. All the alternative courses of action along with their consequences should be considered before any actions are taken. This will ensure that the desired changes have a positive effect on the society (O’Donnell, 2000). According to Durkheim, social facts are the notions and expectations that come from the societies we live in and not from our personal likings and responses (O’Donnell, 2000). According to Max Webber, the ultimate aim of sociology is to achieve an adequate interpretive understanding of the social facts. This is done by subjecting them to an analysis to evaluate their meanings and implications to the society. The purpose of the interpretive analysis of an act is to discover the order behind the occurrences of the events. Many theorists among them Max Webber believed that social facts are given, but their application depends on the interpretations of the different actors in the society. The micro sociological view concerns itself with an individual and the relationships that exist between them. For example, they can try to explain the relationship that exists between a parent and their child. These theories focus on older persons and not the causes of their actions. The macro sociological perspective on the other hand concerns itself with the structures within a society (Ferguson, 2006). This includes their society’s processes and troubles along with the relationships that exist between the different members in these societies. An example of a macro sociological study can be carried out to ascertain the impacts of industrialization on the inhabitants of a community. However both perspectives take three forms of views that include the normative, conflict and the interpretive views (Lopez and Scott, 2000). The normative view argues that the existence of rules and regulations in the society is essential in maintaining the order and control within a community. The interpretive view argues that the universe was created in a certain manner that requires our interpretation to determine how to relate to them. This perspective is based on the micro sociological view (Lopez and Scott, 2000). Finally, the conflict view implies that society works the way it does as a result of the nature’s influences. These includes issues such as our poverty, genders, race and the classes of people within the society. According to the theorist Mead, he claims that objects and activities in our daily lives have no meaning, but they get their meanings from humans. Examples of these theories are the theories of exchange, representative interractionism and phenomenology of the society (O’Donnell, 2000). They are often described as theories affecting the individuals role. Examples of macro sociological theories include the theory of age stratification. This theory focuses on the flow of our ages throughout the different cycles of our life. The major differences between the macro and micro sociological theory is that micro theories deal with individual behavior. The macro sociological theories on the other hand deals with a wide scale of events occurring in the community. The functionalists’ theory considers the society as a whole and looks at its elements, which comprise of norms, practices, traditions and organization. This theory was popularized by Herbert Spencer and he presented the idea that the elements work as a unit. They do this to ensure that the overall objective of the society is achieved (Harris, 2003). It emphasizes on the ability of the elements to work together in ensuring the society functions normally. This theory was criticized by Parsons as coming to give a description of certain stages in the methodological improvement of communal sciences. He considered it to not to be a particular institution of thinking. According to Durkheim, the societies that do not have strong institutions with centralized administrations have their basis on organization of commercial tumbling groups. The issues that Durkheim raised occurred as a result of his concerns of how communities maintain stability within themselves and are able to survive in the process (Harris, 2003). He suggested that communities are sub divided into equal parts and are united by their communal values, symbols. This is similar to the sentiments of prior theorists who also suggested that functionalism represents an organism. The organism consists of various distinct parts that interoperate to ensure the performance of the required functions. Conflict theories lay their emphasis on the differences in the political, communal and material well being in a social grouping. These are considered in view of the distractions they provide to the larger communal political organization (Jones, 2003). They contradict previously invented ideologies and emphasize the ideological features in the forms of the traditional thinking used. They are a divided institution of thinking and the studies do not imply anything to do with conflict or peace. It suggests that this inequalities are overcome by fundamental transformations of the relationships existing within a community (Ferguson, 2006). This theorists also suggested that the impoverished in the society will achieve change when they push for it. According to several of the theorists, they also believe that man’s potential is held down by issues such as oppression and misuse. The theories also play a vital role in the transformation of the society in order to achieve man’s full prospective. Examples of these conflict theories are the feminist, postmodern and queer theories. The interactionist view suggests that behaviors are a result of the people and the situations they are interacting with. They suggest that humans behave on the basis of the meaning they give to a situation (Jones, 2003). The meanings in turn come from the relationships people have with others and their communities. For rectification of these processes, the individual has to indulge in an interpretative process with the activities he carries out in his everyday life. This view has been criticized for its inability to deal with the structures in the society and the issues affecting the community at large. References Ferguson, H. (2009). Self-Identity and Everyday Life. London: Routledge. Harris, D. (2003). Teaching Yourself Social Theory. London: Sage. Jones, P. (2003). Introducing Social Theory. Cambridge: Polity. Lopez, J. and Scott, J. (2000). Social Structure. London: Open University Press O’Donnell, M. (2000). Classical & Contemporary Sociology. London: Hodder & Stoughton. Wallace, R and Wolf, A. (2006). Contemporary Sociological Theory. New York: Pearson. Read More