About sociology in english. О социологии: Практикум по английскому языку

What is Sociology?
The sociologist has a distinctive way of examining human interactions. Sociology is the systematic study of social behavior and human groups. It focuses primarily on the influence of social relationships upon people's attitudes and behavior and on how societies are established and change. As a field of study, sociology has an extremely broad scope and it deals with families, gangs, business firms, political parties, schools, religions, labor unions, etc. It is concerned with love, poverty, conformity, discrimination, illness, alienation, overpopulation and community.
The Sociological Perspective. In human society, newspapers, television and radio are the usual sources of information about such groups and problems. However, while the basic function of journalists is to report the news, sociologists bring a different type of understanding to such issues. The perspective of sociology involves seeing through the outside appearances of people's actions and organizations.
One major goal of this perspective is to identify patterns of and influences on social behavior. For example, sociologists study the passionate desire of movie or rock fans to see in person, to talk with, even to grab the clothing of a star. Why do people feel this need so powerfully?
The sociological perspective attempts to provide explanations for such patterns. Sociologists are not content to just recognize that millions of people want to meet stars, rather they examine the shared feelings and behavior of fans within the larger social context of human culture.
The Sociological Imagination. In attempting to understand social behavior, sociologists rely on unusual type of creative thinking, sociological imagination, i.e.an awareness of the relationship between an individual and the society. Thus instead of simply accepting the fact that movie stars and rock stars are the «royalty» of human society, we could ask, in a more critical sense, why we are not as interested in meeting outstanding scientists, or elementary school teachers, or architects. Sociological imagination can bring new understanding to daily life around us.
Sociology and Social Sciences. The term science refers to the body of knowledge obtained by methods based upon systematic observations. The sciences are commonly divided into natural and social sciences. Natural science is the study of the physical features of nature and the ways in which they interact and change. Astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology and physics are all natural sciences. Social science is the study of various aspects of human society. The

ься (интересоваться) чем-либо; источники информации; внешние черты; главная цель; выявить примеры; да