I.

Introduction

Sociology, the scientific study of the development, structure, and function of human society. Other disciplines within the social sciences—including economics, political science, anthropology, and psychology—are also concerned with topics that fall within the scope of sociology. Sociologists examine the ways in which social structures and institutions—such as class, family, community, and power—and social problems—such as crime—influence society.

Sociological thinking rests on the notion that human beings act according to cultural and historical influences, not their own freely made decisions. They also act and behave according to the wishes and expectations of others. Therefore, social interaction, or the responses of individuals to each other, is perhaps the basic sociological concept, because such interaction is the elementary component of all relationships and groups that make up human society. Sociologists who concentrate on the details of particular interactions as they occur in everyday life are sometimes called microsociologists; those concerned with the larger patterns of relations among major social sectors, such as the State and the economy, and even with international relations, are called macrosociologists.