Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology and Basic Concepts
What this domain tests
Sociology is the systematic, empirical study of social relationships, groups and institutions. Questions here test precise definitions - society, community, association, institution, group, status, role, culture, socialisation - because most marks are lost on definitions rather than description.
Core distinctions to hold
- Society is the widest web of social relationships (MacIver and Page: "a web of social relationships"); it need not occupy one territory.
- Community is a group living in a definite locality with shared interests - a village, town or tribe. Locality plus common life is the test.
- Association is deliberately formed for a specific purpose, with rules - a cooperative, trade union, club, political party.
- Institution is an established normative pattern for meeting a recurring need (marriage, family, education), not a building.
- Social group: interacting members with shared expectations. Cooley's primary groups are face-to-face and diffuse (family, play group); secondary groups are impersonal and specific (university, bank).
- Status is a position; role is the behaviour expected of it (Linton). Ascribed status is fixed at birth; achieved status is earned.
- Culture is learned and shared; socialisation is the process by which a new member learns it.
Worked example
A village has a cooperative dairy, a temple, a caste panchayat and a joint family. Classify each. The village is a community - locality plus shared life. The dairy is an association - purpose-built, with rules. The temple expresses a religious institution. The panchayat is an institution and an agency of social control. The joint family is a primary group and an institution. The test is threefold: definite locality (community), deliberately chosen purpose (association), settled norm meeting a need (institution).
Traps
Treating society and community as synonyms; calling a building an institution; using "group" for a statistical category that never interacts; defining culture only as art and music; describing role as a position rather than expected behaviour.