Sociology is one of many social sciences that is interested in studying society. For the purpose of this text, we define sociology as the scientific and systematic study of groups and group interactions and societies and social interactions, from small and personal groups to very large groups and mass culture. Another way to think of sociology is the systematic study of human society and interactions. Society refers to a group of people who live in a defined geographic area, who interact with one another, and who share a common culture. All of these definitions emphasize the way that humans are social beings; society and the individual cannot exist without each other.

Sociologists identify and study patterns related to all kinds of contemporary social issues. The stop-and-frisk policy, the emergence of new political factions, how Twitter influences everyday communication, the lack of racial and gender diversity in media portrayals of rodeo—these are all examples of topics that sociologists might explore.

1.2.1 Social Facts

Some sociologists study social facts—the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and cultural rules that govern social life. These practices exist outside of us as individuals; instead these rules act to constrain our behavior. Social facts make it possible to move beyond studying individuals so we can learn about behavior of entire societies. Social theorist Émile Durkheim (1895) suggested that social facts are concrete ideas that influence the daily life of individuals. Durkheim discussed social facts within the context of kinship and marriage, language, and religion.

Another well known example of Durkheim’s study of social facts examines suicide rates. Using police suicide statistics from different districts, he found patterns in suicide rates that suggest suicide is not solely something that occurs at the level of the individual.

1.2.2 Sociological Perspective

How do sociologists “do” sociology? The first step is to develop your sociological perspective so that you can examine the world around you in a new way. Making the familiar strange, enables you to think sociologically. The sociological perspective is a lens that allows you to view society and social structures through multiple perspectives simultaneously. Individuals can act independently within social institutions, but they are also bound by social structures that shape their lives. For this perspective, you develop a skill to see beyond the outside appearances of the actions of individuals and organizations (Berger 1963).

To develop our perspectives, we might draw from some of the following concepts: beginner’s mind (McGrane 1994), culture shock (Berger 1963), sociological imagination (Mills 1959), and sociological mindfulness (Schwalbe 1998). We will discuss each of these approaches in the next section.

Rather than approaching the world from the position of the expert, one strategy for developing the sociological perspective involves using the beginner’s mind. To understand the world around us, we can approach the world without knowing in advance what to expect. You take on the task of unlearning what you know, so that you are open and receptive to the experience of seeing things through a new perspective (McGrane 1994). This concept draws on the Buddhist practices outlined by Shunryu Suzuki, a Sōtō Zen monk and teacher who helped popularize Zen Buddhism in the United States. At the core of the beginner’s mind is the idea that through this perspective, there are many possibilities, while an expert may only see a few possibilities (Suzuki 1970). For example, a novice or beginner may see things with an open mind, setting aside preconceptions and judgements about how something should be. A classically trained chef with expert status may believe there is one correct way to run a dinner service at an event, but a newcomer may challenge these preconceived notions in favor of a dining style that reflects changing desires and needs of current customers. Where the expert chef may envision a plated dinner service for a formal event, the beginner’s mind might see value in alternatives like food stations (enter the innovation of the mac-and-cheese bar at weddings).

Another strategy for developing sociological perspective is to create a sense of culture shock. Culture shock refers to the experience of disorientation that occurs when someone enters a radically new environment (Ferris and Stein 2018). We can experience new social or cultural environments, by examining our own culture from an outsider’s perspective. The familiar can become strange or new when we take this approach. For example, you may have experienced the feeling of culture shock when you transitioned from the expectations in high school to college. If you’ve traveled abroad, you may have encountered culture shock as you encountered new foods, languages, and styles of clothing.

A third approach to developing your sociological perspective is using what sociologist C. Wright Mills calls the sociological imagination, an awareness of the relationship between a person’s behavior and experience and the wider culture that shaped the person’s choices and perceptions. He saw the sociological imagination as the intersection between biography and history. It’s a way of seeing our own and other people’s behavior in relationship to history and social structure (Mills 1959).

The sociological imagination allows us to understand the relationship between how society influences us and we can influence society. Typically people think of their experiences in individualistic terms, meaning they see the impact of their experiences on themselves rather than seeing how our experiences are often shared. The sociological imagination points to how what we are experiencing is connected to larger social patterns and contexts. One illustration of this is a person’s decision to marry. In the United States, we often think of this as an individual choice influenced by feelings like love. However, decisions to marry are also influenced by social acceptability of marriage and marriage equality. You can examine the sociological imagination in greater detail by completing the “Understanding the Sociological Imagination” activity in the next section.

Finally, another way to develop your sociological perspective is through sociological mindfulness. Author and sociology professor Michael Schwalbe uses the term sociological mindfulness to refer to how we should develop ways to pay attention to the social world and how it works. Mindfulness entails recognizing how other people might be similar or different from us and how our lives are intertwined with those same people (Schwalbe 1998).