Introduction to Sociology

Trainers
Mohammed Aji Wajiro |

Sociology is an A’ level course, probably you have just met the field or title Sociology here for the first time. Don’t worry, I am assuring you, before you complete this course, your human instincts to explore daily realities that are taken for granted, for example, having culture or coming from families, holding some forms of religious beliefs and going to schools to acquire knowledge, will be sharpened and you will be able to re-questions these taken-for-granted social realities and why they are what they are and how and why they change over time. This course will give you a general background information on Sociology as field of knowledge. You must have learnt about culture, family and religion of people in or outside Nigeria in your previous stages of scholarship. Sociology is more than just the study of culture, religion and family and other social things; Sociology is a scientific inquiry into nature of humans’ relations and institutions human build overtime to support such relationships and how such interplay into producing the nature of the society. The course Sociology summarily deals with human behaviour and actions as a product of cultures (mainly knowledge, language and homesteads, tools, and other material resources people use) and cultural values (such as kindness, love, affections, support, generosity etc.) held by people in societies. People are a product of their environment producing their cultures and institutions such as family, religion, education that emerged overtime. These institutions interact and depend on each other to produce order and sometimes disorder. These institutions and their functions changes or were modified with consequences on people and relationships in the society. Sociology is a broad field of knowledge about human behaviour and actions understood from the scientific angle. Sociology is distinguished from our normative ways of looking at the society, for its emphases course and scientific methods (such as observation, experimentation, comparison and historical analysis) in its study and description of societies. More importantly, sociologists stress the principle of objectivity, factuality and logic in analysis and interpretations of behaviours, social issues and events towards prescribing solutions to them.

At the end of this course, I can assure that you will find knowledge of Sociology handy and helpful in helping you understand cultural issues and how they emanate and affect social relations and the consequences there from. This courseware has nine Modules, which run through the introduction (providing general introduction to Sociology), social group and society, social institutions, culture, socialisation, social stratification, indicators of social class, deviant behavior, to social control.

Course Information

Course Objectives and Outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

Define Sociology and relates with its applications in understanding various forms of human actions and the nature of the social structure of our society.
Demonstrates the scientific nature of Sociology and its application to defining and explaining the nature of our societies.
Become conversant with the basic concepts used in Sociology, such as culture, norms values and social institutions and how they inform our social identity as humans.
Discuss the implications of socialisation and its need in our society to enhance our uniformity as humans.
Understand the consequences of unbalanced socialisation in humans as manifests in actions such as deviance and why deviance in societies is controlled.

Course Outline

STUDY MODULE 1: Introduction to Sociology

Study Session 1: Definition and Scope

Study Session 2: The Scientific Status of Sociology and Methods

Study Session 3: Historical Development of Sociology (French and Industrial Revolutions)

Study Session 4: Sociology and other Social Sciences

STUDY MODULE 2: Social Group and Society

Study Session 1: Definition and Functions of Group

Study Session 2: Types of Groups: Aggregate, Category, Social and Formal Groups. Types of Group Continue. Voluntary and Involuntary Group, In-Group and Out-Group, Reference Group

Study Session 3: Definition of Society

STUDY MODULE 3: Social Institutions

Study Session 1. Definition and of Functions of Social Institutions

Study Session 2: The Universal Social Institutions

Study Session 3: Transfer of Functions, Competition and Cooperation

STUDY MODULE 4: Culture

Study Session 1: Definition and Types of Culture (Material and Nonmaterial)

Study Session 2: Components of Culture (Norms, Values, Folkways and Moores)

STUDY MODULE 5: Socialisation

Study Session 1: Definition of Socialisation and functions of Socialisation

Study Session 2: Agents of Socialisation

STUDY MODULE 6: Social Stratification

Study Session 1: Definition of Social and Forms of Stratification

Study Session 2: Definition of Social Mobility and Factors that Enhance Social Mobility.

STUDY MODULE 7: Indicators of Social Class

Study Session1: Indicators of Social Class and Their Implications

STUDY MODULE 8: Deviant Behaviour

Study Session 1: Definitions and Causes of Deviance

Study Session 2: Consequences of Deviant Behaviour

STUDY MODULE 9: Social Control

Study Session 1: Definition of and Social Control

Study Session2: Agents of Social Control

Study Session3: Rules and Regulations

Study Session4: Consequences of Sanctions

Course Textbook(s)

Doda, Zertun (2005) Introduction to Sociology. Ethiopian Public Health Training Manual. Available at: http//Sociology.net.
Griffiths, Heather (2015). Introduction to Sociology 2e. Available at: http//openstax
Pearce, E.B. (2020). Contemporary Families: An Equity Lens. Open Oregon Educational Resources.
Rosalind Gottfried (2019). My Sociology: An Introduction for Today’s Students. U.S.A: Routledge.
Sociology: Brief Edition (v. 1.1). available at: Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/