The Study of Social Life

Sociology is the scientific study of the social aspects of human life.  It is a body of knowledge, compiled through the use of the scientific method, about the structure and content of social life, that is, the organization of human interaction.  Sociologists study the behavior of people in a group context.
THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
The primary focus of the sociological perspective is the fact that human behavior is social.  People do not live separate from one another, each seeking a personal and unique solution to life''''s problems. People live together shring a common way of life that patterns and organizes their group existence.  People live collectively as well as individually.
Any phenomenon can be viewed from more than one perspective and what we see depends, of course, upon the perspective we assume.  One need only recall the the variety of ways in which sex is viewed to appreciate the difference perspective makes.  For example, the sexual behavior of human beings from the perspective of the so-called swinger is "fun and games", a form of play as natural as breathing.  From the perspective of those who write marriage manuals, however, it is "hard work," requiring much effort, study, and preparation.  From still other perspectives, sex is seen as "sin" or "love" and so on.
The basic premise of the sociological perspective - and a basic premise of all social science - is that the behavior of people is a consequence of the social situations in which they live.  It follows that we come to know ourselves and others by knowing the places we occupy in the social world.  The social world of the aristocrat is not the same as that of the agricultural migrant worker; the social organization of the metropolis is different from that of the small town and the social structure of the prison makes for very different patterns of behavior than does the social structure of the commune.  The point is that Sociology is a disciplined study of the social world; how it is organized and how it changes; how it varies from time to time and from place to place; how it remains the same and how it is inter-related and how it is not.