Introduction

Many A-level Sociology students begin their course with a fairly vague idea about what is involved in the "study of society" (outside of the usual observations that it's:

"Something to do with people" and it's:

"Some sort of science".

A copy of the syllabus is an initial starting point (because it maps-out for you the possible areas you can choose to study during your course, how these areas of study combine and so forth), but it doesn’t tell you a great deal about the subject matter of Sociology.

This Introduction, therefore, is designed to help you identify the subject matter of Sociology and, to help us do this we will be looking at four main ideas:

a. An initial definition of Sociology as a subject.

b. The different types of questions sociologists ask.

c. The Sociological Perspective (how Sociology differs from other social sciences).

d. The difference between Naturalistic (or Commonsense) and Sociological ideas and explanations.