SOC 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Reductionism, Social Forces, Biopsychosocial Model
4 Jul 2018
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An Integrated Perspective in Sociology
Taken alone, any of the sociological perspectives may present a single sided, distorted ‐
picture of society and human behavior. Although each provides a unique framework for
studying society, none is complete by itself. The world is too complex to rely on
reductionistic approaches or to “take it all in at once.” Each sociological perspective
clarifies some aspect of society and human behavior. Sometimes these perspectives
complement each other, and sometimes they contradict each other. When integrated,
however, these perspectives give sociologists the opportunity to gain the fullest possible
sociological understanding.
Deducing with Sociological Imagination
Sociology is the scientific study of human groups and social behavior. Sociologists focus
primarily on human interactions, including how social relationships influence people's attitudes
and how societies form and change. Sociology, therefore, is a discipline of broad scope:
Virtually no topic—gender, race, religion, politics, education, health care, drug abuse,
pornography, group behavior, conformity—is taboo for sociological examination and
interpretation.
Sociologists typically focus their studies on how people and society influence other
people, because external, or social, forces shape most personal experiences. These
social forces exist in the form of interpersonal relationships among family and friends,
as well as among the people encountered in academic, religious, political, economic,
and other types of social institutions. In 1959, sociologist C. Wright Mills
defined sociological imagination as the ability to see the impact of social forces on
individuals' private and public lives. Sociological imagination, then, plays a central role
in the sociological perspective.
As an example, consider a depressed individual. You may reasonably assume that a
person becomes depressed when something “bad” has happened in his or her life. But
you cannot so easily explain depression in all cases. How do you account for depressed
people who have not experienced an unpleasant or negative event?
Sociologists look at events from a holistic, or multidimensional, perspective. Using
sociological imagination, they examine both personal and social forces when explaining
any phenomenon. Another version of this holistic model is
the biopsychosocial perspective, which attributes complex sociological phenomena to
interacting biological (internal), psychological (internal), and social (external) forces. In
the case of depression, chemical imbalances in the brain (biological), negative attitudes
(psychological), and an impoverished home environment (social) can all contribute to
the problem. The reductionistperspective, which “reduces” complex sociological
phenomena to a single “simple” cause, stands in contrast to the holistic perspective. A
reductionist may claim that you can treat all cases of depression with medication
because all depression comes from chemical imbalances in the brain.
On a topic related to depression, French sociologist Emile Durkheim studied suicide in
the late 19th century. Being interested in the differences in rates of suicide across
assorted peoples and countries and groups, Durkheim found that social rather than
personal influences primarily caused these rates. To explain these differences in rates
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Document Summary
Taken alone, any of the sociological perspectives may present a single sided, distorted picture of society and human behavior. Although each provides a unique framework for studying society, none is complete by itself. The world is too complex to rely on reductionistic approaches or to take it all in at once. each sociological perspective clarifies some aspect of society and human behavior. Sometimes these perspectives complement each other, and sometimes they contradict each other. When integrated, however, these perspectives give sociologists the opportunity to gain the fullest possible sociological understanding. Sociology is the scientific study of human groups and social behavior. Sociologists focus primarily on human interactions, including how social relationships influence people"s attitudes and how societies form and change. Sociology, therefore, is a discipline of broad scope: Virtually no topic gender, race, religion, politics, education, health care, drug abuse, pornography, group behavior, conformity is taboo for sociological examination and interpretation.
