The effect of geographical conditions

Effect of geographical condition

Geographical conditions are not same everywhere which creates differences in the living tools. You may see different types of houses in the cold area compared to the houses in the hot area. The houses in the cold area have to be built with respect to the geographical condition and this strategy also applies for the houses to be built in the hot areas. So there is no way you can ignore natural factors. Not even house, but also many other decisions are hugely affected by geographical factors. Now we will be discussing those in short. Certain trees grow only in certain place; it would be hard to find those trees other place. People’s pattern of occupation differs from place to place or even nation to nation. Even people’s physical structures are not similar all over the world. African people are more strongly built than the Asian people and European people are comparatively fairer than the Asian and African people. What you think what is the reason behind this distinction? Does Geography play any role or not? If you think yes, then you are absolutely right, geographical condition in those areas plays a major role for those differences.

Biological environment affecting society

Like physical environment, biological environment also has great impact on the society we are living in. You see different types of people in different area. European people usually have blue eyes, sharp nose and straight hair and they are sometimes called Caucasoid. In the Malaysia, China and near India, you can see people totally different from European region. People living in those areas are called mongoloid and white-brown mix skin, small eyes is their fundamental characteristic. If you go to south-west from Asia, you will be seeing people having black skin, gigantic figure and curly hair. Therefore you see structure of people differs greatly from region to region. Like biological environment, Social environment also has major influence over the society we are living in. If you are living in a well developed economy, then your lifestyle would be different from the people living in less developed society. So like biological environment, social environment also affect our society

Different kinds of Environment affecting Society

Environment affecting society

There are physical, biological and social environment which affect the society we are living in. therefore knowing those environment could be beneficial. We will be discussing those sequentially

Physical Environment affecting Society

Whether you are living in the plains area, hills area or in desert area, certainly affect your lifestyle. If you live in hill area, you will be leading a complete different lifestyle compared to the people living in plain area. Population in plain area is visibly much greater than the hill area. Economy is also better in plain area along with better communication ways. In the plain area, you can see democratic political system like in Bangladesh but on the other hand mainly autocrat system prevails in the hill area where people are bound to follow their ruler’s orders. In the plain areas, most of the times we see homogeneous religion but on the other hand we see different religions prevail in the hill areas.     

Steps in Sociological research

Any research can be two types, one is quantitative and other is qualitative. In quantitative research you can do survey or census or even both. As a qualitative research you got many options in hand, you can go for case study, observation, FGD (Focus Group Discussion) and so on. Now we will talk a little bit about steps in sociological research below-

At the very beginning of the research you have to define the specific problem accurately. After defining the problem reviewing previous researches could be an effective tool. Then you can form a hypothesis or if you want you can make several hypotheses. Hypothesis is done; now decide what will be the research design. Next step would be determining a particular sample and collecting relevant information about that sample. Now that you have collected relevant data, your very next step should be analyzing those data systematically and then making conclusion. And of course last step is preparing your report.     

Scientific Method

Scientific Method

Like the social science, Sociologists also use scientific method to extract necessary information about the Society. Scientific method is a structured process through which scientific knowledge is formed and this method includes thorough observation and obviously verification. Now we will see the steps of scientific method used in Sociology or even in any field discussed below-

·         First you have to select a problem which is to be resolved

·       After choosing the problem, 2^nd step would be making thorough observation and gathering related data

·       After successfully collecting data, a researcher has to make the classification of the data as a next step in the scientific method.

·         Creating an effective hypothesis is the next step

·  After having done with all the above steps, a researcher has to make generalization of the whole research

·         As a last step of scientific method one will be doing the verification process of the findings.

There above mentioned steps are inevitable for a scientific method which also can be used in any psychology research as well.

Is sociology a science?

Now that we have known what science is, we are going to discuss whether sociology is a science or not. Sociology is concerned with scientific method and actually it’s based on scientific method. It is not only ideas but also mostly factual. The facts revealed by sociology can be regarded as used as universal without any hesitation. The principles of sociology can be verifiable at any time regardless of place as well and the result should    hold true for every case. Like science, Sociologists also discuss about the cause-effect relationship regarding any social terms in the culture. Sociologist can make prediction through a thorough observation. So far whatever we have mentioned are the criteria for being science and we have seen all of the criteria are visible in sociology. So therefore under the circumstances it is clearly can be stated that sociology is a science and this is certainly inevitable to know.     

What is science?

Science

Defining science is an important issue because it is a part of Social Science. Science can be defined as a structured knowledge which is gathered through systematic observation and a systematic approach. Knowledge is constructed by a proper investigation and this proper way of investigation can be regarded as science. It is important in every sphere of life. In culture, sociology, social science or we better say in every field of our life, science is playing a crucial role. Science deals with the factual issues not the imaginary thing and this is one of the characteristics of science. It can be verified in any place of the world. One scientific method got approved in one place; it doesn’t mean that that method cannot be verified in other place. So science is universal. Science also deals with the cause-effect relationship where causes and effects are analyzed scientifically. At the end of this discussion we can conclude that sociologist should not neglect science rather consider making social change scientifically.       

Karl Marx: A legend

karl marx

Discussion about sociology cannot be completed without mentioning a name “Karl Marx”. Here we will try to discuss something at least some important issues about Karl Marx. We all know Karl Marx as a GREAT philosopher but his identity is not limited to as philosopher. Along with being a philosopher he was an economist, sociologist, socialist and journalist. Today’s modern world can be regarded as a contribution of Karl Marx. Full name of Karl Marx is Karl Heinrich Marx. He was born in 1818 in Trier, Prussia, Germany. During his lifetime he was not that famous, even got ignored by many scholars of that time. He got the utmost fame after his death and will be remembered forever. He introduced many theories in his lifetime. Karl Marx’s theories have contributed a lot in the field of economics, sociology, philosophy, law and many more. Karl Marx was a gift for the whole humankind.          

Cutural lag

Cultural lag is an important theory introduced by Ogburn, a famous sociologist. Ogburn proposed culture as having two parts, one is material and other is non-material culture. All material substances are regarded as material culture such as computer, factory and machine etc. on the other hand all adaptive culture is non-material culture such as education, customs, ritual and morals etc. According to Ogburn people are more interested toward the change in material culture compared to the change in non-material culture. And that’s why material culture usually changes more rapidly than the non-material culture. it is believed that the change in material culture has to be balanced with the perspective change in the non-material culture, otherwise the society will face severe imbalance due to that gap. This gap is known as cultural lag. So it would be best to try to minimize the cultural lag. The more a society can minimize the cultural lag, more the society is developed.

Characteristics of Culture

culture

Knowing the characteristics of culture is quite necessary as being the part of culture. In this segment we will be discussing about some characteristics of culture. When we born in a specific culture then we don’t perceive all the issues of culture at a time. We learn about the culture gradually. It’s a gradual learning process. Usually culture differs from nation to nation. You are living in a specific society having a distinct culture. If you move to a different society, you will find a complete different culture prevailing there. This variability is a characteristic of culture. In that different society you star to live in. After a period of time you find yourself getting involved with their culture and this is nothing but the adaptive nature of culture. Everything surrounding us is changing, so does the culture. Even culture can be changed by modern technology, globalization, developed communication and Internet. Whatever we have discussed so far are some of the most important characteristics of Culture.