SOW1111 Introduction to Sociology

Introduction to Sociology is an overview of the scientific study of human society, social behavior, and group dynamics. It introduces foundational thinkers — Auguste Comte (who coined the discipline), Émile Durkheim (social facts, anomie), Karl Marx (class conflict), Max Weber (stratification, bureaucracy), and C. Wright Mills (sociological imagination) — alongside the three core theoretical perspectives: functionalism (society as a stable, interconnected system), conflict theory (society shaped by inequality and power struggles), and symbolic interactionism (society constructed through everyday meaning-making). Students explore key concepts such as culture, norms, values, socialization, social stratification, deviance, and social mobility, as well as the role of major social institutions — family, education, religion, and government — in shaping individual lives and maintaining or challenging social order.