Number 3: Improving Our Personal Lives

This is part of a series of Top 7 Things Sociology Offers the World.

Sociology offers an understanding of our collective nature that improves our personal lives.

There is some controversy in sociology as a discipline as to the extent to which we control our own destinies. But even in the most functionalist, deterministic applications of social theory, which asserts we have little control, a basic understanding exists that we need each other to survive. I bend more towards a constructionist point-of-view and believe we have a lot of control over our daily lives. But this does not mean we have full control.

As I tell my students, the good news is that you are helping to shape the social world. The bad news is that so is everyone else. What we call "society" is the sum total of all that we do in our human interactions: what we say, how we say it, what we assume, and with whom we interact.

If you think "personal responsibility" is important and that somehow understanding social structures is in opposition to such a concept, then you don't understand the nature of responsibility. Responsibility includes "response ability," how well we will respond to the world around us. If you don't understand group dynamics, social empathy or human interaction, your responses will not be on target. If you do understand how these things work, you will do better in all your endeavors in life, even if you face barriers, including your relationships, your education, your careers, and your citizenship.

Sociology offers a way for people from diverse countries, cultures and languages to find common ground. (Published on March 28, 2013 at 6am PDT)