History and Social Science, Part 49

Question 1: Define and discuss microsociology and macrosociology.

Answer 1: Microsociology describes any sociological study of the relationships among small groups of people, including one-on-one interactions. Macrosociology, on the other hand, is any sociological study that considers the behavior of large groups of people. These two ways of applying sociological methods are closely related, in that the behavior of small groups is influenced by broad cultural mores, and the behavior of the larger group is nothing more than the behavior of the small groups in aggregate. An example of the varying approaches taken by micro- and macrosociology can be drawn from war: a microsociological study would focus on the behavior of small platoons, whereas the macrosociological study would consider the behavior of entire armies.

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Question 2: Describe the cyclical perspective in sociology.

Answer 2: Sociologists who take a cyclical perspective of their subject say that history repeats itself in cycles, and that humanity neither progresses nor accumulates more knowledge as it moves through these cycles. According to this view, societies have a birth, adolescence, maturity, decay, and death, at which point they are succeeded by some other society. During their period of growth, they have to be more creative and adaptive in order to survive. Once their survival is ensured, however, societies become conservative and stagnant, and eventually they decay. Many sociologists have disputed the claims of the cyclical perspective: some argue that it is an elegant theory not born out by the evidence, while others modify it to allow that individual societies may rise and fall depending on their innovation and attention to the lessons of history.

Question 3: Describe the rational choice proposition.

Answer 3: The rational choice (or self-interest) proposition is one of the fundamental assumptions of the social sciences. It asserts that people will tend to make decisions for their own good—specifically, to maximize their rewards and minimize their costs. According to both macro- and microsociology, humans will advance towards the things they like and avoid the things they dislike, even if this strategy is not clearly articulated in their minds. Many sociologists, however, argue that rational choice theory is limited because it fails to account for altruistic behavior, or behavior in situations in which an individual has no clear stake. Any sociological theory that depends on the rational choice proposition is considered to be a rational choice theory.

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