Thursday, December 1, 2011

In what ways do people fit the definition of a sociological concept?

Sociological concepts are very broad simplified constructs that are used to give a general or abstract sense of an otherwise complicated thing, idea, process, and so on. These include things like gender or race; you know what they are but they don't really have a fixed or clear definition, nor do they have any meaning outside of society or culture.


As for people being a sociological concept, that can be a little tricky. For instance, human beings aren't a sociological concept because they are a particular species of animal that exists in the natural world. "People", on the other hand, is a sociological concept because it's an ambiguous or general term. If someone asked you to picture a human being, you'd picture a particular species of animal that would more or less match what they asked you to picture. If, however, they asked you to picture a "person," you wouldn't really know what to picture because a "person" isn't a thing, it's concept that has a particular socio-cultural meaning, which can change depending on the era, region, or context in which its being used.


In very simple terms, "human being" describes a particular thing, whereas "people" doesn't describe anything in particular; rather, it's a sociological concept that's used to vaguely identify a group. As an abstract, it's non-specific and doesn't have any meaning until you know what kind of people they are.

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