Institutions (as in the reorganization of a medical center).

The Clinical Sociology Association was founded in 1978 to promote the application of sociological knowledge to intervention for indi­vidual and social change. This professional group has developed a procedure for certifying clinical sociologists—much as physical therapists or psy­chologists are certified. As another indication of the rise of clinical sociology, as of 1989 the Amer­ican Sociological Association began publishing a new journal of clinical sociology. Sociological Prac­tice Review.

Applied sociologists generally leave it to others to act on their evaluations. By contrast, clinical sociologists bear direct responsibility for imple­mentation and view those with whom they work as their clients. This specialty has become increas­ingly attractive to sociology graduate students because it offers an opportunity to apply intellec­tual learning in a practical way. Moreover, shrinking prospects for academic employment have made such alternative career routes appeal­ing.

Applied and clinical sociology can be con­trasted with basic (or pure) sociology, which has the objective of gaining a more profound knowl­edge of the fundamental aspects of social phe­nomena. This type of research does not necessar­ily hope to generate specific applications, al­though such ideas may result once findings are analyzed. When Durkheim studied suicide rates, he was not primarily interested in discovering a way to eliminate suicide. In this sense, his re­search was an example of basic rather than ap­plied sociology.

Summary

Sociology is the systematic study of social behavior and human groups. In these written materials, we examine the nature of sociological theory, the founders of the discipline, theoretical perspectives of contemporary sociology, and the application of sociology to current issues of public policy.

1. An important element in the sociological imagina­tion is the ability to view our own society as an outsider might, rather than from the perspective of our limited experiences and cultural biases.

2. In contrast to other social sciences, sociology em­phasizes the influence that groups can have on people's behavior and attitudes.

3. Sociologists employ theories to examine the rela­tionships between observations or between data that may seem completely unrelated.

4. In his pioneering work Suicide, published in 1897, Emile Durkheim focused on social factors that contrib­uted to the rates of suicide found among various groups and nations.

5. Macrosociology concentrates on large-scale phe­nomena or entire civilizations, whereas microsociology stresses study of small groups.

6. Despite important differences, Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer, the two founders of sociology, agreed that social behavior can be and should be stud­ied systematically.

7. Emile Durkheim had a dramatic impact on many different areas within the discipline of sociology.

8. Max Weber told his students that they should employ Verstehen, the German word for "understand­ing" or "insight," in their intellectual work. In employ­ing Verstehen, sociologists consider the thoughts and feelings of those people under study.

9. Karl Marx argued that history could be under­stood in dialectical terms as a record of the inevitable conflict between the owners of the means of produc­tion and the masses of people who have no resources other than their labor (the proletariat).

10. In contrast to the emphasis on stability which characterizes the functionalist perspective of sociology, the conflict perspective assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of conflict or tension between competing groups.

11. Within the discipline of sociology, the interaction-ist perspective is primarily concerned with fundamental or everyday forms of interaction, including symbols and other types of nonverbal communication.

12. Applied sociology—the use of the discipline with the specific intent of yielding practical applications for human behavior and organizations—can be contrasted with basic sociology, the objective of which is to gain a more profound knowledge of the fundamental aspects of social phenomena.

13. Sociologists expect the next quarter of a century to be perhaps the most exciting and critical period in the history of the discipline because of a growing recogni­tion that social problems must be addressed in the near future.