Sociology

Now that we have learned the basic rules of anthropology it is time to learn about the basic ideas of sociology another really important aspect to understand psychology.

Sociology is the study of human society, in other words, a social group (social life, people, institutions, etc.). It is focused in 3 basic ideas:
     1. The ways societies shape human behavior
     2. How an individual behavior has influence in society
     3. Social change
It began after the French Revolution (1789-1799) when people saw an enormous change in a society and wondered why this was happening. Karl Heinrich Marx (1818-1883) was the father of modern sociology, introducing this concept to the world.
Lets focus on the sociological perspective. Sociologist study their own society, they learn about a society that is natural to them, the same culture, the same way of behaving. This prevents them from seeing the strange from what they consider the norm. Sociological perspective means seeing the general in the particular, the strange in the familiar. Looking at your own society as if you were a stranger. Charles Wright Mills (a sociologist from the USA, 1916-1962)  called this term sociological imagination.
Durkheim stablished sociology as an academic discipline (he studied the relationship between the society and people commiting suicide). He thought that in order to create a conclusion, you need to find a pattern in your investigation, or if not, your study would not make sense.
Lets focus on the sociological perspective. Sociologist study their own society, they learn about a society that is natural to them, the same culture, the same way of behaving. This prevents them from seeing the strange from what they consider the norm. Sociological perspective means seeing the general in the particular, the strange in the familiar. Looking at your own society as if you were a stranger. Charles Wright Mills (a sociologist from the USA, 1916-1962)  called this term sociological imagination.Other sociologists like Anthony Giddens (London 1938) and Émile Durkheim (France, 1858 -1917) used the sociological perspective.
Durkheim stablished sociology as an academic discipline (he studied the relationship between the society and people commiting suicide). He thought that in order to create a conclusion, you need to find a pattern in your investigation, or if not, your study would not make sense.

Anthropology

Every good psychologist needs to have a basic idea about what anthropology is. It is a very simple science that is essential to understand some basic psychological rules. 

What is anthropology? 

-It is the study of humans from all time. The study of human kind. 

-It is focussed on every kind of society, studying their past and present. 

-It is a holistic science, in other words, it studies every posible aspect of human life. In fact, anthropologists try to make correlations between economy, politics family, religión, etc. (almost everything related with human kind). 

When did it start?

-It all began when people from one culture started meeting people of another. They began looking at them and seeing that they were very different so it was inevitable to think, why are these people so different to me? This question is the start of the anthroplogical thinking. When people began to invistigate about these different cultures to know more about them is when anthropology started.

Fields of anthropology 

Anthropology is a very wide subject, this is why it is divided in FOUR FIELDS to make it easier to study. Normally anthropologist work in one area, usually CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY.

1. ARCHAEOLOGY

-It is the study of the past through phisical remains (bones, enamelware, etc.) -Humans always leave traces. Archaeologists work is to find these traces to learn how people lived. It is the only way we can study prehistory so it is something also used by historians. 
- It is really important to know where the physical remains where found as that can reveal lot’s of things about the society and how different or similar they where to nearer societies. 

2. PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 

-The study of what makes us different from other species and when did it happen. - We get this information from bones, but nowadays information is much more precise and we can usually use DNA to discover things from the past. 
-Thanks to DNA anthropologists have been able to discover that 90% of the population have neanderthals DNA, which means that homo sapiens and neanderthalis mixed at some point. 

3.ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS 

-The study of language and it’s evolution. - Language is specific of man kind and that makes us different from other animals 

4. CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 

 -It is the study of human groups - People that are together lots of time develop the same way of behaving and thinking. 
- Anthropologist`s not only study societies, but also groups of people.

Psicología básica

Hola, este blog esta dedicado a la psicología más básica para facilitar su comprensión a los más curiosos. Espero que éstas entradas os sean de utilidad para futuros psicólogos o gente interesada en la materia.

¡Saludos!