The scripts for human social interactions within different social locations and social systems have undergone change, particularly during the past 200 years. Amidst these changes, however, threads of stability are also apparent. Hence, the subject of social change and stability is fundamental to the discipline of sociology and represents a fourth theme. A fifth theme refers to the scientific nature of Sociology. Sociology approaches the study of social phenomena systematically and methodically.
Sociology is a science which uses scientific methods to develop theories about social interaction.
The theories, and the concepts and principles that form the building blocks of theories, have been and continue to be developed by students of Sociology during the last two centuries. They provide the script for our scientific inquiry into the patterns of social interactions and will be used as another organizing framework throughout the course. The structural-functional perspective holds that the nature of life in society is one of harmony and consensus. In contrast, the conflict paradigm holds that social life is competitive and conflict-ridden and what holds people together is coercion. The symbolic interactionists focus on the nature and meaning of the symbols used in the harmonious or conflict types of interactions, while the exchange theorists are more interested in the equality and inequalities in what is being exchanged in the interactions.