Sociology is the scientific study of human behavior. In other words, sociologists study groups, and what the majority of people do in any given situation. And, we study how people actually are, rather than how they say that they are, the “walk” not just the “talk”. Interestingly, people often say they behave a certain way, but when we do research on this to see if this is the case, people act differently than they say they will when earlier questioned. When this happens, we find this particularly interesting.

In sociology, we study the group (also known as the aggregate) rather than the individual. Certainly, there are always exceptions to any rule made, but as sociologists focus on the group, we can then track trends and patterns through time. We are interested in the individual, but we are interested in how individuals do or do not fit within the framework of larger society. Again, we try to make sense of why people do what they do. So, when individuals do not follow societal trends we might ask questions like, Why? Why now? Why not before or later? What other choices were available? What is the background of the individual—what other group/s were influential in making that decision? Did family, friends, education, government, religion have an impact on an individual decision? Do you see how the group, the institution came into the picture again, even when talking about individuals? There are of course always exceptions to these patterns or trends – understanding both the patterns and when people deviate from the patterns are important.