Neuroscience

In longterm relationships, the brain makes trust a habit

(Medical Xpress)—After someone betrays you, do you continue to trust the betrayer? Your answer depends on the length of the relationship, according to research by sociologist Karen Cook of Stanford University and her colleagues. ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Income disparity makes people unhappy

Many economists and sociologists have warned of the social dangers of a wide gap between the richest and everyone else. Now, a new study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Psychologists ask how well -- or badly -- we remember together

Several years ago, Suparna Rajaram noticed a strange sort of contagion in a couple she was close to. One partner acquired dementia -- and the other lost the nourishing pleasures of joint reminiscence. "When the other person ...

Health

Discrimination may harm your health

Racial discrimination may be harmful to your health, according to new research from Rice University sociologists Jenifer Bratter and Bridget Gorman.

Oncology & Cancer

Expert says lessons should be learned from breast implant crisis

The social, and psychological reasons women have breast implant surgery are complex and multi-faceted says Professor Julie Kent a sociologist from the Center for Health & Clinical Research at UWE Bristol. These considerations, ...

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Sociology

Sociology is a branch of social sciences that uses systematic methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social structure and activity, sometimes with the goal of applying such knowledge to the pursuit of social welfare. Its subject matter ranges from the micro level of face-to-face interaction to the macro level of societies at large.

Sociology is a broad discipline in terms of both methodology and subject matter. Its traditional focuses have included social relations, social stratification, social interaction, culture and deviance, and its approaches have included both qualitative and quantitative research techniques. As much of what humans do fits under the category of social structure or social activity, sociology has gradually expanded its focus to such far-flung subjects as the study of economic activity, health disparities, and even the role of social activity in the creation of scientific knowledge. The range of social scientific methods has also been broadly expanded. The "cultural turn" of the 1970s and 1980s brought more humanistic interpretive approaches to the study of culture in sociology. Conversely, the same decades saw the rise of new mathematically rigorous approaches, such as social network analysis.

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