The social transformation in the 18th and 19th century was so enormous that it changed the whole social set up. First capitalism grew which meant that only few people had the means of production while the rest had to sell labor in order to survive. In addition, impersonal financial markets developed and powers changed as there was the development of administrative and armed power. The other social transformation was enormous population worldwide as it changed the dimension and aspects of living especially with the changing world order. These are the main social changes that necessitated the development of new science of sociology.
Interpretative sociology has been defined as a social study which main focus is to the understanding of how people define their social life. Interpretive sociology differs from both the positivist’s sociology which is also referred to as scientific sociology and critical sociology in the ways that are highlighted below.
III. Interpretive sociology has a view that it is people who create a reality. On the other hand, positivist sociology is more bent on the objectivity of what reality is out there. Critical sociology tries to understand the human behavior.
Emile Durkheim was concerned with the society; thus he encouraged the interpretive school of theory sociology. Durkheim claimed that sociology was not only responsible for discovering apparent laws but also the inherent nature of our society and social world.
Karl Marx was in the school of thought of positivist’s sociology. Marxist sociology, was concerned with the relations between society and economics.
Max Weber is well defined by the conflict theory. He explains that there is a class of which is made up of few people who are filthy rich and have amassed a lot of wealth and those that are horribly poor.
The culture that underlies the structural, functional approach is that there are two main semantic fields that have their own scope of origin and their own history and language. When studying, an individual aspect of the character does not explain why a person is social or why they are not so social. Therefore, the social aspects of the person must always be studied to get a clear and precise understanding of the social being as a whole character.
According to Mead, the self is governed by certain factors.
III. Self-consciousness is usually as a result of the process in which one takes to the attitude of others towards themselves. An individual tries to compare themselves according to the standards set by others.