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sociological theory

sociological theory

1 6.6
An idea that explains patterns in how people live and act in society
  • noun
  • /ˌsoʊsiəˈlɑːdʒɪkəl ˈθɪəri/
  • Specialized
translation icon : teoría sociológica
  • The course covers various sociological theories that analyze the relationship between society and individual actions.

Examples

  • The sociological theories described above attempt to explain how and why community colleges stratify students, despite their broad-access missions.

    Academic text (2015)
  • Sociological theories of adolescence posit that there is no one youth culture but different youth cultures.

    Academic text (2008)
  • Sociological theory stands to improve our knowledge about the sorting processes.

    Academic text (2015)
  • We describe sociological theories, examine the contributions they make to the field, and discuss the discipline's recent debates regarding community colleges.

    Academic text (2015)
  • Symbolic interactionism is a complex and broad sociological theory; however, in this study, the authors focused on meaning derived from interaction.

    Academic text (2010)
  • But a neutral, general, sociological theory of civil society and the juridical state presumably would have to apply not just to organizations one happens to like, but to civil society organizations in general.

    Blog text (24)
  • Conducting some ongoing reading of the literature on identity during my data analysis and writing period, I also re-examined the concepts emerging from the data and interpreted them with respect to prevalent sociological theories about identity.

    Academic text (2006)
  • In sociological theories of modernity, the transition from the pre-modern, rural community to the modern, industrial, and urbanized society is said to be marked by the decline of religion as an expression of the moral unity of society.

    Academic text (1996)
  • The sociological theory provides a framework to understand how societal norms influence individual behavior.

  • Many researchers spend years developing their own sociological theories to explain social phenomena.

Surface Forms

Morphology

sociological + theory

The meaning 'an explanation or framework about society' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'sociological' (pertaining to the study of society) with 'theory' (a set of ideas explaining facts). This adjective+noun composition follows a common, compositional pattern found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Sociological theory comes from sociology (the study of how people live together) and theory (a simple idea or map that shows how things work). Imagine a map or short story that helps you 'explain' the common 'patterns' people form in a society, so the phrase means an idea that tries to describe and 'explain' social behaviour.