Meaning of Sociological Theory
Theory means different things to different people. It is an intelligent statement about anything. It is a conceptual scheme designed to explain relationship between two or more variables.
Definitions of Sociological Theory
Different theorists and social thinkers defined theory as under.
- Abraham Kaplan “Theory is a way to think about a disturbing situation which allow us to change or modify our habits or replacing by new ones as the social situation demands”.
- Merton “Sociological theory refers to those statements which are logically interconnected and from which empirical uniformities can be drawn”.
- Humans “Theory is a set of concepts is which descriptive concepts states that what is the theory about and operative concepts shows the properties of theory nature. It means that theory is a set of propositions (statements) which form a deductive system”.
- Thomas Ward he has a comprehensive definition, that, “A theory is a logical deductive and inductive system of concepts and statements which gives a relationship between two or more variables and from which testable hypothesis can be drawn”.
It is concluded from the above definitions that, “theory is a set of proposition, interconnected and form a system of deduction and induction also show the way to further observation and experiment”.
Important Sociological Theories
Following are some of the important sociological theories
- Structural-Functionalism
- Conflict Theory
- Symbolic Interactionism
- Role Theory
- Feminist Theory
- Integration Theory