The main premise of sociology is that humans beings are primarily social animals. The main insight provided by sociology is that to a large degree human behavior is formed by the larger group to which human beings belong and from the social interactions that occur within them. Thus, in sociology, the main emphasis is on the group not the individual. Social sciences study different aspects of human behavior. Thus, sociology studies human behavior as it is shaped by society and interaction within society.
This is not to imply that society has a positive impact on human behavior, in fact some theorists, like Karl Marx, felt capitalistic society had a deleterious effect on the individual who did not own the means of production because such an individual could not be free. Erich Fromm was greatly influenced by the theories of Karl Marx, believing that our social unconscious is determined by our society’s economic system. He defines five personality types or orientations in economic terms: the receptive orientation, the exploitative orientation, the hoarding orientation, the marketing orientation, and the productive orientation. The first four orientations are a “having” orientation, where the individual tries to escape the freedom of autonomy through “having”. Fromm believed that only the productive orientation was the truly free individual, but it is one who does not reject their social nature “The person without a mask who, without disavowing his or her biological and social nature, nevertheless does not shirk away from freedom and responsibility” (Boeree, 2000, 5).
The economic structure of society creates the different personality orientations, according to Fromm, in addition to the kind of nurturing exhibited by another social group, the family. We absorb our society along with our mother’s milk. We are so much a part of our society and it a part of us, that we tend to for
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