Relationship between Sociology and Psychology:
Psychology is often defined as the science of behaviour. It involves itself primarily with the individual. It is interested in her/ his intelligence and learning, motivations and memory, nervous system and reaction time, hopes and fears.
Sociology attempts to understand behaviour as it is organized in society, that is the way in which personality is shaped by different aspects of society. For instance, economic and political system, their family and kinship structure, their culture, norms and values.
It is interesting to recall that Durkheim who sought to establish a clear scope and method for sociology in his well-known study of suicide left out individual intentions of those who commit or try to commit suicide in favour of statistics concerning various social characteristics of these individuals.
Social psychology, which serves as a bridge between psychology and sociology, maintains a primary interest in the individual but concerns itself with the way in which the individual behaves in social groups, collectively with other individuals.