There are several main methods that sociologists use to gather empirical evidence, which include questionnaires, interviews, participant observation, and statistical research.

The problem with all of these approaches is that they are all based on what theoretical position the researcher adopts to explain and understand the society he sees in front of him. If he is a functionalist like Émile Durkheim, he is likely to interpret everything in terms of large-scale social structures. If he is a symbolic interactionist, he is likely to concentrate on the way people understand one another. If he is a Marxist, or a neo-Marxist, he is likely to interpret everything through the grid of class struggle and economics. Phenomenologists tend to think that there is only the way in which people construct their meanings of reality, and nothing else. One of the real problems is that sociologists argue that only one theoretical approach is the "right" one, and it is theirs. In practice, sociologists often tend to mix and match different approaches and methodologies, since each method produces particular types of data.

The Internet is of interest for sociologists in three ways: as a tool for research, for example, in using online questionnaires instead of paper ones, as a discussion platform, and as a research topic. Sociology of the Internet in the last sense includes analysis of online communities (e.g. as found in newsgroups), virtual communities and virtual worlds organisational change catalysed through new media like the Internet, and societal change at-large in the transformation from industrial to informational society (or to information society).

Sociology and other social sciences

In the early 20th century, sociologists and psychologists who conducted research in non-industrial societies contributed to the development of anthropology. It should be noted, however, that anthropologists also conducted research in industrial societies. Today sociology and anthropology are better contrasted according to different theoretical concerns and methods rather than objects of study.

Sociobiology is a relatively new field to branch from both the sociology and biology disciplines. Although the field once rapidly gained acceptance, it has remained highly controversial as it attempts to find ways in which social behavior and structures can be explained by evolutionary and biological processes. Sociobiologists are often criticized by sociologists for depending too greatly on the effects of genes in defining behavior. Sociobiologists often respond, however, by citing a complex relationship between nature and nurture. In this regard, sociobiology is closely related to anthropology, zoology, and evolutionary psychology. Nonetheless, for most in the discipline, its ideas are unacceptable. Some sociobiologists, such as Richard Machalek, call for the field of sociology to encompass the study of non-human societies along with human beings.

Sociology has some links with social psychology, but the former is more interested in social structures and the latter in social behaviors. A distinction should be made between these and forensic studies within these disciplines, particularly where anatomy is involved. These latter studies might be better named as Forensic psychology. As shown by the work of Marx and others, economics has influenced sociological theories.

Subfields of sociology

• Collective behavior
• Computational sociology
• Environmental sociology
• Interactionism also known as the social action theory and symbolic-interactionism
• Economic development
• Economic sociology
• Feminist sociology
• Functionalism
• Human ecology (sometimes included into sociology proper)
• Industrial sociology also known as sociology of industrial relations or sociology of work
• Media Sociology
• Medical sociology
• Political sociology also known as sociology of politics or sociology of the state
• Program evaluation
• Public sociology
• Pure sociology
• Rural sociology
• Social change also known as sociology of change
• Social demography
• Social inequality
• Social movements
• Sociology of culture
• Sociology of conflict also known as Conflict theory
• Sociology of deviance also known as criminology
• Sociology of disaster
• Sociology of the family
• Sociology of markets also known as behavioral finance
• Sociology of religion
• Sociology of science and technology
• Sociology of sport
• Urban sociology
• Visual sociology