数理社会学是运用数学构建社会学理论的学科。数理社会学的目标是将那些在直觉上很明显但并未形成正式观点的社会学理论，用正式的术语表达出来。这种做法的好处包括增强理论的明确性以及用数学找出直觉不能得出的理论内涵。数理社会学所偏好的研究方式可以概括为：“创建一个数学模型”。这意味着针对一些社会现象提出具体假设，用数学语言进行表达，然后为其提供基于经验的阐释。还意味着推导所创建模型的特性，并将它和相关的经验数据进行比较。社会网络分析是这个子领域对社会学整体和整个科学界所做出的最著名的贡献。 数理社会学中的模型通常能帮助社会学家搞懂如何通过当地可预测的交互作用推导出全球的社会结构模式。

Mathematical sociology is the use of mathematics to construct social theories. Mathematical sociology aims to take sociological theory, which is strong in intuitive content but weak from a formal point of view, and to express it in formal terms. The benefits of this approach include increased clarity and the ability to use mathematics to derive implications of a theory that cannot be arrived at intuitively. In mathematical sociology, the preferred style is encapsulated in the phrase "constructing a mathematical model." This means making specified assumptions about some social phenomenon, expressing them in formal mathematics, and providing an empirical interpretation for the ideas. It also means deducing properties of the model and comparing these with relevant empirical data. Social network analysis is the best-known contribution of this subfield to sociology as a whole and to the scientific community at large. The models typically used in mathematical sociology allow sociologists to understand how predictable local interactions are and they are often able to elicit global patterns of social structure.