3 major perspectives in sociology PDF

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Essay about the three major perspectives in sociology. End of semester essay....

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Introduction Sociologists develop theories to explain and analyze society at different levels and from different perspectives. Sociologists study everything from the micro level of analysis of small social patterns to the “big picture” which is the macro level of analysis of large social patterns. Sociologists employ three major theoretical perspectives in sociology today. They are the structural-functionalist perspective, the conflict perspective, and the symbolic interactionism. The structural-functionalist perspective is done at a macro level and its focus is on the relationships between the parts of society. The Conflict perspective is done at a macro level and its main focus is on how the wealthy controls the poor and weak. Symbolic Interactionism is done at a micro and it focuses on the use of symbols and face to face interactions.

Structural-Functionalist Perspective The structural-functionalist perspective looks at society as a complex system composed of various parts much like a living organism. Each aspect of society contributes to society's functioning as a whole. Social institutions play a key role in keeping a society stable. All societies need certain things to survive (Newman 2010). Auguste Comte (Newman 2010) pointed out the need to keep society unified as many traditions were diminishing. He created the term sociology. Auguste Comte suggests that sociology is the product of a three-stage development. Talcott Parson (Parsons 1951) sees society as a collection of systems within systems Parson determined that each individual has expectations of the other's action and reaction to his own behaviour, and that these expectations would be derived from the accepted norms and values of the society where they live. Emile Durkheim was concerned primarily with how societies could maintain their integrity and coherence in the modern society when things such as shared religious and ethnic background could no longer be assumed (Durkheim 1915, 1964). He also did studies on education, crime and suicide. Sociologist Robert Merton (1957) divides human functions into two types. They are manifest functions and latent functions. Manifest functions are intended and the obvious consequences of activities. Latent functions are the unintended, sometimes unrecognized, consequences of actions. The manifest function of going to church is to worship as part of a religious community, but its latent function may be to meet people. From the structural-functionalist perspective, if an aspect of a social life does not contribute to society’s survival it will eventually disappear (Durkheim 1915, 1964). This may be considered as dysfunctional. Dysfunctions are consequences of structural elements that produce changes in

their environing social system. Dysfunctions can also be manifest or latent. Manifest dysfunctions are anticipated disruptions of social life. A manifest dysfunction of a festival might include disruptions of transportation and excessive production of garbage. Latent dysfunctions are unintended and unanticipated disruptions of order and stability. In the festival example, they would be represented by people missing work due to the traffic jam. One of the strengths of Functional-structural perspective is positive about society. The theorists believe that the family assists in the creation of individual identity and education plays a key part in creating a common identity. Education is positive because it gives everyone a fair chance in achieving success and does not discriminate individuals. They believe that individuals destiny is determined their efforts. The weakness of this perspective is that it is rather naïve. They believe everyone in the structure holds the same norms and values. A lot of people do not believe in the same thing. Another weakness is that this perspective could assert that social issues serve as a function in a society. They assume that every institution is beneficial to the whole of the society and doesn’t see the negative aspects of society and its institutions.

Conflict Perspective The conflict perspective is mostly based on the study of Karl Marx although there are many scholars who have contributed to the ideas of this perspective. The conflict perspective addresses the deficiencies of the structural-functionalism by viewing the structure of society as a source of inequality, which benefits some groups at the expense of the other groups (Newman 2010). It focuses on how elements of society promote divisions and inequalities. Conflict theorists believe that the wealthy powerful people force social order on the poor and the weak. Conflict theorists find social conflict between any groups in which the potential for inequality exists. Conflict theorists think that unequal groups normally have conflicting values and agendas which in turn cause them to compete. According to Karl Marx (Newman 2010) all human societies are structured around the production of goods that people need to survive. Karl Marx believed that there were two categories of people which are the capitalist and the working class. The wealthy class includes the power of wealth that has access to the resources to manufacture and produce products. The working class is the individuals that have no power and their hard work is sold to capitalist class to produce these products. C. Wright Mills (Mills 1956) was a modern theorist of the conflict theory. His views were that social structures are created through conflict between people with different interests and resources. Individuals and resources are then influenced by these structures and by the unequal distribution of power and resources within a society.

Another major part of the conflict theory is the feminist perspective. Feminist theory (Newman, 2010) examines woman social roles and lived experienced. Sociologists focus on equality between men and women as the most important source of inequality in social life. Feminist theory examines woman's social roles and lived experience. Also it is concerned with equal opportunities and freedom for all women around the world. There are other theories under the conflict theory which are the critical theory, queer theory and world system theory just to name a few. The strengths of the conflict theory would be that it seeks freedom for all. It also acknowledges that not everyone has the same views, beliefs, etc. The weakness of the conflict perspective is that it assumes that everything in society only benefits the rich and that the working class does not realize their status. It makes it seems as though the working class go against the norms and values set by the ruling class nor does it explain how an individual is affected.

Symbolic Interactionism According to the symbolic interactionism perspective people attach meanings to symbols. A symbol is something used to represent or stand for something else and it can be a physical object, a characteristic or property of objects, a gesture or simply a word. (Newman 2010). Symbols are created, modified and used by people through their interactions with each other. George Mead (Mead 1934) introduced this perspective to American sociology. He claimed that human beings begin understands the social world through a play and game stages. The play comes first in a child's development. The child takes different roles they observe in the adult society. In the game stage it is required that a person develop a self in the full sense of the term. Another sociologist that contributed to the symbolic interactionism was Max Weber (Weber 1947). One of his basic claims was that complex social action, like a social movement or largescale historical change, could be understood in terms that make sense to an individual participant. Erving Goffman was another sociologist whom contributed to the symbolic interactionism. He explains dramaturgy, using theater with human social behavior as more or less well scripted and with humans as role-taking or actors (Goffman 1959). The strengths of symbolic interactionism are it that it takes into account individuals free will, the choices they make and how they behave. It is done on a small scale so it explains more of how interactions are beneficial to. It also gives insight into small scale interactions, which we would not be able to define with on the other theories because they are done at macro level. The weaknesses of the symbolic interactionism theory are that symbols may be interpreted wrongly. It doesn't develop the idea of socialization and it cannot explain where people get the meanings to

for these symbols. This perspective ends up drawing these answers from other sociological theories, and it doesn't explain social order and how it comes about.

Poverty Poverty may be considered the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money. There are two different types of poverty. Absolute poverty is when someone who lacks the basic necessities in order to survive such as clothing, shelter, food and so on. The next type of poverty is relative poverty refers to lacking a usual or socially acceptable level of resources or income as compared with others within a society or country. This social issue would be viewed differently when looking at it from the different theoretical perspectives. A structural-functionalist thinks that if something doesn’t benefit the society it wouldn’t exist in a society. They would view poverty to be necessity to society. They would argue that from an individual being poor it inspires them to work so that they would not become poor thus increasing their wealth. In order to have rich people in a society there would have to be the poor. A Functionalist would think people are poor because they lack education and skills. A functionalist would look at how poverty creates jobs for people who train to help the poor for example, a social worker. The conflict theorist believes that society is divided into the capitalists and the working class. If there are wealthy people then there would have to be poor people because wealth and power are distributed unequally. The group are on top is normally the wealthy people. They believe that the wealthy makes up the rules on how the goods and product of society would be distributed because they want to make sure that the rich stays rich and the poor stays poor. The wealthy are only interested in looking out for the interest of other wealthy people so that they can keep their lifestyle. The symbolic interactionism would be more interested in how a person was able to fall into poverty. In this perspective poor people exist because they might have not had the opportunity or was not offered a better way of life. Individuals create the symbolic structures that make life

meaningful. They would probably look at stereotypes people have towards the poor and viceversa. In today’s society objects like flashy cars, big homes, expensive clothes and jewelry are physical objects that determine a person’s wealth, whereas the poor would have little amount of money if any at all and just the necessary things needed to live. They would have smaller homes in poorer areas than the wealthy, a cheap car, and cheap clothes and so on.

Conclusion Sociologists of the three major theories have different perspectives have different views on how to explain and analyze social phenomena at different levels. These perspectives are helpful when looking at society and assessing a social issue. But it is important to use more than one perspective when analyzing a social issue because neither of the perspectives solely addresses all the possibly circumstances of an issue.

Works Cited Durkheim, Emile. 1915. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life: A Study in Religious Sociology. Translated by Joseph Ward Swain. New York: Macmillan. Goffman, E. 1959. The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, NY: Double Day Parsons, Talcott. 1951. The Social System. Glencoe, IL: Free Press. Newman, David N.2010. Sociology: exploring the architecture of everyday life. Mead, G. H. 1934. Mind, self and society and society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Merton, Robert K. 1957. Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: Free Press. Mills, C. W. 1956. The power elite. New York Oxford University Press.

Weber, M. 1947. The theory of social and economic organization. New York: Free Press....