Sociology And Macro-Level Theories

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Macro-level theories tend to explain “large-scale relationships and answer fundamental questions such as why societies form and why they change.” Meanwhile, micro-level cover individual groups and relationships, and are easier to test. Macro-level theories are harder to test and collect data for, since it involves testing a whole society. Most micro-theories are tested by surveys or interviews that will test a hypothesis of a sociologist. Thee major theoretical perspectives of sociology include structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. Structural functionalism is based off of seeing the individuals who make up the structure in society. Émile Durkheim applied functionalism to explain how a society can change, …show more content…

“Many sociologist now believe that structural functionalism is no longer useful as a macro-level theory…,” (Theoretical Perspectives 4). Conflict Theory is where everything in society is a competition. “Conflict theory sees society as being made up of individuals who must compete for social, political, and material resources…,” (Theoretical Perspectives 4). It is the belief that everyone is competing for limited resources, and the ones who achieve the resources hold more power. Karl Marx is a major contributor to sociology, and his belief connects to conflict theory the best. His belief is that societies grow and change, and change in society causes the difference in social classes. Based off of Marx theory, sociologist Ludwig Gumplowicz expanded on how people evolve. Gumplowicz believed that a dominant group would control the other groups, and this is achieved by war. This meaning a war is how a powerful civilization starts. There is a lot of criticism for conflict theory, and most is based on focusing online the conflicts. The problem is that a lot of civilizations are very stable, and has not changed in any ways that the theory

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