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Sociology Theorists and Their Theories
Sociology Theorists and Their Theories
Sociology Theorists and Their Theories
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There are many theories in sociology to get the better understanding of a society. Many things impact an individual’s behaviour, lifestyles, relationship and much more. Technology is one of the many things that affect the people. Internet is used worldwide and we can use sociology to determine what importance and place it holds in the society. To understand this invention and implication the society better, this paper will cover upon the three well-known theories which are’ Conflict, functionalism, and symbolic internationalism theories. There three theories look at the internet from different view point such as from a micro level and macro level. Functionalism focuses on the society as a whole, where as conflict theory focuses on group within that society, and symbol interactional focuses on individuals in the group and society. Thus, the view point changes depending on the population and the perspective.
One of the important perspectives is a structural-functionalism. This approach focuses on “various components of society without prioritizing or assessing their importance to the social system as a whole; in effect all elements of a society are weighed equally” (Naiman, 2004; pp.18). In terms of internet, a functionalist would see the internet as a resource that brings efficiency in the lives of individuals for the reason that it is convenient. It also allows people to interact with one another around the world. A functionalist would ask questions regarding the function of the internet in the society would be: how does the internet help people access their provisions faster? How does it help people acquire knowledge and how can services be accessible to the demanding population? Thus, it mainly considers the benefits for all instead of few individuals.
The internet is more efficiently used now a days because it saves one’s time. An individual can spend few minutes online, booking a flight ticket instead of going to the travel agency in-person or calling the customer services and going through a long hectic procedure. As the technology gets advance, it plays even greater role in shaping the lives of the individuals. Also, some people may wish to visit the bureaucracies. However, others may not have the time to visit the offices due to family responsibilities or for other reasons. Functionalist theorist would see a vast benefit when it comes to administrative related online services. It eliminates the waiting list and makes life easier for the citizens and it will take less space in the bureaucracies.
One of the sociological theories is conflict theory. The conflict theory deals with people's level on wealth, or class. The conflict theory says that social change is beneficial, contrary to focuses on social order. In the story of the woman and her children, the conflict theory plays a big role on the situation. Police of higher class are threatening the homeless woman. The conflict theory is a constant struggle of people of higher class over powering people of lower class, or the weaker. The police are trying to over power the woman by telling her to leave. Even though the woman and her children were doing nothing wrong, the police used their power to tell her to leave. Also the people of the area showed their conflict theory by telling the police officers to come. They must have felt embarrassed to have a woman of such lower class to be around them. They used their power of class to have the woman removed from their community. The woman wants to be there because she has no home and it is a good community to be in, but the people look at it as an embarrassment to them because it makes their area look bad for someone of such lower class to be around them. The conflict theory is unique to all other theories because it separates people into categories determined by their wealth and standards. Their status is the element that categorizes them, weather it is class, race, or gender. The conflict theory do not always use class, race, and gender all at once. In this situation race and gender is not a main issue, although gender could be a reason, but it would fall under the feminist theory. This story is mainly dealing with class. Through all this conflict the woman feels over powered and domina...
High school or more generally education plays a vital role in society here in the United States. It provides a necessary transition from childhood to adulthood through education and conditioning. Others would argue it serves as a competing group for resources or a center for learning and practicing the implied meanings in society.
compare and contrast the three man schools of sociological theorising with reference to key theorists Introduction 200 Body 1 365
This essay will discuss the main features of four sociological perspectives and how despite there differences they are useful for understanding contemporary Britain. The sociological perspectives that will be discussed are Marxism, Functionalism, Feminism and Post-modernism.
With a sociological approach for education, a teacher is able maintain a holistic view of their role as a teacher and the connections between the classroom and their participants. This theory can be learned, then similar to the learning of morals, cannot be unlearned. For the teacher’s lens, sociology acts the zoom mechanism for macro to micro perspectives of the influences on the classroom. While applying this theory teacher are able to adjust and adapt culturally responsive teaching with an increased understanding of their teacher identity, a more informed understanding of their community, and a critical perspective of curriculum. The concepts of sociology can be applied with the sociological imagination to teacher identity and historical
1 Most sociologists interpret social life from one of three major theoretical frameworks or theories: symbolic interactionism, functional analysis, or conflict theory. Describe the major points and key concepts of each framework. List at least one sociologist who is identified with each of these three frameworks.
The movie “A Bug’s Life” shares the story of a colony of ants that are trapped in a vicious cycle of gathering food for the powerful grasshoppers year after year. The ants become wary of collecting food and soon realize a revolution is needed to free themselves from the grip of the grasshoppers. Throughout “A Bug’s Life”, a critical analysis of character interaction contributes to a greater understanding of the functionalist theory, conflict theory, and Marxism and how these sociological principles create a competitive society and inevitably lead to societal change.
In the field of sociology, sociologists use many different theories to base their ideas and observations on; however, the three major theories that are used are symbolic interactionism, functional analysis, and conflict theory. It is these three theories that will be the focus of this paper. To begin with, we will start with symbolic interactionism.
Sociology is the study of society and the interactions that occur within society itself. There are numerous methods of analyzing societies and the way the function, nonetheless, most methods fall in micro and macro level theories. Micro level theories allow sociologist to study smaller relationships such as individual or compact groups of people. On the other hand, macro level studies permit for larger scale investigations to take place. With both of these theories there are three theoretical perspectives used in sociology. Micro level theories include symbolic interactionism which focuses in interactions done with language and gestures and the means which allow such interactions to take place. Macro level theories include structural functionalism
What is sociology and what does the sociological perspective entail? How does a mastery of the sociological perspective help you better understand your social world and your personal life?
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Sociological Theory To be able to evaluate Functionalism, Marxism and Interactionism we must first look at the strengths and weaknesses in each. There are many variations and interpretations of each of these theories, therefore for the sake of simplicity only the key ideals will be discussed. Functionalism looks at society as an organized structure of inter-related institutions; and the various ways these institutions interact together within a social structure. Examples of these 'institutions' are the family, work, education and religion.
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.
When it comes to comprehending or understanding any concept to why individuals may do some of the things they do, there are social theories out there to help better explain those actions. Sociological theories help to focus more on the aspect of social life, as well as explain behaviors that can be driven by passion, tradition, self-interest, religion, and the laws we have set out today in stone. “Unlike scientific theories, social theories tend to be more evaluative and critical than the theories in the natural sciences” (Appelrouth A. S.; Edles D. L 2012) Today, an analytical frame is used to help guide the comparing and contrasting of the several theoretical perspectives and traditions. In simpler terms, this four way frame is basically used to help compare and contrast theorist better. There are four main cells that make up this analytical frame which include, individual-rational, individual-nonrational, collective-rational, and collective-nonrational. Also included into this basic theoretical orientation or framework, are the core classical theorists. Those influential theorists included into the framework are Mead, who falls into the individual-nonrational side, Durkheim whom falls into the collective-nonrational side, Weber whom falls into the collective-rational side, and Marx who is also included into the collective-rational side.
The role of theory in social research is that without a sociological theory, nothing can be sociological. Facts disconnected from theory are just facts. Theory makes the facts speak; the facts don’t and cannot speak for themselves. Without a connection to other facts, we cannot assess anything. With theory, you can relate facts to each other. Theory is the body of interrelated logical concepts or universals that connect to empirical facts and phenomena. Empirical research is okay as long as there is theory involved with it. Theory helps us select which facts are important and which are not. Theory also allows us to organize the facts. Theory helps us create a story and tell which the dependent is and which the independent variable is. Theory points us to what we don’t know, which is the point of all the research in sociology. Theory also allows different concepts of sociology to talk to each other, and that allows sociology to progress. Emile Durkheim had stated in “What is a Social Fact?” that reason develops theories and, and observation backs them up. According to Durkheim, social facts are not ideas, they are facts and they are observable. Facts without a certain theory backing them are and will be meaningless. We had talked about this in the very beginning of the semester about how stating certain statistics such as ‘men make .75 cents more than women’ might be true, but just stating that will not be enough. In sociology, what need to be done are the reasons for stating that fact, and what it means for the society as a whole. Therefore, facts cannot stand alone without theory because they complete each other in a way. Talcott Parsons gives a different example in regards to this; “Few if any empiricists are content with discre...