![]() As such, these theories guide the sociologist when examining sociological phenomena rather than providing absolute answers. Similarly, not all sociological phenomena can be explained through class conflict over resources. While each theory has merit, they also have broad application issues such as symbolic-interaction theory’s focus on individuals which overlooks vital group dynamics. This theory looks strictly at micro level forces mainly pertaining to the individual. Symbolic-Interaction theory posits that everyday interactions and individual experiences with other people and groups create the motivations for behavior and the manner in which society is constructed. Exposure also occurs through secondary agents such as religion and the workplace. Each agent reinforces gender roles by creating and maintaining normative expectations for gender-specific behavior. As has been shown in this paper, wide variety of mechanisms are subsumed under the dialectic. Gender socialization occurs through four major agents of socialization: family, education, peer groups, and mass media. Social change is thus, to a great extent, a systematic product of the structure of society itself. Structural functionalists are concerned with group cohesion and social units working as a part of a whole. Functionalism grew out of the writings of English philosopher and biologist, Hebert Spencer (18201903), who. through the relation of dialectic mechanisms to maintenance mech- anisms. Structural functionalism is a form of functionalism that attempts to explain problematic behaviors in cultures and the ways in which these behaviors are essential to the maintenance and well-being of larger systems. Functionalism, also called structural-functional theory, sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of the individuals in that society. ![]() Conflict theory explains social behavior in terms of macro level concepts but it can be viewed at a micro level also when looking at behavior. Whether change will be realized is resolved. This class conflict also inspires people to act in certain ways towards one another such as stratifying groups in order to maintain control of resources. For example, a lack of resources such as oil creates class differences due to the fact that the class that controls the oil will control more wealth. In contrast to structural functionalism, conflict theory explains society in terms of economic factors such as scarcity of resources. social class maintains a division of labor that is needed to make society operate properly. Within this framework, one can explain concepts such as social class in terms of their function i.e. ![]() Society operates in an orderly and stable manner at a macro level. Structural functionalism is a concept founded in the idea that society attempts to create stability and order. Each of these theories explains social interaction from a different viewpoints and despite almost contradictory differences in explanation, each theory provides a logical assumption for the manner for the underlying motivations that causes society's functions either at the macro, micro, or both levels. The major theoretical perspectives in sociology include Structural Functionalism, Conflict Theory, and Symbolic Interaction Theory.
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