The Illustration of Three Paradigms in Sociological Thinking. Auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim, Herbert Spencer, Karl Max, and Max Weber are five very important sociologists. These five people helped create the Paradigms of Sociological Thinking. The Paradigms of Sociological Thinking are theoretical approaches that describe the operation of society. These three pictures describe the three theoretical approaches. The three theoretical approaches include the structural functional approach, the social conflict approach and the symbolic interaction approach. The first paradigm in Sociological Thinking is the structural functional approach. The structural functional approach was developed by Auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim and Herbert Spencer. These sociologists said that structural functionalism is how social structures work together to help the society operate. To illustrate structural functionalism I chose a photo of an employee stalking shelves at a store. Employees stalking shelves at a store describes a social structure because that employee is putting product from another company. This product comes from a factory where there are workers creating this product. Once the employee puts the product on the shelf a …show more content…
Social conflict is the struggle between segments of society over valued resources and was developed by Karl Marx. The image I chose to illustrate social conflict is from the 1970’s gas shortage. In 1973 OPEC Oil Company had a fuel shortage which caused gas prices to increase. The shortage led to people fighting and willing to kill for necessary resources. In the photograph I chose there is a man and his son by a vehicle. In the picture the dad is holding a gun while the son is holding a sign that says “Gas stealers beware, we’re loaded for bear”. In result, I believe this picture illustrates Karl Marx’s theory of social conflict because the struggle between society and
Structural Functionalism aims to understand society in an objective way. It views society as an entity that is “objectively real”. It emphasizes the unity of society, and how individuals perform roles and how these roles are vital in meeting the needs of the collective whole. For instance, because every society has stratification, stratification must have certain functions and these functions can contribute to the survival of the social system as a whole. Furthermore, structural
The conflict perspective, or conflict theory, derives from the ideas of Karl Marx, who believed society is a dynamic entity constantly undergoing change driven by class conflict. Conflict theorists generally see social change as abrupt, even revolutionary, rather than incremental (https://courses.lumenlearning.com).
The issue I have chosen is the use of social networking websites and how the three sociological perspectives apply to them. The use of social networking website has become a social norm in the way our society communicates with each one another. I believe that there are benefits with using social networking websites in your private and public life. On the other hand, I do believe that with social networking websites, the boundary between our private and public life merge and become difficult to separate.
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.
Social conflict theory is a Marxist-based social theory which argues that individuals and groups (social classes) within society have differing amounts of material and non-material resources (the wealthy vs. the poor) and that the more powerful groups use their power in order to exploit groups with less power.[citation needed]
1. Explain what it means to use the sociological imagination and use at least one example to make your point.
Submission refers to at least six sociological concepts covered in the lectures or textbook reading
Explain the three major sociological perspectives of functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. Identify which perspectives use a macrolevel or a microlevel of analysis. Apply each perspective to socialization.
Identify the four major sociological theoretical paradigms. For each, what are the key tenets? How does each explain how society works?
Structural functionalism is a macro level approach to study sociology (Browning, 2015). Structural functionalists believe social consensus is what holds society together; social consensus being a condition in which most members of the society agree on what would be good for everyone. Structural functionalists view society as a web of social structures, each structure being functional to fulfill it’s own needs, but dependent on all other structures for survival (Vago, 2012).
The paper should be typed, double-spaced, 11-point font, 1” margins. Both the write-up and your typed journal should be saved as ONE document with page numbers. Remember to include a citation for any resources referenced, in proper APA format, and make sure your name is on your paper.
One sociological perspective is the Functionalist theory. Functionalism is one of the earliest sociological theories. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) was a professor and was interested in how society was possible and how society remains stable. This theory focuses on the macro-level of social structure rather than micro-level of everyday life. Functionalism sees society in parts which form a system, the parts depend on each other. Functionalist theory looks at the parts of society such as
Sociological Perspectives and Theories Sociologists try to explain how society orders itself but there are many different theories for this, which often conflict with one another. Some of these classic theories include Marxism, Functionalism, and Interactionism. There are also more modern or contemporary theories such as Feminism. Each sociological perspective has different beliefs.
The theoretical works of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber still influence sociological theory. Though their works are decades old they still are a major part of what sociology is today. Though their theories can seem very different, there are some similarities. To become a great sociologist one most learn and understands how to use all sociological perspectives. To do this one must understand and use the different theoretical perspectives created by Marx, Durkheim, and Weber.
The sociological inquiry is the methodical analysis of the inspirations and behaviour of individuals within a group. It is the study of the social world as a whole and focusing on how elements such as the family, religion, school, community and government effect it. Sociological inquires most standard goal is to simply obtain a more clear understanding of the observable social world that we live in. In this essay I will be looking into the sociological theories of Marx, Weber and Durkheim, and recognising if their approaches are still relevant today.