Applying the Sociological Perspectives Essay

All throughout society, the opinions of legalizing marijuana conflict with one another, placing people in the position to be on one side of the argument or the other. People either want to see the government legalizing it to the community or are totally against the subject; there is not really any ground in-between the matter. When I think of this topic I see it from two different perspectives, a symbolic interactionists point of view and Functionalism. To the symbolic interactionist’s perspective, people attach meaning to symbols and than they act according to their own interpretations of the meaning. In the case of legalizing marijuana half of people see the image of a cannabis leaf and they automatically

Socialization is the process through which people learn the language, norms, values, behaviors and other aspects of culture that a particular society views as acceptable. It is important for humans because it allows us to learn about our culture and it contributes to our personality.

Functionalism – Macro Level – This means that each person has a specific function and that each society works together to achieve what is best. For example, my 2 children attend a public school. The school’s are funded by taxes that I pay as well as neighbors, who may or may not have children attending school. Schooling teaches knowledge and helps socialize my children.

Strucutral functionalism is a form of functional analysis. Functional analysis (or functionalism) is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology. In fact, many of the early giants of sociology, such as Spencer, Comte, and Durkheim were functionalists. Essentially, this perspective sees society as comprised of many parts that contribute in unique ways to the operation of the whole society.

Functionalism is a sociological approach that sees the institutions of society – which are sometimes likened to the human body, as the institutions, such as the police, hospitals, etc, work in union and they make specific contributions to the smooth running of society.

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

The sociological approach toward social problems differs from other approaches in that the sociological approach includes a focus on self-consciousness and building awareness that an individual’s interaction with society can oftentimes be influenced by forces outside of the single individual’s control or area of power. The author of one of our texts, Anna Leon-Guerrero, who is a Professor of Sociology at Pacific Lutheran University, writes that “Unlike any other discipline, sociology provides us with a form of self-consciousness, an awareness that our personal experiences are often caused by structural or social forces (Leon-Guerrero, 2010). Certain problems are considered significant, or more significant, than other problems due to a

Submission refers to at least six sociological concepts covered in the lectures or textbook reading

way a human does. This is of course not the case, as it is the

Functionalism – Macro Level – This means that each person has a specific function and that each society works together to achieve what is best. For example, my 2 boys attend a public school. The school is funded by taxes I pay as well as neighbors who do not have any children attending school. Schooling helps teach and socialize my children and will enable them to continue their education years later.

Sociology is the scientific study of how humans and groups behave socially and how they, as a whole, change over time. Through the examination of the scientific side of sociology, the understanding of the social world can be shown more clearly. Within the study of sociology, there are two main branches: micro and macro. Micro sociology is looking at the individual and social interaction. Macro sociology focuses beyond social interaction and seeks to examine systems as a whole (Larkin, 2015).

From a sociological perspective, explanation for criminality is found in two levels which are the subculture and the structural explanations. The sociological explanations emphasize aspects of societal arrangements that are external to the actor and compelling. A sociological explanation is concerned with how the structure of a society, institutional practices or its persisting cultural themes affect the conduct of its members. Individual differences are denied or ignored, and the explanation of the overall collective behavior is sought in the patterning of social arrangements that is considered to be both outside the actor and prior to him (Sampson, 1985).

Wilson argued that macrostructural economic changes causes concentration of poverty and joblessness which is connected to the deindustrialization in inner cities where poor minorities were disproportionately located. (Sampson, 2012, p.43). Sampson believes that verbal ability, turmoil, predilection, prison effect by concentrated disadvantage “in a way that cannot be attributable to the disposition or composition of individuals” (p. 363). Wilson has argued that ties in the central city "are excessively personalistic and parochial socially isolated from public resources and role models in the “mainstream culture” (Sampson, 2012, 150).

Functionalism is made up of many integrated parts that work together to keep production flowing throughout society. I’ll provide an example of how I viewed functionalism to generate a better understanding of the process. During a baseball game, imagine you’re out on the field playing third base. You’re not out there alone, you have eight other players with you, all with specific jobs. Your objective is to acquire an out, you need the pitcher to throw the ball, catcher to catch the ball, fielder to field the ball, and an umpire to enforce the call. Say I snatch a ball hit to me at third base, in order to obtain the out I must throw the ball to first base, then the first baseman must catch it, and in conclusion the umpire will rule him out. It’s a team affair, we all functioned collectively to secure the out, I can’t throw the ball to an empty bag, I need the first baseman to be there for me. August Comte and Herbert Spencer viewed society as a living organism. Resembling Animals, we all have organs to keep our bodies jolting around, lacking properly functioning organs, we die. Emile Durkheim additionally viewed society as being composed of numerous parts, respectively, working together to form a societal

Socialisation refers to the process of learning one’s culture and how to live within it. The process of socialisation involves the transmission of culture from one generation to the next. It is during socialisation that individuals learn the values and norms that play such an important part in shaping human behaviour. Socialisation provides the skills and habits necessary for acting and participating within one’s society.