Download Perspectives and Theories

Sociological Perspective
A Breakdown of Functionalism,
Conflict Theory and Symbolic
Interactionism
Comparing the Theoretical
Perspectives
Functionalism
Conflict Theory
Symbolic
Interactionlism
Level of
Analysis
Macro
Macro
Micro
Core
Questions
•What keeps society
functioning smoothly?
•What are the parts of
society & how do they
relate?
•What are the intended
and unintended
outcomes of an event?
•How are wealth and
power distributed in
society?
•How do people with
wealth and power
keep them?
•Are there groups
that get ahead and
why?
•How are society’s
resources and
opportunities
•How do people cocreate the society?
•How does social
interaction influence,
create, and sustain
human relationships?
•Do people change
behavior from on
setting to another? If
so why?
Functionalism
Theoretical Paradigm #1
Components & Theorists
Functionalism
• Functionalism views society as a system of
interrelated parts
• It is a macro (large scale) orientation
because it studies how social structures
affect how a society works
Functionalist Theorists
• Auguste Comte
• Herbert Spencer
• Emile Durkheim
Comte & Functionalism
• Although few sociologists use Comte’s
original theories today, his basic ideas are
the groundwork on which functionalism is
based.
What is Functionalism?
• According to functionalists, society is
relatively stable, which means that things
occur in society for a specific function and
those functions help maintain stability.
– Social institutions such as the family, economy,
educational system, and political system are
critical for society to function properly.
• Functionalism suggests that a society’s
values and norms provide the foundation
for the rules and laws that it creates.
• These norms regulate the relationships
between social institutions.
• Functionalists, however, have differing
views about how these structures cooperate
with one another.
• Some compare society to a living, breathing
organism; others analyze the expected and
unexpected outcomes of a social event;
while still others wonder what exactly it is
that holds a society together.
Solidarity
• Solidarity integrates, or holds society
together because people see themselves as
unified.
• He points out that the type of society
influences the type of solidarity.
Mechanical & Organic
• Solidarity divided into two categories:
– Mechanical solidarity refers to the state of
community bonding in traditional societies in
which people share beliefs and values and
perform common activities.
– Organic solidarity occurs when people live in a
society with a diverse division of labor, this
forces people to depend on one another for
survival.
Merton’s Functions
• One of Merton’s greatest contributions to
functionalism was the understanding that
social realities have both intended and
unintended functions.
– Social factors that affect people in society.
Manifest & Latent
• Merton identified two types of functions:
– Manifest functions are factors that lead to an
accepted consequence or outcome.
– Latent functions are factors that lead to an
unforeseen or unexpected consequence.
• Merton suggested that when looking at any
social event, sociologists should ask the
question, “For whom is this functional?”
– By doing this, we’ll do a complete analysis
because we’ll consider both manifest and latent
functions
Criticisms of Functionalism
• Critics of functionalism sometimes claim that
this paradigm does not take into account the
influence of wealth and power on the
formation of society.
• Functionalists are accused of supporting the
status quo, even when it may be harmful to
do so.
• Functionalists may argue that society works
for the greatest number of people.
• Change will arise when problems become
“big enough”.
• However, critics would argue that this belief
results in many minorities being ignored.
• Functionalist perspective often fails to
recognize how inequalities in social class,
race, and gender perpetuate imbalance in
our society.
Conflict Theorists
Theoretical Paradigm #2
Components & Theorists
Conflict Theorists
• Karl Marx
• Harriet Martineau
• W.E.B. du Bois
Conflict Theorist’s Worldview
• Conflict theory is a theoretical framework
that views society in a struggle for scarce
resources.
• Studies issues such as race, gender, social
class, criminal justice, and international
relations.
• Two main concerns for conflict theorists are
economic wealth and power.
• In either case, conflict theory suggests that
we’re all struggling for more “stuff”,
whether that “stuff” is power in a marriage
or wealth in the world.
• In general, the essence of conflict theory
suggests that a pyramid structure of power
an wealth exists in society.
• The elite at the top of the pyramid
determine the rules for those below.
• The study of inequality in sociology always
involves a consideration of conflict theory.
• Therefore, the paradigm applies to social
class, race, gender, marriage, religion,
population, environment, and a host of
other social phenomena.
• If you believe that discrimination, ageism,
sexism, racism, and classism occur in society
because some people have the power to
promote their desires over others’; then you
think like a conflict theorist.
Criticism of Conflict Theory
• Critics of conflict theory often accuse it of
being too radical.
• This paradigm often becomes synonymous
with the idea that powerful people oppress
the weak.
• A simple reading of conflict theory can also
seem to make the notion of conflict seem
like a bad thing.
• Doesn’t competition breed excellence?
Symbolic Interactionism
Theoretical Paradigm #3
Components & Theorists
Symbolic Interactionists
•
•
•
•
George Herbert Mead
Herbert Blumer
Erving Goffman
Howard Becker
Symbolic Interactionism
• Symbolic Interactionism focuses on how
communication influences the way people’s
interactions with each other create the
social world in which we live.
• Symbolic Interactionists believe that the
root of society comes from its symbols.
• They suggest that the symbols we use are
arbitrary, meaning that they vary from
culture to culture.
• Our definition of what has value depends on
our understanding of it.
• Context and setting affects our
understanding of a social event.
• Social order results when the members of
society share common definitions of what is
appropriate.
• Disputes arise when we do not share the
same definitions.
• Symbolic interactionism is the most micro of
sociological approaches, as it often studies
the activities of individuals and then draws
connections to larger society from these.
• Studies of relationships, race, deviance, and
even social movements can all use a
symbolic interactionist approach.
• Interactionists argue that individuals have
the power to co-create the world, to make it
what they want it to be.
• People develop standards and norms
through a process of interacting with others.
• Symbolic Interactionism is a distinctly
American way of looking at the world.
George Herbert Mead
• Symbolic Interactionism is the brainchild of
George Herbert Mead.
• In Mind, Self and Society, Mead suggests that
the root of society is the symbols that teach
us to understand the world.
• We then use these symbols to develop a
sense of self, or identity.
• It is this identity that we then take into the
world and interact with other identities to
create society.
• Thus, building blocks of society start with
our minds, where we interpret symbols.
• Mead suggests that we do this through
micro interactions we have every day.
• Mead argues that all these various symbols
enter our minds, where their meaning is
interpreted and we are told how to react.
• Mead suggests that this process is neverending, therefore, we have a fluid sense of
who we are.
• Our selves can change, and they do change
based on how we interpret the symbols
thrown our way.
• In this way, your self develops.
• Self is your identity, it’s what makes you
who you are and separates you from others.
Self Evaluation
• According to Mead, you couldn’t have a self
without symbols or without someone to
pass those symbols to you.
• In other words, you learn who you are
through others.
Erving Goffman
• Goffman developed a theory called
dramaturgy, a theory of interaction in which
all life is like acting.
• Goffman uses this theory to compare daily
social interactions to the gestures of actors
on a stage.
• People are constantly “acting” in order to
convince people of the character they wish
to portray to the outside world.
• Not to say that people are faking it, but
rather that people are concerned about
what the rest of the world will think of them
and they adjust their social interactions
accordingly.
Criticisms of Symbolic
Interactionism
• Critics of symbolic interactionism suggest
that his perspective ignores the coercive
effects of social structure, focusing too
much on the power of the individual to cocreate his or her world.
How are the three paradigms
interrelated?
• No single paradigm fits every situation.
• To get a complete picture, many sociologists
use all three paradigms.
• In this way, the three paradigms are
interrelated and work together to help us
figure out why society is the way it is.
Max Weber- The Conflict Theorist?
• Max Weber is a special sociologist because
he cannot be labeled under just one theory.
• Because he wrote partly as a response to
some of Karl Marx’s ideas, many consider
him to be a conflict theorist.
• Weber accepted that social classes influence
our outcomes, however he felt Marx’s social
class system was too simple.
• Weber proposed that all people have
economic, political and cultural conflicts
that are related to their relative social
position.
Max Weber-The Functionalist?
• In other ways, Weber appeared to take a
more functional approach.
• Weber proposed that rational and ideal
bureaucracies naturally occur because we
need them.
• They provide clear lines of authority, divide
tasks so workers can specialize, and clearly
define rules and expectations.
Max Weber-The Symbolic
Interactionist?
• Weber’s ideas seem to lay the foundation for
the symbolic interactionist school of
thought.
• He pointed out how values influence our
goals and affect our behavior.
• In his book, The Protestant Ethic and the
Spirit of Capitalism, Weber clearly linked a
person’s religious value to the societal
creation of a capitalist economy.