What is the difference between the 3 sociological perspectives

And it is our symbolic interactions with other members of the community which creates those definitions and meanings. Our sense of self, being influenced by social interaction, is also influenced by the way others choose to label us.

Because the labels others give us provide us with a new view of ourselves. As such, the interactionist perspective emphasizes the fact that humans react to their perceived definition of their circumstances, as opposed to what you might call an objective evaluation.

If we were absolutely positive the world was ending at a particular time and date, whether or not it was a true belief, it would influence our behavior in a significant way.

As a result, the things we consider real are capable of being real in consequence, even if our beliefs are incorrect. By contrast, the functionalist perspective is a more traditional example of macro-sociology. It has a heavy emphasis on the interconnected relationships between various systems within society. In other words, it tends to be more concerned with how part and whole influence each other.

And those parts have to cooperate and work together in order to keep society in a state of balance. Family values, education, knowledge, and culture play an important role in communicating values to young people. Within this perspective, all the various aspects of a society are considered functional if they help social stability, or dysfunctional if they do not. But what is social stability? And some circumstances are more challenging to identify than others; some aspects of society can even contribute and detract from social instability at the same time.

For instance, crime is associated with social instability. The black dots and lines become more than mere marks on the page; they refer to notes organized in such a way as to make musical sense.

Thus, symbolic interactionists give serious thought to how people act, and then seek to determine what meanings individuals assign to their own actions and symbols, as well as to those of others. Consider applying symbolic interactionism to the American institution of marriage. American society attaches general meanings to these symbols, but individuals also maintain their own perceptions of what these and other symbols mean.

Much faulty communication can result from differences in the perception of the same events and symbols. The perspective also receives criticism for slighting the influence of social forces and institutions on individual interactions. Functionalists believe that society is held together by social consensus , or cohesion, in which members of the society agree upon, and work together to achieve, what is best for society as a whole. Emile Durkheim suggested that social consensus takes one of two forms:.

The functionalist perspective achieved its greatest popularity among American sociologists in the s and s. While European functionalists originally focused on explaining the inner workings of social order, American functionalists focused on discovering the functions of human behavior. They lived too far from each other, spoke different languages, practiced different religions, and traded few goods. Today, increases in communication, travel, and trade have made the world a much smaller place.

More and more people are able to communicate with each other instantly—wherever they are located—by telephone, video, and text. They share movies, television shows, music, games, and information over the Internet.

Students can study with teachers and pupils from the other side of the globe. Governments find it harder to hide conditions inside their countries from the rest of the world. Sociologists research many different aspects of this potential global culture. Some explore the dynamics involved in the social interactions of global online communities, such as when members feel a closer kinship to other group members than to people residing in their own countries. Other sociologists study the impact this growing international culture has on smaller, less-powerful local cultures.

Yet other researchers explore how international markets and the outsourcing of labor impact social inequalities. Conflict theory looks at society as a competition for limited resources. This perspective is a macro-level approach most identified with the writings of German philosopher and sociologist Karl Marx — , who saw society as being made up of two classes, the bourgeoisie capitalist and the proletariat workers , who must compete for social, material, and political resources such as food and housing, employment, education, and leisure time.

Social institutions like government, education, and religion reflect this competition in their inherent inequalities and help maintain the unequal social structure.

The bourgeoisie owns and controls the means of production, which leads to exploitation due to the profit motive. In this arrangement, proletarians have only their labor to sell, and do not own or control capital. These are just some of the structural constrains that prevent workers from joining together in what Marx called class consciousness , or a common group identity as exploited proletarians and potential revolutionaries.

Ida B. Wells articulated the conflict perspective when she theorized a connection between an increase in lynching and an increase in black socio-economic mobility in the United States from the late s into the midth century. She also examined competition within the feminist movement as women fought for the right to vote, yet the presumably egalitarian mainstream suffragist movements were headed by white women who excluded black women from suffrage.

DuBois also examined race in the U. Race conflict paradigms will be examined later in the course in the module devoted to race and ethnicity. DuBois is a classic sociologist who, after earning a Ph. The Philadelphia Negro is considered one of the first examples of scientifically framed and conducted sociology research.

He entered the national stage with an article written for The Atlantic in in which he described double consciousness. One feels his two-ness, — an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, — this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self.

In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He does not wish to Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa; he does not with to bleach his Negro blood in a flood of white Americanism, for he believes—foolishly, perhaps, but fervently—that Negro blood has yet a message for the world.

He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without losing the opportunity of self-development. Wright Mills, who coined the term sociological imagination , also used conflict theory to examine systems of power and the ways in which government, military, and corporations forming a power elite in the United States in the s.

Bernie Sanders raised these issues in the U. Just as structural functionalism was criticized for focusing too much on the stability of societies, conflict theory has been criticized because it tends to focus on conflict to the exclusion of recognizing stability.

Many social structures are extremely stable or have gradually progressed over time rather than changing abruptly, as conflict theory would suggest. Figure 5. Over the years, feminist demands have changed. First-wave feminists fought for basic citizenship rights, such as the right to vote, while third wave feminists are concerned with more complex social movements, like post-structuralism.

Feminist theory was developed to fill a void in Marxism and neo-Marxism that examined class, but not gender as a distinct category.

Feminist theory examines gender and gender inequality and also points out the male-centric aspects of conflict theory. Merton valued a positivistic cumulative science and believed that social science should build upon previous research. He believed that sociological theory should specify the relationships between variables. Having specific and testable. Classical Social Theorists When trying to compare three social theorists to each other, you must first try to understand the intricacies that are entangled within each theory itself.

Theorists, by nature, create theories that can be debated from all angles but must be a tight fit in order to be considered applicable to society. Theology as a single entity is constructed from deep intellectual thought. When social theorist begin to develop there theoretical perspectives, they seem to have an overwhelming.

Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Sociological Perspective Imagination is another word for possibilities or a way to see things through the minds eye. It's vision that isn't accomplished through our senses. The sociological perspective adds society and it's overall purpose.

Three of the main perspectives of sociological are the functionalist perspective, conflict perspective and the symboilc interactionist perspective. Each consist of theories on how society operates and believes the concept proves it.

The first concept examines how labels are recognized and their functionality. The structural functionalist perspective emphasizes the interconnectedness of society by focusing on how each part influences and is influenced by other parts.