Sociological Perspective Paper

To begin with, structural functionalism looks at the society as a bundle of a complex system with different parts that work to support the whole. It stipulates that a society is a combination of interrelated components, which work independently, but seek to achieve a common goal, which supports the growth of the whole system. Some of the systems in the society include the government, schools, businesses, and families. In essence, all these different components are fundamental in the society as they serve different functions to develop the society. On the other hand, social conflict theory looks at the society as a system with equal components, but within the endeavors to grow to find themselves in conflicting paths. Thinking about the society, some of the trends lead to conflict among the people living together. For example, ageism,

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

Functionalism was founded by Emile Durkheim, who continuously question norms and how society works. Functionalism is based on how society conformed to the daily functions of everyday activity. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, there are boundaries that are strict between morals and social. Functionalism focus on the natural way society works, it doesn’t try to see how society will work if changed. Functionalism in a society is just one big circle, everyone contributes to one another to keep it going.

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).

Conflict Theory was "influenced by Karl Marx's socioeconomic view of the elite exploiting the masses." (Parillo 12). The conflict perspective focuses on the inequalities that create racial and ethnic tensions between groups. In contrast to the fundamentalist's emphasis on stability, conflict theorists maintain, "Racism has much to do with maintaining power and controlling resources." Society is seen as being continually involved in struggles and disagreements as diverse groups struggle over limited resources. The system is hierarchical and characterized by social inequality. Conflict theorists argue that the rich and powerful force social order on the poor and weak and that existing social patterns benefit some people while depriving others. "Conflict theorists

The video of School girl attacks identifies an attack on school girls in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Zahira, who is a 13-year-old, is interviewed by NBC told her story about the attack. Zahira, who always showed excitement about attending school, lost her joy after the attack on her and five other girls. The attack took place during the girls walk from school.

It really is pretty amazing to witness and be aware of sociological concepts in our day-to-day lives. Sociology concepts appear all around us since humans and human organizations are formed through social interactions. Over break, I noticed many sociological concepts but the one that stands out most to me is the appearance management that takes place in a customer service oriented work place. This interaction occurred between employees and their supervisors. I am a Helping Hands employee at Wegmans. Wegmans is a grocery store in the Mid-Atlantic states that is known for its customer service. It is in this customer service setting that employees manage their appearances. In order to be seen as a good employee to supervisors, employees utilize

Functionalism: According to the functionalist perspective of sociology, each aspect of society is interdependent and contributes to society's stability and functioning as a whole. For example, the government provides education for the children of the family, which in turn pays taxes on which the state depends to keep itself running. The family is dependent upon the school to help children grow up to have good jobs so that they can raise and support their own families.

The conflict perspective originating from ideas of Karl Marx, is a macro overview of competition for limited resources and how the elite or government control the weak. People are then impacted by the creation of social structures, and the usual result is a differential of power between the "elite" and the "others". Conflict perspective focus is the elite 's goal to keep creating the divide between us and them from distribution of resources, power, and inequality.

I analyzed the data using the constant comparative method as found within the field of sociology. The constant comparative method consists of analyzing a single interview for themes, then using these themes to analyze the remaining interviews (Boeije 2002). The interviews are also analyzed against themselves to discover new themes and alter the beginning themes. In addition, the interview data will be compared between the gender of the interviewees, the roles of the interviewees, and the phase during which they were interviewed. The observation data is analyzed in a similar manner, however instead of comparing interviews the different observation sessions will be compared to first the initial observation session and then between days of the week and time of the day.

In chapters one and two of the Introduction to sociology we learned all about the basic concepts of this study. I chose to write about three topics that both interest, and affect me directly such as the educational system, sports, and music. Starting with the educational system, it has come to my attention that many schools are funded based upon their population and standardized test scores. This affects many people's lives including the students as well as the teachers. It puts extra pressure on teachers to teach students to pass tests rather than actually acquire new and useful information all while putting a disadvantage on the students who intend to further their education. Education based upon population and standardized testing seems almost outlandish. What happens to a hard working student in a less densely populated area who's school does not do well on these tests as a whole therefore they are forced more and more

Structural functionalism is defined as ways in which helping society maintain order on a society level. ( Rohall, Milkie, & Lucas 2011). Conflict theory is defined as focusing on inequalities those which are in a different class. Since, conflict theorist varies from functionalists in their outlook of what keeps society together and they focusing on dissimilar features of society in explanting phenomena. (Rohall, Milkie & Lucas 2011).

"Functionalist Perspectives” also known as "Structural-Functional Paradigm”- “The sociological approach that views society as a stable, orderly system. According to this perspective, a society is composed of interrelated parts, each of which serves a function and (ideally) contributes to the overall stability of the society. Societies develop social structures, or institutions that persist because they play a part in helping society survive. These institutions include the family, education, government, religion, and the economy. If anything adverse happens to one of these institutions or parts, all

Conflict theory is “A major sociological perspective that sees society as a set of groups in constant competition over wealth, power, and prestige. (Larkin, 2015)” Conflict theory is a more view primarily stating

Structural Functionalism is a theory that Emile Durkheim came up with that explains why society functions the way it does. It focuses on the relationships in societies from a large scale perspective. It examines the part of society and how each part of it leads to stability. In this theory, society is made up by connected structures. For example, school, police force, firefighters, and more aid the public need which are instituitions. Durkheim explains one structure called social facts which is acting and thinking that existed before and would still exist in the future such as religious teachings. Every structure in society is important and needs to work with each other to to provide harmony. The social structures need and depend with each other. For example, a teacher would depend on a farmer to grow food for him/her. The farmer would then depend on scientists to to make something to help agriculture grow faster and so on. It focuses in the equilibrium of society and no issues would occur if there was little change. If something significant did change, society would adapt to it and deal with it.