Structural-Functionalist Essay Questions

Functionalism views society as the stability and assimilation of a range of forces that function within it. While society is a separate entity with a life of its own, there are individual elements contributing to that stability. Functionalism as a sociological theory emphasizes assimilation rather than the dissociation of society. Therefore, the society is seen as a whole that is compromised of parts which give one another their identity and their function. The part, whether that is education, such as a school, or sports, such as a football team, operates in relation to the other parts, and cannot be entirely understood in isolation from the other parts. All the parts are interrelated, and when there is a disturbance in any one of the

Book Definition: Two dominant theories of social problems grew out of the structural functionalist perspective: social pathology and social disorganization (pg 9 Understanding Social Problems). Social pathology is a social problem like a sickness in a society Examples: Unemployment, which causes a breakdown in the economy. Poverty, due to disruption of the family farm and lack of family values.

Sociology is the “systematic or scientific study of human society and social behavior” (Ferris and Stein, 2016, p. 9). The study of an individual society and its behaviors can have contrast due to a 20th century event. In the essay Racism and Research: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, the unethical experiment took place in the year 1932 in Macon County, Alabama. This case can discuss the topics of culture, socialization, deviance, and race. All of which can become visible in a society through the structural functionalism lens. This sociological perspective theory is “a way of looking at the world” through a specific lens (Ferris and Stein, 2016, p. 10).

To fully understand the sociological implications of the issue on government surveillance, it is critical to examine the social problem using Structural Functionalism Theory, and Conflict Theory. Structural Functionalism explains the issue on government surveillance by viewing the society as a living organism with "organs," or social institutions, that work together to keep the society stable. The social institution that is closely related to the issue on surveillance is the government. In a different perspective, Conflict Theory explains the social problem by looking at the society as an entity that constantly changes due to conflicting values.

Theories have been composed and exposed by various philosophers to clarify their reasoning about the mind. Dualism, Behaviorism, and Identity Theory, are well-known theories supported by well-written explanations. A modern theory, Functionalism provides ample insight to the main problem philosophers deal with, the mind/body problem.

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.

Sociological theories are embedded in a particular social context and are deeply influenced by them. Each sociological thinker or theorist has to respond to the social institution in which he or she exists and to try and make sense of the enveloping culture. In other words, sociological theories are sociologist’s response to the context in which he lives and works.

Sociological problems are issues that society says needs to be corrected, and there are many of them in the world. These issues require assiduous work and a lot of time to fix. Three problems that are the most concerning to me are racism, drug abuse and poverty.

Sociology is the study of human society (Conley,3). Throughout human society, past and present, there has been inequalities in both physical realms and systematic realms. These inequalities exist because of survival tactics that groups developed through evolution. Having a perceived adversary throughout history promoted loyalty to our own group and made justifying atrocities much easier to think about because that other group is “different”. To create a better world and freer nation for all people, we must try to defeat this instinct and once we accomplish that, social problems and inequality will no longer hinder us as Americans. And aiding in the battle over social problems is sociology. If we know and can study why people act in situations we can effectively fight against those

Every person on this planet is a part of a society; whether he or she likes it or not it comes with being on this earth. It comes with the package of being alive and involved in life, there is no way to avoid it. Societies are not uniform throughout the world - they are unique in the way they are designed, organized, and ran making one tremendously different from another. With the large number of changing variables in each society the sociological experience for one person could be completely different for another. The role that sociologists play is to view the world - and all the different societies that exist in it, with a narrowed scope to decipher why there are differences in certain societies and how they happen. The goal and purpose of sociologists doing this is to open the eyes of the public to become conscious of what is happening around them and to accept the differences that exist around the globe.

In my opinion both of the theories structuralism and functionalism involved the study of the human mind and how it works and they were both concerned with the mind at the conscious level. Personally, my feel of the two is that functionalism is more important than structuralism. I believe that functionalism is far better school than structuralism as it is more flexible and scientific in nature which I can relate myself with. I happen to think that functionalism is an object that is designed to determine solely by its function. These are a few of the similarities between structuralism and functionalism. Throughout this paper I will further explore some of the differences between these

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 sociological perspective puts emphasis on the social context in which people live in and how these contexts influence their lives. At the center of this perspective is the question of how groups influence people, especially how people are influence by their society. Sociologists will look at how income, jobs, education, gender. age. and race affect people’s ideas and behavior.

Theories in sociology provide us with different perspectives with which to view our social world. A perspective is simply a way of looking at the world. A theory is a set of interrelated propositions or principles designed to answer a question or explain a particular phenomenon; it provides us with a perspective. Sociological theories help us to explain and predict the social world in which we live.

Humans are different in a lot ways. The biggest challenges that I feel sociologists faces regard to studying social problems is that sociologists tends to focus on what some people might think is personal and describe it as a public issue. For example, getting rid of a pregnancy to some people might be a personal