Theories And Nature Of Human Behavior

There are three different theoretical perspectives. Functionalist perspective, which emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability. Functionalists see the contribution that it makes to society. The conflict perspective, assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of tension between groups over power or the allocation of resources, and political representation. The interactionalist perspective, which generalize about everyday forms of social interaction in order to explain society as a whole (Schaefer).

Everyone in the world has a theory about why something happens or how it happens, but in sociology there are many different types of theories that often contradict each other. Theory is defined as “a statement of how and why specific facts are related” (Macionis, 2013). Most theories explain why people act in certain ways and explains why a person in a group may act different than someone that is alone. When building sociological theories most sociologist ask their selves two different questions: “What issues should we study?” and “How should we connect the facts?” (Macionis, 2013). By answering these questions the sociologist is led to a road map, or a theoretical approach. Theoretical approach is described as “a basic image of society that

Sociological theories are the core and underlying strength of the discipline. They guide researchers in their studies. They also guide practitioners in their intervention strategies. And they will provide you with a basic understanding of how to see the larger social picture in your own personal life. Theory=a set of interrelated concepts used to describe, explain, and predict how society and its parts are related to each other. The metaphor I’ve used for many years to illustrate the usefulness of a theory is what I call "The goggles metaphor." Goggles are a set of inter-related parts that help us see things more clearly. Goggles work because the best scientific components work together to magnify, enlarge, clarify, and expand to our view the

In my opinion, the functionalist theory is the most accurate. Functionalism views society as interdependent parts that work together to keep everything stable. By definition, sociology is the study of the structure of society. The functionalist theory views society as different parts, so it is the perspective that is most close the definition of the word sociology. If you asked someone to observe and make conclusions about a large group of people, they would naturally most likely look at them through a functionalist lense more than any of the other 2 options. For example, if you were studying a school, you would observe people as groups such as cliques, classes, grades, etc. It makes gathering information and coming to conclusions about people

Haralambos and Holborn (2008) defined a theory as a set of ideas that seek to explain the way things work. A Sociological theory is therefore a set of ideas which seek to explains how society, or how

During my research and readings I definitely gravitated towards Symbolic Interaction more so than Structural Functionalism or Conflict Theory. Structural Functionalism is the thought that society is very complex and all the parts of it work together. Herbert Spencer compared

Sociologists use the three major paradigms of sociology to define social problems considering that they are complex in nature. Functionalism focuses on the entire social system and how well it is unified. It deals with how society offset issues when problems occur, nevertheless other components help to restore balance. On the contrary, Conflict Theory corresponds to functionalism due to the fact that it targets the entire social system. Its only difference is conflict theory centers multiple groups fighting to gain power, furthermore it just shows inequality. Symbolic Interactionism focal point are how the interactions of individuals between people influence their behavior and how society is impacted by it. Each of the paradigms have their

In this class, we covered many theories. One theory is called “Structural Functionalism” and it focus centers on reducing the chance of riots or revolution. This theory works well in modern society but it did not work well in the 17 century when it was invented. Then, there were few people who believed that this is true because they were mostly living in cities and the plague was the top priority. For these reasons, I won’t be covering this theory in my paper. Another theory is “Interactionism” and they oppose the structure theories because they say that “reality is constructed” so they do not work in the confines of structures at all. “What men believe is true, becomes true in the consequences.” (Miller).

Sociological theories are in fact statements of how and why and how facts about the social world are related in a particular way. Ranging in scope from clear and concise descriptions of a singular social process to examples for analysis and explanation. Many sociological theories would explain certain aspects of the social world and enable the prediction of future events, while many others would function as broad perspectives in which, guide the further sociological

different perspectives. A theory within sociology is a set of ideas and concepts which allow people to describe or predict what is going to happen in society and why (English definition of ‘theory’, no date). There are many theories within sociology that allow us to see the social world from different perspectives. A theory within sociology is a set of ideas and concepts which allow people to describe or predict what is going to happen in society and why (English definition of ‘theory’, no date). A consensus theory is a sociological approach that emphasises structure and socialisation within society (Jones 2003).

A strength of the functionalist theory is that it a macro level structural theory which uses an organic analogy- using the body as a way to describe the different parts within society. Parsons identifies three similarities; System, System Needs and Functions. The System being organisms such as the human body, and society which fit together in fixed ways. For example in the

Structural-Functionalist theory. This theory states that everything in society is but a small part of a much larger, more complex system and that all things are related meaning that when the whole 's needs are met, the individual 's needs are also met (Schaefer, 2015). The idea is that individualism is allowed, although deterred and closely watched because if the individual is to stray too far, the whole will suffer in turn causing other individuals to suffer. Another explanation for this theory given by Witt (2013a) is that:

Structural Functionalism is “A major sociological perspective that views society as an interdependent system of parts (structures) and purposes (functions) that work together to make a society operate (Larkin, 2015)”. In order for a society to work all parts of the same society must work together. In structural functionalism society nearly depends on one another to stay afloat. If Something changes it can causes a disruption in society and begins to make things become unbalanced. Functionalism focuses on many groups that make up society, for example Government, Judiciary, and religion are some of the key groups that benefits in society strengthening their social relationships and the very world humans live in.

Sociology includes three major theoretical perspectives: the structural-functionalist perspective, the conflict perspective, and the symbolic interactionist perspective. Each perspective offers a variety of explanations about the causes of and possible solutions for social problems (Rubington & Weinberg, 1995).

Focusing on the structural functionalist perspective, the idea that everything that happens in a society is either functional, dysfunctional, or both, is actually quite interesting. I was quite interested in learning how, crime of all things, could be considered functional and dysfunctional at the same time. If you look at crime as