Browse Essays. Sign in. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Show More. Read More. Words: - Pages: 9. Essay On Importance Of Sociology We will not be able to accept something that is not familiar to us and be able to perceive it as normal. Words: - Pages: 3. Three Major Sociological Approaches Each of these approaches have different perspectives on how society works and how it can influence the individual in a society.
Words: - Pages: 4. Symbolic Interaction Theory Vs Conflict Theory A theory of society which focuses on how people interact with one another and the role symbols play in those interactions. Words: - Pages: 2. Douglas's Dichotomy The grid and group theory is used by Mary Douglas as a tool to go beyond the dichotomy.
Sociological Approach Macionis, Benoit, Jansson, Burkowicz, Unlike the Structural-Functional Approach, this theory works to unveil not just the benefits, but also the consequences of a particular social pattern. Words: - Pages: 6. The Influence Of Sociology Simply by comprehending social change and globalization sociologist will gain insight into social movements that impact society, which fulfills sociology's original goal to understand the world and its future Giddens et al.
Related Topics. Ready To Get Started? Create Flashcards. The bureaucracy is the primary characteristic of large-scale industrial societies.
The bureaucracy is the rationalized, and exploitive form of human interaction in large-scale formal organization. Deviance is defined by those in power; therefore, what is deviant, is whatever offends the powerful, or whatever causes them to believe that they are losing power and control over the masses. Deviance is conditional, situational, and relative to time, place, situation, and culture. By declaring that certain groups are deviant, or treating certain groups as if they are, in some way, outside the boundaries of mainstream society, the ultimate in-group is able to maintain its power.
Deviance exists in all societies, and all societies create institutionalized methods of preventing and punishing de. Inequality is generated and maintained by those in power in order to maintain their power.
Various groups in society are delineated by those in power and then are pitted against each other in a struggle for wealth, power, and status. The powerful exploit everyone in order to engender false consciousness—the belief that the non-elites have the potential to become rich and powerful.
The family works toward the continuance of social inequality within a society by maintaining and reinforcing the status quo. Through inheritance, the wealthy families are able to keep their privileged social position for their members.
The traditional family form which is Patriarchal, also contributes to the inequality of the sexes. Males have a lot of power and females tend to have less. Traditional roles of husbands and wives are differential valued in favor of husbands. The traditional family is also a structure of inequality for both women and children. Wealthy School districts have better buildings, state of the art technology, higher teacher salaries, more ancillary programs such as Art and Music and better sports equipment.
Schools serve as a screening device to fill positions of unequal status. Tracking is a basic screening device - placing of students perceived to have similar intelligence and academic abilities in the same classroom. Credentialism is the overemphasis on educational credentials for job placement. The result is that many individuals are placed in jobs for which they are overeducated. Religion acts as a drug, which keeps the proletariat from rising up against their oppressors.
Religion serves to legitimate the social structure and serves the needs of the elite to oppress the workers.
The Functionalist paradigm describes society as stable and describes all of the various mechanisms that maintain social stability.
Functionalism argues that the social structure is responsible for all stability and instability, and that that the social structure is continuously attempting to maintain social equilibrium balance among all of the components of society. Functionalism argues that a stable society is the best possible society and any element that helps to maintain that stability must add to the adaptability functionality of society.
This is a macro-level paradigm that describes large-scale processes and large- scale social systems; it is uninterested in individual behavior. This paradigm, like the Conflict paradigm, is very interested in the structure of society and how it impacts people's lives.
However, Functionalism sees the social structure as creating equilibrium or balance. It also describes the various elements of society that maintain that balance. One of its basic premises is that society is structured to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Unfortunately, this perspective ignores minorities and is unable to explain inequality except to say that it must have a social function—it must make society more adaptable—simply because inequality has always existed.
The war in Iraqwhich began in , according to the Functionalist paradigm, is being fought in order to maintain security and stability in the US by keeping terrorism at bay thousands of miles away. The September 11, terrorist attack was an act of extreme deviance caused by anomic conditions conditions of social chaos when the rules for normative behavior seem to have disappeared in the Middle East and among Muslim people throughout the world.
Because of the cultural influence of the American media throughout the world, and because of the rapidity of social change taking place due to that cultural influence, the terrorists engaged in an act of deviance based on their belief that they were acting at the behest of God, and for the good of their own people, that took their own lives as well as the lives of thousands of others. The socialization process is coercive, forcing us to accept to the values and norms of society.
People follow and accept the values and norms of society in order to maintain their own safety as well as maintaining the social order. Members of society see the social structure as legitimate acceptable and working properly and therefore strive to maintain that social structure. Legitimation acceptability maintains social equilibrium or balance which maintains the status quo. The bureaucracy provides for the economic and social needs of a society and helps to maintain social stability.
The bureaucracy is a major characteristic of large-scale industrial societies. Behaviors are not offensive because they are deviant; they are deviant because they offend.
Deviance is usually dysfunctional for society and arises from conditions of anomie. Deviance may be functional for society because it may bring about necessary social change. Deviance is integral to human societies. Deviance exists in all societies, and all societies create institutionalized methods of preventing and punishing deviance. Durkheim believed that society is a complex system of interrelated and interdependent parts that work together to maintain stability Durkheim , and that society is held together by shared values, languages, and symbols.
He believed that to study society, a sociologist must look beyond individuals to social facts such as laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashion, and rituals, which all serve to govern social life. Alfred Radcliff-Brown — defined the function of any recurrent activity as the part it played in social life as a whole, and therefore the contribution it makes to social stability and continuity Radcliff-Brown In a healthy society, all parts work together to maintain stability, a state called dynamic equilibrium by later sociologists such as Parsons Durkheim believed that individuals may make up society, but in order to study society, sociologists have to look beyond individuals to social facts.
Social facts are the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the cultural rules that govern social life Durkheim Each of these social facts serves one or more functions within a society.
Another noted structural functionalist, Robert Merton — , pointed out that social processes often have many functions. Manifest functions are the consequences of a social process that are sought or anticipated, while latent functions are the unsought consequences of a social process.
A manifest function of college education, for example, includes gaining knowledge, preparing for a career, and finding a good job that utilizes that education. Latent functions of your college years include meeting new people, participating in extracurricular activities, or even finding a spouse or partner. Another latent function of education is creating a hierarchy of employment based on the level of education attained.
Latent functions can be beneficial, neutral, or harmful. Social processes that have undesirable consequences for the operation of society are called dysfunctions. In education, examples of dysfunction include getting bad grades, truancy, dropping out, not graduating, and not finding suitable employment. Also problematic is the somewhat circular nature of this theory; repetitive behavior patterns are assumed to have a function, yet we profess to know that they have a function only because they are repeated.
Many sociologists now believe that functionalism is no longer useful as a macro-level theory, but that it does serve a useful purpose in some mid-level analyses.
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