Examples Of The Five Sociological Institutions

There are five sociological concepts I am going to explain. And I will be using scenes from the Disney movie Pocahontas as examples. The five are: norms, role conflict, values, ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.

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).

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The lifestyles of people in different societies are becoming more similar over time because of

Social institutions such as that of family, religion, education, economic and political standings, are set standards or patterns of governing within society. In many cases, this is used to rule over others, in matters of wealth and hierarchy. These social institutions are important because they provide some structure for society. However, not all forms of structure are appropriate. Many of these behaviors are used to control

There are three theories that sociologist hold responsible to explain and describe what’s going on in the world. The three theories are functionalist theory, conflict theory and symbolic interactionism theory. Each theory has a different perspective for how the world works. Functionalist look at different parts of society to see how each part of society can function effectively. By looking at different parts of society functionalist try to achieve balance and harmony. The conflict theory sees society as being in a competition for scarce resources. Conflict theorists consider everything that is limited not just money. Lastly, the Symbolic interactionism theory sees society as being recreated everyday by having social interactions with one another. Symbols are what make society what it is. For instance Language is a symbol used constantly to communicate with one another. From what I have learned this semester in sociology, I believe that the Functionalist theory explains how the world works. Without one of the five basic social institutions: family, economy, education, religion and government, society would fall apart. Religion and education shapes families and depicts ones morals and values. Religion also plays a role in families political views. Without politics there would be no government and without government there would be no economy. Each social institution plays a huge effect on one another.

Conflict theory is the second major school of thought in sociology. It is a macro-level type of approach to understand social interactions in social life, just like functionalism. A difference in conflict theory is that our society is viewed as always being in a constant struggle, unlike functionalism which theorizes that our society is stable. Conflict theory is a paradigm that sees social conflict as the basis of society and social change, and emphasizes a materialist view of society, a critical view of the status quo, and a dynamic model of historical change. Some sociologists may believe that if these tensions, stresses, and struggles never existed in our society people may be more driven to achieve greatness in education, or simply more motivated to set higher goals. Just like functionalism, the conflict theory viewed society on a macro sociological level, but the individual person in our society are having their lives shaped by the economy, control and power. The conflict perspective's main idea is that there are opposing interests

Moreover, Societies are held together by both consensus with values and coercion. The functionalist view is that the balance of harmony among the society is held up by societal institutions. For example, schools, church and family are seen as the most significant foundation for an adequately functional society.

(7). This theory was based on the works of sociologist Karl Marx, who believed power belonged to those with the most social, political or economical recourses. Conflict theory see conflict as good because it can lead to Conflict theories believe that a social problem has arisen when a group of people work together to overcome what they feel is a disadvantage when they are not receiving their sufficient share of resources (extext). Another similarities of conflict theory and functionalist perspective is that they both analyze the impact of how people influence society and how society influences

The first sociological theory is functionalism. A functionalism perspective is a “sociological approach that emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability.” (Schaefer, 2009) This simply means for in the instance of a family that the family in a whole is

Sociology is a social science that studies social interactions and changes that happen in them. With this knowledge it is important that sociology can be viewed in three separate ways that are completely different. The first theory is Structural Functionalism, which views society as a whole in which a person might view a person as a fully functioning machine (Larkin, Chap 2. Par. 5). This view sees society as many parts called structures (Larkin, Chap 2. Par. 5). A second way to view society is the Conflict perspective, which sees society as branches and families that are in constant

Sociology is the study of diverse subjects in a society which includes: religion, race culture, and social classes. It also involves the study of the behavior of people and all the changes that happen in society. In each social setting, there are shared beliefs which also change through time. Sociology informs us of the making of policies which tend to improve the lives of people in a setting. It provides distinct perspectives to generate new ideas and modify the old ones. The sociological research uses different techniques to provide evidence of any aspect of social life. Qualitative data such as ethnography and archival works as well as quantitative data like statistical modeling of

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION TO STUDY There are many sociological theories that can provide people with a different perspective than what they might already believe. Sociological theories help to explain and foresee the social world that we live in. Sociology has three major paradigms; functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interaction. This discussion uses the three paradigms; in order to gain a deeper understanding of child abuse in today’s society.

The focus and objective of sociology is to examine social patterns. Examining social patterns reveal the sources of pressures and constraints that affect individuals’ thoughts and behaviors. There are three types of social patterns which are culture, social institutions and social structure. Culture is the shared symbols, ideas, beliefs, values, customs and material products by people in a particular society. These shared factors are accumulated through the passage of time. Social Institutions are structures and or mechanisms that provide a set of ideas and or rules that governs how individuals are to act in order to achieve important goals to which that society recognizes. Social structure is the statuses and or pattern of social relationships that have an effect of shaping individuals’ interactions with one another and how various distributions are determined. Hierarchy is one type of social structure.

In Four Sociological Traditions, Randall Collins (1994:47) states that the tradition of conflict is an unpopular theory in reference to society. Collins introduces conflict theory by briefly mentioning that, “dominance is determined by the distribution of social and economic resources” (1994:3). The theory revolves around the idea that societies have groups that will oppose each other due to differing statuses of power, ideology, and interests.