Review Quiz

Three Sociological Perspectives

The following items are based on the reading “Three Sociological Perspectives” Download and read all three sections of the article thoroughly before attempting to answer the questions. Group members may decide to meet for further discussion on the article (Though you may want to do individual work please submit as group paper. This will be graded and will be added to your overall course work).

Questions

1. One statement from the reading that best summarizes Functionalism.

“Each part of society is functional for the stability of the whole society.”

2. Functionalism holds that everyone and everything in society, no matter how strange it may seem serves a purpose: How was this illustrated in the article?

Most people are used to seeing the world psychologically, where action is thought to spring from the characteristics of the individual rather than from interaction and social patterns. From this psychological perspective, people may explain the mass suicide of a religious cult, say, as the result of religious fanaticism or a powerful leader or irrational and sick persons. Although this may indeed be a partial explanation, sociologists believe that a religious cult must also be understood as a kind of society, as an organized group sharing a culture, as individuals influencing each other in social interaction, as a structure with people filling positions and acting in roles, conforming to each other's expectations, influenced by a power structure, as in any other group or society. As another example, instead of examining the characteristics of individuals who end up in prison, sociologists are more interested in factors relating to the positions these people have in society: how the poverty "position" might influence criminal action, arrest, and imprisonment; or how power in society might play a part in how crime is defined in the first place.

3. What are the criticisms of functionalism?

a. The error of reification (that is, treating something that is not alive / not human as if it were alive / human).

b. Does everything in society have a function? The usual justification for this belief is expressed in the idea that: "We know something is functional to society because it exists; it exists because it is functional".

c. . Functionalists have a problem explaining social change (or, more correctly, rapid social change - revolutions, for example). This is because of the emphasis their perspective puts on:

Value consensus created through the socialization process. Functional dependence and necessity (why, for example, should anything change if it

is already functional to society?).

4. Answer true or false to the following

a. Social conflict perspective is all about the differences between social groups in the society. True

b. Conflict perspective is essentially based on Karl Marx’s thoughts on class struggle. True

c. There are various groups of people in society belonging to different classes, religions and ideologies. True

5. According to Karl Marx’s theory, society is divided into two groups: Identify the groups and briefly explain their status.

a. the haves (the bosses/ providers of production)b. the have not’s (workers of production)c. The “haves” were called “capitalists” because they had all the money needed to build

new factories, mines, railways or other “means of production.” The capitalists would then force the “have-nots,” who he called the “proletariat (working class),” to work for them. This situation was unfair in the distribution of wealth within a society that would cause problems.

6. Account for the family from each of the following perspectives:

a. Interaction theory: this is where the cultural practices of the individual begin; they develop a cognitive understanding of their society and their place in it through the family’s social behaviors towards them.

b. Functionalism theory: each member has a role to play to ensure the family functions as a unit: the father and mother are the providers as the children goes to school to learn how to be better providers for their families.

c. Conflict theory: the man (in some societies) is perceived as the provider; if the role of the woman in the family is to be more of the provider (even though normally regarded as the nurturer) this may result in an unstable family and a misconception/conflict of roles each parent must play.

7. How does symbolic interactionist see society?

Max Weber's assertion that individuals act according to their interpretation of the meaning of their world, Money is a symbolic interaction that society uses to form various bonds. The social conception of the self-entails that individual selves are the products of social interaction and not the logical or biological preconditions of that interaction. It is not initially there at birth, but arises in the process of social experience and activity. According to Mead, there are three activities through which the self is developed: Language, play, and game.

8. Based on the reading which perspective is the most conservative of the sociological schools of thought? (b).Why do you think this perspective is considered the most conservative?

The most conservative perspective would be Functionalism. To the sociologist you can’t really go out of functionalizion to the greter good of society; whether it be crime, poverty or a suicidal religious cult they are all functioning to the system of society.