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- The Conflict Paradigm. The Conflict paradigm does a very good job of explaining racism, sexism, ageism, socioeconomic inequality (wealth and poverty), etc.
- The Functionalist Paradigm (Structural Functionalism) The Functionalist paradigm describes society as stable and describes all of the various mechanisms that maintain social stability.
- The Symbolic Interactionist Paradigm. Symbolic Interactionism describes society as small groups of individuals interacting based on the various ways that people interpret their various cultural symbols such as spoken, written, and non-verbal language.
Jul 18, 2017 · If you could represent the five sociological perspectives in sociology as five shapes, I think they’d look something like this: Functionalism – a rectangle as it emphasizes structure and order. Marxism – a triangle to represent the class structure, Bourgeoisie on the top, Proletariat on the bottom.
- Functionalist Paradigm
- Conflict Perspective
- Symbolic Interactionist Perspective
The functionalist perspective (see: functionalism in sociology) understands society as a grouping of moving, interdependent parts. Think about how the human body needs all its parts to function healthily as a whole. Likewise, societal systems comprise several institutions performing good things for the individual and society’s functioning as whole....
In essential ways, conflict theory lies on the opposite side of functionalism. Conflict theorists defy the status quoand support social change even in its rapid and violent form. They presume all societies have inherent power struggles and resource inequalities. Unequal groups have conflicting values and interests; hence, they fight each other (Wel...
The symbolic interactionist perspectiveis based on the idea that society is shaped by various symbols. People understand them as a means of communication. For instance, the word “mother” is just a series of six letters. But words are not static things; their symbols to which we attach specific meanings. So, when we see or hear the word “mother”, we...
Apr 7, 2016 · Symbolic interactionism is a theoretical perspective in sociology that addresses the manner in which society is created and maintained through face-to-face, repeated, meaningful interactions among individuals. This article surveys past theory and research in the interactionist tradition.
- Michael J Carter, Celene Fuller
- 2016
In this section, you’ll learn about how sociologists use paradigms to understand the social world. A paradigm is a broad viewpoint, perspective, or lens that permit social scientists to have a wide range of tools to describe society, and then to build hypotheses and theories.
Apr 4, 2017 · Definitions of key terms for the five basic sociological perspectives – Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism, Social Action Theory and Postmodernism.
In sociology, a theory is a way to explain different aspects of social interactions and to create a testable proposition, called a hypothesis, about society (Allan 2006). For example, although suicide is generally considered an individual phenomenon, Émile Durkheim was interested in studying the social factors that affect it.
