Emile Durkheim's Theoretical Frameworks Of Sociology

I must say this has been a very challenging and interesting course to take. Learning about sociology has given me a better understanding of people and their behaviors. Our society is constantly changing, so with sociology, it helps to understand it all. Learning more about sociology allows me to take these skills and apply it to my life. There are a few concepts that I found very interesting throughout this course. The first thing I will be taking away from this course will be the three theoretical frameworks of sociology. Every life situation can be categorized into either: functionalism, conflict theory, or symbolic interaction theory. Emile Durkheim’s work helped develop functionalism, focusing on society as a whole. Conflict theory explained through the work of Karl Marx, focused on the different social classes, races, and genders. The symbolic interaction theory, based off of Mead’s work, provided an understanding of symbolic meanings and how people behave. Although, …show more content…
Some problems in our society that sociology digs into are stereotyping, deviance, and crime. The media contributes to the exaggeration of different cultures only reinforcing stereotyping. Sociologists give different ideas as to why a certain cultural, gender, or class is stereotyped. Deviance is shown as deviant behavior which individuals are not following rules and norms expected. Sociologists explain, this is a result from groups’ not just individuals and not all deviant behavior is considered to be that by everyone. Finally with crime, each sociologists have different reason why crime occurs. A functionalist, believe crime is needed for society. In conflict theory, they believe crime is a result of a lower social class forcing individuals into crime. And for symbolic interaction theory, crime is behavior learned. All sociologists have valid ideas and I believe it is the best way to understand the