Functionalist Theory Vs Conflict Theory

the functionalist perspective and the conflict theory are two out of the three major theoretical perspectives in sociology. The functionalist perspective is viewing how society contributes, then seeing how it contributes as a whole. The conflict theory are the tensions that arise from scarce resources. How I like to remember the functionalist perspective is thinking about it like the human body. Skin is what holds the human body, so do norms and values to bind society together. The conflict theory on the other hand, is more self explanatory. To emphasise, there could be conflicts between two sectors of a society, and how groups use their resources to secure their personal interests. The functionalist perspective and the conflict theory can very similiar, but also differs in some ways. The functionalist perspective and the conflict theory both focus on the big picture of society. However, the functionalist perspective is broken down into four key principles, whereas the conflict theory is broken down into three. The functionalist principles focus on the functions, interdependence, consensus and cooperation, and equilibrium. These four principles help characterize society and once they have developed it is because they met the needs of society in the particular situation. In my history class this semester we …show more content…
This focuses on the bigger picture of society and in a large scale manner. A few months ago I went downtown Chicago with a couple of friends to walk through the city. As we were walking through the streets we saw a ton of people! It was a protest when Donald Trump won presidency. We saw many people who were for Trump and other who were against. This protest showed many conflict issues between cultural differences and social classes. Each part, or in this case, the people has a specific function in the