What Are The Three Main Theoretical Perspectives In Sociology

Every human is different. Jobs, education, income, families, beliefs and ethnicities are distinct around the world and affect people differently. Sociology is the study of human beings and their motive for their actions based on the society they live in. Society is categorized by three main theoretical perspectives: symbolic interactionism, functional analysis and the conflict theory. Symbolic interactionism’s main concepts are symbols. When an object is a symbol that means it has a “title”, or a “meaning” to you. If humans did not have symbolic interactionism that means we would be just as equal to animals (Henslin, 2012). For example, family members have titles such as: aunt, uncle, mom and dad. People do not marry their own siblings or a parent, because there is a border of respect in-between. If not, humans would be reproducing with one another without any …show more content…
For example, back then, poor people migrated to cities in order to find “better jobs” but they were only taken advantage of. The wealthy people overpowered the poor. The migrators had low pay, and were treated like slaves through hard labor (Henslin 2012). Another example is families. Women and men had a completely different role back then as well. Men were the “head” of the family because they worked and provided stability for the entire family. While women stayed home cleaning, cooking and carried out motherly duties. Now, society runs a lot smoother because we have laws that control equality between jobs and families. At work there are minimum wage rules, age limits, paid vacations, holidays etc…(Henslin 2012) As for men and women, if there is a divorce occurring and children are present; most of the time there is equal custody as well. Divorce rates have even gone up because women have gained independence (Henslin 2012). The conflict theory is competition, but it looks like situations are starting to balance out through