Conflict theory

C Wright Mills begins his essay “The Sociology Imagination” by looking at the contrast that exists between the “everyday worlds’” that common people are aware of, and where there are visions and their powers limited by the close-up scenes of job, neighborhood, family, and structure of continent-wide societies’. Mills defines the rare abilities that some have to see themselves in relation to the larger social processes and devices. People seem to be in a series of traps, and they cannot overcome…

Within social psychology, there are three perspectives social psychologists use to analyze how an individual or group behave or interact in society as whole. Symbolic Interactionism, the first of the perspectives, focuses on symbols individuals use to interact with each other, hence the name of the perspectives. Social Structure and Personality focuses on how society shapes the individual. Lastly, Group Processes show how societal rules operate within groups. Each of these perspectives affect…

The sociological perspectives are ideas that make an effort to absorb and clarify events in the social behavior of humans. In Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers,” he attempts to give explanations for the reasons of why some people become successful, and some do not. These “outliers,” as he identifies them, are generally believed to hold a sort of talent and intellect that is distant from the average. He challenges this popular belief by researching the history of various well-known outliers.…

1. Distributive Justice is the question in social philosophy of how resources are to be distributed in society. A sub-portion of this question for example, is “should members of society be forced to contribute to the welfare of others?” 2. Strict Egalitarianism refers to a concept of radical equality of distribution. That all resources are to be evenly distributed amongst the populous; often on the grounds of individuals being morally equal and therefore, should be equal in access to…

As mentioned in the present chapter, symbolic interactionism is an important theory in sociology that examines “how we [as humans] construct meanings, how we use symbols to communicate with one another and how symbols are the foundation of our world” (Henslin, 2012). In the field of sociology this theory consists of three fundamental themes –“humans have a self,” “people construct meanings, and act on the basis of those meanings” and “people take into account the possible reactions of others”…

Claudia Rankine’s Citizen poses a dynamic relationship between the two terms microaggressions and macroaggressions. In a critical analysis of Citizen, Heather Love suggests, “Microaggressions can be understood as a point of articulation in a larger circuit of violence: although they barely cross the threshold of visibility (indeed, are sometimes referred to as “invisible racism”), effective description can bring them more clearly into view” (Love 436). Love’s interpretation of the usage of…

The violence of power is used to oppress citizens and maintain authority. A society functions with a base and superstructure, the superstructure in turn consists of two parts “Ideological State Apparatus” and “Repressed State Apparatus”. To place people in their proper place in society, Althusser argued that assimilation happens in two ways, through repressive means, and through ideological means where one happens through force, the other through ideas. The Repressed State Apparatus functions as…

interest is how individuals create, negotiate, modify, or refute meanings between themselves and others (Rohall, Milkie, & Lucas, 2014). Herbert Blumer, the theorist who coined the term “Symbolic Interactionism” established three premises of this theory. The first premise is that meanings emerge from social interaction. During social interaction we undergo a process of intersubjectivity – groups in society create subjective meanings and individuals within this same society internalize these…

Exam Short Answer Question # 1 Structural Functionalism is a theory that argues society is a sum of various parts or institutions, which are all unique yet play an important role in maintaining the stability of society. Theorist view each part of society as significant, and that all the parts are interdependent. Furthermore, if there is a disruption in a single institution, the result would cause society to be impacted and thrown off balance. Each part of society, for example the economy may…

Social contract theory concentrates on the innovation of the laws and states, and the impact states or controlled communities have on an individual. All types of social contract theory can eventually come down to this: the aspiration for security, or well-being, requests for satisfaction through a common compliance. This common understanding changes the human domain from the natural, primitive state, into a composed society. In spite of the fact that the idea of the social contract is…