Functionalism

Contemporary Sociological Theory Sociological Theories The key to understanding sociological theory, involves understand the how and why the facts of the social world relate to one another. Sociological theory can be many things from precise understanding of a single process to various paradigms for analysis as well as interpretation. Social theorist think on many levels from the general to the specific and from the mundane to the complex. Social theorist must temper their theoretical insights…

During my first semester of Introduction to Sociology 1000, we were assigned to do community service for Otterbein University. Otterbein focuses on giving back and having students give back to the community as well. For the past ten weeks, I did my community service at the Promise House, it is located on the first-floor common apartments next to Devore Hall. While walking into the Promise House there is a room of tables for people to sit at, and then there is another room behind it which is the…

Video Response Worksheet / SOCI 101 CCBC / Fall 2016 Section 03 / World’s Most Dangerous Gang a. Deviance/p. 194: The violation of norms (or rules or expectations). (Henslin 194) In Chapter 8 of the textbook, Sociology A Down-To-Earth Approach, the question “What is Deviance?” is asked. In my opinion, the answer would be the gang followed in this documentary video. Their name, MS-13, in Salvadorian Spanish, stands for Mara, meaning “group” or “clique” and Salvatrucha is commonly known to mean…

theoretical lenses to analyze human behavior. By combining the contributions of each, we gain a more comprehensive picture of social life” (Henslin, 1.7). The Blind Side afforded us the view of all three perspectives, symbolic interactionism, functionalism, and conflict theory. Michael Oher’s journey through his young life allowed us to see him transition from rich to poor, hated to love, nobody to a star. It is through our own fortune that we can witness this through the lens of sociological…

For example, the capitalist ‘American Dream’ of financial success has lead some, who are unable to achieve this goal through conventional means (often the poor and powerless), to turn to crime as a way of gaining financial prosperity. This can lead to the formation of criminal subcultures where different values become important such as fearlessness and resentment towards authority. This allows those who are unable to achieve success conventionally to gain status and respect within their own…

behavior. This is obviously an absurd idea, in which everyone knows the regularity of crime and deviance in everyday life. There are several different ways to explain deviant behavior and crime in society. These approaches include the Structural Functionalism Approach, Social Conflict Theory, and Symbolic Interactionism. Through analysis of these approaches one can get a better understanding of acts of deviances, even one of the most common crime on college campuses: underage drinking. For many…

Upon reading Smart, Putman, Descartes, and Ryle’s excerpts, I have come to believe that my mind is a physical substance of me, such as a brain. Your mental process is often called brain processes just as Smart believes through the identity theory. I also agree with Smart in the way that mental states can be physically recognized through pain, which is often called the functionalist view. Lastly, I favor the behaviorism view in which Ryle explains how mental processes are intellectual acts. On…

A.) Rapport/ Pg. 132: A feeling of trust between researchers and the people they are studying. The buildup of positive rapport between the people who were trying to escape to the United States, and the researchers and camera crews was a very important aspect of this documentary. The immigrants were in many cases trusting their future and their lives to the respondents. The path that the illegals were following was in many cases frequently used and worn down. The constant travel of the…

Undefeated is a 2011 documentary about the Tigers of Manassas High School, more specifically their football team. This documentary centers on how the coach, Bill Courtney, helps form a team of academic and athletically strong men to attempt a winning season after years of losses. While analyzing the performance of the team three sociological perspectives explains their wins and losses. The first perspective is the functionalist theory, which emphasizes on the stability of what holds the football…

Symbolic Interactionism Symbolic interactionism is a social theory that examines and explains human activities, behaviours, and social structures based on societal interactions (Meltzer, 2014). Through them, human perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes are changed creating a new paradigm of an individual’s world. Sociologists argue that this theory is important in analyzing and shaping human fashion styles, material wealth, and social behaviours. Although there are many influences on a person’s…