The Three Major Sociological Perspectives In Sociology

Centuries have come and gone since the conceptualization of the three major sociological perspectives in Sociology. Symbolic Interactionism, Functionalist and Conflict Theory are the perspectives that offer sociologists’ theoretical paradigms for explaining how society influences people and vice versa. Each of these perspectives uniquely conceptualizes society, social forces and human behaviour which provides sociologists with an orienting framework for asking certain types of questions about society and its people (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014). Sociologists study everything from specific events such as the micro level of analysis and the macro level of analysis in which the Functionalist and Conflict Theory are predominant in macro-sociology.
While both the functionalist and the symbolic interactionist perspectives focused on the positive aspects of society that contributes to its stability, the conflict perspective focused on the negative, conflicted, and ever changing nature of society (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014). The general underlying assumption associated with the conflict theory is that society is made up of groups with competing self-interests. Marx termed these groups as the classes of people where they fell into two distinct categories; The Capitalists/Ruling Class and the Proletariat/Working Class. The Capitalists/Ruling Class were those who consisted of a small group that owned the capital or means of production and also had a position of power. The Proletariat/Working Class were those who consisted of a large group that possessed labour and provided the labour for the means of production, however they lacked power (Giddens, 2008). People compete for resources that are in scarce supply (Farley, 2000). Generally the resources that are in short supply involve social and economic resources. Unlike the functional approach, which is typically concerned with stability and order among system parts, however, the conflict perspective focuses on the tensions and conflicts among system parts. In particular, conflict theorists examine the changes that ensue from tension and conflict. Rather than study the needs met by the economy of a society, for example, conflict sociologists would study how those who own and control the economy seek to deny resources, such as power and money, to those who merely work in factories and corporate bureaucracies. They would analyse how such opposed interests produce tension, overt conflict, and eventual change in the relations between owners and workers in the