Theoretical Perspectives Of Sociology

Society orders itself by multiple different theories, which often causes conflict with one another. They are abundant theories used to study social problems, to help comprehend society better. Theoretical perspectives used by sociologists to study social problems by society, are the structural-functionalist perspective, the conflict perspective, and the symbolic interactionism. These prospective are used to analyze society at different levels and point of view.

According to functionalism, society is a system of interconnected parts that work together in harmony to maintain a state of balance and social equilibrium for the whole. This perspective believes society functions like a organism in a human body; everything must function correctly for the human body to function. The strength of this perspective shows how each of the parts of society correspond with each contributing to the well-being of society. It provides a very harmonious view of society and the family. The weakness of functionalist approach is too optimistic. It suggests that family life is always good and happy. Cheal (2002)Sociology of Family Life claims that functional relationships can easily slip into damaging relationships.

Sociological perspectives of conflict theory is that it
sees society as social life of competition and focuses on the distribution of resources, power, and inequality.
These sociologist see society as an area of social class.; for example, factors such as race, sex, class, and age are linked to social inequality. The wealthy vs poor the struggle between groups in society over scarce resources. The strength of the conflict approach is that societies are always in a battle over power to control the norms, values and resources. Money is an perfect example of how society lets it place value over someone social class, which is Its weakness, there is little focus on social stability and shared value. Many sociologists have become activists for change in societal
problem.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels argued that all of human history is the result of conflict between classes, which evolved over time in accordance with changes in society's means of meeting its material needs, i.e. changes in society's mode of production.

Symbolic Interactionism reflect on how humans interaction and communication is facilitated by words, gestures, and other symbols that have acquired conventionalized meanings. It basically focuses on micro aspects of social life, and how society consists of organized institutions. Sociologists George Herbert Mead believed individuals are products of society, but have the capacity to act on their own. Sociologists believed that people do on the most part, use symbolic indicators to determine how they will act, as they are aware that these symbols contain shared meanings.
I think one of the perspective strength of this theory is that it allowed humans to developed a method to communicate without words, but through actions.
An example of this perspective is a teenager who, relocated school, where his new classmates drink alcohol and smoke marijuana, the new student is more likely to smoke marijuana and drink alcohol. On the other hand, if a student moves to a new school where no one smokes marijuana and drink alcohol , that student is more likely not follow the negative habits.

Basically, Symbolic Interactionism weakness were that it had limits to that only relate to larger groups in society rather than individuals, ethnicity, gender, and economy. The theorist believed the individual person does not matter for the importance of social structure.