Three Sociological Perspectives

In the field of sociology, there are theories that are established in order to help identify our social world and help us to understand it. However, there are three major perspectives in sociology, which are the functionalist, conflict, and the symbolic interactionist perspective. Each of these three perspectives offers a variety of explanations about society and human behavior. In today’s society, I am often befuddled or amazed at how people interact between one another and through these different perspectives; I get a chance to understand the motives behind a person’s behavior, whether their actions are good or bad. Now, I would like to discuss how each of these three major perspectives help me understand either social constructs in my personal
15). This theory of perspective focuses on the mid or macro levels of analysis compared to the other two sociological paradigms, which focus solely on the micro and macro levels of society. Herbert Spence, who could be considered the father of the functionalism perspective could possibly explain an employee’s apathy with their job that they feel they do not contribute anything to society. Spence saw similarities between society and the human body; his main argument was that “various organs of the body work together to keep the body functioning, the various parts of society work together to keep society functioning” (Openstax College, 2013, p. 15). When I was reading over Spence’s main argument, I also realized that it could be similar to the idiom “cog in the machine” while comparing it to a person’s occupation if they feel they are expendable because there are some body parts in the human body that seem to have little importance to the human body as a whole such as the appendix or wisdom
Compared to the other two theories that could be identified with multiple people, conflict theory is identified primarily with Karl Marx, who believed that “conflict leads not only to ever-changing relations within the existing social structure, but the total social system undergoes transformation through conflict” (Coser, 1957, p. 5). This strongly held belief that Marx had was described in great detail in the Communist Manifesto, as he pushed for social change in society while supporting socialism. Another belief that Marx described in the Communist Manifesto was the conflict between the poor and the rich, which was symbolized during the first chapter of the Communist Manifesto when he was discussing the conflict between the bourgeoisie and the