Expertly Written Essay On Sociological Perspective To Follow

The sociological perspective is a term that explains the sociological way of viewing human behavior in society. Sociologists use this in order to define, understand, and solve problems within our society. The sociological perspective helps sociologists understand what is going on in our society in terms of growth, deviance, unification, and stratification. It also helps them how common problems like crime could be solved. Furthermore, the sociological perspective helps sociologists to understand where we have been, in order to help us understand where we are now.
Sociologists always build upon the foundations of what was learned before. The three perspectives are a foundational building block for that learning. They are; symbolic interactionism, functionalism, and conflict theory. Symbolic interactionism helps sociologists derive meaning from everyday symbols. Symbolic interactionism is studied on the micro level which incorporates interactions between people. The origins of this theory come from two prominent sociologists; Max Weber, who theorized that people act in accordance with their understanding of the world they live in, and George Mead, who theorized that people place meaning upon symbols then act in accordance with their own personal interpretations of these symbols.
Functionalism, or the functionalist perspective as it is better known, states that each element of society works to form a part of the whole. From this perspective, each function of society is not a separate entity, but a working part of the whole. However, functionalism does not believe that individuals should take an active role in changing their environment. Actions such as social activism are frowned upon, because functionalism sees this type of action as unnecessary. Because they believe that society will fluidly change organically to compensate for uses within it. Functionalism looks at society from a macro perspective in order to see it as a whole.
Conflict theory, or the conflict perspective seeks to shed light upon the negative aspects of our society. It is studied on the macro level perspective which tends to focus on the large scale processes which make up our society. This theory came out of Karl Marx’s writings in regards to the struggles between class systems in society. Conflict theory encourages social change, and revolution, because it believes that those with wealth in power force social order on those who are poorer, and without power in society. This theory became more prevalent in the field of sociology in the 1960’s because the world was in a time of turbulent social change. Sociologists studying this theory focus on inequality, social change, and power structures within society.
However, unlike the functionalist perspective, and the symbolic perspective, conflict theorists tend to have an overtly negative view of society, and the way in which it functions. Overall, these three key perspectives help sociologists understand our world from different angles. They can work together in order to give a broader understanding of the issues we currently face, and how to best solve them.
The application of these perspectives is wide reaching from social inequality, to individual rights, to power structures, and deviance. My knowledge of the sociological perspective has helped change the way I view crime and deviance in society. From the functionalist perspective, deviance and crime is seen as a necessary function. Functionalism states that without deviance, society would have no parameters in which to test out its rules and regulations. When our societal norms are challenged, and broken by deviant individuals, it is then we can understand how our rules work, if they are working, and what we need to do to change them.
Social deviance is attributed to acts that violate societies accepted norms and rules. In order to evaluate where we have been, where we are, and where we are going, we can use the functionalist perspective in order ascertain how deviance functions without our society. From this perceptive, deviance is not seen as something that is good, or bad, but it is seen as something necessary, and without it society would not function properly.
However, I do not agree that social activism is unnecessary, and that society will rights its own wrongs organically as the functionalist theory states. Using conflict theory to look at deviance I agree that social change is necessary, even though it often can ring unrest, it inevitably can lead to change. I think in regards to deviance, and crime it is a good thing to look at the topic from all three perspectives. This is so we can shape the discussion about deviance and crime, learn more from it, and grow in our understanding of it.