Sociology aspects play a vital role of enabling people to comprehend the family and how it operates under different theoretical structures. This indicates that the work of the sociology mainly lies with the fact that it enables us to explain the social behavior by different individuals in the real world. In order to advance the theory, various sociologists have identified ways to come up with answers concerning the relationship as well as how these families operate. Sociologists utilize three main theoretical approaches, which may include structural-functional approach, social-conflict approach, and symbolic-interaction approach in explaining how various people understand a family and its operation (Calhoun 70).
Structural-functional Approach
The approach is termed as a framework used in building a theory, which aims at overseeing the society as a complex system with vital parts that work together to promote stability and solidarity. The approach usually points out that the social structure has a relatively stable pattern of the social behavior. The indication puts it forth that the social structure primarily shapes the family structure as well as the consequence of the social functions of the whole social pattern for the operation of this family and society. Social structures such as from just a simple handshake to the complex religious rituals, keeps the society functioning properly in its present form. For instance, the structural-functional approach receives a major back up from Auguste Comte, who stated that there is a need to keep the society unified at the time when a lot of traditions were breaking down. It is clear that the family works similarly to the human body, implying that the human body has organs that work interdependently in order to help the entire organism survive while the social structures work together in order to preserve the society as well as the family. It is obvious that the family has several functions, which include manifest functions and the latent functions. The main purpose of this approach is to explain how the society keeps moving. The approach ignores inequalities of the social class, gender, and race, which might trigger tension and conflicts among the members of the society (sociological theory 14).
The Social-Conflict Approach
The approach aims at unveiling the framework in which the society’s inequality generates conflict and changes. The main purpose of this approach is to highlight inequality and changes that arise in the society. Sociologists rely on this approach in order to unveil on how factors such as the social class, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation and even the age are associated with the society’s unequal distribution of the wealth, power, education, social prestige and even money. It is evident that the conflict approach rejects the opinion that the social structure promotes the proper functioning of the society as a whole. Under this approach, the sociologists’ main aim at evaluating the conflict between the dominant people and the disadvantaged people in the entire society. This implies that it evaluates the relationship between the rich and the poor, white people and the people of color, and men and women in the community. Educational analysis usually reveals how the schooling portrays class inequality from a single generation to the other. Understanding this approach, would enable the sociologists define an effective way of eliminating such inequalities within the society (Sociological theory 15).
The symbolic-interaction Approach
This approach employs micro-level orientation in order to keen a focus on the social interaction in the specific incidents. The application of such knowledge is mainly seen in the streets level where one may see children invent games on the school playground. This implies that the human beings usually are in the world as symbols, who attach meaning to everything virtually. This implies that the society is a continuous process, whereby people interact in the countless settings using the symbolic communications (Sociological theory 18).
Works Cited
“Sociological Theory.” Student to student. Web. 28 Mar. 2014
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Calhoun, Craig J. Contemporary Sociological Theory. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Print.
