Arguably, social factors in sociology play a critical role in molding the society and lives of individual. The environment, in which people live, has a lot of impacts in the development of behaviors and attitude of individuals. Changes in the society are brought up by social factors; hence the factors either make or mar the society and individual. Certainly, human beings are believed to be rational; therefore, there always make rational decisions. There are social factors that are adverse to society, while others are beneficial to both society and individual. These social factors include family, crime, education, media, and work. As these social factors interact and function in different ways, affecting individuals and society in different ways.
Family is one of the fundamental social factor affecting individuals and society. Certainly, family is the first body in the society that is affected if other sectors of society are not functioning well. The functioning of the society and individuals depends tremendously on the family setup (Holman, & Scot, 2007). In every society family is the mirror of the entire society. Based on functionalism theoretic perspective, family is a body that has many parts, and each part performs its duties, to ensure the normal running of the family. Furthermore, within the family setup various forms of interactions between the members take place.
The effects of family on society and individuals do not differ much. In most cases, the effects of a family on individuals and society concerns the formation and founding of the society. It builds the personality of an individual, before being exposed to the world. The way in which, the family moulds an individual will be felt in the society. The molding process takes place trough social interaction consisting reactions, mutual adaptation, as well as actions between family members (Tischler, 2010).
The family affects an individual’s through socialization. In society, children in families are always egocentric. This implies that they believe to be the central factor in all the things that surround them. Hence, family affects individuals through, socialization in the early stages of development, and later joins the entire socialization process in society (Holman, & Scot, 2007).
Family in one way or another affects the development of gender roles and believes. Functioning of the society is more so influenced by; the way individuals were brought up, and socialized into the society. Additionally, the society and individuals goals depend on how one was developed in the family. For example, those children who come from a poor family tend to be less fortunate in accessing education as compared to those from rich families; in the future, this impact will be directly proportional to development of society.
Despite the importance of family in society and individuals, it has negative impacts. In the world, family has affected the stability of society and members of the society. The interactions that take place are professional, leading to family breakups. When conflict develops in the family, children are the vulnerable group who suffer, making them behave in an insecure manner, resulting to unstable life.
According to functionalism, family is one of the social forces that mold individual’s behaviors, roles, as well as their place in society. Functionalists elaborate on the how individual make decisions that will affect them and society. Family has a social factor affects the society and individual, carrying out its roles (Kirby, 2000). The society will not function well if families don’t perform their functions. Just like the organs of the body, family is one of the organs of society that determines the survival of individuals and society.
Another social factor affecting individuals and society is crime. Globalization has in most cases glorified crime through music and movies. In fact, it happens in various forms and has diverse effects. Individuals as well as, society have been exposed to crime in one way or another. Criminal activities take away from the people and society. Its effects are mostly social, economical, and psychological (Muncie, & McLaughlin, 2001). For example, the society loses its resources to maintaining jails and feeding criminals in prisons, instead of using it for development. Study reveals that society spends twice as much the average of household spending in maintaining and running prisons. This implies that instead of providing exceptional infrastructures for people, taxpayer’s money is used to the fed and ensure criminals safety.
Functionalists focus on the power imbalance and unequal distribution of wealth in the society, especially when analyzing crime as a social factor. Just like any other social factor, crime has its latent and manifest functions. As a matter of fact, other social factors such as, family and education functions to maintain the stability of individuals and society, but crime destabilizes and makes the society dysfunctional. Crime is a shock that disturbs the balance of institutions in society (Kirby, 2000).
According to Kirby, sociological perspective explains the effects of crime on society and individuals based on interactionism. Crime emerges in society due to human interaction. Debatably, crime is a social interaction made of reactions and actions. Interactionism asserts that individuals have different values, beliefs, attitudes, and culture so as the criminals.
References
Holman, T & Scot, L. (2007). The Family in the New Millennium: The Place of Family in
Human Society. New York: Greenwood.
Kirby, M. (2000). Sociology in Perspective. Melbourne: Oxford.
Tischler, H. (2010). Introduction to sociology. London: Wadsworth
Muncie, J & McLaughlin. (2001). the Problem of Crime. New Delhi: SAGE.
