An Analysis Of The Three Sociological Perspectives — страница 2

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being in constant struggle. The idea of conflict is not necessarily violent; it could just refer to disagreements that are worked out through a mediator (Platt, 1999). Founders The two main contributors to the formation of the conflict perspective are Karl Marx and W. E. B. Du Bois. Karl Marx explained that conflicts between classes of society are inevitable, since workers will always be exploited as a result of capitalism. It is through the expansion of Marx’s work that sociologist now apply conflict theory to all aspects of society. Even though there are parallels between Marxist theories and conflict perspective they are not the same. An important aspect of conflict perspective is that it encourages sociologists to look at a society through the eyes of those in the

population who does not influence decision making. Du Bois contributed to the conflict perspective by studying society in reference to blacks and their struggles within society (Schaefer & Lamm, 1998). Characteristics The conflict perspective sees society as being full of tension and struggle between groups. It also, like functionalist, analyzes society on the macrosociological level. As for the individual, they are perceived as being shaped by power and authority. Social order is viewed as being maintained not through cooperation, but through force. And social change is not predictable, but is constantly taking place. The conflict perspective’s main idea is that there are competing interests between groups and social inequality exists, therefore there is always conflict of

some kind. Interactionist Perspective Definition “The interactionist perspective is a sociological approach which generalizes about fundamental or everyday forms of social interaction,” (Schaefer & Lamm, 1998). Interactionist perspective focuses on the way that small groups act, in order to understand society as a whole. Interactionists study people in their everyday behavior and how they react to their surroundings. Such surroundings may include material things, actions, other people, and symbols. Founders George Herbert Mead is most often credited with founding the interactionist perspective, but Charles Horton Cooley also shared Mead’s views. Mead was a professor at the University of Chicago, and he focused on the analysis of one-to-one situations and other small

groups. He paid particular attention to body language such as a frown or nod, and he also asked the questions of how other group members effected these gestures. His students passed down his views after his death, as a result of hearing his lectures (Schaefer & Lamm, 1998). Characteristics The interactionist view of society is that we influence each other’s everyday social interactions. In contrast to functionalist and conflict perspectives, the interactionist perspective studies society on a microsociological level. In other words they study on a small scale in order to understand the large scale. Interactionists believe that an individual creates their own social world through his or her interactions, and it is thought that social order is maintained when people share

their understanding of everyday behavior. Interactionists say that social change occurs when the positions and communication with one another change. The main idea of an interactionist sociologist is to study nonverbal communication and small groups paying particular attentions to objects and symbols (Schaefer & Lamm, 1998). As one can tell from reading these three approaches are very different in the way in which they study sociological issues. They all strive to give meaning to why people do what they do, and neither is better than the other, they just go about reaching the same goal in a different way. Bibliography References Platt, J. http://www.vcm.es/info/isa/contr1.htm Rothman, R. A. http://www.phptr.com/ptrbooks/hss_0136128148.html Schaefer, R. T., & Lamm, R. P.

(1998). Sociology. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.