The three major paradigms are functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist. Sociologists use each paradigm to ask different questions about an observation. The questions will differ between each of the three paradigms. From a functionalist stand point, some questions that might be asked are: What do the players of a team have in common? What beliefs and behaviors do all athletes share? If a member of the team doesn’t practice and give their best efforts, will that change the rest of the players? If a subgroup or part of the sports industry fails will the rest fail as well? Questions formed from functionalist lenses will focus on people and their interactions within “sports” and how those people all share general agreement and avoid conflict. Also, if part of those people change, others will too. Sports is very broad. Questions could be about the athletes, soccer, baseball, sports news and broadcasting, financial matters, economic influences and more. In conclusion, all the questions will focus on how the people within the sports topic “function” together to avoid conflict. …show more content…
The sociologists using conflict paradigm may ask questions like: which sports conflict one another? What values and beliefs are different among teammates? What groups of people are not fans of sports? Why do sports fans and non-sports fans have disagreements and arguments? Is sports glamorous or is there always conflict between teams, fans, coaches, and more? All of these questions should reflect conflict created because of the unique values and beliefs each person has. Is there competition between teammates? That’s a question that illustrates possible rivalry not only against teams but also within