Sociology is the scientific study of human social behavior. The sociological perspective gives sociologist viewpoints that can be used to look at human behaviors and interactions as they relate to individuals and groups in societies. Sociology understands humans, not by what is inside of them, but by the outside factors determining them, which is what should be observed. There are three main theoretical perspectives in sociology that are used to understand social relationships and behaviors in groups and/or by themselves. The three main theoretical perspectives are structural functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic interactionism. Structural functionalism is a macro sociological perspective that views society as a complete unit. The theory of Functionalism is a huge perspective in social science which directs its attention to the social structure and its components. Those components are called norms, values, status and role. This theory or perspective enables us to …show more content…
It focuses on how humans use symbols like, signs, gesture and language, to develop their views of the world, others and themselves and see this as an important aspect in social interaction. Interactionists believe that humans use these symbols to define themselves by comparing them to the others around them and regularly change the view of themselves. For example, if Ashley and Mike were best friends but Ashley sees Mike as a potential boyfriend but he doesn’t have those same feelings, they will act differently with each other. If Mike were to do something nice for Ashley, she may take that as a sign that he likes her the same way she likes him but he still sees her as just a friend. But what if one day Ashley were to develop the courage to tell Mike how she feels will the way, then she might change the way he sees her since he now knows how she