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Functionalist View Of A Social Institution

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INTRODUCTION In this assignment social institutions, work and the economy, marriage and family, social media and religion are going to be discussed at length. This essay will argue that not all the perspective might be correct or acceptable and thus a critique will be given. The aim is to explain these social forces with regards to the sociological perspectives, namely, functionalist, conflict and symbolic interactionist perspectives. SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS In sociological term, ‘‘institutions are a set of regular behaviour patterns that are associated with a particular sphere of our lives that is structured by a set of rules.’’ Gelderblom (2003) there are 4 types of institutions, namely: family, education, religion and economy. FUNCTIONALIST …show more content…

This can be done through the distributions of social grants or retirement packages, water and electricity, basic health care, housing and provision of jobs will keep the society stable. The society can only function if it has order and in most societies, it is done through court of law, by incarcerating those who do not abide by the rules or by handing out fines. Those that work in the army and the police services bring about order during unanticipated attacks. above all else, people need to have a sense of purpose for belonging in a grou Marriage is defined as the formal union of a man and a woman, by which they become husband and wife Oxford English Dictionary for students, (2013: 3rd Ed.). There different types of families as well as different types of marriages, of which some people may find totally unacceptable or completely agree with the setup, because we all come from different backgrounds and our grooming …show more content…

The functionalist perspective states that families reproduce and raise the next generation by teaching them ways of reciprocating the process. The children inherit and show a model of rearing, through a relationship that is sexually monogamous and child rearing. Families raise and protect their children, they care for them and teach them the ways of life from a tender age in terms of cultural or social values and norms. In a way we can say that the basic rules of conforming were instilled in us from a very early stage, so being deviant to our culture and social values and norms is a result of external

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Chapter Review (pg. 6-29) A: Human migration across the globe was the complete spread of the human species over much of the earth’s surface. The species began in eastern Africa; most types of humans come from this region, in the present day countries of Tazmania, Kenya, and Uganda. Main discoveries, especially fire and the use of animal skins for clothing-both of which allowed people to live in colder climates-facilitated the spread of Paleolithic groups. The first people moved out of Africa about 750,000 years ago.

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Marriage, the joining of two people for the rest of their lives. It marks a very special point in one's life, and it is a day that will forever be remembered by that person. Marriage happens all around the world millions of times a year. It is common in multiple cultures. Even though many cultures have similar events take place in their wedding, going from one culture’s wedding to another will show you that they also have very different traditions.

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Finally, the three sociological perspectives can be seen. Functionalist can be observed in the way

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All individuals have certain social roles that when working together, form society, this allows for there to be inequality amongst individuals. Functionalism also says that social order is maintained through public consensus. So, the adjustments that the public makes in response to deviant behavior, allow for change within this theory. About Mean Girls, functionalist would view all the different groups in this movie as necessary to the functionality of high school. There are many different groups in the movie, for example the lunchroom scene shows us these separate groups.

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Functionalists do this by looking at the structures that make up the society and how they together serve to keep it running properly (Carl, 2011). Examples of these societal structures include: governments, families, economies, and schools (Carl, 2011). Functionalists believe that these connected structures are necessary to keep a society stable, and when there is a problem within a society, functionalists examine the faults within a society’s structures to find the source of the problem. This theory has a generally optimistic view of society, in that one of its key ideas is that societies will inherently balance themselves out in order to function correctly (Carl, 2011). The reasoning behind this is that if there is nothing wrong within a society, there will be no need for change.

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Looking at society as a whole with individual units that work together to make society function efficiently is the structural functionalism concept. Each unit has a part and is describe as institutions such as family, religion, education, politics, economy and inequality. Because structural functionalism looks at social structure and patterns of behavior it is able to create values for society. As well as, distinguish between visible and suppressed problems within the social structures that may need to be addressed. For instance, homelessness is indication of dysfunction in structural functionalism system.

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1.) The Functionalist Perspective attracts my attention due to its values that can be seen throughout history. This theory emphasizes the total social order over aspects of conflict, and values stability and harmony in a society (Fitzgerald 100). This means that, according to this theory, every part of society has a function in a certain social order, and change only exists to restore a functional society. In the realm of sociological understandings of prejudice, the Functionalist Perspective believes conflict and inequality between groups must be resolved in order to restore the society’s stability.

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Functionalism is usually analyzed as macrostructure which includes things like school systems and economic factors that can have an influence on substance abuse. From a functionalist perspective, someone can be using drugs and alcohol abusively based on issues in their social life. Society has this norm where people are required to work to be able to live comfortably independently. There are people who balance work and school which becomes stressful but they are required to work for financial support and they need education for a better future so they are forced to do it. With these heavy responsibilities, a person seeks leisure during their time off.

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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

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1.1 Introduction In this essay I will be discussing the sociological imagination and the problems of families. The sociological imagination allows us to see the difference between personal problems and public issues and be able to link them. It basically allows a person to think outside of their personal perspectives and see beyond the outer appearance. 1.2

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I also believe that deviance is needed within a society to progress, as functionalists do. Honestly, there would be so many negative things within our society if deviance did not exist. For instance, if Rosa Parks had conformed to the “social norms” in 1955 and had not been “deviant” in her actions, segregation may still exist today. (Scholastic, n.d.). Although most deviant behaviors are seen as unhealthy for a society, some have certainly made our society more stable over time.

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Sociological Perspectives Sexuality has three assumptions to it 1. Sexuality of members 2. Institutions of society such as family, religion, 3. What is appropriateness or inappropriateness of sexual behavior with in the cultural it occurs in.

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Structural Functional Theory Structural functional theory is a macro sociological theory that is based on the characteristics of structures, social patterns, social systems and institutions such as education, religion, leisure, media, economy and politics. If all these social institutions are organized and co-operate with one another around a set of core values functionalist theorists assume that the entire social system will function properly and efficiently. Society in structural functional theory has a view that it is an organized system of interrelated parts that are held together by shared values and established social arrangements that help maintain the system to be in a state of balance and equilibrium. Structural functional theory is a broad perspective in sociology and anthropology which sets out to interpret society as a structure with interrelated parts. Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, customs, traditions and institutions (Vibha Desai, 2013).

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Marriage is an important institution in a society and although there have been changes in the trend of marriage pattern, it is still very clear that marriage still matters. Marriage exists and its main aim is to bring two people together to form a union, where a man and a woman leave their families and join together to become one where they often start their own family. Sociologists are mostly interested in the relationship between marriage and family as they form the key structures in a society. The key interest on the correlation between marriage and family is because marriages are historically regarded as the institutions that create a family while families are on the other hand the very basic unit upon which our societies are founded on.

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While studying sociology, every individual will have a distinct perspective and depending on the particular subject, not everyone will have the same viewpoint on the topic at hand. With this, Sociology consists of many different approaches, commonly known as “Sociology theories” These theories are distinctive and diverse, providing a different perspective for understanding different situations in society. With there being a wide variety of approaches such as “Feminist,” “Labelling,” and “Critical,” for instance, the top three major approaches representing Sociology are, “Structural Functionalism,” “Conflict Theory,” and “Symbolic Interactionism.” This paper will be comparing the differences and similarities between “Structural-Functionalism” approach and the “Symbolic Interactionism” approach. To start

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