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Structural Functionalism Theory

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Theories of Deviance
Structural – Functionalism Theories
A. Anomie Theory of Durkheim
In a modern society, members feel that moral consensus has weakened. In this world, some people lose their sense of belonging, less participation in socially meaningful activities, feel alone, frightened and disoriented is simply because of the economic interdependence. These experiences and developments contributes to have feeling of anomie – is a condition of normlessness, in which norms and values have very little impact on the culture.
B. Strain Theory (Robert K. Merton)
First, culture defined goals, interests, and purposes for the members of the society. Goals are the things “worth striving for.” Second, the culture is the one who regulates and controls the acceptable mode of reaching out for these goals. Societies can provided goals and legitimate means to attain those goals but provide very limited access for some to legitimately attain them. It is simply means that individuals experienced the strain when the structures in the society do not give the individuals an opportunity to attain the provided goals. For example, a married man who has six children but do not have a proper education due to poverty, cannot find a decent job that will help him to provide foods for his hungry children might steal or hold – …show more content…

Labeling theory suggests that though we are breaking rules and violating norms every now and then, we in ourselves do not considered as deviant, nor we are being labeled by other people. On the other hand, there are some instances that individuals are being labeled by the society as deviant and this labeling process brings about more deviant behavior. A person being caught in wrong doing and branded as deviant, experiences a extreme consequent change in his identity. This label affects his/ her participation in all social activities and self –

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Structural Functionalism Theory Last night I saw an episode of Family Guy where Lois Griffin the mother figure in the show decides to look for a job since her husband Peter Griffin recently lost his job. Lois has never had a job and always has been a housewife while Peter would always work and be the only source of income. Lois would take care of all the house chores and things that needed to be done like picking up the kids and making dinner. Although Family Guy is not the perfect example of a functional family .The

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In the 1960s, the General Strain theory was the go to theory to describe deviance. Although it was fought against by many researchers it still came out on top. The theory “is written at the social-psychological level… [and] focuses on the individual and his or her immediate environment” (Agnew, 1992, p.48). The theory mainly focuses on the strains that cause the deviant behavior to be committed.

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The consequences of action and history are what make us who we are today. Functionalism, Feminism and conflict theory suggest us to perceive deviance as a whole, whereas symbolic interactionism view deviance individually. These perspectives very helpful not to understand culture differences, but also one’s own cultural norms in depth. There is no society without deviance. Positive and negative deviant behaviours are function

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Block has trouble with the types of functionalism that claim that there are functional states which are identical to mental states. These are called identity theses. He is arguing that Functionalism and physicalism are partners in guilt, in that they can both be said to be too liberal or too chauvinist. Thus the burden of proof is on functionalism to show that physicalism is in fact plagued with such troubles. Block has troubles with scientific functionalism (which he calls psycho functionalism) and analytic functionalism (which he calls common sense functionalism or just functionalism).

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1.0 Introduction 1.1 Background of the Study Culture consists of the overarching values, motives and moral ethical rules and meanings that are part of the system (Harris, 1999). Culture is the whole way of life, material and non-material of human society (Shorter, 1998). People think that culture as fine and performing arts, to dance, music, theatre and the means of disseminating arts and communication industry (Souza, 1993). One should imagine culture as being self contained, super organic reality with forces and purposes of its own (Geertz, 1973). Westerners used to think that their culture was a unitary phenomenon and that their western culture was perfect and most developed but 20th century proved them wrong (Shorter, 1998).

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The functionalist perspective argue that society provides us with norms or guidelines (Leon-Guerrero 2014). There can be shown a difference of the way people expect to behave when drinking. According to Caetano, Clark, and Tam, people who lack norms to control their behavior, they are likely to purse self-destructive behaviors such as alcohol abuse (Leon-Guerrero 2014). For instance, doctors warn about the dangers of alcohol use and even advertisers promote the use of alcohol and the affects. Yet we still drink no matter what the causes are.

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Unfortunately, kids can’t last long in school without a touch of conformity. In fact, think back to middle school. You know, that institution filled with awkward pre-teens? Recall those kids that didn’t really fit in with the rest of the lot? The ones who stuttered when they spoke.

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Culture is not always defined by one’s individual self, but often by the world they, along with everybody else, are put into. So many factors in life form our culture for us, be it school, society, or otherwise. It is our own unique culture that we strive for, no matter the hardship. It also happens to be that difficult to achieve goals are often worth the

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Deviance has many functions in society. Although deviance violates social norms, without it, we would not have rules, so it helps form, guide, and shape society’s norms and goals. Social norms are different from culture to culture. Norms that may be acceptable in one culture may be frowned upon in another. Emile Durkheim quotes that “deviance and deviant behavior is an integral part of all healthy societies (Adler, 2014, p74).”

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When taking a look into the society I call myself a part of; it can be placed into three perspectives. The three theoretical perspectives we may live in are; Structural Functionalism, Conflict Theory, and Symbolic Interactionism. The world may be a place where we all live congenial among each other with open arms and helping hands guiding us with structural functionalism. Rather, then live in harmony with everyone we may be in a world filled with greed and power hungry organizations leaving us with conflict theory. Though, we may also live in a accepting environment with individuals setting standard to be understanding with other people 's ideas and creative pathways they 're on through linguistics.

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Labeling Theory is a theory which focus on the micro level of the society—about the individual interaction—and mainly focusing toward the idea of deviance and stigma as a social problem. Certain behaviors/situations will not be called social problem until those deviant acts or situations are labeled as such by the society at a certain point in time—what society called standard previously become a deviant now. Furthermore, the theory proposes that those labels that are attached to some individuals are mainly based on the social class, race/ethnicity, and/or gender. Even if an individual doesn’t lie into the deviant category, due to the individual having the same social class, race/ethnicity, that individual will be pushed away toward the behavior

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. Additionally, it explains how various social forces affect people’s outcomes in the society. This is where deviance comes into the picture. In some countries, a change may lead to stability, reduction of social tension and productivity. Whereas in some other countries, it may lead to worse and more difficult problems like marginalization, one problem leading to another and abuse of power.

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I have come to an overall conclusion from evaluating each perspective closely that the functionalist theory explains drug policies in the United States the best, simply because they look at the drug’s functions and dysfunctions. While functions are the intended positive effects of the drug use, dysfunctions are its unintended negative effects (Henslin, 2013). The United States do not make all drugs illegal and in fact some of the deadliest ones are legal and are very accessible to many different age groups. The functionalist view shows that for example, the slightest prescription drug that is used to treat mental health patients or even to treat the simplest headache will be abused by majority women of older age. This perspective explains

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Deviant behavior is the behavior that is different from the most powerful norms of the society or can also be defined as odd or unacceptable behavior. In sociological way deviance is simply any violation of societal norms. There are many reasons why a person has deviant behavior which includes biological , psychological and sociological explanations. the most popular sociological theories are Structural Strain Theory which was developed by Robert K merton as an addition of the functional point of view on deviance. The theory discovers the origin of deviance that these are caused by the difference

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In today’s modern society, everyone is largely affected by society. From multiple social institutions like the government and economy for instance or even the effects of education and mass media; these all play a huge role in an individual’s relationship, behavior, and actions in their society. For an individual to understand things like a “culture” or why every society has a ‘social class hierarchy,’ they will be directed to “Sociology”. Sociology is the systematic study of the structures of human society and social interaction. Sociology attempts to understand how things like society, social events, interactions, and patterns influence the way humans think, act, and feel.

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