This TV show is a comedic cartoon that follows a character named peter griffin. Though the show is crude and merciless at its attempt to wow its viewers with its Graphic and completely inappropriate comedy, it does entail quite the amount of sociological concepts however when watching the show they could be very easy to miss. Back to peter Griffin however. He has a son a daughter, a friend and a dog that I will be discussing. I chose these 5 characters because I believe that they each have their own sociological concept that ties to them.
The “Outsiders” made me think about the rules that groups give us are strongly founded on what they see as defiance. It made me think that some rules are given within a group are not remotely necessary and that we as a society are to blame for what is deemed as “socially acceptable”. Deviants may not even be actually deviants but that’s what they are labeled by society because they think, what the deviant did was wrong, which could be made up by what society thinks is okay behavior. The relation to this reading and the sociology course shows how society controls us and how they consider we should act. It reminded me of how society tells us as women that showing off our body parts is deemed as trashy and not lady like, but men can do so without
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.
In sociology, there are three theoretical perspectives; symbolic interactionism, functional analysis and conflict theory. The major point of symbolic interactionism is to use symbols to help understand how we as a society view the world, and how we communicate with one another. In functional analysis, the major point is to look at society as a whole, constructed of various parts, or groups, that all have their own function. Lastly, conflict theory is the opposite of functional analysis. In this perspective, society is viewed as different groups, each competing for power, or dominance.
The sociological perspective encourages us to explore societies’ problems from a non-biased perspective. When investigating controversial issues it is quintessential to keep one’s opinion out of the equation. As C. Wright Mills stated in his 1959 essay “The Promise”, “Problems and their solutions don’t just involve individuals; they also have a great deal to do with the social structures in our society” (Leon-Guerrero, 2015). Eliminating personal experiences and self-perception creates an even playing field to determine fact from fiction.
By way of example, all three of the theoretical perspectives notably have idiosyncrasies about one another. As an illustration, structural functionalism is defined as Due to the fact that society consists of vital parts and systems they work in unison with each other to run smoothly. The people in the society contribute in myriad areas of interest in the process of structural functionalism. David Claerbaut states that these areas of interest, incorporate into society with: religion, economics, education, politics and family. On the other hand of living among each other actively working to create a seamless community we have the conflict theory.
Individuals and some identifiable groups may fall into misfortune or maladaptive patterns. The goal of intervention is to help them adapt to existing structures, perhaps making minor institutional adjustments where warranted. Functionalism interprets each part of society in terms of how it contributes to the stability of the whole society. Society is more than the sum of its parts; rather, each part of society is functional for the stability of the
This term in HSP3MI, our class has analyzed human behaviour from the three social science perspectives: psychology, sociology, and anthropology. Each social science offers valuable viewpoints in explaining, ‘why people do the things that they do?’ However, there is often one perspective that works especially well when applied to a specific social issue and this was illustrated in the year end presentations. The issue of child abuse was best assessed by psychology because of the mental illnesses, and substance abuse that follows it.
a. Sociology is the study of the social relationships that affect the humans as well as institutions. It involves many fields of study that include crime, religion, family, race, culture and society among others. It is the primary purpose of sociology to provide linkage to all of these different subjects to help in understanding how humans behave (Smith, 2016). b. Sociological enquiry is the careful analysis of the motivational factors as well as the behavior of a certain individual within a particular group of people. The primary objective of sociological inquiry is to reveal an understanding of the social world that is readily observable.
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
Symbolic interaction perspective also known as symbolic interactionism is the most important basic conceptional structure of sociological theory and it depends on meanings which are symbolic that individuals establish and rely on in the process of social interaction (Crossman, 2015:1). Even though this perspective originates from the statement that was made by Max Weber that people act based on the interpretation of the meaning of their world, this perspective was introduced to the American Sociology in the 1920s by an American philosopher George Herbert Mead (Crossman, 2015:1). This theory or perspective is used or it can be used to analyze or figure out societies by focusing on behaviours of people. According to Crossman (2015:1) it is believed that individuals behave or act based on what they believe and not on what is objectively true and this is the reason that subjective meanings are given dominance.
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).
It includes the need to understand the past events; the connection to the society in which we live in and personal life experiences in a particular setting with define values and customs. Sociological is an important element as it allows the society and individuals to relate to various circumstances in their daily activities at local and international levels that are paramount to them. The lack of ability to relate to these situations individuals would be unable to perceive the societal elements that affect them and thus cannot make the changes that would be essential in their lives. Throughout history, different countries have obtained various levels of social imagination and thrived. However, some are yet to experience it while others have already lost it.
2.3 Sociological perspective: Macionis (), analyzed that sociology is efficient study of human society. Society refers to public who live in a defined region and share a way of existence. Sociology’s analysis of society is a special point of view called a sociological perspective. To define the sociological perspective there is an additional way to define that is considering the general in the particular. It tells that that sociologist look for common pattern in particular human’s behavior.
According to the Dictionary, Sociology is defined as the study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society. This means that people are willing to study social problems throughout the world and the society that they live in. In my life, I deal with my social class, Gender, Race, Religion, and the time I was born. Because of who I am, I definitely have been a part of a different upbringing and lifestyle that many sociologist may find interesting.
