Compare And Contrast The Three Sociological Perspectives

The three sociological perspectives give different outlooks on the social world, with each perspective providing an original way to explain patterns of behavior and interactions that create our society. Although there are many different sociological theories, the three most common perspectives are the functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interaction perspectives. Each one of these theories offers a unique outlook on the reasoning behind why our society exists as it does, helping sociologists understand what influences human behavior and predict how the social world will change in the future.

The oldest and most popular sociological perspective is the functionalist theory, which was established from the work of early French sociologist Emile Durkheim, along with the ideas of Herbert Spencer and Talcott Parsons. Functionalism perspective views each

institution of the social world as having different roles that balance each other out and work together to keep the stability of society as a whole. This theory has an optimistic outlook on how society works, every social aspect is believed to have a reason, with even the ones that appear to be negative and dysfunctional serving a purpose. For example, Durkheim found that even negative social rituals, such as those that served in the degrading punishment of Jews, cause people to form a bond and have a sense of unity with one another, keeping society stable.
Another major social perspective is the conflict theory, a concept based on ideas from Karl Maxx, as well as his colleague Friedrich Engels. Conflict theory focuses on the idea that social order is maintained by the unfair oppression and power that people with the most resources and advantages use to control the rest of society. Marx felt as though the capitalism held a great influence on society, with different economic classes in constant conflict and the most elite dictating the lower classes. Based on the conflict theory, people bond and find common interests over their negative feelings towards others groups.
The last social perspective is the symbolic interactionism theory. This theory was developed at the Chicago School, with sociologists George Herbert Mead, and Erving Goffman also contributing to this perspective. Unlike functionalism and conflict theory, which focus on the perspective of society on a larger scale, symbolic interactionism looks at society at a more personal level, focusing on the behavior and interaction of smaller groups of individuals. This theory centers on the idea that society revolves around the symbolic meaning people give to actions, which dictate how they comprehend behaviors and events they experience and how they interact with others in the social world.
In my opinion, the conflict theory has the most interesting and realistic standpoint on how society works.

Although the theory might focus more on the negative aspect, instead of viewing everything optimistically as functionalism does, it takes a sensible approach that concentrates on where the problems lie in society. The conflict theory uses the macrosociology analyzing aspect, focusing on the big picture of society as a whole, and issues that arise between structures such as economic classes, employers and workers, communities, and races. As stated above, the conflict theory was established by Karl Marx, a German theorist whose work in the mid-1800’s had a huge impact on sociology. Marx had a materialist outlook on society, believing that the economic organization dictated above all, influencing all the other organizations of society and how individuals lived. His ideas opposed the capitalist economy he felt would take over and eventually cause a socialism revolution. Even though Marx was incorrect in some of his predictions, he still gave a unique perspective that shows the importance of economic class on

society.
Marx looked at capitalism as an unfair compromise between the two main classes, the bourgeoisie, who have capital and resources to make money, and the proletariat, who are the working class. The proletariat class are forced to give up their only resource of labor time, in exchange for an amount determined by the bourgeoisie class that is always under what is deserved. He believed the capitalist class uses the working class in order to gain more for themselves, obtaining power over the lower class and using their resources to control how all other organizations of society run. Since the upper class have the capital to run organizations, such as schools, the media, and the government, they use their power to manipulate and determine how the lower class think and act. Those with power are always working to keep their status, while those with less are trying to build theirs, causing constant turmoil between the two.