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Sociology the science of society
Strengths and limitations of structural functionalism theory
Strengths and limitations of structural functionalism theory
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There are three main types of sociological perspectives in which you can perceive different sociological issues and concepts; structural-functional, symbolic-interaction, and social conflict. Structural-functional looks at society as a whole and how it works together. Symbolic-interaction is how different symbols spark particular thoughts and emotions by examining the meanings that people impose on objects, events and behaviors. Social conflict studies how power and coercion affect social order. Based off these types of perspectives, an analysis on teen depression and suicide can be evaluated from a sociological standpoint. Suicide and depression relates to structural functionalism because it is proven that social relationships may reduce an …show more content…
In our culture, money, status, and social power all play a part in how individuals think that others perceive them. There is growing evidence that shows the link between socioeconomic status and unhealthy psychological outcomes in mental health. When looking at higher levels of socioeconomic status for youth it shows a more positive and healthy psychological outcome for youth and their mental health. Studies have shown that there are higher rates of attempted suicide, cigarette smoking and engaging in episodic heavy drinking (“Pardon Our Interruption”). Other studies have shown that lower levels of socioeconomic status have been linked to emotional and behavioral difficulties, like anxiety, depression, attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorders (“Pardon Our …show more content…
Structural-functional views show the importance of being connected to friends and family to remain mentally happy and healthy. Symbolic-interaction shows us that we need to be proactive when it comes to youth and bullying and make sure that there is absolutely no tolerance for this behavior, because youth take to heart and internalize what others think about them. The social conflict perspective educates us on the importance that teens place on money and power and places socioeconomic youth at risk for many behaviors that can be linked to suicide and depression. Looking at teen depression and suicide through different sociological perspective provides an awareness and gives us valuable information that should be shared to make a difference in teen depression and suicide
The main argument in this article is that there needs to be more ways to help people that are suicidal. The main point of this article is that they want to people to be more aware of how to help someone, and it is also full of information. The topics that are covered in the article are the issues at hand, the background with suicide in teens, and the next step that society needs to take. This article is about helping people that are suicidal and how to help them and let us know the next step that we need to take.
Sociology is the study of society and the interactions that occur within society itself. There are numerous methods of analyzing societies and the way the function, nonetheless, most methods fall in micro and macro level theories. Micro level theories allow sociologist to study smaller relationships such as individual or compact groups of people. On the other hand, macro level studies permit for larger scale investigations to take place. With both of these theories there are three theoretical perspectives used in sociology. Micro level theories include symbolic interactionism which focuses in interactions done with language and gestures and the means which allow such interactions to take place. Macro level theories include structural functionalism
Approximately 24% of 12-17 year olds have considered suicide and up to 10% have attempted suicide.” (Suicide Intervention Training PG 3). Teens today are very likely to commit suicide for various reasons. In today’s society there are a lot of judging and bullying cases around the world. No matter how much we promote a bully free zone there will always be a couple of cliques, or individuals, who want to bring others down and who do not know the seriousness of bullying. Although bullying is a big cause of suicide, the leading cause is a mental illness that many people are familiar with called depression. “Psychiatric disorders can affect diverse aspects of an individual’s life.”( Dispelling Myth Surrounding Teen Suicide, PG 1). If you or someone you know seems down most of the time, the best thing to do is to go see someone about your despair. If you are diagnosed with depression, prescribed depression medicine can help and can be one way to prevent suicidal thoughts or actions. “There is a lot of evidence that suicide is preventable.”(Cont. Principles of Suicide Prevention, PG
The three theorectical perpectives in sociology are symbolic interactionism, conflict theory and functional analysis. Symbolic interactionism are symbols that we use to define our relationships with people in society. It can refer to our parents, friends, siblings, employees, teachers, and so forth. These symbols will help us to determine our behavior towards an individual and how we treat them. For example, the way we communicate with our friends will be different from how we talk to our teachers because we are aware that our relationship with our teacher is professional and our relationship with our friends is personal. We separate those relationships and have acted differently to a certain group within society. Conflict theory is when
In the recent years, South Koreans have coined the word, “Republic of Suicide” to refer to South Korea as a nation of unfortunately high suicide rates. Unsurprisingly, South Koreans in all ages have significantly higher suicide rates compared to people of the majority of the other nations in the world today. Regarding various personal and psychological factors as secondary factors, this paper relies on the sociological arguments discussed by Emile Durkheim in his celebrated work, Suicide, to explain suicide as a social phenomenon. Drawing from Durkheim’s explanations of suicide in relations to social integration and regulation, this paper attempts to expound on the general trends of high
Adolescence is a stage of maturation between childhood and adulthood that denotes the period from the beginning of puberty to maturity. However, many conflicting opinions are raised about weather such a stage of childhood is influenced by stress, depression, and suicide rate. Some people support the optimistic view that says that adolescence is not a period of storm and stress. Others, including me, support an opposite pessimistic view which characterizes adolescence as a period of stress and inner turmoil. Unfortunately, it has been recently proved that depression is a growing problem in today's society and a major contributing factor for a multitude of adolescent problems. This is because , as research indicates, adolescent depression is the result of mood disorders accompanying this period and the high suicide rate that is basically a result of such a depression.
Individuals in society experience many changes that can make them feel overwhelm or feel accepted by their friends, family members and the rest of society. But there is times when people feel that they do not fit or feel welcome in their social group. Many people face their difficulties and achieve success others are do not have such luck. The individuals that are not lucky finishes their life committing suicide. Suicide is an act of taking one’s own life voluntarily and intentionally that affects not only immediate family and friends but indicates factors in society that are influencing individuals to commit this act. Is important to understand what aspects in society are making individuals to take their own live? And if
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.
In the textbook Sociology chapter one talks about three sociological theories: functionalist, conflict, and interactionism. All three sociological theories have something to do with each social institution. Functionalist perspective is a sociological approach that emphasizes the way of which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability (Schaefer, 24). Functionalist applies to the education sociological institution by teaching knowledge and skills, cultural transmission, social control, and some agents of structured change. All of these are important in making sure that education is structured to maintain its stability. The conflict perspective is a sociological approach that assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of tension between groups over power or the allocation of resources, including housing, money, access to services, and political representation (Schaefer, 24). Conflict applies to the education sociological institution by reproducing social order, using hidden curriculum, intolerance and inequality, credentialism, and status. Using hidden curriculum refers to standards of behavior that are deemed proper y society and are taught subtly in schools (Schaefer, 315). Status refers to standardized testing, tracking, public/private, gender, class, and role. And then there is the interactionism perspective. Interactionism perspective is a sociological approach that generalizes about everyday forms of social interaction in order to explain society as a whole (Schaefer, 24).
Mills ask the sociologist to examine how social structures and culture are linked to the personal problem, in this case teen suicide. He also ask that we look at how these develop historically and how they are changing in today’s society.
Teen suicide is a social issue that the world is going through. Teen suicide is a problem that affects the whole world , mainly because this issue is global. Global means that the whole world is having the same issue that they are going through and that no one can control. The teen suicide rate has been increasing in the world since 1999. Research has shown that half of the youth every year have taken their own lives away by using firearms. Teen suicide is the 3rd most leading cause of death in the world of ages 15-24 (Teen Suicide 1). Also teen suicide is the 4th leading cause of death of the ages 10-14 (Teen Suicide 1). Researches have notice that females only attempt suicide. While males actually dies by suicide. The National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) states
Sociologists employ three major theoretical perspectives in sociology today. They are the structural-functionalist perspective, the conflict perspective, and the symbolic interactionism. The structural-functionalist perspective is done at a macro level and its focus is on the relationships between the parts of society. The Conflict perspective is done at a macro level and its main focus is on how the wealthy controls the poor and weak. Symbolic Interactionism is done at a micro and it focuses on the use of symbols and face to face interactions.
Suicide is a critical social problem in this day and age. According to Kutcher and Magdalena (2008), one of the top three causes of death among people from 15 to 34 years old is suicide. In America, suicide is the third killer to the high school youths between the age of 15 to 19 (Lieberman & Cowan, 2011). Suicide defined as a person who end the life in the way of purposely instantly, and deliriously which consider to be self-inflicted death (Comer, 2004). In general, there are six factors that cause teenagers involve in suicide that are depressed, family factor, a trend toward the youth, effect of parental suicide, bullying, and impulsive behavior (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).
Suicidal tendencies in adolescents begin around the ages of 10 through 19, with warning signs, prevention, treatment, and the causes and effects it has on the human psyche. Suicide is when someone decides to take his or her own life because and are suffering from a painful mental treatable illness and have lost hope in who they are. Because when hope is lost, some feel like suicide is the only solution to truly make the adolescents pain go away permanently. Scientific evidence that shows the people who have committed suicide had a diagnosable treatable mental disorder or substance abuse disorder (The National Institute of Mental Health, 2010). Those people might have been suffering from illness such as depression, mood disorders, personality disorders and or suffering from bullying. Being a victim of bullying can be linked to suicidal thoughts as well as behavior in adolescents. Other causes might also include having family problems at home, problems at work, school and or with school peers. Suicide is a serious problem though it not only affects the victim, but it also affects family members, loved ones, along with friends.
Teenage years are the hardest times. Your having changes in your body, going through relationships, and trying to plan your future. When you go to look for answers, it seems like no one has them. That's what starts teenagers to feel alone. When they feel this way they will try to "medicate" themselves by drugs and alcohol or violence. Studies show that teens who feel this way are at high risk for suicide. Suicide, intentional, self-inflicted death. A uniquely human act, suicide occurs in all cultures. People who attempt or complete suicide usually suffer from extreme emotional pain and distress and feel unable to cope with their problems. They are likely to suffer from mental illness, particularly severe depression, and to feel hopeless about the future. Suicide is becoming a public-health problem. It is now the leading cause of death worldwide. Researchers believe mental illness in young people are the cause of the increase in suicide. Not only do suicides rates differ between age groups but also men and women. Men succeed in more suicides but more women attempt. Methods of suicide can differ from drug overdose to hanging. Poisoning or overdose is the least amount of suicide rates. Hanging is the leading method worldwide. The United States has 60 percent suicides committed by guns. Where it is less easy to get a gun in Canada there is only 30 percent committed suicides. Only 15 to 25 percent of those who kill themselves leave suicide notes. People often think suicide is caused by difficult situations such as failure in school or marriage. Experts believe those are just triggers and its really caused by the brain, genetics or social forces. The majority of people who kill themselves are suffering from depression. Researchers believe that genetics play a role in suicidal behavior. They believe it runs in the family. There are also some psychological theories. "Suicides have three interrelated and unconscious dimensions: revenge/hate, depression/hopelessness, and guilt." said Karl Menninger. Many suicide attempts are a cry for help and to try to get attention. Soem socialogical theories show suicidal people don't know how to cope with stress well. They are also probably suffering from a loss of a family member. There are ways to help prevent suicide. If recongized early you can get psychiatric help and get on medication. Some risk factors can be people with mental illnesses, or substance-abuse disorders.