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The influence of sociology in everyday life
Social structure theories
The influence of sociology in everyday life
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In the United States, drugs are classified into illegal and legal drugs. Amongst the legal drugs are addictive drugs such as alcohol, which are only sold to adults. If someone is found in possession of an illegal drug, he or she is charged in court Sociologists view drugs, both legal and illegal, from three perspectives. These are structural functional perspective, conflict perspective, and the symbolic interaction perspective. These perspectives are discussed in this paper. Structural Functional Perspective Structural functionalism or just functionalism is a theory that views the society as a large complex system with parts, which work together to bring solidarity and stability in the environment and the people that live in it. …show more content…
The society is viewed in terms of functions of its constituting elements that include traditions, norms, institutions, and customs. According to structural functionalism, socialists emphasize on functional use of drugs both legal and illegal for some, if not most members of the society. Use of both legal and illegal drugs is considered functional to those who use them as it gives them specific physiological effects. Possession of drugs that the government or a regulating body has declared illegal is considered functional as long as they are used to create some effects to the user or seller. Selling of illegal drugs is considered functional as it helps the seller to get some income and improve his or her economic status.
Illegal drugs are functional to the criminal justice system as they provide employment opportunities to the regulators. These include the police, who are tasked with arresting those who possess them without licensing or authorization of any kind court officials who prosecute those found in the possession, and the prison workers who take care of prisoners indicted for possessing them. Legal drugs and illegal, but medically legal drugs are functional to medical practitioners as they gain their income from treating people using the same. People who work in rehabilitation and correction facilities find both illegal and legal drugs functional as they provide them with employment. In as much as the drug use and abuse is functional, they are also dysfunctional as they can cause disruptions to the community’s stability and …show more content…
solidarity. Conflict Perspective This theory was developed by Karl Marx, and it emphasizes on the social, political, and material inequality in the society. It focuses on social inequalities such as class conflict and the effort made by those at the top to remain there. The theory brings out drugs and drug abuse in three ways. First, it is noted that drug abuse is prevalent in poor urban areas, such as Harlem in New York, which is as a result of poverty, racial discrimination, lack of employment, lack of proper education, and many factors that affect people in such areas. In search for ‘peace of mind,’ they turn to substance or drug abuse to temporarily free their mind from these problems facing them. They also turn to drug trafficking due to its readily available market. The practice is also a great source of income that does not mind a high school dropout. Second, this theory addresses the fact that racial and ethnic discrimination and inequality help in establishing how some drugs are declared as illegal and the penalties if found in possession of such drugs.
For instance, it is evident that criminal penalties are harsher than others are even if the different drugs are pharmacologically identical. A good example is cocaine and ‘crack’. Penalties for use or possession of ‘crack’ are harsher than those for possession or use of cocaine are. Cocaine abuse is popular among the rich, mostly whites, whereas the poor community like the African-Americans mostly use crack. The theory emphasizes that the penalties for illegal use or possession are racially and socially
discriminative. Lastly, the large and influential multinationals in the legal drugs such as tobacco, alcohol, and prescription drugs market have a huge influence. They convince the Americans and other countries to use these drugs so as to maximize their profits. They lobby for tax reduction so that their products become cheaper to the consumers. They do not care about their effects like addiction and dependencies as long as they gain profits to keep a few stakeholders at the top of the social class. Symbolic Interaction Perspective This theory was derived from the work of a scholar, George Mead, who argued that peoples’ selves are social products and those selves are purposive and creative. This simply means that people attach different meaning to things and act toward those things according to the meaning they have attached to them. These meanings are obtained from the social interactions and interpreted differently. This means that the theory views social problems as arising from interaction of people. This translates to a view that drug abuse arises from individuals interacting with people who abuse drugs. These individuals learn how to administer the drug and justify abuse. For instance, it takes one person to introduce cocaine to another. The beginner is showed how to sniff and where to obtain it. The beginner wants to experience how a cocaine user feels. All these are learnt from interacting with several-times user. The same case applies to abuse of prescription drugs, which arise from interaction with someone using the drugs under prescription and wanting to feel what the right user feels upon using them. In conclusion, the three sociological theories look at drug use and abuse from different perspectives, but all agree that drug abuse is harmful.
Functionalism views society as the stability and assimilation of a range of forces that function within it. While society is a separate entity with a life of its own, there are individual elements contributing to that stability. Functionalism as a sociological theory emphasizes assimilation rather than the dissociation of society. Therefore, the society is seen as a whole that is compromised of parts which give one another their identity and their function. The part, whether that is education, such as a school, or sports, such as a football team, operates in relation to the other parts, and cannot be entirely understood in isolation from the other parts. All the parts are interrelated, and when there is a disturbance in any one of the parts, is when you can see the interdependence. But what is important about this theory is that “there will always be some reorganization and tendency to restore equilibrium” (Wallace and Wolf 17). Functionalist do not believe it’s crucial that the people involved in the society to be aware of this interconnectedness anymore than the brain and heart consciously realize that they work together as an organism.
Functionalism is basically a theory that describes the mental state of human beings through the combination of both behaviorism theory and the identity theory of the human mind. According to this theory, mental states of people are majorly identified or rather defined by what they frequently do and
Drug use has been an ongoing problem in our country for decades. The use of drugs has been the topic of many political controversies throughout many years. There has been arguments that are for legalizing drugs and the benefits associated with legalization. Also, there are some who are opposed to legalizing drugs and fear that it will create more problems than solve them. Conservatives and liberals often have different opinions for controversial topics such as “the war on drugs,” but it is necessary to analyze both sides in order to gain a full understanding of their beliefs and to decide in a change in policy is in order.
A “drug-free society” has never existed, and probably will never exist, regardless of the many drug laws in place. Over the past 100 years, the government has made numerous efforts to control access to certain drugs that are too dangerous or too likely to produce dependence. Many refer to the development of drug laws as a “war on drugs,” because of the vast growth of expenditures and wide range of drugs now controlled. The concept of a “war on drugs” reflects the perspective that some drugs are evil and war must be conducted against the substances
Functionalism is a theory in which various social institutions and processes in society serve a significant function in order for society to continue
The functionalist paradigm focuses on the integration of society, and how society how its own groups which has their own functions to help improve the peoples lives. Functionalist paradigm fits in the category of macro-sociology, because it focuses on the patterns that shape an entire society. Functionalists believe that society is maintained through the thought of trust and consensus on moral values for ideal behavior. Working together will result in a stable social environment that will create equality. Conflicts or dysfunctions will be view as a disease in the social system. Social conflict paradigm believes that society is divided into many groups that have their own goals, and that certain parts of the world have the luck of benefiting economic dominan...
Many factors contribute to the reasons why drug use still exists in America today. It provides needed job titles, it is an on going process for medical research, and acts as a contribution to help certain people in their own personal ways. Drugs have been around for nearly two decades and as the years progress, the war on drugs seems as if it has no intensions of slowing down. This problem will only continue to intensify in an inferior situation. In using both the functionalist and interactionist perspectives, several imperfections such as addiction and the fact that people use drugs in illegal ways are identified. Ultimately, it is only us as a society as a whole who can take the responsibility and can change this issue … for better or for worse.
Structural functionalism is a practice that sees society as an elaborate system working together to create stability. Functionalists look at society like one big puzzle and each piece of that puzzle; being different aspects of society, work together to keep the puzzle glued together. In order to put the puzzle together smoothly it must follow the norms, customs, and traditions of society. According to Max Weber, the brain behind structuralism, social class and status affect each individual’s life. Individuals in a specific group have common components of their life chances; therefore, setting norms of what life should be like for that group. It explains how certain roles are expected of certain people. For example: if an individual has a higher socioeconomic
Few, if any, would argue that drug abuse in the United States is not a serious problem. However, the issue remains how to address it. The current schema of the politicized, militarized "war on drugs" does not appear to be working to reduce drug use in this country. More and more prisons are being built, with increasing numbers of citizens (particularly among minority populations) becoming incarcerated and subsequently trapped in the cycle of the criminal justice system. The current policies for punishing drug users not only imposes strain on monetary resources and infrastructure; they are in fact perpetuating great social suffering and injustice. What is needed is a systematic transfer from an ideology of punishment to one of prevention and rehabilitation, but practically, as in most cases, money will talk loudest.
Talcott Parson and Robert Merton are the central tenets of structural-functionalist. According to Calhoun “Functionalism (sometime called “structural –functionalism’) refers to the body of theory first developed in the 1930s and 1940s that treats society as a set of interdependent system. Theory rest on an organic analogy that likens a social system to a physical body, in which each subsystem is necessary to maintain the proper functioning of the entire organism. From a functionalist point of view, the key to understanding a social subsystem is thus to trace its function in the working of the whole.”(calhoun489) Structural functional theory describes society to be a complex system with various interdependent parts that work together to maintain stability. Each part of society has each of which have their own functions and work hand in hand to maintain social stability in the world.
Structural Functionalism or what I call just functionalism, is just another theory that has society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. This approach looks at society through the macro-level of orientation, which is a broad focus on the social structures that shape society as a whole, and believes that society has evolved like organisms. This approach looks at both social structure and the social functions. Functionalism has society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms and customs, traditions, and institutions. There is a common analogy, popularized by Herbert Spencer that presents these parts of society as "organs" that works towards the proper functioning of the "body" as a whole. In the most basic terms, it simply emphasizes "the effort to impute and the rigorously as possible, to each feature, custom, or even practice the effect on the functioning of a supposedly stable and cohesive system.
The structural-functionalist perspective looks at society as a complex system composed of various parts much like a living organism. Each aspect of society contributes to society's functioning as a whole. Social institutions play a key role in keeping a society stable. All societies need certain things to survive (Newman 2010).
Perhaps most substance abuse starts in the teen years when young people are susceptible to pressure from their peers. One of the main concerns when dealing with substance abuse is the long term problems with substance such as addiction, dependency and tolerance. The physical state of an individual, who is addicted to a substance, will deteriorate over a long period of time. This is due to the chemicals that are being put into an individual body. One of the most important aspects of the effect of substance abuse on society includes ill health, disease, sickness, and in many cases death. The impact of substance abuse not only affects individuals who abuse substances but it affects our economy. Our government resources are negatively impacted by individual who abuse substances. According to (Lagliaro 2004) the implication of drug users extend far beyond the user, often damaging their relationships with their family, community, and health workers, volunteer and wider
We see many of fields of society for example; government, educational, cultural and many more. Sociology is importantly the basis for almost all policies and idea which shape the world we are in. For example; Harriet Martineau, first female sociologists brought attention to ignored topics such as marriage, children, domestic and religious life and race relations. Without this idea being brought it up it would have always been an issue from society. Solving topics are so beneficial to making our society a better place. On a personal level it’s really changed my vision in the world. This enables us to understand paradigms. Structural functionalism was inspired partly by Durkheim, he stated that society is defined as a social system, with structures organized in an orderly way to form an organic, stable whole. This system enables us to understand and meet the circumstances in order to
Once drugs are legalized, they will certainly do more harm to the society and the number of drug users will also greatly increase. The proposal that the legalization of drugs can reduce harm is based on the current situation that the spreading of drugs can’t be rapidly ...