Key Elements Of Sociological Analysis

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Many people do not know what sociologists actually do or what even makes a good sociologist. There are many aspects of being a good sociologist and one of them is know what the key elements to the three dominant sociological theories are. These are just some of the basics of learning about sociology. It is important to know the aspects of being a good sociologist, structural functionalist theory, social-conflict theory, and symbolic-interaction theory. A good sociologist has a sociological perspective. This means that they not only see the strange in the familiar, but they also see the “general in the particular (Macionis et al. 2017 pg.4). They have the ability to see society in everyday life, the easy things we deal with every day and the …show more content…

2017 pg.15). Through social structure and social function, we can see how society works within everyday patterns that are generally predictable and the effect these social patterns have in the operation of society as a whole. The structural functionalist theory focuses on the need for society to be unified in order to keep society going. Aguste Comte and Emile Durkheim recognized that traditions in society break down over time and that it is important for society to remain unified despite this problem. Robert K. Merton expanded social function into two different categories. The first category, manifest functions, are “the recognized and intended consequences of any social pattern (Macionis et al. 2017 pg.16). The second category, latent functions, are “the unrecognized and unidentified consequences of any social pattern. Merton also recognized that social structure had some negative consequences. This would be a social dysfunction, which means that sometimes social patterns do the opposite of unifying society. Different people have different perspectives on what is functional and what is not. Herbert Spencer came up with the analogy of the human body and society. There are structures and functions that work within the body to keep it going, but these things can vary between different people. …show more content…

2017 og.19). This theory focuses on the close-up interactions in social situations, it has a micro-level orientation, unlike the structural functional theory and the social-conflict theory which are macro-level orientated, meaning that they focus social situation that shape society as a whole. Sociologists with this approach would believe that “society is nothing more than the reality that people construct for themselves as they interact with one another… human beings live in a world of symbols, and we attach meaning to virtually everything” (Macionis et al. 2017 pg.21). Max Weber believed that to really understand people we needed to be able to see form their perspective, and try to understand their experiences. Humans generally gain a sense of self and identity through personal experience and the symbolic-interaction theory is trying to show that to understand society we need to understand the grassroots that make up society. In conclusion, these are the aspects of being a good sociologist, structural functionalist theory, social-conflict theory, and symbolic-interaction theory. Over all, a good sociologist keeps their internal feelings and opinions to themselves in favor of empirical evidence. They have an interest in people in general, and are not afraid to ask hard questions. The three dominant sociological theories

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