Functionalist Perspective In The Sociological Perspective

The sociological perspective is the study of human life and social interactions, it also studies how those interactions mould groups and society as a whole. A sociological perspective goes past the manifest and challenge what is accepted as common-sense. Since sociologists analyze social phenomena at different levels, they come up with different perspectives to understand social life, social change and the social causes and consequences of human behaviour, each uniquely viewing society in their own way. In this paper we are going to look at the main sociological perspectives.
Functionalism, is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability . Functionalists tend to paint a rosy picture where society is held together by social consensus. They believe that all the social institutions are interconnected and interdependent. As an example, the family produces individuals and will rely on the school to transform them into money earners so that they can support the family financially and pay taxes to the state which will provide jobs and fund the schools. A more simple metaphor for the functionalist approach is the human body: each element has its own function but they are all inter-connected and inter-dependent.
Emile Durkheim (1857-1917) agreed with this organic analogy alluded by Herbert Spencer. Durkheim is one of the sociologists who established the academic discipline and is acknowledged as