Sociological theories are declarations of why and how extraordinary facts about the social world are connected. They are the core of the concepts to predict, explain and describe how the society relates to everyone individual’s life. In the assigned text, three general paradigms of sociological theory for scientific exploration in sociology are examined and analyzed. It brings together a wide scope of perspectives to offer the fullest picture. Two theories are macro-level – dealing large numbers of people – they are the conflict and functional theories. One micro-level theory – dealing with small groups – is symbolic interactionism. Although we have the freedom of the religion in America, a person’s religious fundamentalism can cause great societal issues that each of three sociological theories can provide insight to.
The social conflict theory views society as a system of the powerful that treats various groups unequally. We can find many inequalities in our real life. In the text “Social Theories”, the author explains the Feminist theory as primarily a part of Conflict Theory and writes “Feminist theorists are interested in the inequalities in opportunities between men and women.” Women want equal rights as men but in their social roles, women are often subservient. For example, in the book “Educated: A Memoir” in chapter 1, the author, Tara Westover, writes “my father was not a tall man but he was able to command a room.” From this point and the subsequent passage, we can figure out in her family there exists gender discrimination since her mother never had her own point of view for the family and she can only listen to her husband who is basically the dictator of the household. The conflict theory of this example is very common with religious fundamentalism in that wives/mothers had few rights or authority compared to the husbands/fathers.
Functionalism theory views society as and interconnection of functional parts working together as a complex system. It believes that all useful parts come together to make a stable, cooperative, and harmonious society. For instance, our body has a heart, liver, brain, arms, eyes, legs etc. All of them should be working together for normal body since each individual part has own importance. In the text “Social Theories”, the author states “Functionalists can better understand how society remains stable or adjusts to destabilizing forces when unwanted change is threatened.” Based on this passage, individual behavior can influence the whole community thereby making the collective stay stable or be threatened. It is also related the book I chose “Educated: A Memoir”. The author said she never attended school since her father had a radical perspective on his religion. Her father believed that America public schools couldn’t teach the kids in the right way and sending his kids there would be “surrendering them over to the Devil”. He deprived his children of getting a good education. So his children wouldn’t be able to contribute to society since they had a poor education. His fundamentalist religious view caused a social imbalance between his family, the Government, schools and even others in his community who didn’t share his beliefs.
Symbolic interactionism theory says society is made up of small groups interacting sharing the same symbols and meanings. The use of food in a religious context can show how strong these symbols and meanings can be. With this understanding we can think about how individual choices affect society. From my chosen book, the author describes her father reading a Biblical passage over and over again: “Butter and honey shall he eat,…That he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.” He then commands the whole family to eat the butter and honey (good) with breakfast and he threw away all the milk and dairy products (evil) from the fridge. This is a good example to show the negative symbols group members share even in their particular diet. It is a choice of good vs. evil. Returning to the text, the Thomas Theorem says “if people perceive or define something as being real, then it becomes real in its consequences.” The father perceives evil to the point of forcing the family to eat a certain way. Even his own mother disagrees with him and invites the author (his daughter) to her home to eat milk with cereal for breakfast. The grandmother eventually helps the author leave her father’s home. This is a good example of how perceptions, even if they are not real, can have serious social consequences.
From the above sociological theories, we can see each one has different characteristics that can alter our view of society. We can use the different theories to give us unique insights about a particular situation and also the interaction between individual behavior and the consequences to the whole society. It is useful for everyone to study these theories because there are benefits to both individuals and society. In studying where and how societal dysfunctions occur can figure out the solution to better improve of in our real lives. From these examples and the insight that the sociologic theories give us, the author’s father’s fundamentalism led to societal dysfunction. This book is very relevant in understanding sociology!
education will change me 