Sociological Theories

 

Sociological theories and concepts help us to understand our society, social behaviors, and relationships (Laustsen, Larsen, Nielsen, Ravn & Sørensen 2017). They affect our day to day interactions by how we communicate with other people and the languages we use to be understood in the social world. Sociological theories are responsible for the different perspectives we view the social world with, and the different social classes. These theories help us to expound and foresee the social world and human behavior. The different social classes affect our lives in terms of education, employment, housing, and race among other social differences. This makes it hard to give your full input because of the inequalities that result from the social classes. Sociological theories impact future learning opportunities by helping us understand the way societies function as a whole and interactions between individuals and the impact it has on us. Theories influence future learning opportunities in the need to understand more about the social and biological needs of individuals that make up a society. They enable us to develop the need to know more about the norms and values in our society, the significance of social consensus, and ways in which to reach the consensus.

The structural-functional theory focuses on how every part of the society functions, the relationship to each part of the society, and its functional aspects. The functionalist perspective maintains that each aspect of society is independent and adds to the functioning of society as a whole. The functionalist theory has been divided into two types which are the manifest functions that are intentional and the latent functions which are intentional (Laustsen et al. 2017). This theory links society to a human body in that the society is regulated by the various parts of the society working together to keep the society functioning just as the different organs of the bodywork to regulate the entire system. An example of this theory is how the government provides education to the children who in turn get employed and start paying taxes which the country relies on to keep running. This theory maintains that society is bound together by social cohesion whereby the society members agree on and work towards achieving them. In the workplace, this theory will help when it comes to teamwork and towards working towards a common objective for the best of the company.

Conflict theory is a perspective that focuses on the different social classes that society is made up of. These social classes compete for social, material, and political resources in that some of the individuals and organizations have the capability of getting and keeping more resources compared to others. This causes inequality in terms of education, gender, race, religion among others (Simon 2016). The unequal classes have conflicting values, beliefs, and programs which make them compete against each other. Unlike the functionalists who avoid the social revolution, the conflict theorists work towards the revolution. They maintain that social order is upheld by power, with authority in the hands of the rich individuals with the most resources economically, politically, and socially. Social change helps society to make progress in terms of equality and the development of society as a whole. Conflicting theory in the community through the competing aspect will help in aiming for higher education, better employment to change the social class, and the nature of the society.

 

 

 

 

 

References

Laustsen, C. B., Larsen, L. T., Nielsen, M. W., Ravn, T., & Sørensen, M. P. (2017). Social

theory: a textbook. Taylor & Francis.

Simon, R. M. (2016). The Conflict Paradigm in Sociology and the Study of Social Inequality:

Paradox and Possibility. Theory in Action, 9(1).