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Sociological Perspectives Assignment 1
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This document is a DISTINCTION grade. It is task 1/ assignment 1 of Unit 10 - sociological perspectives This includes P1, P2, P3, P4, M1, M2, D1
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Unit 10- Sociological Perspectives AssignmentSociology is the study of society, which primarily focuses on social structures as well
as groups. Sociology explains how groups can influence behaviour within different
structural societies.
Functionalism
Functionalism is a ‘structural- consensus’ theory. The ‘structural’ bit means that
functionalists argue that there is a social structure that shaped individual behaviour
through the process of socialisation. The ‘consensus’ bit means that functionalists
believe that a successful society is based on ‘value consensus’ – people agree around
a set of shared norms and values. Functionalists also believe that a successful society
has a stable structure. In a successful or healthy society, for example, social life is
organised so that the family socialises the young and meets emotional needs, school
teaches us broader life skills, the workplace is where we contribute the economy.
Functionalists use the term ‘organic analogy’ to compare society to the human body.
They say that all parts of society need to work together in order for society to
maintain stability. They believe that different parts of society depend on each other.
As conceived by Talcott Parsons, the functionalist perspective emphasises that good
health and effective medical care are essential for a society’s ability to function. Ill
health affects our ability to perform our roles in society, and if too many people are
unhealthy, society’s functioning and stability suffer. This was especially true for
premature death, said Parsons, because it prevents individuals from fully carrying
out all their social roles and therefore represents a “poor return” to society for the
various costs of pregnancy, birth, child care, and socialisation of the individual who
ends up dying early. Poor medical care is likewise dysfunctional for society, as people
who are ill face greater difficulty in becoming healthy and people who are healthy
are more likely to become ill. For a person to be considered ‘sick’, several
expectations must be met. He referred to these expectations as the ‘sick role’. First,
sick people should not be perceived as having caused their own health problem. If
we eat high-fat food, become obese, and have a heart attack, we evoke less
sympathy than if we had a good nutritional diet and maintained a healthy weight.
Second, sick people must want to get well or are perceived as faking their illness
Second, sick people must want to get well or they are no longer considered
legitimately ill by the people who know them or by society itself. Third, sick people
are expected to have their illness confirmed by a physician or another health care
professional and to follow their instructions in order to become well. If a sick person
fails to do so, she or he loses the right to perform the sick role.
One of the most important criticisms of functionalism is that it does not address
areas of conflict, which almost certainly characterises modern societies and could be
found in all societies. Functionalists emphasise agreement and consensus as they
paint a picture on institutions having clear, positive functions and cooperating
, effectively. Furthermore, functionalism is based on the idea that in every society,
members share some basic values and beliefs and these agreements and beliefs
support the socialisation process and the working of the main institutions.
Functionalists also believe that very little of our behaviour is down to personal
choice. They believe it is a direct result of the socialisation process. The interactionist
model provides a different perspective to this view.
Marxism
The founder of the Marxist perspective was Karl Marx which is the name for a set of
economic and political ideas. Marxism is a struggle between the lower, middle, and
upper classes. Furthermore, a strength of this approach is that this theory analyses
conflict and power within society. It also explains why there is an uneven distribution
of power and wealth between social classes. For example, the lower class have a
really low income as it falls below the poverty line where as the middle class earn
enough to cover their expenses and the upper class tend to afford most luxuries in
life due to their higher education. However, a weakness of this approach is that it
only focuses on how behaviour is shaped between social classes. It doesn’t focus on
other issues affecting behaviour such as race, gender, religion, and sexual
orientation. An example of Marxism is replacing private ownership with co-operative
ownership. The Marxism approach defines ill health depending on what social class
an individual is categorised in. For example, it is less likely for individuals who are in a
higher class to become ill as they have a higher life expectancy due to factors such as
good housing, good education, and clean air as well as good quality of life. However,
individuals who are in a lower class are more likely to become ill as they can’t afford
healthcare or good housing which leads to poor life expectancy.
Feminism
This approach observes gender and its relation to power. It also includes race, sexual
orientation, economic status and nationality. There are 3 types of feminists known as
radical feminists, liberal feminists, and Marxist feminists. Radical feminists focus on
the patriarchal structure of society, which means they don’t want society to be
controlled by men. They believe men are responsible for most of the problems
caused in this world, and that women can do a far better job. They want women to
realise how much they’re being exploited by men. Liberal feminists concentrate on
equality for women through their choices and actions. For radical feminists, it is
known that it is not the capitalism that dominates women, but men. The family
structure is seen as a patriarchal institution which connotes that they see the
socialisation of women as housewives and mothers as a form of oppression. The
conflict approach emphasises inequality in the quality of health care. The conflict
approach also critiques efforts by physicians over the decades to control the practice
of medicine and to define various social problems as medical ones. Feminist writers
have focused on this male domination of the medical and the adverse impact this has
had on women. Childbirth as well as pregnancy was regarded as a medical issue
sometimes even as an illness rather than a natural process. Feminists believe that
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