How Do Theoretical Perspectives Influence The Way Sociologists See?
A theoretical perspective in sociology is a model or a framework that organizes the way we look at social life. The particular theoretical perspective that we use influences what we study, the questions we ask, the explanations we arrive at, and the types of solutions we pose. While sociology has many such theoretical perspectives, the dominant ones are structural functional theory, conflict theory, and symbolic interaction theory. Structural functional theory focuses on the parts – for example, societies or groups – of a social system, tries to determine what each part does, and explains how the parts are related to each other. From this perspective, social life is viewed as one of cooperation and consensus among the various parts of a system with basic agreements about its goals, values, and beliefs, thus creating a system which runs smoothly. Conflict theory sees social life as a struggle between groups and individuals for scarce resources. From this view, social systems are charact
