Question

For socilogy:

Sociologists argue that the sociological perspective combined with the scientific method gives them the ability to make significant contributions toward an understanding of human social behavior. Describe how a theorist from each of the three sociological perspectives (structural-functionalism, conflict, and symbolic interactionism) would go about studying behavior in a college classroom. What questions would the theorist ask, and what would the theorist be likely to do?

Answer 1

In a classroom setup, all of the three perspectives can be easily applied. The three sociological perspectives are:

1. Functionalism: this perspective says that the society as a whole is integrated and that the intention of the society is to achieve relative stability. The various members if the society contributes in survival, well being and stability of the system. In a classroom, there are many students who comply to someone who may be a perceived leader. They do so, even without consent, so that there may not be any quarrels and a peaceful situation will be maintained.
2. Conflict: where there would be inconsistencies and conflicts with coercion coming from some of the members. Against the perceived leader, there might be some revolting people coming up, who do not care about maintains the stability of the class, but putting the right thing forward is more important. To them. This leads to quarrels and disagreements.
3. Symbolic interactionism: people learn the meaning of certain words and develop the interpretations of symbols based on what they are learning from others. In college life, the students make up many such phrases that have their meaning, which cannot readily be understood by people outside of the college culture, thus helps them understand and interact more efficiently.