three areas I am going to focus on are those of the Functionalist‚ Conflict and Symbolic-Interactionist. The Functionalist theory believes that society functions so that each individual plays a specific role. Their perspective of social inequality is the belief that "inequality is not only inevitable but also necessary for the smooth functioning of society." (Davis-Moore (1954) p. 214 chapter 8 Society In Our Times: The Essentials) Functionalists believe that all societies have important jobs and
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Describe and evaluate the evolutionary theory of food preferences According to an evolutionary approach current human behaviour can be understood in terms of how it may have been adaptive in our ancestral past. Evolutionary theorists are concerned with behaviour which is adaptive and having survival value‚ these researchers look for ultimate explanations. Current behaviours may be maladaptive and dysfunctional but can be understood as having been adaptive and functional in some way. To undertake
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Solutions to Quick Quizzes Chapter 1 1. There are many possible answers. 2. There are many possible answers. 3. The three principles that describe how the economy as a whole works are: (1) a country’s standard of living depends on its ability to produce goods and services; (2) prices rise when the government prints too much money; and (3) society faces a short-run tradeoff between inflation and unemployment. A country’s standard of living depends largely on the productivity of its workers‚ which
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Compare the main assumptions of the Functionalist and Marxist perspectives on religion. ______________________________________________________________________________ “Religion is an organized collection of beliefs‚ cultural systems and world views that relate humanity to an order of existence.” Sociologist study religion as both a belief system and a social institution. As belief system – Religion shapes what people think and how they see the world. As Social Institution – Religion is a pattern
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Approaches to Illness The structural-functionalist and the conflict perspective approaches to illness differ in many of the following ways. “The structural-functionalist perspective is concerned with how illness‚ health‚ and health care affect and are affected by other aspects of social life (Mooney‚ Knox‚ Schacht 36).” To show how illness and health are affected by other aspects of life‚ one who supports the structural functionalist view will look for social patterns that give explanation for
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Critically evaluate the functionalist perspective on education (20 marks) Functionalist’s perspective on education is based on the consensus theory of equality. They tend to believe that education helps to maintain society by socialising young people with the value of achievement‚ competition and equality of opportunity. Education also teaches the skills to help the economy. For example‚ literacy‚ numeracy and IT for particular occupations. Role allocation is all part of this; education allocates
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theoretical perspectives of looking at sports from the sociology of sports view including conflict‚ functionalist‚ interactions‚ and feminist. The most useful though‚ in looking at the sociology of sports is the functionalist view. Functionalist regard sports as an almost religious institution that uses ritual and ceremony to reinforce the common values of a society (Ekern‚ 2013). This means that functionalist view sports by the competition and patriotism of the younger generation and assist in maintaining
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grandfather and the father and mother. The father and mother disapprove of the language he uses around their children. A structural-functionalist might question how the members of the family are performing their specified functions. They may look at each member’s values‚ beliefs‚ and social norms and see how they relate to one another. By doing this‚ a structural-functionalist will be able to identify why conflict or despair is occurring within a family unit. For example‚ if the mother’s belief system
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Functionalist vs. Symbolic Interactionist Functionalists believe that each aspect of society is interdependent and contributes to society’s functioning as a whole to create stability or work toward the same common goal. The government‚ or state‚ provides education for the children of the family‚ which in turn pays taxes on which the state depends to keep itself running. The family is dependent upon the school to help children grow up to have good jobs so that they can raise and support their own
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Describe and evaluate the learning theory for attachments. The learning theory suggests that we are born with a blank slate which means everyone starts off exactly the same‚ and then we learn all of our behaviours once we are born. The learning theory is split into two areas‚ Operant and Classical conditioning. Operant conditioning is one part of the learning theory to describe attachments. This states that attachments are formed through positive and negative reinforcements. An example of positive
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