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The Five Sociological Theories

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The Five Sociological Theories
“Briefly describe your understanding of each of the five theories listed on page 13 of chapter one of the text and then analyze either the issue of sexual assault or the issue of child abuse from the prospective of one of these theories.”
There are many theories in sociology used to gain a better understanding of society and its interactions. Many factors impact an individual’s behaviour, lifestyle, and relationships. Applying sociology theories to further understand the importance a particular object, idea, or value holds in a society can be abundantly beneficial. Sociologist use different approaches to gain a better understanding of the way a society functions such as the structural functionalism approach, conflict theory, symbolic interaction, feminist theory, and the postmodern theory. Most sociologist will use a combination of these five theories when examining and critiquing the matter at hand.
The five theories all have specific ways of looking at and
…show more content…
This way of thinking looks and the symbolic meaning of day to day social interaction between people. For example, two people meeting and sharing a handshake or a hug has a deeper meaning than just the outside social interactions. Sociologist would further examine what said handshake or hug was implying, their relationship, similarities, differences and so on. Different from the first two theories, the symbolic interactionism looks and individuals within society, rather than society as a whole.
One of the more complicated and complex theories looked at is the feminist theory. Many components make up this theory. In the simplest terms sociologists using the feminist theory examine and analyze the roles and status of women as well as men throughout a society. This theory strives for gender inequality between men and women. Liberal feminism, social feminism, and radical feminism are three different approached taking when using this theory to examine

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