Unit 3 Theoretical Perspectives Essay

Three theoretical perspectives are functionalism, conflict theory, and the insurrectionist perspective, which help serve as a means of helping frame research. Functionalism, also known as structural functionalism, sees society as a complex network working together in balance. Those who study functionalism examin society by contemplating what each separate part of the network does to help society work in harmony. Functionalist view society as a well-functioning self-sufficient machine. The functionalism theory is very broad in that it tries to explain all the parts of human society . Functionalism serves a very important part in sociology because most sections of society have a purpose in the network. The explanation for social change is challenging for functionalist because of “The assumption
The theory suggest that each person or group strives to attaint the maximum benefit, and that this causes society to to alter all the time due to social inequality and social conflict. Those who believe in conflict theory think social order comes from those in power insuring lower groups are loyal to the dominant groups. People who are not compliant to being loyal to the laws and boundaries made by those in power will have forces used against them until they obey. Who benefits from certain social arrangements and how people in control stay in control and receive benefits from others is questioned often by conflict theorist. The conflict perspectives are condemned for “...concentrating too much on conflict and change and too little on what produces stability in society” (Tischler, pg.19, 2014), as well as being too ideologically based and not using much research to back up their theories. In response to this criticism, conflict theorists claim that society simply cannot be strategically analyzed, and that trying to do so causes sociologists to not realized the real causes of human