Theoretical Paradigms Essay Example for Free

Theoretical Paradigms EssayIntroduction Theoretical paradigms allow sociologists to analyze effectively virtually every dimension of hostelry. It is a set of fundamental assumptions that guides thinking and research. Two among the three paradigms in sociology that I loss to comp ar and contrast in terms of their strengths and weaknesses of their explanatory value for kindly inequalities are the Conflict lift and Functionalism Approach.The Conflict Approach is a theoretical framework based on the assumption that fellowship is a complex system characterized by disparity and contradict that generate social change. This glide slope complements the functional cost by in high spiritslighting not integration but social division. This approach strength is that it guides sociologists to investigate how factors such as social class, race, ethnicity, sex, and age are linked to unequal distribution of money, advocate, education, and social prestige. Therefore, rather than identi fying how social structure promotes the operation of society as a whole, this approach focuses on how these patterns benefit some passel while being harmful to others. On the other hand, the functionalism Approach is a framework for building possible action based on the assumption that society is a complex system whose parts work together to promote stability. The functional approach strength is that, it makes two assertions. The first holds that society is composed of social structures, significance relatively stable patterns of social behavior. Social structures range from broad patterns, including the family and religious systems, to face-to-face behavior uniform waving hello. The second is that from each one social structure has a social function, or consequences for the operation of society as a whole (Marx, 1984). Moreover, the functionalism approach has long been influential in sociology. The positivist root in this approach is the tendency to moderate the social wo rld as stable and orderly. The job of sociologists, from this channel of view, is to hire scientific research to learn how society works.Despite its strong influence on the discipline of sociology, however, novel decades have revealed the weaknesses of this approach. By assuming that society operates more or less naturally, critics point out, the functionalism approach tends to look out over how social patterns vary form place to place and change over time. Thus, the notion that any circumstance arrangement is natural seems hazardous at best. By focusing attention on societal unity, critics point out, functionalism tends to overlook divisions based on social class, race, ethnicity, and gender, and to background how such division can generate tensity and conflict.In addition to its weaknesses, functionalism emphasis on stability and tends to minimize important processes of social change. Further, by accent social integration, the functionalism approach tends to pay less atten tion to divisions based on social class, race, ethnicity, and gender and to downplay how such divisions often generate tension and conflict. Overall, then, this approach takes a conservative stance toward society.The conflict approach, on the other hand, has developed rapidly in recent decades. Yet, like functionalism, it has a number of weaknesses. One, this approach highlights power struggles, it gives little attention to social unity based on functional interdependence and shared values. Another, the conflict approach advocates explicitly political goals in its drive for a more egalitarian society, thereby heavy(a) up claim to scientific objectivity. Supporters of this approach counter that all social approaches have political consequences, albeit antithetic ones.An additional weakness, which applies equally to both the functionalism and conflict approach, is that they paint society with broad strokes, describing our lives as a multiform of family, social class, gender, ethnic group, race, and so on. Hence, both functionalism and conflict approach share a macro-level orientation, meaning a concern with large-scale patterns that characterize society as a whole. They take in the big picture, as one might investigate a city from the vantage point of a helicopter high above the ground, noting how highways facilitate traffic flow from one place to another or the striking contrasts among rich and poor neighborhoods.These approaches limit their attention to large-scale structures and processes while overlooking the details of every daytime breeding (such as the interactions that occur in a particular bar on a particular day at a particular hour). Macro-level orientation takes various forms those who adopt a conflict approach see large-scale social patterns in terms of how they impose themselves on the behavior of individuals. That is, they try to describe characteristics of society as a whole in ways that illuminate patterns of interaction among individuals. Those who adopt a functionalism approach ask how the large-scale patterns of society as a whole contribute to the integration of society.Conflict sociologists retrieve that the distribution of people among position (or statuses) affects decisions even as personal as the choice of a matrimony partner. Tepperman Curtis (2004) use two characteristics of societyheterogeneity and inequalityto predict rates of inter conjugal union (that is, the frequency of marriage involving people from dissimilar racial, ethnic, or religious groups). Heterogeneity refers to the level of sameness or differentiation at heart a population heterogeneity is high if a population is divided into many different racial, ethnic, or religious groups it is low if most of the people are the same in these respects.Inequality refers to the distribution of valued resources such as wealth or education. In a society with high inequality, such resources are concentrated in the hands of the few, while the majority ha s very little left to divide among themselves inequality is lower when these resources are divided more evenly among people in a society. According to Tepperman Curtis, higher(prenominal) rates of heterogeneity and inequality encourage people to interact with people different from themselves, and this interaction in turn increases the rate of intermarriage. It follows that higher rates of heterogeneity and inequality generally promote rather than monish intergroup relations of all kinds. The behavior is predicted from the structure of the society itself rather than from the beliefs and attitudes of individuals. The level of integration of a society is a consequence of the distribution of people among social positions (that is, of the amount of heterogeneity and inequality).The functionalists take a different perspective on the large-scale integration of society. These sociologists see society as composed of specialized institutions pattern behaviors and status/role relationships t hat fulfill basic societal needs. For example, economic institutions are responsible for mobilizing scarce resources in order to produce and distribute goods and services that people need. Dissimilar institutions are held together in an order whole because each is assigned the task of satisfying a particular societal need each contributes to the overall functional integration of the society itself. Without families, for example, new generation would not be socialized to the rife values and norms of the society. As a conclusion, both the Conflict Approach and Functionalism Approach envision society in abstract terms, which sometimes seem quite distant from our everyday experience.ReferencesMarx, K. (1984). Selected Writings in Sociology and Social Philosophy. T. B. Bottomore, Trans. McGraw-Hill, impertinent York.Tepperman, L. Curtis, J. (2004). Sociology A Canadian Perspective. Oxford University Press, Canada.