Controversies in Sociology Term Paper

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Controversies in Sociology

Social Theory Conflicts

Social theory is a fascinating body of work. At its heart is a conglomeration of respected intellectuals, all brilliant in their own right and yet embedded in philosophy that can completely contradict another philosophy. The concept of social theory as a way of understanding society then sometimes seems like a maze of information regarding the beliefs of several individuals, that one either agrees with or disagrees with depending on his/her own knowledge experience and personality. The three sets of social theory that will be examined with in this short work are: conflict theory vs. functionalism, psychological reductionist vs. non-reductionist and value-free vs. value-committed social structure.

Social Conflict theory is one of the earliest recognized forms of social theory. Social conflict theory regards society as a conglomeration of individuals, be they institutions or people all attempting to gain a finite amount of resources. In this attempt to gain either, power, food, money, shelter or any other reward individuals are in innate conflict with one another, as they are all competing for the same things. Conflict theory would consider criminal behavior as a natural outgrowth of the strain of conflict for resources as individuals are pushed to a point of breaking the law in an attempt to gain resources they were unable t o gain by legal means.

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Functionalism is on the other hand associated with the idea that all systems are symbiotic and interact with one another in a way of supporting the functions of the whole and the individual. Functional theorists believe that conflict within a system of society arises as an outgrowth of breakdowns within the natural functional system. A sick society would exhibit symptoms of paradigms as the breakdown within one group or institution would affect the failings of another. In this system the idea of criminal behavior would be associated with an outgrowth of a system failure. An example of this would be: a functionalist would say that a criminal is not born but is an outgrowth of a breakdown in family function.

Psychological reductionist approach stresses the idea that all beings spend the majority of their conscious….....

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