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Instructor Resource

Instructor Resource

Korgen,
Sociology in Action, 3e

SAGE Publishing, 2023

Lecture Notes

Chapter 2: Understanding Theory

Learning Objectives

2-1 What is structural functionalism?

2-2 What is a conflict perspective?

2-3 What is symbolic interaction?

2-4 How do structural functionalism, conflict perspectives, and symbolic interaction work together to help us get a more complete view of reality?

Annotated Chapter Outline

I. What Is Theory?

A. Theory helps us see some aspects of society more clearly, while obscuring others.

B.
Theoretical perspectives:

i. Groups of theories that share much in common.

ii. Sociologists develop and use
theories, explanations for various social patterns within society.

II. Understanding the Structural Functionalist Perspective

A.
Structural functionalism: interdependent parts working together for the good of the whole.

B. Individuals work for the larger society’s interests due to social solidarity (moral order of society).

C. Families, religion, education, and other institutions teach individuals to help society function smoothly.

D. Durkheim and Types of Societies

i. Mechanical solidarity by Durkheim:

a. In smaller, preindustrial societies, social solidarity derived from the similarity of its members.

b. Most did similar types of labor (working the land) and had similar beliefs (based on religion).

ii. Organic solidarity formed as science gained predominance over religion. Sociologists using this perspective:

a. Overlook issues of conflict and inequality.

b. Focus on social harmony and social order.

c. Emphasize the role of major social institutions and their help to provide stability to society.

E.
Social Institutions

i. Sets of statuses and roles focused around one central aspect of society.

ii.
Micro level of analysis: Used by sociologists to look
at people filling roles.

iii.
Macro level analysis: Used by sociologists to examine large-scale social processes.

iv. Seven primary social institutions: family, religion, economy, education, government, health care, and media.

v. Each institution fulfills tasks on behalf of society; two types: Manifest and Latent functions.

vi.
Manifest Functions: Obvious, stated reasons that a social institution exists.

a. Structural functionalists maintain that the manifest functions of each institution fulfill necessary tasks in society.

b. Institutions can have more than one manifest function.

vii.
Latent Functions: good or useful things that a social institution does but are not the institution’s reason for existing.

a. Sometimes behavioral patterns have unintended negative consequences, called
dysfunctions.

F. Seeing the Social World Using Structural Functionalism

i. Structural Functionalism is a macro-theoretical perspective: It looks at society as a whole, and focuses on the institutions, rather than individuals.

ii. Structural functionalists:

a. View society from a distance and look for social order and harmony.

b. Focus less on discrete individuals and more on social institutions and how they fit together to build social harmony and stability.

iii. Several institutions cooperate to socialize each of us into adhering to the same set of cultural norms and values.

iv. Curbing Violations of Social Norms

a. An individual who chooses to act against shared cultural norms is violating social norms.

b. Punishment is required for two reasons:

1. Accepting one’s punishment is a step in the rehabilitation or resocialization process.

2. Without punishment, “bad” behavior will spread like an epidemic in the community.

v. Social Change

a. Large-scale, macro, structural shifts in society or institutions within one or more societies.

b. Functionalists are not sure that social change is necessarily a good thing.

c. If change is needed, it should be done slowly to not upset the equilibrium.

G. What Doesn’t Structural Functionalism See?

i. Gradual social change would allow continued discrimination.

ii. Structural functionalism, by focusing on the need for social order and harmony, can overlook times where rapid social change even if it may lead to some social chaos, is the just thing to do.

H. Using Structural Functionalism to Analyze the Case of the Meitiv Family

i. Structural functionalist perspective on the case of Danielle and Alexander Meitiv and their two children in 2015.

a. “Free-range parenting”: Meitiv parents allowed children to walk home alone.

b. The case shows the interrelatedness of social institutions (e.g., family and government), which is at the core of structural functionalism.

c. Child Protective Service’s initial review was meant to teach the Meitivs how to better parent their children and, simultaneously, to reinforce proper parenting behaviors to all who live in the county.

d. Questions based on the second manifest function: Parents are expected to teach their children to be self-reliant and independent.

III. Understanding the Conflict Theoretical Perspective

A. Second macro-theoretical perspective.

B.
Conflict perspective is different from the functional perspective: Instead of society as groups working together for the good, conflict theorists see societies as groups competing for power.

C. Karl Marx and Advanced Capitalism

i. Karl Marx: Founder of conflict perspective.

ii. Ten stages of societal development; the last three stages most concerned him.

iii. Stage 8: Advanced capitalism; an economic system on pursuit of maximum profit.

iv. No labor laws; Cheaper to hire children than adults, Child labor.

v. Divides people into two major categories and a third, smaller group:

a. Bourgeoisie: the rich owners of the
means of production: the technology and materials needed to produce products, such as factories.

b. Proletariat: the poor workers.

c. Lumpenproletariat: the perpetually unemployed.

vi. No inspectors to ensure a safe workplace, and many proletariats were injured.

vii. No worker’s compensation insurance.

viii. Low wages.

ix. False Consciousness

a. Exploitation of proletariat by bourgeoisie.

b. Workers were in a state of
false consciousness: they did not understand that they and the owners had different self-interests and we were misled to believe that what was good for the owner also benefited them.

c. Media, religious, and political institutions all promoted that a good worker, in time, could “strike it rich” with many advantages.

d. False consciousness kept the proletariat from seeing the reality of their lives.

x. Alienation.

a. Proletariat lived in a state of
alienation: laboring for others and separated from what they created.

b. Monotonous jobs were small and repetitious.

c. They couldn’t afford the products that they were making.

D. Karl Marx and Socialism

i. Proletariat could move from false consciousness to
true consciousness: understanding the depths of their exploitation.

ii. Proletarian revolution: Society moves from advanced capitalism to socialism.

iii. Stage 9: Socialism: “working it out” stage of social change.

iv. Socialist government laws:

a. The state would take over the means of production from the bourgeoisie through imposing a heavy progressive income tax hurting the bourgeoisie.

b. After a bourgeoisie died, the socialist government would “inherit” the rest of their money and goods and redistribute it to the citizens.

c. It might take a few generations under socialism before society would be ready for the tenth stage of social development: communism.

E. Karl Marx and Communism

i.
Communism: all citizens would be equal and, at long last, able to fulfill their species being.

ii. No social classes as every person makes the same wage for work done.

iii. Marx is called an economic determinist: Believed that as the economy changed through the last 3 stages, the other six social institutions would change and adapt.

F. From Marx to the Conflict Perspective

i. Marx’s theory became the intellectual foundation for the conflict perspective.

ii. Conflict theorists recognize ways in which social rewards are unequally distributed.

iii. Haves: those individuals and social institutions that gain access to more of society’s scarce rewards.

iv. Have-nots: those unable to get even their fair share of social rewards, due to their category membership.

G. Seeing the Social World Using the Conflict Perspective

i. Oppression: haves holding the have-nots back to maintain their own elevated status.

ii. Patterns of inequitable distribution of resources and rewards.

iii. Conflict theorists: social change to alleviate social injustice be done rapidly and help the have-nots now.

H. What Doesn’t the Conflict Perspective See?

i. Focused on oppression and making life better for the have-nots.

ii. Overlooks societal harmony and equilibrium.

iii. Conflict theorists do not always acknowledge how disruptive and harmful change can be for the have-nots as well as the haves.

I. Theories Under the Umbrella of the Conflict Perspective

i. Feminist conflict theorists argue that men as a category of people have greater access to social rewards than women.

ii. Critical race theorists focus on the social construction of race and the White-dominated racial hierarchy.

iii. Common basis of conflict theories: Marx’s insight that social rewards of society are not equally shared.

iv. Disability scholars’ use the conflict perspective to analyze how modern Western societies create the built environment that works for the able-bodied but not for people living with disabilities.

J. Using the Conflict Perspective to Understand the Meitiv Family

i. Police and CPS represented the state and all its power.

ii. The Meitiv parents had little or no power.

iii. The children’s feelings were ignored.

iv. Other possibilities of the incident:

a. The family in question did not have an intact set of two parents but instead was led by a single parent.

b. Had enough money to possibly sue CPS and law enforcement?

c. Would anyone even have called law enforcement if they had seen two children of color walking alone?

d. Or if there had been a call, would it be for the children’s
safety and more about “what are those kids up to”?

v. Comparison with the 2014 South Carolina case involving Debra Harrell, an African American woman, and her daughter, Regina: Race, education levels, and social class likely buffered the Meitivs from the full power of CPS and the police, whereas families of color living in poor neighborhoods are often denied those opportunities to quickly “fix” the situation.

IV. Understanding the Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

A.
Symbolic interactionism provides theoretical balance for sociology.

B. Use of micro-theoretical perspective to:

i. Examine how one person develops a
self: a sense of our place in society and who we are in relation to others.

ii. Study how meaning comes to be constructed and shared by a group of people.

C. Symbolic interactionists view society as a social construction, continually constructed and reconstructed by individuals through their use of shared symbols.

D. The Social Construction of Reality

i. Interactionist theorists study how
culture—the way of life of a particular group of people—comes to be created.

ii. Group constructs its culture.

iii.
Primary socialization: socialization experienced during childhood.

iv. The Looking Glass Self Theory

a. A child’s 3 steps of developing a sense of self.

1. Imagine how she appears to relevant others: her parents, siblings, and others.

2. The child reacts to feedbacks from parents and others toward the child.

3. The child integrates the first two into a coherent and unique sense of self: Interaction with
primary groups (small collections of people of which a person is a member, usually for life, and in which deep emotional ties develop, such as one’s family of origin) shapes the child’s sense of self. Others in effect become the “mirror” by which each person sees oneself.

b. Socialization continues throughout a person’s life.

v. Dramaturgy Theory

a. Erving Goffman’s work helps us see that the world is a stage and we are all actors as we interact with one another.

1. He analyzed the interaction between small groups by looking at the social actors, the social scripts the actors follow, and the props that the actors use to enhance their performances.

2. He considered two settings of interactions:
front stage (where the interaction takes place) and the
back stage (where one prepares for the interaction).

3. He gave the term, Impression management: Each of us uses
presentation of self skills, shaping the physical, verbal, visual, and gestural messages that we give to others—to (try to) control their evaluations of us.

b. Dramaturgy explains why individuals behave differently in various social settings.

vi. Social Constructionism

a.
Social Constructionism: every society creates norms, values, objects, and symbols it finds meaningful and useful.

b. Social stratification is ultimately created and sustained through social systems, which must be made more just.

c. It is more important to study the construction of the ideas behind stratification (e.g., poverty) than individual people.

E. What Doesn’t Symbolic Interaction See?

i. Social problems and social change are macro-sociological concepts.

ii. Symbolic interactionism is a micro-level theoretical perspective.

iii. Concentrates on how individuals become socialized, shape their sense of self.

F. Using Symbolic Interactionism to Understand the Meitiv Family

i. Meitiv parents felt they were properly socializing their children; others did not see the children’s behavior in the same way.

a. Danielle claimed that these authority figures were attempting to socialize her children to be fearful.

ii. Social movement for free-ranging parenting; Petition to change Maryland’s laws: Utah became the first state to pass a “free-range parenting” law in 2018.

V. Full Theoretical Circle

A. Each family creates, within reason, its own norms to raise children and implements it.

B. We have come full circle: A small group creates its own norms: Over time, norms get shared, which is what symbolic interactionists study.

C. Power differentials arise between the haves and the have-nots in social institutions.

D. Theoretical perspectives give us ways to analyze human behavior.

i. Each perspective offers the sociologist a unique viewpoint.

ii. Each perspectives gives sociologists a particular lens with which to see human society.

iii. Structural functionalists focus on social order and institutions and agreement on the basic values that create and sustain that social order but tend not to notice conflict and inequality.

iv. Conflict theorists see social problems caused by oppression and injustices but overlook moments of order and social harmony.

v. Symbolic interactionists examine how groups create culture and pass it on to the next generation, but ignore macro issues of power and control, social harmony, and balance.