“Assess the usefulness of consensus theories such as functionalism, to our understanding of contemporary society”. Functionalism is a structural consensus theory; it explains society in its totality, and assumes that the social world exists in a state of harmony. For functionalists such as Durkheim, society is a living, external organism, and its existence precedes its members; “society makes man (or woman)” in other words. Such a view of society has been massively useful for understanding the
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Asses the strengths and limitations of unstructured interviews for the study of boys underachievement at school Unstructured interviews have advantages and disadvantages and as a qualitative method they are expressed through words and relay people’s thoughts, feelings and motivations. Unstructured interviews are interviews that don’t have certain questions meaning it’s more free and relaxed. They give us a deep understanding of the interviewee’s world because we can use the answers they give to
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Assess sociological explanations of the nature and extent of family diversity today. Family diversity is the theory that there are many different family types, rather than the nuclear family being the dominant type. However there are many different sociological explanations and two different conflicting views. The modernist view, and the postmodernist view. For example New Right sociologists believe that the nuclear family is the bedrock of society, and is the natural family, unlike lone-parent
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Outline and Assess Sociological Explanations of Age Inequality (40 Marks) Most theoretical explanations of age inequality focus on the inequalities faced by the youth and the elderly. Functionalists look at different roles taken on during ageing and have a positive outlook of the stages of ageing as it is believed to benefit society. In contrast, Marxists focus on an underlying class struggle and believe that age is a social construct made to uphold capitalism. However, the Weberian outlook is
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In reality, apart from a few strictly defined physical sciences, most scientific disciplines have to bend and adapt these rules, especially sciences involving the unpredictability of natural organisms and humans. In many ways, it is not always important to know the exact scientific method, to the letter, but any scientist should have a good understanding of the underlying principles. In many ways, if you are going to bend and adapt the rules, you need to understand the rules in the first place. Empirical
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Assess the sociological explanations for the growth of new religious movements. By: Amy Rashid Over the years, there has been a growth of new religious movements in the society. This growth can be explained in terms of why people chose to join the movements or in terms of wider social changes. Hence, in this essay, I shall discuss several sociological explanations for this occurrence. Firstly, Steve Bruce (1995, 1996) attributes the development of a range of religious institutions, including
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Assess the relationship between Social Policy and Sociology. (33 Marks) Sociology is a subject that wants to study and understand society. Social policy or otherwise known as the law comes from research completed by sociologists, which is then proposed to the government. Social policy can be seen to change social problems such as the economy. Peter Worsley describes a social problem as “some piece of social behaviour that causes public friction”. For example poverty, educational under-achievement
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Assess the relationship between sociology and social policy Social policy is the actions, plans and programmes of government bodies which aim to deal with a problem or achieve a goal .e.g preventing crime and reducing poverty. Policies are often based on laws that provide the framework within which these agencies operate. The following essay will argue for and against the relationship between sociology and social policy. It can be argued that the relationship between social policy and sociology
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Unit 7- sociological perspectives for health and social care P1 – Explain the principal sociological perspectives Sociological Perspectives | Main Points | Criticisms | Functionalism | Functionalist believe that just as the body functions through the efficient interrelationship of major organs and has disease, so the different institutions in society each have particular contributions to make. They work together and use methods of social control to deal with deviant members or groups, to ensure
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Outline and assess postmodernist explanation of age inequality (40 marks) Age explanations have changed over the years and various sociological theories have different explanation on age inequality. In this essay I’m going to analyse various explanation on age inequality by weberians, Marxist, functionalists and postmodernist. Postmodernist are the only theory which is applicable to today’s world. Postmodernists believe that age inequalities have been blurred due to various explanations. Jane Pilcher
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