Examine the view that religion has positive functions for society (18 marks) Functionalists demonstrate a positive view of religion, they see religion as a fundamental factor in the maintaining of consensual values. Without religion, Functionalists believe that society would break down. Durkheim suggests that religion is not a belief in Gods, spirits or supernatural but rather a factor that separates the sacred and the profane. Sacred things are believed to hold value and are treated with
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is meritocratic Not all theorists agree that in modern industrial societies education is meritocratic. Although functionalists argue that education is meritocratic and allows person earn what they work for, the Marxists present another argument; that meritocracy is a myth. This essay will show how meritocracy is true to a certain point however it is not always seen. Functionalist argues that modern industrial societies have to perform a range of functions ad as a result a sophisticated mechanism
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Throughout the class, a few theories that stood out to me the most were the conflict theory, the structional functionalist theory, the feminist theory and Deviance. Although in my book Sexism in America there are many theories that are presented, however these four theories stood out the most to me and also were relevant to my life. According to our textbook, Our Social World, Conflict theorist believes that conflict is inevitable in any group or society. Inequality and injustice are the source of
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2012 Education is the key to success in a person’s life. Not being educated people would be hurting just to try and get through day to day life situations. There are three main theories that help with understanding education and that is functionalist theory, the conflict theory, and the interactionist theory. Theory helps us comprehend why different groups may disagree about how they view social problems, but why they all believe they are right (Vissing, Y., 2011, Chap 1.6). Education could
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Functionalist Overview • Functionalism is a macro, structural theory. It focuses on the needs of the social system as a whole and how these needs shape all the main features of society - from the form that social institutions such as the family take, right down to the behaviour patterns of individuals and the roles they perform. • Functionalism is a consensus theory. It sees society as based on a basic consensus or agreement among its members about values, goals and rules. • Functionalism is very
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to them that we can fit into the role given to us. He states that we use language, tone of voice as well as props and settings to give a perfect impression to the audience, however he argues that we do not have a ‘tightly scripted role’ as the functionalist theory believes, but loosely scripted roles that allow us to change certain factors. There are many different theories and perspectives that are used to study society. However, interactionism is an action theory that is mainly focused on small-scale
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existence of society in its current form, although their views do differ substantially. For the Functionalist Emile Durkheim, religion, like many other social institutions, acts in the same way as one of the body’s vital organs, in that it “keeps society alive”. In other words, religion has a number of functions that serve the purpose of maintaining social stability and harmony. For example, functionalists believe that through the act of collective worship in the form of religious practices, religion
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Over the past decades, there has been different explanation of social class. In which sociologist describes social classes as a form of social stratification. For the purpose of this assignment, I will be critically analysed the various perspectives of social class and its impacts on society. However, this essay will analyse three major perspectives of social class, which are Marxism, Functionalism and Weberian. The impacts of social stratification an individual’s life chances and finally explains
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Poverty as a problem A. Describe the social problem. Poverty is a state in which income is insufficient to provide basic needs. Lack of control over resources, lack of education and poor health. There is a multidimensional component which may cause one to lack the ability to care for the basic needs for themselves as well as their families. Poverty can cause alienation and be very distressing. On a very concerning level are the indirect effects of poverty on the development and ones continued
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functionalism, conflict, and interactionism. Constructing a clock with its many different cogs and gears together is like the functionalist perspective of sociology because it “emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability” (Schaefer, 14) because without the various parts the clock or society cannot function. Drug abuse, through a functionalist view, may view it as dysfunctional. “A dysfunction refers to an element or process of a society that may actually disrupt
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