Family and Applying the Three Lenses of Sociology

Family and Applying the Three Lenses of Sociology

SOC101: Introduction to Sociology

December 6, 2011

Sociology is the analysis of social group behavior, and how people interact and identify with one another by using data and research. Groups are all sizes, from a single household to whole societies. Everyone is a participant of different variety of groups, such as; family, coworkers, sororities, organizations, companies, or even just a small household. The most important group that people belong to is family, and everyone has their our own way of communicating and interacting with them that may seem unique. The family component in terms of sociology is a micro level society, or the smallest organization of society, within the massive world of societies. It contains of more than one person that shapes the most close and personal of small groups.

A segment of a social network

Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 - 8 December 1903) ...

Emile Durkheim

Though it may be a very small group of compatible people, but there are still procedures in place that oversee the function of the family, and it generates behaviors within the group which makes the small society unique from other societies. Sociologists today employ three primary theoretical perspectives: the structural perspective, the symbolic interactionist perspective, and the conflict perspective. These perspectives offer sociologists separate patterns for explaining how society influences people, and how people versus society.

The structural-functionalist perspective emphasizes the connection of society by focusing on how each individual is influenced and is influenced by others. Functionalists believed in a theory that the family is a positive institution. They hold the view that meets well with the needs of an advanced industrial society for a geographically workforce. A functionalist centers the ideal family type in a modern society, as the nuclear family. The outlook of the nuclear family contains...