The sociological perspective emphasizes that our social backgrounds influence our attitudes, behaviors, and life chances. The chances of committing even an individual act such as suicide depend to some degree on the group backgrounds from which we come.
For every sociological generalization, there are many exceptions. Personal experience, common sense, and the media are all valuable sources of knowledge about various aspects of society, but they often present a limited or distorted view of these aspects. A theme of sociology is the debunking motif. This means that sociological knowledge aims to look beyond on-the-surface understandings of social reality. According to C. Wright Mills, the sociological imagination involves the ability to realize that personal troubles are rooted in problems in the larger social structure.
The sociological imagination thus supports a blaming-the-system view over a blaming-the-victim view. Theoretical perspectives in sociology generally divide into macro and micro views. Functionalism emphasizes the functions that social institutions serve to ensure the ongoing stability of society. Explanatory or independent variables are variables such that changes in their value are thought to cause changes in the "dependent" variables.
Stimulus variables are variables that are part of the habitat that an organism reacts to. These variables can be natural parts of the area such as weather. Local variables on the stack or dynamically allocated variables in the heap are nonstatic variables.
Static variables, constants and globals are all allocated in the program's data segment. Variables that do not change in an experiment are independent variables. There are many variables when it comes to determining the number of pounds in a cup. In order to know how many pounds are in 22 cups one would need to know what material is being measured in the cups. Every time the independent variables change, the dependent variables change.
Dependent variables cannot change if the independent variables didn't change. Constant variables are constant, they do not change. Derived variables are not constant. They are determined by the other values in the equation. Variables that you predict. Log in. Human Behavior. Study now. See Answer. Best Answer. Study guides. Psychology 20 cards. Psychology is the scientific study of.
What is the bodys speedy electrochemical information system called. Which perspective is most directly involved with the study of how brain development might affect behavior. Which question is most important to developmental psychology. Human Behavior 21 cards. The arousal theory of motivation seems to explain sensation-seeking behavior as well as giving insight into which mental disorder.
Which genetic process guides the development of an individual. Where does light go after it enters through the cornea. This type of dispute points to the subjective component of the definition of social problems: There must be a perception that a condition or behavior needs to be addressed for it to be considered a social problem. This component lies at the heart of the social constructionist view The belief that negative social conditions or behaviors do not become social problems unless citizens, policymakers, and other parties call attention to the condition or behavior and define it as a social problem.
Rubington, E. The study of social problems: Seven perspectives 7th ed. In this view, many types of negative conditions and behaviors exist.
Many of these are considered sufficiently negative to acquire the status of a social problem; some do not receive this consideration and thus do not become a social problem; and some become considered a social problem only if citizens, policymakers, or other parties call attention to the condition or behavior.
The history of attention given to rape and sexual assault in the United States before and after the s provides an example of this latter situation. These acts of sexual violence against women have probably occurred from the beginning of humanity and certainly were very common in the United States before the s.
Allison, J. Rape: The misunderstood crime. Thus although sexual violence existed, it was not considered a social problem. Thanks to this focus, rape and sexual assault eventually entered the public consciousness, views of these crimes began to change, and legal policymakers began to give them more attention. In short, sexual violence against women became a social problem. Before the s, rape and sexual assault certainly existed and were very common, but they were generally ignored and not considered a social problem.
The social constructionist view raises an interesting question: When is a social problem a social problem? According to some sociologists who adopt this view, negative conditions and behaviors are not a social problem unless they are recognized as such by policymakers, large numbers of lay citizens, or other segments of our society; these sociologists would thus say that rape and sexual assault before the s were not a social problem because our society as a whole paid them little attention.
Other sociologists say that negative conditions and behaviors should be considered a social problem even if they receive little or no attention; these sociologists would thus say that rape and sexual assault before the s were a social problem. This type of debate is probably akin to the age-old question: If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, is a sound made? As such, it is not easy to answer, but it does reinforce one of the key beliefs of the social constructionist view: Perception matters at least as much as reality, and sometimes more so.
In line with this belief, social constructionism emphasizes that citizens, interest groups, policymakers, and other parties often compete to influence popular perceptions of many types of conditions and behaviors.
They try to influence news media coverage and popular views of the nature and extent of any negative consequences that may be occurring, the reasons underlying the condition or behavior in question, and possible solutions to the problem. In the late s, leading physicians and medical researchers in the United States wrote journal articles, textbooks, and newspaper columns in which they warned women not to go to college.
The reason? Ehrenreich, B. We now know better, of course, but the sexist beliefs of these writers turned the idea of women going to college into a social problem and helped to reinforce restrictions by colleges and universities on the admission of women.
News media coverage of violent crime provides many examples of this dynamic Robinson, ; Surette, Robinson, M. Media coverage of crime and criminal justice. Media, crime, and criminal justice: Images, realities, and policies 4th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. The news media overdramatize violent crime, which is far less common than property crime like burglary and larceny, by featuring so many stories about it, and this coverage contributes to public fear of crime.
Media stories about violent crime also tend to be more common when the accused offender is black and the victim is white and when the offender is a juvenile. We have just discussed some of the difficulties in defining a social problem and the fact that various parties often try to influence public perceptions of social problems.
Spector, M. Constructing social problems. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction. A social problem emerges when a social entity such as a social change group, the news media, or influential politicians begins to call attention to a condition or behavior that it perceives to be undesirable and in need of remedy.
As part of this process, it tries to influence public perceptions of the problem, the reasons for it, and possible solutions to it. Because the social entity is making claims about all these matters, this aspect of Stage 1 is termed the claims-making process The use of arguments to try to influence public perceptions of a social problem, the reasons for it, and possible solutions to it.
Not all efforts to turn a condition or behavior into a social problem succeed, and if they do not succeed, a social problem does not emerge. Because of the resources they have or do not have, some social entities are more likely than others to succeed at this stage.
A few ordinary individuals have little influence in the public sphere, but masses of individuals who engage in protest or other political activity have greater ability to help a social problem emerge. Because politicians have the ear of the news media and other types of influence, their views about social problems are often very influential. Most studies of this stage of a social problem focus on the efforts of social change groups and the larger social movement to which they may belong, as most social problems begin with bottom-up efforts from such groups.
A social problem emerges when a social change group successfully calls attention to a condition or behavior that it considers serious. Protests like the one depicted here have raised the environmental consciousness of Americans and helped put pressure on businesses to be environmentally responsible.
As part of this effort, it tries to convince the government that its claims about the problem are legitimate—that they make sense and are supported by empirical research-based evidence. To the extent that the group succeeds in convincing the government of the legitimacy of its claims, government action is that much more likely to occur. Even if government action does occur, social change groups often conclude that the action is too limited in goals or scope to be able to successfully address the social problem.
If they reach this conclusion, they often decide to press their demands anew. They do so by reasserting their claims and by criticizing the official response they have received from the government or other established interests, such as big businesses. This stage may involve a fair amount of tension between the social change groups and these targets of their claims. Despite the renewed claims making, social change groups often conclude that the government and established interests are not responding adequately to their claims.
Although the groups may continue to press their claims, they nonetheless realize that these claims may fail to win an adequate response from established interests. This realization leads them to develop their own strategies for addressing the social problem.
The sociological understanding of social problems rests heavily on the concept of the sociological imagination.
We discuss this concept in some detail before turning to various theoretical perspectives that provide a further context for understanding social problems. Many individuals experience one or more social problems personally. For example, many people are poor and unemployed, many are in poor health, and many have family problems, drink too much alcohol, or commit crime.
When we hear about these individuals, it is easy to think that their problems are theirs alone, and that they and other individuals with the same problems are entirely to blame for their difficulties. Sociology takes a different approach, as it stresses that individual problems are often rooted in problems stemming from aspects of society itself.
This key insight informed C. The sociological imagination. Examples include such different problems as eating disorders, divorce, and unemployment.
Public issues , whose source lies in the social structure and culture of a society, refer to social problems affecting many individuals. Problems in society thus help account for problems that individuals experience. Mills felt that many problems ordinarily considered private troubles are best understood as public issues, and he coined the term sociological imagination From C.
Wright Mills, the realization that personal troubles are rooted in public issues. We will start with unemployment, which Mills himself discussed.
If only a few people were unemployed, Mills wrote, we could reasonably explain their unemployment by saying they were lazy, lacked good work habits, and so forth. If so, their unemployment would be their own personal trouble. But when millions of people are out of work, unemployment is best understood as a public issue because, as Mills , p. Both the correct statement of the problem and the range of possible solutions require us to consider the economic and political institutions of the society, and not merely the personal situation and character of a scatter of individuals.
The high US unemployment rate stemming from the severe economic downturn that began in provides a telling example of the point Mills was making. Millions of people lost their jobs through no fault of their own. While some individuals are undoubtedly unemployed because they are lazy or lack good work habits, a more structural explanation focusing on lack of opportunity is needed to explain why so many people were out of work. If so, unemployment is best understood as a public issue rather than a personal trouble.
Another social problem is eating disorders. This explanation may be OK as far as it goes, but it does not help us understand why so many people have the personal problems that lead to eating disorders. Perhaps more important, this belief also neglects the larger social and cultural forces that help explain such disorders. For example, most Americans with eating disorders are women, not men. This gender difference forces us to ask what it is about being a woman in American society that makes eating disorders so much more common.
Boyd, E. Social Science Research, 40 2 , — If this cultural standard did not exist, far fewer American women would suffer from eating disorders than do now. Because it does exist, even if every girl and woman with an eating disorder were cured, others would take their places unless we could somehow change this standard. Viewed in this way, eating disorders are best understood as a public issue, not just as a personal trouble.
Blaming the victim Rev. As Ryan put it, they tend to believe in blaming the victim The belief that people experiencing difficulties are to blame for these problems. As this example suggests, a blaming-the-victim approach points to solutions to social problems such as poverty and illiteracy that are very different from those suggested by a more structural approach that blames the system. If we blame the victim, we would spend our limited dollars to address the personal failings of individuals who suffer from poverty, illiteracy, poor health, eating disorders, and other difficulties.
If instead we blame the system, we would focus our attention on the various social conditions decrepit schools, cultural standards of female beauty, and the like that account for these difficulties.
A sociological understanding suggests that the latter approach is ultimately needed to help us deal successfully with the social problems facing us today. Three theoretical perspectives guide sociological thinking on social problems: functionalist theory, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionist theory.
These perspectives look at the same social problems, but they do so in different ways. Their views taken together offer a fuller understanding of social problems than any of the views can offer alone.
Table 1. Functionalism The view that social institutions are important for their contributions to social stability. The first was the French Revolution of , whose intense violence and bloody terror shook Europe to its core. The aristocracy throughout Europe feared that revolution would spread to their own lands, and intellectuals feared that social order was crumbling.
The Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century reinforced these concerns. Starting first in Europe and then in the United States, the Industrial Revolution led to many changes, including the rise and growth of cities as people left their farms to live near factories. As the cities grew, people lived in increasingly poor, crowded, and decrepit conditions, and crime was rampant. Here was additional evidence, if European intellectuals needed it, of the breakdown of social order.
In response, the intellectuals began to write that a strong society, as exemplified by strong social bonds and rules and effective socialization, was needed to prevent social order from disintegrating. Without a strong society and effective socialization, they warned, social order breaks down, and violence and other signs of social disorder result. Suicide J. Simpson, Trans. Original work published It does so, he wrote, through two related social mechanisms: socialization and social integration.
It uses the human body as a model for understanding society. In the human body, our various organs and other body parts serve important functions for the ongoing health and stability of our body.
Our eyes help us see, our ears help us hear, our heart circulates our blood, and so forth. Just as we can understand the body by describing and understanding the functions that its parts serve for its health and stability, so can we understand society by describing and understanding the functions that its parts—or, more accurately, its social institutions—serve for the ongoing health and stability of society. Thus functionalism emphasizes the importance of social institutions such as the family, religion, and education for producing a stable society.
Similar to the view of the conservative intellectuals from which it grew, functionalism is skeptical of rapid social change and other major social upheaval. The analogy to the human body helps us understand this skepticism. In our bodies, any sudden, rapid change is a sign of danger to our health. If we break a bone in one of our legs, we have trouble walking; if we lose sight in both our eyes, we can no longer see.
Slow changes, such as the growth of our hair and our nails, are fine and even normal, but sudden changes like those just described are obviously troublesome. By analogy, sudden and rapid changes in society and its social institutions are troublesome according to the functionalist perspective. If the human body evolved to its present form and functions because these made sense from an evolutionary perspective, so did society evolve to its present form and functions because these made sense.
Any sudden change in society thus threatens its stability and future. Accordingly, gradual social reform should be all that is needed to address the social problem. Functionalism even suggests that social problems must be functional in some ways for society, because otherwise these problems would not continue.
This is certainly a controversial suggestion, but it is true that many social problems do serve important functions for our society. For example, crime is a major social problem, but it is also good for the economy because it creates hundreds of thousands of jobs in law enforcement, courts and corrections, home security, and other sectors of the economy whose major role is to deal with crime.
If crime disappeared, many people would be out of work! Similarly, poverty is also a major social problem, but one function that poverty serves is that poor people do jobs that otherwise might not get done because other people would not want to do them Gans, Gans, H. The positive functions of poverty. American Journal of Sociology, 78 , — Like crime, poverty also provides employment for people across the nation, such as those who work in social service agencies that help poor people.
In many ways, conflict theory The view that society is composed of groups with different interests arising from their placement in the social structure.
Whereas conservative intellectuals feared the mass violence resulting from industrialization, Marx and Engels deplored the conditions they felt were responsible for the mass violence and the capitalist society they felt was responsible for these conditions.
Marx, K.
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