Agenda: Wednesday, March 20, 2013

1. Agenda: Wednesday, March 20, 2013 • SUP • PowerPoint/Discuss: - Perspective picture - Functionalist perspective • Partners: Functionalist view of a pep assembly • Homework: Infidelity, Tiger Woods, and Émile Durkheim on http://tp5207.edublogs.org

2. The LTsThe Learning Targets What are theoretical perspectives? What are the primary components of functionalism? Be able to apply the functionalist perspective to a pep assembly or other social event.

3. Theoretical Perspective in Sociology • Perspective is the way you interpret the meaning of an image or event. • Beliefs or values hold influence your perspective • Your perspective draws your attention to some things and blinds you to others.

4. Theoretical Perspective in Sociology • A theoretical perspective is a set of assumptions about an area of study- in this case, the workings of society.  • Sociology has 3 major theoretical perspectives: functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactions. • Each of these views represents a method of examining the same phenomena. • Each of these perspectives provides a different slant on human behavior.

5. Theoretical Perspective in Sociology • One perspective emphasizes certain aspects of an event, while another perspective accents different aspects of the same event. • Each is based on general ideas as to how social life is organized and represents an effort to link specific observations in a meaningful way. • The exclusive use of any one of them prevents our seeing other aspects of social behavior. • All three perspectives together allow us to see most of the important dimensions of human social behavior.

10. How Many letter "F"s do you see in the following sentence: FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITHTHE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.

27. Functionalism • The functionalist perspective has twoprimary components. • First all of society’s social institutions (parts) are interrelated and are designed to maintain stability in society (the whole) in order to meet systems needs. • If society is to function smoothly, its various parts must work together in harmony.

28. Functionalism • Second key element of functionalism centers on the belief that there exists a general consensus on values (among society’s members). • Thus, in order for any social system (society, organization, family, or personal relationship with others) to remain intact, there must be some commitment to general values, issues of morality, and goals.

29. Types of functions: • Manifest functions are intended and recognized. One of the manifest functions of schools to teach math skills. • Latent functions are unintended and unrecognized. A latent function of schools is the development of close friendships. • Dysfunctions are the elements that have negative consequences. Dysfunction may threaten the capacity of a society to adapt and survive. Examples of dysfunctions of education in the United States are bullying, gangs and violence.

30. How does functionalism explain social change? • Functionalists see the parts of society as a integrated whole. A change in one part of a society leads to changes in other parts. • Functionalism assumes that societies tend to return to a state of stability after some upheaval has occurred. • A society may change over time, but functionalists believe that it will be return to a stable state. It will do this by changing in such a way that society will be similarwhat it was before.

31. Examples The effects of industrialization on family size. Student unrest in the 1960s and changes in politics and education.

32. Agenda: Thursday, March 21, 2013 • SUP • Discuss: Edublogs Article • PowerPoint/Discuss: - Conflict perspective • Partners: Conflict view of a pep assembly • PowerPoint/Discuss: - Symbolic Interactionism • Homework: Chapter 2: Worksheet #1

33. The LTsThe Learning Targets What are the primary components of the conflict perspective? Be able to apply the conflict perspective to a pep assembly or other social event. What are the primary components of Symbolic Interactionism?

34. Conflict Perspective • The conflict perspective recognizes that society is comprised of many different parts but insists that these parts are in competition with each other over scarce resources. • Conflict theories emphasize the role of power and the inequality found systematically throughout society. • Conflict theorists argue that there is no true consensus and that instead, society’s norms and values are those of the dominant group.

35. Conflict Perspective • The power (dominant) groups, because of their greater resources, are able to dictate the manner in which society is run and maintained. • The people who lack power become disenchanted and seek change. • The power group seeks to maintain its power (the status quo) which inevitably results in social conflict.

36. How does the conflict perspective explain social change? • Many conflicting groups exist in society. As the balance of power among these groups shifts, change occurs. • For example, the women’s movement is attempting to change the balance of power between men and women.

37. Symbolic Interactionism • Is essentially a social-psychological perspective that forces primarily on the issue of self, self-esteem, and small group interactions. • It is primarily concerned with the development of the self and the presentation of the self. • Among the primary tenets of symbolic Interactionism is the core belief that individuals, who are capable of communicating with each other through the use of symbols (e.g. language and gestures), are affected by language and that language helps to shape their perceptions of events. • Once we learn the meanings of symbols, we base our behavior(interaction) on them. • If people in a group do not share the same meanings for a given symbol,confusionresults.

38. Symbolic Interactionism We use the meanings of symbols to imagine how others will respond to our behavior. Through this capability, we can have “internal conversations” with ourselves. These conversations enable us to visualize- how other will respond to us before we act. This is crucial because we guide our interactions with people according to the behavior we think others expect of us and we expect-of others. Meanwhile, these others are also having internal conversations. The interaction (action on each other) that follows is therefore symbolic interaction.

39. Symbolic Interactionism Example Is this a date or are we friends?