Lecture 2
Sociological
theories
Content
• Introduction
• Social forces that have contributed to the development of sociological
theory
• The development of sociological theories
• Major theoretical perspectives:
• Structural functionalism
• Conflict Theory
• Symbolic Interactionism
• Glossary
Social forces that have contributed to the development of
sociological theory over time:
• Social change
• Political and economic structures
• Culture and social norms
• Social movements and activism
• Technology and globalization
French
Revolution
Industrial revolution
The development of sociological
theories
Classical Modern Contemporary
sociology sociology sociology
Major theoretical perspectives
Macro-level theories while micro-level theories
relate to large-scale look at very specific
issues and large relationships between
groups of people, individuals or small
groups.
Grand theories
Paradigms
sees society as a structure with
interrelated parts designed to meet the
biological and social needs of the
individuals in that society.
Auguste Comte; Emile Durkheim; Herbert Spencer;
Talcott Parsons; and Robert Merton
He argued that
just as the various
organs of the
body work
together to keep
the body
functioning, the
various parts of
society work
together to keep
society
functioning
(Spencer, 1898).
Herbert Spencer
Émile Durkheim
believed that society is a
complex system of
interrelated and
interdependent parts that
work together to
maintain stability
(Durkheim, 1893)
Robert Merton
•Manifest functions are the
consequences of a social process
that are sought or anticipated, while
latent functions are the unsought
consequences of a social process.
•Social processes that have
undesirable consequences for the
operation of society are called
dysfunctions.
Conflict Theory
looks at society as a
competition for limited
resources
Karl Marx; W. E. B. DuBois; C.
Wright Mills; and Ralf Dahrendorf
Karl Marx
saw society as being made up
of individuals in different
social classes who must
compete for social, material,
and political resources such as
food and housing,
employment, education, and
leisure time.
Max Weber
noted that different groups
were affected differently based
on education, race, and gender,
and that people’s reactions to
inequality were moderated by
class differences and rates of
social mobility, as well as by
perceptions about the
legitimacy of those in power
Georg Simmel
•He said that the intensity of the conflict
varies depending on the emotional
involvement of the parties, the degree of
solidarity within the opposing groups,
and the clarity and limited nature of the
goals. Simmel also showed that groups
work to create internal solidarity,
centralize power, and reduce dissent.
Symbolic interactionism
emphasizes the ways in which individuals
interact and communicate with one another,
and the meanings they attach to these
interactions
Max Weber; George Herbert Mead; Charles Horton
Cooley; Erving Goffman; George Homans; and Peter
Blau.
Symbolic interactionism (SI)
Language Symbols SI
George Herbert Mead
Herbert Blumer
humans interact with things based on
meanings ascribed to those things; the
ascribed meaning of things comes from our
interactions with others and society; the
meanings of things are interpreted by a person
when dealing with things in specific
patterns of interaction between individuals
Erving Goffman
•dramaturgical analysis
•used theater as an analogy for social interaction
and recognized that people’s interactions showed
patterns of cultural “scripts”
Symbolic interactionist
perspective are more likely to
use qualitative research
methods:
• in-depth interviews
• participant observation
Conclusion
Overall, each of these
perspectives offers a
unique way of
understanding and
analyzing the social
world, and each has
contributed to the
development of
sociological theory in
important ways.
Glossary terms:
Sociological theory, industrialization, enlightenment, Industrial revolution,
French revolution, positivism, Comte's law of three stages, capitalism,
Manifest functions, latent functions, dysfunctions, Structural functionalism,
Conflict Theory, Symbolic Interactionism
• Giddens, A., & Sutton, P. W. (2017). Sociology (8th ed.). Polity Press.
