Essay Papers The Sociological Perspective Text

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Suicide appears to be the supreme antisocial and non social act people focus more on the individual’s mind and what caused it rather than looking as society as a whole and an influence the sociological explanation of suicide: french sociologist, emile durkheim showed that suicide rates are strongly influenced by social forces he discovered that slightly more women than men were in. By: yan bull 719 words bull march 24, 2010 bull 1,100 views sociology is defined as the systematic study of human society. At the heart of sociology is a distinctive point of view called the sociological perspective. Sociologists look for general social patterns in the behavior of individuals as they relate to a group and how the group and social structures affect our individual perception and behavior. We can predict with reasonable reliability what each of us will do generally under given conditions seymour, 2003. Sociology studies the social forces that impinge on our lives in so many unseen, yet significant ways. Sociologist peter berger said: in seeing the strange in the familiar things are not always what they seem.

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Sociology pushes us to question the assumptions we are making about society, and reveals aspects of our social life that we typically would not claim to be obvious facts. People act in the context of the group they belong it is the group that influences human behavior. The realization of the strength and importance of the group is the heart of the sociological perspective berger, 1983.

In this paper, i will explain the sociological perspective of the personality and character of the lead actor, denzel washington, and supporting actor, bruce willis, in the movie called the siege. Their personalities and characters shaped by the same america society, both of them work for a law enforcement agency, but their beliefs, values and attitude to duty are divergent. My points of reference are based on the theories of max weber and йmile durkhiem the idea of symbolic interactionism, or interactionism for short, was coined by the german sociologist and economist, max weber 1864 1920. Weber emphasized the subjective meaning of human behavior, the social process, and focused on the subjective aspects of social life and social systems.

Max weber believed that we need to know the image of humans, rather than on human’s image of society. He said that humans are pragmatic actors who continually must adjust their behavior to the actions of other actors and situations. He also said that humans can adjust to these actions only because when we are able to interpret them, i.e. To denote them symbolically and treat the actions and those who perform them as symbolic objects. This focus on interaction and on the meaning of events to the participants in those events the definition of the situation leads to toward change, and continually i sociology is the systematic study of human society. I sociologist look for the general patterns in the behavior of particular people ii emily durkheim 1858 1917 , one of sociology apos s pioneers, researched suicide.

1 men, protestants, wealthy people, and unmarried had the highest suicide rates b periods of change or crisis make everyone feel a little off balance. Wright mills 1959 illustrated this idea using the great depression 1 he believed that using what he called the sociological imagination in this way helps people understand not only their society but their own lives, because the two are closely related. Ii the importance of a global perspective a global perspective is the study of the larger world and our society apos s place in it, i high income countries are the nations with the highest overall standards of living 1 united states, canada, argentina, south africa, japan, australia ii middle income countries are nations with a standard of living about average for the world as a whole.

1 latin america, asia, some of africa i low income countries are nations with a low standard of living in which most people are poor. I applying the sociological perspective a using sociology benefits us in four ways: i the sociological perspective helps us assess the truth of common sense. Ii the sociological perspective helps us see the opportunities and constraints in our lives. I the sociological perspective empowers us to be active in our society iv the sociological perspective helps us live in a diverse world iv auguste comte coined the term sociology in 1838 to describe a new way of looking at society. A he saw sociology as the product of a three stage historical development i theological stage people taking a religious view that society expressed god apos s will ii metaphysical stage people saw a society as a natural rather than a supernatural system, 1 thomas hobbes suggested that society reflected not the perfection of god so much as the failings of a selfish human nature. B comte apos s approach is called positivism, a way of understanding based on science. B theoretical approach as a basic image of society that guides thinking and research.

The functionalist perspective emphasizes the way that parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability schaefer 13. Macrosociology concentrates on large scale phenomena, or entire civilizations schaefer 13. The functionalist approach holds that if an aspect of social life doesn apos t contribute to a society apos s stability, it will not be passed on from one generation to the next schaefer 13. It defines manifest functions as open, stated, conscious functions and latent functions as unconscious, or unintended functions schaefer 14. Functionalists define this as a dysfunction, or an element of society that may actually disrupt a social system schaefer 14.