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Katherine Wong
Professor Lookholder
Sociology 01
13 September 2015
Sociology Perspectives
The first perspective is functionalist perspective, also known as functionalism. It is a
perspective that is based on the work of Emile Durkheim. The theoretical perspective defines
society as a complex system that works together to create equilibrium among society. It is the
idea that the society is made up of social institutions and that each institution offers something to
society that helps to create and maintain a balanced whole, thus they work together. For example,
public schools offer education funded by the government to children, however, to fund schools
the families of the children attending and society pay for taxes, children then eventually grow up
and use their knowledge obtained from school to get a job which ultimately means that they will
have to pay taxes too to help fund the state in the future. As you can tell from the example, each
institution of society offers something beneficial to the other institution, therefore, creating
equilibrium among all of society. There are two different functions: manifest and latent. Manifest
is something that was intended to happen, and latent is something that was unintended. For
example, the manifest function of volunteering at a soup kitchen is to help the part of society that
is in need of shelter and food, and the latent function of volunteering in a soup kitchen could be
developing an unexpected friendship with a homeless person. In addition, there are also two
types of ways that functionalists describe the effects on society: functional and dysfunctional.
Functional obviously contributes to the bettering of society, whereas, dysfunctional takes away
from society. A prime example that many functionalists uses that applies to both functional and

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dysfunctional is crime. Crime among society is always bad, it can lead to violence, deaths, loss
of important items, and so much more; however, crime also influences society in the fact that
society becomes more aware of bad things, it bring society together.
Second is conflict perspective. A theoretical perspective based on the ideas of Karl Marx.
It is the idea the society is a complex system full of inequality and conflict. Unlike functionalist
perspective, conflict perspective views society an unstable, it is viewed as being full of
contradictions and conflicts. Conflict theorists study societal issues, such as; racism, class
ranking, and religion, and how it contributes to the unequal distribution of resources (i.e. money,
power, education). For example, wealthy people have more money, power, and education than
poor people. The conflict perspective believes that different groups in society will always have
more than others, just like higher class versus lower class. Inequality is consistently present in
society because those who have power and control will always defend what they have. For
example, a wealthy person who owns a manufacturer has an upper hand over the workers. The
workers are obviously in need of money, therefore, the workers are willing to do what is needed
to earn the resource. However, the wealthy owner will never allow any worker to obtain a
position as high as himself/herself. Though some of society is fortunate to live a good life with
plenty of resources, everyone is constantly competing to obtain more. Wealthy people continue
to work; they continue to accept the power they have and take advantage, while middle class
and/or lower class people are still looking to work and to obtain power. There is always going to
be inequality and conflicts in society.
Lastly, Interactionist perspective is a theoretical perspective based off the ideas of George
Herbert Mead. Interactionist perspective is the idea that society is a result of daily human
interactions. Unlike the other two perspectives, the interactionist perspective deals with micro-

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sociology, the idea of studying the social system through smaller social groups rather than
society as a whole. It focuses on the way individuals act and the choices we make based on the
way individuals think. Everyone views something differently and everyone can change his or her
opinion on something. For example, someone could be sitting under a tree thinking it was
peaceful, while someone else might look at the tree as dirty and infested with bugs. Now if the
person who thought the tree was infested with bugs told that to the other person, then the other
person may change his or her view on the tree and agree that the tree is dirty and infested with
bugs. It is the idea that behavior is influenced by experiences obtained through human
interactions. Society is shaped by interaction.