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Joseph Arroyo

Professor Prior

Sociology 1

31 July 2018

Final Reflection

Today, there are a plethora of perspectives, now in the study of Sociology, they narrow

these down to three. These are what Sociologists understand the world, but these also shape our

society and norms. According to “Introduction to Sociology” by OpenStax defines Sociology as,

“is the study of groups and group interactions, societies and social interactions, from small and

personal groups to very large groups” (6). Now, the pretext of this definition is to observe and

understand the society we live in. There are three different paradigms that many sociologists

share which are Functionalism, Conflict Theory, and Symbolic Interactionist Theory.

Functionalism says, “also called structural-functional theory, sees society as a structure with

interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of the individuals in that

society” (OpenStax, 15). This means that there are things that are the same in a person and the

body. These can be called social institutions; the institution we did a project on was the

institution of the media. In all honestly, the media carries a heavy amount of social norms and

what the world tells us that is right and what is wrong on what we are doing.

Moreover, the media influences the decisions we make, and understand the components

of socializing. In the article Mass Media, says, “Whoever controls the language, the images,

controls the race.” This means that we give the media power to influence the actions and

language we use in every day life. This includes the internet, movies, plays, articles, social media
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websites and more. With time, we will find a way to determine to make our own decisions

without such influences from the outside world.

The next perspective that Sociologists use is the Conflict Theory, which was found by

Karl Marx. Marx says, “Conflict theory looks at society as a competition for limited resources.

This perspective is a macro-level approach…” (16). This theory varies in the different identities

of people. For example, their religion, race, and sexual orientation. Social Conflict Theory

proves that were are many inequalities in the society we live in and we should find a way to

become fully equal as people. To this day, we are looking to understand the difference of people

but most of all, remind us all that we are the same species, which is the human race. Therefore,

some people have this paradigm that the world is not at an equilibrium and it is up to us to

balance the society out and all understand each other and diminish social power. I have learned

to understand these three theories the most throughout the course.