Describe the following three sociological perspectives and how they relate to family and marriage.
You can look at chapter 1 for the information on the 3 perspectives.
Functionalism: Maintains that society is a complex system of interdependent parts that work together to ensure a society’s survival.
*Functions and Dysfunctions
*This looks at manifested (intended) and latent (unintended) functions
Conflict Theory: Examines how and why groups disagree, struggle over power, and compete for scarce resources
*The “Haves” and the “Have nots”
*Social inequality
Symbolic Interaction: Examines individual everyday behavior through the communication of knowledge, ideas, beliefs and attitudes
*Relationships grow from interactions and everyday encounters
* Continually reevaluated
Think about issues like getting married, having children, divorce, moving away from childhood homes, aging, obtaining education or jobs.
You can relate issues like these to the perspectives--- Don’t just define….when you are asked to relate, you are being asked how they apply or how they explain.