SOC 22000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Émile Durkheim, Symbolic Interactionism, Social Fact

• School: Purdue University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 22000
• Professor: Hillis, Rolden

Document Summary

Theory: a statement of how and why facts are related. Explains social behavior to the real world. Theoretical paradigm: a set of fundamental assumptions that guides theory. Keep in mind that the perspective you take influences what you see. One perspective emphasizes certain aspects of n event. Another perspective aspects of the same event. Structural functionalism- society is an organic being of interrelated parts that work together in harmony. Conflict- society is the competition of a few groups of people for scare resources. Symbolic interactionism- society is essentially a set of daily interactions that are guided by symbols. Functionslist use an organic analogy to compare society to the human body. They that all parts of society need to work together in order for society to maintain consensus i. e. if one body part stop functioning correctly the rest of the human body will be affected.