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unit 10- sociological perspectives assignment 1 (distinction)
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Unit 10 Sociological PerspectivesBy Esra Ciftci
In unit 10 we had been learning about sociological perspectives and how they contribute to the
understanding of society, it also helps us to understand why they behave the way they do. The
sociological perspective also helps us to understand how the different societies can influence
the individual's health and wellbeing. Some perspectives are a conflict model or structuralist, the
different sociological perspectives are:
Functionalism
P2
Functionalism sees the institution in society working together, this perspective makes sure that
society is functioning smoothly. Talcott Parson developed functionalism and believed that the
main role of the society was to socialize an individual and make sure that they knew what they
were expected to do and how to act like the classical conditioning. We can be socialized by
family for example, parents teach us to be respectful and act appropriate ways, however this
can't be taught in many families as they might not care as much as another family, for example,
society would believe that a nuclear family would teach their kids to be respectful and acting
appropriately because they had both their parents to teach them this.
Another way of socialization is by school we are socialized to be on time to school as in the
future we will need to be on time to our workplace, we are also being socialized to be respectful
to each other. The things we are taught at home we might not be taught as school because they
socialize us different ways. We are taught in school so we can have the correct information for
the future and to prepare ourselves for the future. However, education is not a value of
consensus as the teachers may not agree with the government and how they function the
school which can cause conflict.
The functions of health and social care are to treat the sick who need the care and get them
back to work. This is important as if individuals are sick and aren't being treated then they will be
taking sick days off work which is costing the government more as they are paying the individual
sick pay and another teacher to teach the lesson, which is why it is important to get people
treated and back to school because the government thinks about the economy for the whole
country. For example, were in a current pandemic and we had to go under lockdown, a few
weeks into the lockdown the government had announced that we could go back to work,
however it was not safe to go outside but due to the economic we had to because the
government was going to be in debt due to the pandemic. Therefore, it is important that health
care do their function so the society can function smoothly.
Functionalism contributes to the understanding of society, for example in hospitals when there is
a problem which needs to be solved it wouldn’t be a certain people from one health care
profession. Functionalism enables other people from other parts of the health care to have a say
in how they can solve a situation, this is called a multidisciplinary team. An example which I
have seen is during my work experience in MRI, there was a patient which a criminal and had
come from prison to the hospital. This is a real-life example as the people in the prison force
would have to have a multidisciplinary team talking about how they would do this procedure with
the police and the doctors. These institutions are working together to ensure that healthcare is
,given to all and that society is kept safe. During the procedure the individual had to sit while the
2 policemen were taking off his hand cuffs to have his scan. A multidisciplinary team doesn’t
have to be from the same sector it could be a doctor, a social worker, a teacher, etc.
Another way which functionalism works in society is we are all socialized by our parents and
schools. One way which our parent socializes us is by teaching us manners, ‘please’ and ‘thank
you’, we are taught that when someone holds the door for us or helps us in any way that we
should say thank you. This helps society to be respectful to everyone in society and accept
people for who they are and that we shouldn’t behave differently to other people because of
their race, gender or by their religion.
In school we are taught to be on time to our lesson, this is important as when we get jobs or
when he has an appointment with the GP, we must make sure that we are on time. It helps
function society as if people are on time to their GP appointments the doctor would be able to
speak to you and wouldn’t be late for their next appointment. School also teaches us to que and
not push in as in the real world it has been functioned that people are being respectful and
waiting in que like everyone else. All institutions, in these examples, are socializing the same so
that we know how to act in society.
Functionalism can also influence smaller groups of society such as, anti- vacciners. Anti
vacciners are individuals who are against vaccines as they believe that the vaccines which are
provided by the NHS is something else and don’t want to risk their life. One example of this is
during the pandemic of COVID-19, there had been rumors about a vaccine which was made for
the virus. However, many people are being influenced not to have this vaccine as there had
been small groups of society who had said that the government was going to put a chip in
everyone to track them. Another real-life example is, the MMR vaccine, parents had stopped
allowing their babies to have their MMR vaccine as there had been rumors that the MMR
vaccine causes children to have autism. This had influenced many parents to stop allowing the
MMR vaccine.
M1Limitation
Functionalism has a good contribute to the understanding of society because it tells us about
the theory being a structuralist theory and how society can work together in harmony and this
shows that society can function smoothly. Functionalism explains to us how society work
together, and this reduces the conflict as society are communicating with each other and
understanding each other, this an advantage as it tells us that society work better together by
communication. Functionalism also has a good understanding of society as it explains the roles
of working people and how it could affect us as a society if we don’t perform those roles, for
example, if we don’t attend work it affects the economy, this also means that because
individuals are aware of their role, they are going to want to pursue it and look after their health.
The society believe and trust the organizations which are the bourgeoise that they might not be
aware that it isn't benefiting the poor but the rich (google 2020). This also helps us to
understand society as in 2020 when we work, we must pay TAX, VAT etc., after the business
starts to earn a certain amount of money the government takes 20% or even less from the
money that you earn. This shows that the poor will stay poor and the rich will get richer.
This theory believes that everyone works in harmony with each other this theory suggests that
our society is balanced because we all do our roles in society (google 2020). This theory
suggests that society can work and adapt together and overcome changes like economic (get
, revising 2020). However, this theory does ignore conflict which is one of the big effects on
society today as some people have different views and it can cause a big conflict. Also, with this
theory there are a lot of limitations than strengths which overcome this theory. The theory shows
that society functions with everyone having a role and responsibility and not only the proletariat
and the bourgeoisie, but everyone has the same amount of role and responsibilities as others.
The limitations of the functionalism theory are that this theory doesn’t talk about any areas of
conflict that are currently happening and only talks about how the theory is being functioned.
Therefore, this theory only speaks about the structure of the theory. For example, it doesn’t talk
about the conflict that there may be with the school and families as some families believe that
the school teaches their children things they don’t need to learn about. There are many other
more conflicts that can be spoken about like the conflict between the school and government,
many disagreements can happen and affect society. This limits the contribution to society as the
theory suggests that the 2 social groups work together, however in society there is conflict
which does influence society. For example, there can be conflict between a parent and a
teacher as some parents believe that schools are teaching students stuff that they don’t think
needs to be taught. For example, it is mandatory that we do re for GCSE so we can learn about
other religions, however some parents will think that they are being taught this so they can be
influenced to change their religion.
For example, in QE hospital there is conflict on whether certain medical needs should be for
free or should they be paid for. Another example is if someone that caused their own medical
should they pay for their services in the hospital. During work experience when I was in Q E
hospital there was miss communication which led to a patient coming down with no oxygen
which should have been noted down on the system and it caused conflict. Not only did it cause
conflict with patient and nurse, but it caused conflict with the employer and employee.
Another limitation is that it believes that individuals in each society has the same believes which
is not true as everyone has their own religion and belief, for example, there was a Black Lives
Matter protest and many people in the same society did not agree to this protest. The
functionalism theory also suggests that we as individuals behave differently with the people that
we socialize with, for example, a girl that goes school will act differently with her friends than
she would with her family that is because we behave the way we believe we should behave with
the people we are with. This further limits the contribution to society as the theory believes that
everyone in society has the same beliefs. This affects society as some people might not feel like
they cannot speak to others because they might be judged because they have different beliefs
than other people. This can cause conflict with the whole of society and family, for example
during lockdown there was a Black Lives Matter protest, and many people did not agree to this
as we were in a pandemic, and because they don’t believe that minority ethnic groups are being
treated differently in society. As a society we do not believe in the same thing, some individuals
might disagree with other religions and it can cause conflict between people because of the
disagreements.
The functionalism theory also doesn’t talk deviant behavior, for example, abuse and crime. This
theory doesn’t help us to understand why an individual might want to do those things. It doesn’t
explain to us why individuals behave the way they do, and this is a problem that does effect
society massively as people do get hurt and they need medical care which costs the
government. The functionalism theory doesn’t focus on conflict, but it does have a massive
impact on society. In the hospital deviant behavior would not be allowed as their role and
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