Conflict Theory in Sociology

Social class is often defined as the amount of education, income, and status people have. As we know, getting an education is one of the most effective approaches for ensuring employment and an increase in income, which adds up to higher status or social class. Many people often do not have the income in order to pursue higher education. This gives them the title or identification of being one of the lower class groups in our society. If this remains to be the situation, then there is little hope for those people that are living below the poverty line.

I believe that evaluation research would be the best method, because it evaluates the both publicly and privately government and nonprofit programs. Sociologists use all of the collecting methods like surveys, secondary analysis and content analysis, and surveys. It is used to help the programs that are in need which can include: work-training programs and housing programs and all sorts of other programs.

The advantages of evaluation research are dealing with the social programs that are going on with society. It shows how the programs are doing compared against other programs and how they are improving in a certain amount of time and with what help from the government.

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The disadvantages of evaluation research would be that it is very frustrating to find out that one program is in need of help and they are steady helping other programs that are not in need. They are also finding out that mistakes are being made and nothing is being done about them.

Agents of socialization are believed to provide the critical information needed for children to function successfully as a member of society. Some examples of such agents are family, schools, peers, and the media. Each agent of socialization is linked to another. For example, in the media, symbolic images affect both the individual and the society, making the mass media the most controversial socialization agent. Family is a fundamental social institution in society, the family, is considered the primary and most important agent of socialization. With the family taking the responsibility of nurturing, teaching the norms or accepted behaviors within the family structure and within society. There are many types of families, which can be described as a set of relationships including parents and children and can include anyone related by blood or adoption. Family is the most important, “for it is within the family that the child is first socialized to serve the needs of the society and not only its own needs. Socialization is learning the customs, attitudes, and values of a social group, community, or culture. Socialization is essential for the development of individuals who can participate and function within their societies, as well as for ensuring that a society’s cultural features will be carried on through new generations. Socialization is most strongly enforced by family, school, and peer groups and continues throughout an individual’s lifetime.

The purpose of these experiments was to see if individual would be swayed by public pressure to go along with the incorrect answer. Asch believed that conformity reflects on relatively rational process in which people are pressurized to change people’s behavior. Asch designed to measure the pressure of a group situation upon an individual judgment. Asch wanted to proof that conformity can really play a big role in disbelieving our own senses. Milgram’s experiment was done to determine whether or not the power of the situation could cause average people to conform to obedience. The results of Milgram’s experiment were astounding. The research of Milgram’s experiment had such a major impact on social psychology that we still use his findings to analyze human behavior today. Zimbardo conducted a controversial study known as the Stanford prison experiment. The experiment was a psychological study of human reactions to being imprisoned and how the effects would interfere with the normal behaviors of both authorities and the inmates in prison. Zimbardo and his team hypothesized that prison guards and convicts were self-selecting of a certain disposition that would naturally lead to poor conditions. In his explanation of groupthink, Janis describes three different types of group members: dominant members who introduce and implement their ideas upon others; consensus followers who listen and concede to others ideas; and independent thinkers who question the ideas presented and possibly introduce ideas of their own. Whether members of the group are dominant members, consensus followers, or independent thinkers who deviate from the norm, one thing is sure; impression management is a key strategy in group participation.

Society today has primarily become McDonaldized in its way of thinking and doing everyday activities. It is the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as of the rest of the world. McDonaldization is a way of life. It affects not only the food industry, but also healthcare, education, the workplace and almost everything else we do. The reason for this is because society is becoming fast pace and there is a need for efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. Since society is fast paced, there is no time for traditional ways of doing things. People are stuck on this new way of thinking, McDonaldization. In the fast-food industry, people benefit in all areas. With the availability of fast food chains around the world people can do less work, use spare time efficiently, get more for less and know what exactly to expect when they sit down to eat something.

The conflict theory perspective is a framework for a building theory that sees society as an area of inequality generating conflict and social change. This focuses on the inequalities within our society and the conflict that they cause between the advantaged and the disadvantaged. The unequal distribution of money, gender, class, and age shows inequality. People who embrace the conflict perspective believe that gender, race, and class should not be lead to have favored treatment. Many of these people do not have marketable job skills and few means to attain them due to their lack of finances. Social class is often defined as the amount of education, income, and status people have. As we know, getting an education is one of the most effective approaches for ensuring employment and an increase in income, which adds up to higher status or social class. Many people often do not have the income in order to pursue higher education. This gives them the title or identification of being one of the lower class groups in our society. If this remains to be the situation, then there is little hope for those people that are living below the poverty line. The inequalities and conflict of social class is leading towards a social change. The federal and state governments have implemented different types of financial assistance for people that are living below the poverty line. The government has made it easier for these individuals to apply for student loans so that they may pursue higher education and job skills.

Abortion is one of the most controversial topics of all times. It has caused countless deaths and several violent confrontations between the two separate parties of opinion. The fight between pro-life and pro-choice supporters has been long and brutal. This is because, despite what several people may believe, abortion is neither right nor wrong. It is the matter of a personal opinion, where, each side can say with certainty that the other one is wrong. The controversial debate over whether same sex marriage should be legalized has gained a lot of attention in recent years and there are strong arguments for each side of the issue. There are many different factors that must be looked at when considering same-sex marriage. A marriage is not something that is just slapped on a piece of paper to show a couple’s love; it involves legal, social, economic, and spiritual issues. This idea of homosexuality is so frowned upon that no one even cares about the homosexual’s reasons for being the way they are. No one bothers to ask if they chose to be that way. Some people think that being a homosexual is a crime. People just cannot seem to grasp the fact that these men and women who are homosexual did not chose to be this way

Urbanization refers to a process in which an increasing proportion of an entire population lives in cities and the suburbs of cities. Historically, it has been closely connected with industrialization. When more and more inanimate sources of energy were used to enhance human productivity (industrialization), surpluses increased in both agriculture and industry. Larger and larger proportions of a population could live in cities. Economic forces were such that cities became the ideal places to locate factories and their workers. Urbanization has a tremendous impact on the environment and the links between the two are severely complex. A majority of the carbon emissions are released in urban cities and the clearing of land and forests and for building, developing and expansion of cities remains one of the major contributors in the augmentation of carbon levels in the environment. Additionally, transportation in urban areas, for people as well as goods and services contributes substantially to the rise in carbon dioxide in the air.