Sociology › Section A · An introduction to sociology › Topic A.3
Theoretical perspectives in sociology
The same event can look completely different depending on the questions you ask about it. Sociology's three main perspectives, functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic interactionism, are lenses that each bring different questions into focus.
In this topic
- What a theory does
- Paradigms: the three big lenses
- Structural functionalism
- Manifest functions, latent functions and dysfunctions
- Conflict theory
- Symbolic interactionism
- Worked example: student debt through three lenses
- Worked example: functions of a school sports team
- Each perspective has critics
- Theory today
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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