A sociological theory is a framework of thought. We use ideas and concepts to explain how the social world functions and interacts. We ask questions about the process of social change or the essence of social hierarchies. Sociological theories also tackle social problems and conflicts in society and offer solutions and different perspectives.
An introduction to sociology theories would not be complete without talking about sociological imagination. In simple terms, it is the function of connecting personal experience to the issues at large. A society is made up of systems working with each other; those systems are made up of individuals. Sociological imagination tries to understand the connection between individuals and systems. Through it, we try to see the world from a perspective, which is broader than personal experience alone.
Below, our experts have detailed how to write a sociological theory essay. We have also provided a breakdown of the key perspectives that you can study in your paper. Plus, you will find some sociological theory essay examples written by students just like you.
There are three major perspectives that sociological theory considers. Each one has a distinct viewpoint on society and the behavior of people around us. They provide a different set of frameworks through which we can study the social world. The significance of the sociological perspectives is that they allow us to understand society as a concept rather than an object.
If you are writing a sociological perspective essay, you will likely look at these perspectives:
Functionalist Perspective
A functionalist sociological perspective takes into account the systems installed in place within the society we live in. The logic behind it is that a community consists of different parts. For example, there are educational and political systems. A functionalist perspective deconstructs those parts. It looks at how they interconnect to create something whole. Each part has a function in creating a stable society, but they also influence and change one another.
Conflict Perspective
The conflict perspective is somewhat of a polar opposite to the functionalist one. This view dictates that systems do not work together to reach social stability. Instead, they compete for resources and power. Its origins can be found in Marxism and the notions of class struggle. Besides, it is often utilized in discussions about social justice and other similar sociological concepts.
Interactionist Perspective
In contrast to the two perspectives above that look at the broader picture, the interactionist perspective is more concerned with individuals. According to this one, human behavior is shaped and maintained by our interactions with others. This is referred to as symbolic interactionism. These interactions create meanings through which we define ourselves. Proponents of this perspective suggest that people react to their definition in a situation rather than the situation itself.
You will be able to find sociological perspective essay examples at the bottom of the page.
How to Write a Sociological Theory Essay
Writing assignments such as sociological essays or research papers typically follow the same set format regardless of the topic. We have outlined some advice for you.
These steps can help you start writing straight away:
Startearly. You need to make sure that you have time to conduct your research. Beginning your work earlier gives you sufficient space to think about the applications of sociological theory. Plus, you will be able to fix any mistakes you’ve made along the way.
Get a good topic. Whether you decide to write about the conflict perspective or functionalism, finding an idea that interests you is essential. Read through essay samples or browse online to find the perfect topic for yourself. Try our topic generator if you’re struggling with getting an idea.
Come up with a thesis. A thesis statement is the guiding principle of your sociological theory essay. You will keep referring to it all throughout your work. Make sure it reflects your views and the message you want to deliver in your writing. Our thesis generator can help you formulate one!
Outline your essay. A solid essay structure will always include an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The body paragraph part is where you will concentrate your discussion of sociology theories. Ascertain that you keep your thesis in mind while writing.
Implement examples in your paper. There is nothing more reliable than real-life instances. If you are unable to conduct first-hand research, browse through existing studies. Evidence is essential to support your claims. Just make sure everything is cited correctly!
Proofread and rewrite. If you’ve followed our advice and began earlier, you should have plenty of time left to edit your work. This is where you polish your writing. Make sure that there are no glaring mistakes. Refer back to your guidelines to make sure everything is in order.
Thank you for reading! We hope that this advice will prove helpful to you in your work. You can now proceed to read the sociological theory essay examples below. You can use them as inspiration or as a reference for how to structure your work and use citations.
According to the author, the main trend in the academic literature is to depict traditional hierarchical structures as obsolete and unfitting for the requirements posed by the "the Information Age, the Services Age, or the [...]
The key notion of the article is the perception model that is based on the rational behavior of the customers. The current article critique reveals the key ideas of the rational choice theory and points [...]
Also, it makes it possible to generate explanations about the functions of organizations in a practical manner that can be used to improve management processes.
In this paper, the critique of the chapter is developed in order to clarify the strengths and weaknesses of the work, as well as to explore the changes Morgan promotes in the field of organizational [...]
The citizens in turn depend on the government to provide them with the necessary environment to acquire the education. The acquisition of a good education is dependent on the availability of money.
The absence of political will mean there are jobs for all people and resources will be allocated to the community rather than to individuals.'The Noble Paradise' will be a healthy society with no diseases.
The diverse understandings of the socio-cultural approach can show how important it is, especially in the contemporary setting, to grasp the ideas of multiculturality.
In another statement, he made us understand that the owner of the doll and we, humans, know the insight of the doll, gradually landing us in the direction he is taking us to the thought-provoking [...]
The main drive for people to conform is the desire to be a desirable person in the society, group pressure whereby the society puts pressure on its members to conform and abide by the accepted [...]
It must be kept in mind though that since the structure of the modern society contains the most versatile elements, the results of the analysis must embrace such groups as the employed and the unemployed [...]
Merton, on the other hand, through his version of the anomie theory situates the workings of a social system in the element of deviancy as his example.
The political ambition of Rich aimed at striking the cultural patriarchal aimed at submerging men's superiority in the return of uplifting the suppressed female gender in the sense of gender distribution of power and authority.
Seeking like a State is a study book written by James Scott a reflection of the 20th century on the nature structural imposition with regard to the elements of social diversity.
Importantly, they build on each other to demonstrate power in taking risk action and actually how legalizations of the practice can influence character integrity. The conclusive speculation is whether there is a changing definition of [...]
The various issues that people discuss in the social network include their interests in terms of the books they read, the movies watched, the games played and so on.
But then, the very base by which democracy stands is totally dependent of the contestation for even beneficiary in power, and it is not out of place to define democracy as 'we must be partakers [...]
Bing in his description of habitus states, "The habitus embodied history internalized as a second nature and so forgotten as history is the active presence of the whole past of which it is the product".
Global warming, corporate change in the advent of technology and change in the cultural setup of people. Glover, et al.in their contribution to the Organization Development Journal give principles of being adaptive and argue that [...]
Further more, their optimistic seeing of social that is scientific, supposes that the study of the globe of social could be without value, in the sense that the investigating people's values will not in essence [...]
The functionalist perspective is a theory that affirms that the world is a structure of interconnected parts in which every part is essential in ensuring that the structure works. The main aim of all the [...]
The initial motivation of the hero, the context of the events, the markedness of the action are the important factors for Lois's definition of the concept of heroism.
The functionalist theory seeks to analyze the significance of each of the constituents of the society and establish the purpose they serve to ensure that social stability is maintained.
In his work, Anderson describes the peculiarities of values, behavior and interpersonal relations within the inner-city communities. He provides a notion of the Street Code, which explains the essence of the African-American adolescent violence.
The state of narrow-mindedness as to the future changes, the situation leading to the changes in the social or ethnical prejudices, and the reaction to the changes are the three main crisis stages.
Both the formal and the informal norms are applicable to high school students. The rules create the institutional order; all teachers are required to help the administration to enforce these kinds of rules and are [...]
Dewey proposes that the term "human nature" refers to the inbuilt differentiated characteristics that human beings tend to have as regarding to thoughts, feelings and behavior.
While Helena represented the lower class of the society and believed in the Utilitarianism values to the road of success, Bertram was much inclined towards the elements of social contract theory and its application.
The author, using his sociological imagination, tries to find the answers, analyzing the role of a single personality in the course of history and the place of historical events in every separate human destiny."The sociological [...]
The United States has a long history of using public places, especially in towns and cities, to dissent through protests as a means of expressing people's feelings.
The importance of developing a clear understanding of the dimensions that come into play in the concept of community is, that it enables individuals studying the given community to better focus their exertion on focusing [...]
Due to a large number of individuals to be interviewed during a poll of students at Metro University on the candidate they are inclined to opt for among the list of three candidates that are [...]
Yet, one does not have to be particularly smart to be able to realize the sheer fallaciousness of such suggestion the actual reason why Western countries feature the world's highest standards of living is that, [...]
Adam Smith, the seventeenth-century Scottish 'father of modern political economics and the author of Wealth of Nations, outlines the concept of the economic and political status of contemporary society.
The other concern is that the prevention of crime; is based on using the regulations that are used in defining crime itself, its development, and impacts on individuals.
The author of the article on The Associated Content News site also lists three classes, but the middle class is for all intents and purposes the same as the upper class.
The essay will try to demonstrate the meaning of social justice and the requirements which academicians believe will fulfill the criteria of meeting a state of social justice. According to Pharr liberation is the process [...]
From these points of view we can try to use some anticipating theory by employing important variables integrated together to explain the causes and the effects in a given economy, the problem which might come [...]
Modernity, science and technology tries to educate the society in letting go of cultural as well as traditional values and embrace modern technology which enhances the progress of a society.
It has also been observed that the middle-aged people are fervent consumers of those products that are mainly used by the young. Not all middle-aged consumers are attracted to products that are meant for the [...]
Of the possible explanations for the unity of China and fragmentation of European states is rooted in the coercion-based explanation of the modern state.
The knack to understand the historical as well as the social background of humanity and the reason behind these findings in a given time frame, is of great value to sociological analysts.
Despite the spread of the ruling class, there is a specific class of top people in the society who attend the same schools, engage in the same types of businesses, inherit political powers and live [...]
There should be well-built leadership structures within the society to ensure that all the people in the society adhere to the laws that are in place. People will be allowed to interact and work with [...]
A combination of elaborate fines, threats, and punishments was utilized to overcome the ambivalence of the workers and the multitude of ways they used to limit output and exhaustion.
According to Titmuss, the realities of 20th century's living in Western countries were defined by the fact that, unlike what it used to be the case, during course of earlier centuries, the amount of socially [...]
According to Hechter and Horne, hidden orders are said to underlie the visible actions of members of the society but the actions that the ordinary members of the society see are the visual appearances of [...]
Du Bois, and the Struggle for Racial Uplift" that it is impossible to analyze black history without referring to one of the key figures in this field, W.E.B.
For Altman and Taylor, self-disclosure is of course a symptom of social interaction, however, on the mind of the individuals who grow up among ruins and neglect self-disclosure is undesirable process.
Besides, the thinker investigated the issue of freeze end highlighting the discreteness of time.'It is clear that the cause of the change that ends a total freeze cannot be, and cannot be part of, the [...]
On the contrary, he sticks to the point that the emergence of the new stage in the social relations of production was due to class struggles. In other words, the author emphasizes the historical aspect [...]
However, the practical realization of Communist concepts in Russia, had resulted in millions of citizens loosing their lives and in those people, who managed to survive, during the course of Communist "social purges", becoming the [...]
In a nutshell, the functionalists and conflict theorists will hold a different view regarding media and more so television as a means of socialization.
This paper, therefore, is a report on the effect and implication of residential mobility on the academic and social well being of school-aged children According to the evidence presented by earlier research on this subject [...]
This is an error in social reasoning which violates the measurement validity due to the interviewer's asking a loaded question. The keyword in this question is "often" which most of the respondents have probably missed [...]
To counter the threat of terrorism on its soil, the current measures instituted by the Department of Homeland Security and the revamp of the entire Intelligence structure of the country would have to be augmented [...]
There is no doubt that humanitarian aid has long ago become one of the key policies of every democratic country taking part in the solution of world crises and assisting in the stabilizing of the [...]
One does not have to hold a Ph.D.in psychiatry to realize that people's continuous commitment to promoting the idea that Western countries have a "moral obligation" to provide humanitarian aid to citizens of Third World [...]
The election of an African-American as the most powerful man in the world today added to the understanding that there is the increase in positive interaction between different groups recognizing and respecting differences.
In addition to that, he states that such patriotism was untypical of European superpowers, because in France or in the United Kingdom the authority belonged to the elite group, aristocracy, whereas in the United States, [...]
The social values in any individual are as a result of informal social control which is exercised without stating the rules and expressed by use of customs and norms.
Among academic realizations of Western Society developments, the interpretations of the West have been generally stating that Western civilization was shaped by the three particular traditions: The classical culture of Greece and Rome; The Christian [...]
We will start modeling the sociologists' response to a probable variant of future society with an analysis of the views on society and class and the way they are applicable to the situation presented in [...]
It could also be seen in terms of the fact whether the visitors are seriously intended on the purchase or just to look around the place and spend time.
For e.g.the misconception of the complex organs, the misconception of people coming from apes/monkeys etc, the misconception of the fact that evolution violates the second law of thermodynamics, misconception of survival of the fittest.
The Author Defines the public Sphere as a Bourgeois as the sphere of private people come together as into public to privatize but the publicly relevant sphere of commodity exchange and social labor.
The basic hypothesis states that the influence of religion affects the outcome of a voting system and the fundamental variable in this case is religion more than any other factor.
To go forward to a new era with new structures and increasing public finance, or stand off and continue to walk the same road of those who gave sport to the world, reflected in the [...]
On the other hand, if a person with poor writing skills writes a message, the person who receives the message will find it difficult to comprehend the meaning, or misinterpret it, or may lose interest [...]
This is normally a developmental process in the life of that particular individual in the sense that he/she is out to look for what is good for himself or herself.
The other set of physical processes from which we derive our conceptions of time are of an entirely different nature: the growth of children, the changes in our own bodies and minds from hour to [...]
This is why "Berkeley in the Sixties" portrays the majority of students as such that are willing to take a risk of being expelled from university, as the ultimate price for making themselves heard.
The prevalence of poor and underprivileged people, people of immigrants, and gender along with increasing concern about class and race, situate the overall work of the field in an interlocking system of oppression and power.
The derivation of this conclusion was deciphered with the help of socio-political instrumentation and economic influences that directly effect/affect the rise and fall of culture. This is the psyche of the present generation.
The examination of the individuals influenced by groups is the study of sociology whereas its main goal is to understand human behavior in the context of society and, after succeeding in this, trying to generalize [...]
As far as the allegory of the cave is concerned, we can suppose that there is a mutual interdependence: the more successfully the prisoners coexist, the better understanding of each other appears, and, vice versa, [...]
Though romanticism and other currents in art so beautiful in every possible thing and theology claimed that everything on Earth is beautiful things it was created by God, the notion of beauty was devalued during [...]
The core objective behind this study is to talk about the theory of family Universal Social Institution that erects on the progressions made in the field of the schematic illustration of relational acquaintance in human [...]
The idea of childhood is not to be confused with affection for children: it corresponds to an awareness of a particular nature which distinguishes the child from the adult, even the young adult"..
The experiments have shown that although there exist differences in the public opinions, the opinion polls conducted on the population is usually biased and fails to understate conservative opinion and also do not support republican [...]
As a matter of introduction, a group for purposes of this study means a company of more than one person who often interact with a view of sharing a common interest.
With the view to advance in the above mentioned task, it is necessary to debate on the topic of whether objectivity is essential to sound research or not.
In the initial sequencing of the text, the black veil achieves a strange power of its own, especially when Hooper leaves the church with the veil still on.
Thus, the state is considered to be a political structure which is thoroughly organized and fulfills the tasks of the complex societies connected with the increase of the geographic size and population, resolution of some [...]
The aim of study is to investigate and understand students donating behavior in relation to their field of study. It will also assist students in various categories embrace the idea of time donating to charity [...]
This remains true even as the country struggles through the third year of fallout from the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market and, many economists warn, the U.S.A.is already in frank recession.
Modern trends towards emancipation of women change the roles of fathers and their authority and make the division of the latter into several categories possible.
Thus, the major focus of this paper will be the significance of the institution of family for the existence of the human society in times of revolutionary changes.
According to Anderson, the concept of community was fashioned by regional religious traditions previous to the surfacing of mass access to the printed forms of communication that were not of the church and were written [...]
Indeed, the article is an eye opener and stresses on the fact that the population of Japan has to be well balanced in order for the social structure of the country to function efficiently.
It results in the decline of the traditional communities, development of personal choices, the multiplicity of beliefs and future orientation, and increased awareness of time.
According to the description given to this social class as those professionals whose earnings and their level of education is considerably of a higher standing in comparison to those of the lower middle class workers. [...]
Huntington proposed the theory that people's cultural and religious identities will become the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world formulated in 1993 in the Foreign Affairs article "The Clash of Civilizations" as [...]
This is because of the society, the development which has taken place in the human beings is present in the society and the individuals learn from it, the past information is overwritten with the updated [...]
According to this article the former administration at Home Depot allowed middle level managers autonomy which gave them freedom to spur innovation and authority to act incase of any changes in the local market. In [...]
The focal point of the article is to look into the financial scenario today that are deciding to outsource previous in-house jobs to individuals overseas with equivalent skills and abilities that live where the cost [...]
Thus, the following ideas of the book together with the critical analysis of Pierre Bourdieu's work will be the major focuses of this essay: To begin with, the book by Pierre Bourdieu is, as LiPuma [...]
A thorough grounding in such theory helps the researcher and other students of social phenomenon in coming to a much clearer understanding of the phenomenon itself and helps form a rounded view that is free [...]
Some prolific people in this field have summarized technological as: "The belief in technology as a key governing force in society"., ".the belief that social progress is driven by technological innovation, which in turn follows [...]
Durkheim was not the first sociologist to distinguish between agricultural society and industrial society; nevertheless, he was the first to analyze the difference between the two in respect to social solidarity, collective conscience, and law.
The chapter of Veblen's famous book "Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study in the Evolution of Institutions" under the name "Conspicuous consumption" presents a valuable contribution to the history of design, fashion and, [...]
His views are widely regarded as crucial in such issues as economic and social development, the role of the responsible intellectual, the issues of the Holocaust, the roots of authoritarian power, and the prospects for [...]
It believes that there are social structures and tasks are given to individuals to perform, and it is on the basis of the smooth functioning of these tasks that society exists and progresses.
Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that a family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the state.
Ageism is the negative stereotyping of old people who are regarded as useless and a burden to society since they do not contribute anything but consume resources.
The author has argued that society has become a death-denying society where prolonging life becomes a test of the machines and technology that is bent on prolonging death.