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• Structural-Functionalism is a framework that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability
• Social structure gives shape to our lives in families, the workplace, or the college classroom
• Proponents of Structural-Functionalism:

  • Auguste Comte (1798-1857): aimed to keep a unified society when many traditions were breaking down
  • Emile Durkheim (1858-1917): believed customs and beliefs of traditional societies and formal laws in modern society hold society together
  • Herbert Spencer (1820-1903): introduced the organic analogy, comparing society to the human body with social structures working together to preserve society
• Manifest Functions are the recognized and intended consequences of any social pattern, while Latent Functions are the unrecognized and unintended consequences
• Sociologist Robert K. Merton expanded our understanding of social functions by pointing out that any social structure probably has many functions, some more obvious than others
• Merton introduced the concept of social dysfunctions, which are any social patterns that may disrupt the operation of society
• Social dysfunctions can arise from issues like unemployment, rising numbers of immigrants, increasing income inequality, when viewed by a group of people as disrupting social patterns including values, norms, traditions, and laws
• The Marxist paradigm originated from the ideas of Karl Marx, a philosopher, economist, and social activist who identified private property and capitalism as the root causes of poverty
• Karl Marx's critical analysis of capitalism focuses on the material or economic basis of inequality and power relations as the cause of social instability and conflict
• Social inequality refers to the differential access to wealth, power, and prestige, existing across gender, race, age, ethnicity, religion, and kinship
• Business owners can control other parts of society like education, religion, and the media, which can prevent workers from rebelling
• Critical sociology, based on Karl Marx's framework, aims to go beyond analyzing society to actively change it, using rigorous scientific analysis as a basis for change
• Dialectical Materialism, influenced by Hegel, emphasizes conflict between social classes as a driver of progress and change
• Historical Materialism seeks to understand how specific power relations and economic formations have developed historically, shaping everyday lives
• In Marx's view, history is a struggle between ruling and working classes, with the exploited class controlled by various societal forces that can be overcome through revolutionary action
• Deviant behavior is socially constructed, with individuals labeled based on societal norms and values, as explained by Estoque and Leano (2006)
• Symbolic-Interactionism is a micro-level theoretical framework and sociological perspective that looks at how society is created and maintained through repeated interactions among individuals
• Fundamental to symbolic interactionist thought is the idea that individuals use language and significant symbols such as words, gestures, facial expressions, and sounds in their communication with others
• Symbolic interactionists believe that people make sense of their social world through communication or through language and symbols, both verbal, written, and non-verbal thoughts
• George Herbert Mead (1863-1931), one of the founders of symbolic-interactionism, wrote "Mind, Self, and Society" in 1934, focusing on the concept of "SELF" as a social structure and on the stages of child development as a sequence of role-playing capacities
• Herbert Blumer (1900-1987), a student of Mead, synthesized and popularized the S-I theory, identifying its three basic premises:

  1. Human beings act toward things based on the meanings that things have for them

  2. The meaning of things is derived from or arises out of the social interaction one has with others

  3. Meanings are handled and modified through an interpretative process used by a person in dealing with the things they encounter
• William I. Thomas (1863-1947) contributed the concept of Definition of the Situation, asserting that individuals define situations as real, and they are real in their consequences
• Erving Goffman (1959) sees social interaction as a theatrical performance, where life is the stage and people interact as both stage performers and audience, engaging in impression management to manipulate social impressions
• Human interaction is described as indirect, occurring through the mediation, exchange, and interpretation of symbols
• Personality comes from the Latin word "PERSONA," which means "Actor’s face mask," representing the "mask" worn as a person moves from situation to situation during a lifetime
• Panopio (1994) identifies biological inheritance, geographic environment, cultural and social environment as determining factors contributing to personality formation
• Sigmund Freud introduced psychoanalysis in the 20th century, explaining that individuals are only aware of a small portion of the forces that drive their behavior
• Freud's psychoanalytic theory states that personality results from the clash of three forces: the Ego, Superego, and the Id
• Psychoanalysis is the process of using knowledge about the Ego, Superego, and Id to analyze the ways a person behaves
• Freud's structure of the personality includes the ID (entirely unconscious), the EGO, and the SUPEREGO (with conscious, preconscious, and unconscious aspects)
• The conscious mind contains information we are aware of at any given moment, while the pre-conscious holds memories and thoughts easily recalled; the unconscious is the primary source of human behavior
• The Ego, part of the personality, maintains a balance between impulses (ID) and conscious (Superego), based on the reality principle
• The Superego, representing the conscience and moral part of us, develops due to moral and ethical restraints placed on us by caregivers, dictating our beliefs of right and wrong
• The ID contains primitive impulses like thirst, anger, and hunger, seeking instant gratification without considering others, and is present from birth to meet basic needs