Structural

Functionalism

Conflict Theory

Main
Ideas

Significant
Theorists

Strengths

Interprets
each part of
society in
terms of how
it contributes
to the
stability of the
whole society.
Society is
more than the
sum of its
parts; rather,
each part of
society is
functional for
the stability of
the whole.
Tensions and
conflicts arise
when
resources,
status, and
power are
unevenly
distributed
between
groups in
society and
that these
conflicts
become the
engine for
social change.

Emilie Durkheim,
Herbert
Spencer, Talcott
Parsons, and Robert K.
Merton.

If all goes well, the parts

of society produce order,
stability, and
productivity

Karl Marx, Max

Horkheimer and
Theodor Adorno, C.
Wright Mills,

Unequal social order was

maintained
Acceptance of the
values, expectations,
and conditions
If the changes made
created a new
system, like socialism,
then peace and stability
would be achieved.

Symbolic
Interactionism

Symbolic
meaning that
people
develop and
rely upon in
the process of
social
interaction.
Analyzes
society by
addressing
the subjective
meanings
that people
impose on
objects,
events, and
behaviors.

George Herbert Mead

Some fundamental
aspects of our social
experience and
identities,
like race and
can be understood
through the symbolic
interactionist lens.