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how to compare and contrast 3 perspectives?

I am currently doing sociology and not really getting any idea of how to compare and contrast Marxism, Functionalism and Interactionism.

I am not really getting on with sociology and its not helped by the tutor, we have to compare and contrat 3 perspectives then analyse 1area of society using 3 sociological theroies!

i am hoping that someone can give me some pointers about how to go about the comparing and contrasting bit, please!!

Reply 1

ByronicHero

20

Highlight similarities and differences - relative strengths/weaknesses, perhaps make a judgment on which you feel is more effective, logical etc.

Surely you must have been given some guidance, however rough, about what they are looking for.

Reply 2

username271381

14

I don't know anything about Sociology really, but I'd just say how the theories are similar, how they're different, features shared by X and Y but not with Z and why this is significant, features unique to X, maybe how X, Y and Z work together in real life (or how they theoretically could), then how X, Y and Z relate to the area of society you're discussing, and which provides the most suitable/ feasible explanation. That's what I'd do.

Reply 3

Isis Black

OP

paddy__power

Highlight similarities and differences - relative strengths/weaknesses, perhaps make a judgment on which you feel is more effective, logical etc.

Surely you must have been given some guidance, however rough, about what they are looking for.

nope! he spent 9 weeks waffling about Marxism and non of us still got anything useful out of those lessons as he kept going off onto other things though saying it was of no relevance to our work! he is only just getting onto funtionalism and we still havent covered the rest, yet he wants this work in by the first week back after crimbo!

suffice to say i told my tutor i want to drop the sociology lessons and go into biology for psychology related units, and it turns out i am not the only perosn to complain about the sociology tutor!

thanks for the help! i am just going to have to sit and try to get my head round it over the hols!

Reply 4

ByronicHero

20

Isis Black

nope! he spent 9 weeks waffling about Marxism and non of us still got anything useful out of those lessons as he kept going off onto other things though saying it was of no relevance to our work! he is only just getting onto funtionalism and we still havent covered the rest, yet he wants this work in by the first week back after crimbo!

suffice to say i told my tutor i want to drop the sociology lessons and go into biology for psychology related units, and it turns out i am not the only perosn to complain about the sociology tutor!

thanks for the help! i am just going to have to sit and try to get my head round it over the hols!

Marxism is something the internet can inform you about rather quickly [especially if you only need to know how to relate it to a given problem] you should be able to, with a little bit of initiative, sort this out =].

You doing psychology/sociology degree then?

Reply 5

Isis Black

OP

paddy__power

Marxism is something the internet can inform you about rather quickly [especially if you only need to know how to relate it to a given problem] you should be able to, with a little bit of initiative, sort this out =].

You doing psychology/sociology degree then?

I am currently on the Access to /HE course to go onto psychology degree at Uni
The subjects i am doing on the access course are curently psychology and sociology but i am going to swap sociology after the next unit to do 2 units on Biology, that are related to psychology, in the new year.

a lot of us are having to do a lot of research on the net and tons of books to find the information that we need, it has been a big joke to be honest, with our other subjects we have been given straight info about what we need and need to do yet in this nothing, even we we have tried to make notes from power points he has done he has jsut skimmed over them leaving us with half done notes and telling us that it will be on learnzone, yet nothing has appeared on there yet, it will probably be up once we are all supposed to have handed this work in! then again i was warned about this tutor by others who i know did the course last year, turns out some nearly didnt pass becasue of his way of teaching and not thinknig that work needs to get done at a certain time so credits can be gained!

Reply 6

GazzaXtreme

2

as one of the user said earlier
see the similarities and differences between each theory

for example
both functionalism and marxism are macro and structural theories ie they look at the society as a whole where as interactionists focus on the individual's behaviours; interactionists believe that people do not act like "puppets" but instead have free will in their actions

however, functionalists is a consensus theory where as marxism is a conflict theory. this means functionalist would perceive society having value consensus ie shared agreement on the norms and values in society and all social institution funciton together to promote value consensus and social solidarity. Marxists argues that there is class conflict between each social class ie the bourgeoisies (ruling class) vs the proletariat (working class). The norms and values the society has only benefits the bourgeoisies due to ruling class ideology, the working class are not aware of this due to false class conciousness (where people are blinded to reality and not aware of what their real position is).

Both Marxists and Functionalists ignores the roles of women in society. Marxists overemphasizes class ignoring gender,age and ethinicity as they are economic determinists.

marxists looks at the negative aspects of society - hence "conflict perspective" where as functionalists mostly looks at the positive aspects

I hope these ideas will help you

this is just a small glance of the theories, this is just a recap of the theories and then applying it to the comparisons and contrasts between these perspectives

Remember: Concepts are extremely important, the more sociological terms you use appropriately and effectively, your essays etc will be better :smile:

i hope your teacher/lecturer or whatever has told you that?

lack of concepts will affect your grade <--- fact

Reply 7

Isis Black

OP

Thanks for that extra bit of info! it as been of use to me, and no our tutor has said nothing about what is and isnt expected to appear well aprt from getting the referencing correct :rolleyes:

He is a useless tutor and no one is happy with him and have said so but nothing has been changed yetso i am gonig to get this unit and the next one done then i give up! and take on Biology, that tutor is very good and gives out plenty of useful information and tells you what is expected (i have her for a different lesson) also the biology units are useful to go along with psychology

Reply 8

ellasam42

Firstly, I would say, understand the question and look carefully at what it is asking, and keep this in the forefront of your mind the whole time you do your essay. Once you have got to grips with the words, compare and contrast in the question and what they mean, you will be answering the question, as dont forget, thats the whole aim of the essay, to answer the question.
what you have to remember though, is within each theory there will also be an element of structure and agency, and you may find yourself fairing towards one theory more than aother to come to your conclusion. However, there is never right or wrong answer in Social Science, so good luck!

Reply 9

Isis Black

OP

Thanks!!!

well here is what we have been asked to do :

Compare and contrast 3 sociological perspectives

then analyse 1 area of society (i chosen media) using 3 different sociological theories.

right the big problem with all of this is we have learn`t nothing up to now really and i really do mean that i am not the only one feeling lost, and no matter how much we tell him he doesnt listen!

I am going to sit down over the next few days and do a lot of reading i think the 3 persepctives i am going to cover are Marxism, Functionalism and interactionism.

Reply 10

cfc1992

10

Would suggest you go for pluralism if you're chosing the media one.

how to compare and contrast 3 perspectives?

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