Social Problems
Functionalism
The roles that each individual part play in bringing something together to function. Each part needs the others in order for their role to continue.
Each individual photo in the picture above symbolizes many "parts". When all the different roles that each photo depics are combined it brings together a functioning world.
Conflict
Karl Markx theory argues that individuals as well as groups use their power to gain control. The more powerful the group or individual, the more they exploit groups or individuals with less power then themselves. This picture would represent one using his power to conform many to the way he believes is right.
Symbolic Interactionism
The idea that people interact with others through interpriting actions. Instead of responding to the action we respond to the meaning in which we attatch the action. This could be described as missing the big picture of the idea or that people base their behaivor on what they beleive to be true instead of what "is" true. This picture symbolized the way one has intrepreted what a female physic should look like as opposed to what it truely does look like.
Social Problems Comprehension
Instructed by Professor Dwight Adams
Several different aspects cover what a social problem is or could be. Things that can be changed, things that need to be changed, and things that are simply put aside for the future generation. I ask myself are these problems social problems or could they be merely the way our world operates. At first thought, I would think that a criminal could be a social problem, but digging deeper into the reasons behind why that criminal does the things that he or she does is a misinterpretation of how they perceive society as a whole. Emile Durkheim supports the functionalist theory that suggests everything has a place and because of that place or role that it plays there is an outcome of something else. For example without criminals there would be no reason to employ police officers, FBI and DEA agents or build and maintain jails and or prisons. Without those using government funding there would be millions more tax dollars to be spent elsewhere. Everything has a revolving door. If one were to deviate from what society perceives as being socially expectable it affects all other parts of creating the “whole” picture and in turn creates a social problem. Before taking this class, I would often think of so many things that I wanted to fix in terms of “problems with society”. I had never taken the time to reflect on what the reverse outcome might be. I was only focused on the problem itself and not what would happen to the rest of the structure if that part were missing and or altered. The functionalism view has opened my mind to new ideas that I would have never thought to be reasonable before going in so much depth with the reality of this role.
Two other factors that play a big part in Social Problems are poverty and racism. Through discussing these issues in class, I have a more broad understanding as to why these are still social problems today. According to Conflict Theory, which could be described as a struggle for dominance among competing social groups. These groups could include organizations such as religion, race, gender, social classes and many more. In society the most powerful members play a huge role in the dominate success and opportunity of others. As seen in the civil rights movement, two groups of very powerful individuals used the power, manipulation and control that they had to negotiate the trade of African American slaves. After the slaves were brought into America the people residing in America were told how to treat them and the rights and freedoms that they were allowed. The power and structure that the leaders of these dominating groups and organizations hold is very critical in insuring that nobody will rein above them.
Poverty is structured in a very similar manner. The issues that arise due to one being in poverty are never ending. The lack of ability to provide for the basics needs of living for individuals as well as their family, places people in a different social spectrum. The rich will always feel as if they have some kind of control over the poor because of the assistance that is given to help these individuals. They are playing the dominant role in the sense that it is “their” hard-earned money that is paying for the poor’s food, shelter, and medical expenses. The upper class carries the notion of needing to be prominent and prestigious over the middle and lower class. Although it can be done, climbing the social status level can be very difficult. Each different category has their own interpretation of what life is. While going down the social status latter is easy, trying to cross from a lower class into a middle or upper class requires different mannerisms, behavior, speech and values. These obstacles are all there as part of the structure of society. Karl Marx (1818-1883) is the father of social conflict. The conflict theory looks at how engaging in different conflict can bring power to those who have previously been ranked higher on the social latter because it undermines the person with less power and sets them back even more then they were before.
Another problem that we discussed in class that I thought was very interesting was the mental aspect of different individuals and what causes them. I think that it would be fair to say that to some extent every individual has a fair amount of mental issues. These could be derived from various things that they have interpreted as wrong in their lives or problems that they have heard about and can realate to. By acknowledging that these obsticles are effecting others and trying to relate could cause them to dig deeper into a problem or issue in their life that was not as big before they heard the issue of someone else. Spin has a huge effect on this issue. Spin can be described as using only partial statistics. A few types of spin would be “If its scary be wary, a story that’s to good to be true, the dangling comparative, the superlative swindle, the pay you Tuesday con, the blame game and glittering generalities”. People assume that they have different symptoms and different things wrong with them because they hear about someone talk about depression for an example. The more they hear others talking about how depressed they are or what they were feeling before they started taking the medication that they were prescribed, the more they are going to allow their mind to tell them that they are having the same symptoms and that they also need to get on a prescription so that the problem can be corrected. That will not necessarily correct the problem but could be the cause to more problems. The side effects that the prescription has on them will be cause enough for them to need more prescription drugs to correct the ones that they are on. This process could continue depending on how openly they let their mind feed into these different sales tactics as well as the different types of “Spin”. This could also be described as Symbolic Interactionism.
The theory thru Symbolic Interactionism is the framework for understanding how individuals interact with each other and with society. The concept of knowing how the listener is going to react by what is said or the meaning of what is being portrayed. The picture I thought symbolized this theory the best was an anorexic female looking into a mirror and seeing herself but seeing herself very overweight. This happens for several different reasons but the more common reason would be the way that media directs negative remarks at women or society in general. We are constantly being reminded that we should have perfect skin, beautiful long shiny hair, a beautiful complexion, well-proportioned body etc. Everywhere we turn; these messages are being thrown into our minds. The celebrities and models somehow portray how the rest of the world needs to be. Jennifer Aniston uses a certain face cream, therefore, if you want to have beautiful skin like her then you should also use that face cream. That goes for everything hairstyles, makeup, body products, vitamins, clothing body styles and so on. We could spend forever trying to keep up with what the media tells us that we need to be. But the reality of it is that most of us will never see ourselves in the same way that someone else does. The girl in the picture does not see how skinny she is because media has impounded in her head that you need to look a certain way in order to be accepted in our society. This same issue could cause issues like depression and anger, which could then result in taking prescription pills and the cycle then continues.
There are so many things that I have learned in this class that I can apply into my daily life. I feel like the whole way that I think has been opened to a much broader perspective. One story that has really made an impact on the way that I view things is the story that my professor told in class about being in an unknown area and feeling ok enough with walking around the streets at night without worrying about what could happen to him. He knew that he was in a semi dangerous city and that he would be taking a risk by going out late at night. He explained how he would friendly acknowledge the people he came in contact with and was able to show them that he was not a threat to them because of his actions and words. The whole meaning behind this was that every little thing that you do has a dramatic effect on others. Regardless of if you mean to have that influence or not. By my professor feeling comfortable enough with himself to be able to face an unknown city at night wit out fear, portrays to me that a lot of the reason we do the things we do are because we are scared of the unknown. What would happen if I toured an unknown city in the middle of the night? Obviously, I would assume the worst that could possibly happen, and deter myself from going. I would then never know what could have happened. I will never have the experiences that I would have had if I had chosen to go. Fear is what drives a lot of our decisions. The poor do not make it to the upper class because they are afraid of the unknown… They are afraid of the social change that would occur. The sick do not get better because they are afraid of what they would do if there was nothing to focus all their attention to. Men are dominating in politics because it has been ingrained into women that men have more so called power then women do. Therefore, we should really just leave politics up the men. However, in reality we are scared. We do not want to be turned away….. We do not want to be discouraged by everyone else who still believes that men hold the power and we do not want to hold the title for the one who tried and failed. All of this comes down to not having the knowledge to see that there are other opinions to the way things viewed. Learning about the different philosophers has been fun because it gives me the chance to see all of the perspectives and then add my own. I am interested to see where this thought process could take me in the future.
