Complete the chart, comparing and contrasting the different sociological perspectives on important social institutions like family, religion, education, and health. Provide a brief description of what each of the views says about the social institution. Then, discuss which view you think applies best for each of the social institutions. When you are finished, select “Save As” and save the document using this format: StudentID_UnitVII. Upload this document to Blackboard as a .doc, .docx, or .rtf file.
| Social institutions or structures | Functionalist view of this structure | Conflict view of this structure | Interactionist view of this structure | Discuss the view you think best applies to the structure |
| Family | The family forms an interconnected society by infusing culture and providing significantly recognized statuses like ethnicity and social class to new societal members. | Each individual family in the society strives for differing aspects and contend for power, wealth and high social class. The societal positioning of the family determines its children’s future fate in terms of wealth and class. | Families form the backgrounds in which we are born, our identities developed, and we became socially integrated. As a response to the past and social experiences, we form new family trends. | The interactionist view best describes the institution. Respective families are where people are born, nurtured, attain societal identities and become incorporated into society. |
| Religion | Religion is a traditional force founded in a society whose primary purpose is providing opportunities for group formations and social interactions, answers to spiritual anonymities and emotional support. | Religion is a social unit that encourages trends of inequalities and blinds people from seeing their interests. It has been a tool of encouraging submission and ‘spiritual right ‘that support tyrannical societal structures. | Religious practices involve crucial physical interactions between believers as they fellowship, creating an integrated society. Religious symbols are a sacred uniting factor of believers who rally behind a shared belief | The functionalist view best explains the institution. Religion plays many crucial roles in society and is a social institution from its nature of enhancing social interactions. People seek spiritual answers from religion. |
| U.S. healthcare system | The healthcare system is socially founded and is crucial in maintaining societal stability. Sickness is termed as a social unconventional, and doctors operate as watchmen who determine who is unhealthy and healthy. | Most of the healthcare system problems experienced just as other social issues arise from the commercialized society. Commercializing healthcare has led to greed for profits creating inequality where the poor continue to suffer from disparities in the healthcare system. | The healthcare system effectiveness to some extent depends on the patient’s willingness to get well or not. The patient has the choice to seek medical care and adhere to the doctor’s prescription or not. Society has an active role in the functioning of healthcare. | The conflict view best explains the unit. Many healthcare services have been commercialized, and both public and private facilities seek profits. Those suffering from the inequalities created are the poor because they cannot afford good healthcare. |
| Marriage | Marriages and families are interconnected in responsibilities hence cannot be separated. Marriages result in the formation of families, and the kind of family determine the new marriage pattern that will be established. | Endogamic limitations on marriages spread racial barriers and disparities. Prohibition of gay marriages, children adoption constraint, and renouncing married couples lawful rights boost discrimination against gays. | Democratic marriages encourage spouses to view each other as equal shareholders in the union. They equally take part in household chores, decision making and parenting. | In this case, I believe all the perspectives play in the description of marriages. This is because there are different types of marriages and different societies view marriages differently. |
