Essay on College: Sociology and Symbolic Interactionism

Submitted By johnsonc1210
Words: 781
Pages: 4

Sociology And The Family Family is two or more people who consider themselves related by blood, marriage, or adoption. The three different sociological perspectives are…functionalism which basically means fulfilling the six needs to the survival of society, which are economic production, socialization of children, care of the sick and aged, recreation, sexual control, and reproduction. Conflict theory is also a sociological perspective, and it means the social, political, or material inequality of a social group. The last sociological perspective is symbolic interactionism which is a social theory that focuses on the analysis of the patterns of communication, interpretation and adjustment between individuals. In this essay I am going to explain how the Buckman family in the Parenthood movie relates to all of these different perspectives. Using all the information I seen in the movie I was able to see that Gill’s family represented functionalism the most. From watching the movie I seen all functionalism perspectives. Economic production would be Gill working at the firm, and generating all the income for his household. Socialization of children would be all three of the kids, Justin, Taylor, and Kevin. Kevin has a few issues, he’s very emotional, and he has some problems in school. Care of the sick and aged would be Gill helping take care of his grandmother, and letting her live with them for a while. Recreation would be Gill coaching the little league baseball team, and his son Kevin playing on the team. There isn’t really any sexual control because their children are young. An example of reproduction in Gill’s family would be his wife finding out that she’s pregnant.
Additionally, the conflict theory would relate more to Susan’s family. I say this because out of all the families Susan’s seems to have the most issues with this perspective. Susan’s husband Nathan was very controlling, and he felt like he had to rule everything. And this showed the inequality of them two. For example, Nathan always had Susan, and their Patty following this healthy lifestyle, and he wouldn’t let them eat sweets, or junk food. Susan hid a box of junk food I their closet, and when Nathan upset her she would eat some of it. Also Nathan was very hard on Patty, she was very young and he had her learning things that middle school kids would learn. Even at family events he would make her sit down and learn instead of her playing with her cousins. Another example of Nathan acting like he’s in charge of everything, was when Susan told him that she wanted another baby he told her no, and wouldn’t have any discussion about it, so she decided to leave him. After she left he realized that what he did was wrong, so he went and got her back, and a few months later they had another baby. And he even