Author Question: Cory is four years of age. He loves to dress up like Batman and pretend to save Gotham City from The ... (Read 32 times)

Deast7027 · **on:** Jul 2, 2018

Cory is four years of age. He loves to dress up like Batman and pretend to save Gotham City from The Penguin. According to sociologist George Herbert Mead's theory, he is in the __________ stage of self-development.

a. preparatory
b. assimilation
c. play
d. game

Question 2

State the major assumptions of functionalism, conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, and postmodernism.

What will be an ideal response?

milbourne11 · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 2, 2018

Answer to Question 1

c

Answer to Question 2

Functionalist perspectives are based on the assumption that society is a

stable, orderly system. This stable system is characterized by societal

consensus, whereby the majority of members share a common set of

values, beliefs, and behavioral expectations. A society is composed of

interrelated parts, each of which serves a function and (ideally)

contributes to the overall stability of the society. Societies develop social

structures, or institutions that persist because they play a part in helping

society survive. These institutions include the family, education,

government, religion, and the economy. According to the conflict

perspectives, groups in society are engaged in a continuous power

struggle for control of scarce resources. Conflict may take the form of

politics, litigation, negotiations, or family discussions about financial

matters.

Today, advocates of the conflict perspective view social life as a continuous power struggle

among competing social groups. The conflict perspective encompasses several branches:

(1) the neo-Marxist approach, which views struggle between the classes as inevitable and

as a prime source of social change; (2) the branch that focuses on racial-ethnic inequalities

and the continued exploitation of members of some racial-ethnic groups; and (3) the

feminist approach, which focuses on gender issues. According to symbolic interactionist

perspectives, society is the sum of the interactions of individuals and groups. Theorists

using this perspective focus on the process of interactiondefined as immediate

reciprocally oriented communication between two or more peopleand the part that

symbols play in giving meaning to human communication. A symbol is anything that

meaningfully represents something else. Symbolic interaction occurs when people

communicate through the use of symbols. Symbolic communication occurs in a variety of

forms, including facial gestures, posture, tone of voice, and other symbolic gestures (such

as a handshake or a clenched fist). Symbols are instrumental in helping people drive

meanings from social situations. In social encounters, each person's interpretation or

definition of a given situation becomes a subjective reality from that person's viewpoints.

Symbolic interactionists attempt to study how people make sense of their life situations and

the way they go about their activities, in conjunction with others, on a day-to-day basis.

According to the postmodern perspectives, existing theories have been unsuccessful in

explaining social life in contemporary societies that are characterized by

postindustrializati on, consumerism, and global communications. Postmodern societies are

characterized by an information explosion and an economy in which large numbers of

people either provide or apply information, or they are employed in professional occupations

or service jobs.