Excerpt by Essay:
Functionalist Perspective of Contemporary society
The sociological perspective that is to be applied to the social phenomena discussed in this particular record is the functional perspective. The functional point of view is based on the basic principle that society functions somewhat akin to the human body (McClelland). Just the approach there are diverse facets of the entire body that carry out specific functions – like the fact that the brain was designed to think, the cardiovascular system designed to pump blood, etc . – you will discover different areas of society that perform specific functions. These different aspects of society that serve certain purposes happen to be referred to as sociable control mechanisms. There are a variety of various examples of sociable control systems in society. For instance, educational institutions and the education system are created to prepare members of culture for the essential skills required to enter and compete inside the work force. The main tenet with all the functionalist point of view of culture is that social phenomena arises for a reason and is readily explicable as a result of social control mechanisms and the various functions they provide within that society.
The functional perspective of sociology would explain the wage gap that still is out there rather frankly. On the one hand, such a wage gap is among the basic principles of capitalism – there should be a gap in wages to preserve the dichotomy between the haves and the have-nots, so that the past can continue to make profit on and exploit the latter. Thus, there are “systems of benefits and disadvantage” (Renzulli ou al. 491) pertaining to wages. The functionalist perspective could maintain that such a gap is existing because there are people who fulfill distinct roles in society. Many of these people are accountable for playing prominent roles in social affairs that are particularly important. These individuals are all those such as doctors, lawyers, are usually, etcetera. That they earn substantial wages to justify both the rarity of these positions and also to provide the type of motivation to get individuals to go through extended, and extremely expensive, schooling and training to attain these kinds of positions. Alternatively, there are a bevy of low wage positions that accounts for this income gap. These types of positions happen to be low wage because they might require extremely limited education (if any) and minimal schooling. Moreover, they are positions by which there are excessive turnover prices. The common sense behind these low wages is that virtually anyone is able to do the job obligations for
