Which perspective assumes that the elements of society work together to encourage solidarity and stability quizlet?

refers to a group of people with similar levels of wealth, influence, and status. Sociologists typically use three methods to determine social class:
The lower class

The lower class is typified by poverty, homelessness, and unemployment. People of this class, few of whom have finished high school, suffer from lack of medical care, adequate housing and food, decent clothing, safety, and vocational training. The media often stigmatize the lower class as "the underclass," inaccurately characterizing poor people as welfare mothers who abuse the system by having more and more babies, welfare fathers who are able to work but do not, drug abusers, criminals, and societal "trash."
The working class

The working class are those minimally educated people who engage in "manual labor" with little or no prestige. Unskilled workers in the class—dishwashers, cashiers, maids, and waitresses—usually are underpaid and have no opportunity for career advancement. They are often called the working poor. Skilled workers in this class—carpenters, plumbers, and electricians—are often called blue collar workers. They may make more money than workers in the middle class—secretaries, teachers, and computer technicians; however, their jobs are usually more physically taxing, and in some cases quite dangerous.
The middle class

The middle class are the "sandwich" class. These white collar workers have more money than those below them on the "social ladder," but less than those above them. They divide into two levels according to wealth, education, and prestige. The lower middle class is often made up of less educated people with lower incomes, such as managers, small business owners, teachers, and secretaries. The upper middle class is often made up of highly educated business and professional people with high incomes, such as doctors, lawyers, stockbrokers, and CEOs.
The upper class

Comprising only 1 to 3 percent of the United States population, the upper class holds more than 25 percent of the nation's wealth. This class divides into two groups: lower‐upper and upper‐upper. The lower‐upper class includes those with "new money," or money made from investments, business ventures, and so forth. The upper‐upper class includes those aristocratic and "high‐society" families with "old money" who have been rich for generations. These extremely wealthy people live off the income from their inherited riches. The upper‐upper class is more prestigious than the lower‐upper class.
Wherever their money comes from, both segments of the upper class are exceptionally rich. Both groups have more money than they could possibly spend, which leaves them with much leisure time for cultivating a variety of interests. They live in exclusive neighborhoods, gather at expensive social clubs, and send their children to the finest schools. As might be expected, they also exercise a great deal of influence and power both nationally and globally.

In the functionalist perspective, societies are thought to function like organisms, with various social institutions working together like organs to maintain and reproduce societies.
According to functionalist theories, institutions come about and persist because they play a function in society, promoting stability and integration.
The functionalist perspective, also called functionalism, is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology. It has its origins in the works of Emile Durkheim, who was especially interested in how social order is possible or how society remains relatively stable.
-Functionalism interprets each part of society in terms of how it contributes to the stability of the whole society. Society is more than the sum of its parts; rather, each part of society is functional for the stability of the whole society.
-The different parts are primarily the institutions of society, each of which is organized to fill different needs and each of which has particular consequences for the form and shape of society. The parts all depend on each other.
-For example, the government, or state, provides education for the children of the family, which in turn pays taxes on which the state depends to keep itself running. The family is dependent upon the school to help children grow up to have good jobs so that they can raise and support their own families. In the process, the children become law-abiding, taxpaying citizens, who in turn support the state.

The class system is much more open, since it is based primarily on money or material possessions, which can be acquired.
• This system, too, is in place at birth, when children are ascribed the status of their parents. Unlike the other systems, however, individuals can change their social class by what they achieve (or fail to achieve) in life.
• A major characteristic of the class system, then, is its relatively fluid boundaries. A class system allows social mobility, movement up or down the class ladder.

capitalist class, the upper middle class, lower middle class, working class, working-poor class, and under class. The capitalist would be investors and top executives, the upper middle class would be professionals and upper managers, the middle class would be lower managers, foremen, the working class would be factory workers, low paid retail sales, craftspeople, the working poor would be laborers, low paid sales people, and finally the underclass would be unemployed, part-time, welfare

o In the 19th century, a German philosopher named Karl Marx began exploring the relationship between economy and the workers within that system. Over his lifetime, Marx developed a theory that human societies progress though a struggle between two distinct social classes. The proletariat, the workers, are the lower class. They perform the labor, but the upper class managers, bosses, and rulers, called the bourgeoisie, get the profits. In this system, which became known as Marxism, governments existed to protect the wealthy, not the common good.
o Marx's theories formed a sociological perspective called conflict theory, which stated that capitalist societies were built on conflicts between the workers and the rulers. In this theory, society relies on class conflict in order to keep the wealthy in power and the poor as subjects to the government. Conflict theory has been used to examine several aspects of society that are built upon class conflict, which Marx argued were designed to protect the wealthy, not society as a whole.
o Class consciousness: The workers did not know that they were being exploited

Max Weber: Property, Power, and Prestige Property (or wealth): ownership is not the only significant aspect of property; some powerful people, such as managers of corporations, control the means of production even though they do not own them. Power, the second element of social class, is the ability to control others, even over their objections. Prestige, the third element in Weber's analysis, is often derived from property and power, since people tend to admire the wealthy and powerful.

o Murdock did a very comprehensive study in which he examined over 200 pre-industrial societies from all over the world. He found that they had many things in common, including typical gender roles for men and women. Murdock saw that even though these societies did have some differences, such as culture or common types of food, general social roles for men and women were similar for almost every society he studied.
o Murdock noted that men generally were expected to complete tasks related to hunting and warfare. These tasks required being physically strong and tough and living in rough conditions away from home, sometimes for weeks or months at a time. In contrast, women were generally expected to complete tasks related to cooking and childcare. These tasks were considered better for women because of their nurturing, more delicate nature. Again, the important thing about Murdock's study is that these general expectations were true across hundreds of different studies.
o Murdock concluded that the reason for these cultural similarities was men and women's physical natures. Men are generally taller and physically stronger, so it makes sense that many societies would give them tasks related to physical strength. Women are often softer and give birth to children, so again, it makes sense that societies would assign roles to them related to taking care of those children. Note that Murdock did notice some similarities across different cultures where there was more equality between men and women. For example, Murdock said that men and women were almost equally represented as farmers in the communities he studied, and men and women were equally likely to have body art like tattoos.
o **Murdock agreed with the functionalist approach, and in particular, how it explains socially-constructed gender roles.
o After completing his cross-cultural studies, he found that the sexual division of labor -- that is, women typically in the home and men working outside the home -- exists in all cultures (though, like cultural universals, the roles of each gender may be different.) It should be noted that Murdock didn't see this division as a biological device, but rather as a logical outcome of the gender differences in societies.

• The three major ones are class, slavery and caste
• 1)Slavery, 2)the class system, 3)India provides the best example of a caste system(Priest and teachers, rulers and soldiers, merchants and traders etc), 4)Apartheid in Africa(Everyone was classified by law into one of four groups: Europeans (whites), Africans (blacks), Coloureds (mixed races), and Asians, 5) The race class system: From the moment of birth race marked everyone for life. All whites, even if they were poor and uneducated considered themselves to have a higher status than all African Americans( this happened after slavery was over)

The functionalist view of social stratification, developed by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore, concludes that stratification is inevitable because society must make certain that its positions are filled; ensure that the most qualified people fill the most important positions; and finally, to motivate the most qualified individuals to fill the most important positions, society must offer them the greatest reward to fill the most important positions.

Conflict theorists contend that conflict, not function, is the basis of social stratification. Italian sociologist Gaetano Mosca argued that in every society groups compete for power. The groups that gain power use that power to manipulate, control, and exploit the groups "beneath them." Members of the ruling elite in every society develop ideologies that justify their society's social stratification system. By dominating their society's major social institutions and, thereby, controlling information and ideas, members of the ruling elite are able to socialize other group members into accepting their "proper places" in the social order. Marx believed the elite maintained their position at the top of the stratification system by seducing the oppressed into believing their welfare depended on keeping society stable. Gerhard Lenski suggested the key to understanding stratification is based on the accumulation of surplus.

A self-idea has three principle elements according to Cooley:
(1) The imagination of our appearance: You imagine how you appear to the others
(2) The imagination of his/her judgment of that appearance: Imagine the judgment of the other people
(3) Some sort of self-feeling: You feel some sense of pride, happiness, guilt or shame
*Double consciousness: African Americans present two faces, one to their own social circle and then another to the dominant society.
• Seeing oneself through the eyes of the dominate group in addition to one's own vision of the self, yet the two visions contradict each other.
• this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others. The feeling of two-ness. An American and a Negro. This sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.

*Double consciousness and self-idea relate because in both terms an individual is basing off what they think of themselves on others. In the self-idea, the person is thinking about how they will look to the other people and therefore the person may change they way they feel about themselves depending on how others think about him or her. In double consciousness the A.A sees themselves through how they are viewed in society. See that the way they see themselves and the way the others look at them contradict.

*in imagination we perceive in another's mind some thought of our appearance, manners, aims, deeds, character, friends, and so on, and are variously affected by it (Cooley, 1964: 184)." This is useful in understanding the role played by shame in double consciousness; the shame that results from "measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity."

Which sociological perspective views society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability?

What is conflict perspective in sociology?

What perspective is based on the assumption that ideas shape society?

What does using the sociological perspective encourages?