SOC 421: Contemporary Sociological Theories

CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY

INTRODUCTION

Talcott  Pearson is considered as one of the founding fathers of sociology, he developed a theory of pattern variables refers to a dichotomy that describes alternatives of actions between which each person or group has to choose in every situation. The actions are shaped by three systems;

1.     The personality system.

2.     The cultural system. and 

3.     The social system.

PARSON'S PATTERN VARIABLES

1.     AFFECTIVITY/AFFECTIVE NEUTRALITY: Emotional impulses are gratified e.g. a child is allowed to show love for his parents.

Affective Neutrality; Emotional impulses are inhibited e.g. a bureaucrat in an organization or a teacher grading papers, it is expected to be emotionally neutral.

2.     SELF-ORIENTATION/COLLECTIVITY ORIENTATION:  In self-orientation, action is based on the actors own self interest, needs and goals e.g. a student decide what to study in college based on his/her own interest.

Collectivity Orientation; action is based on what is best for the collectivity e.g. a child quit school to work to support the family.

3.     UNIVERSALISM/PARTICULARISM: Universalism connotes actions are based on general standards or universal law and moral goods e.g. the Supreme Court decide cases according to rules valid for the whole community.

Particularism; actions are based on the priority & attachment that actors play in the relationship at situation e.g. you gives support to a friend without considering whether he is right or wrong.

4.     ASCRIPTION/ACHIEVEMENT: In the process of ascription, action is based on given attributes (race, sex, age) for instance, being eligible for the draft or allowed to buy alcohol or vote because you are within a specified age.

Achievement; action is based on performance e.g. graduation from college based on completion of the requirement.

5.     SPECIFICITY/DIFFUSENESS: In specifity, action is based on specific criteria or roles e.g. clerk/customer role, teacher/student role, there are narrowly and defined

Diffuseness; open guidelines for action e.g. becoming friends with teachers, going beyond the clear boundaries of teachers/students.

GEORGE RITZER'S INTEGRATION THEORY OF SOCIAL ANALYSIS

According to George Ritzer, there is a shift in social phenomena, namely.

1.     SOCIAL FACTS PARADIGM: Drives from the work of Emile Durkheim, the focus of social facts paradigm surrounds the large scale of the society and the methods of enquiry used in this paradigm are questionnaires and the historical comparative.

2.     SOCIAL DEFINITION PARADIGM: This is associated with the work of Max Weber, the social definition paradigm is concerns with the way actors defines their social situation and the effects this have on ensuring further actions and interaction. The method of this particular paradigm is observation.

3.     THE SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR PARADIGM: This is associated with the work of B.F Skinner; this paradigm is concern with reward and punishment that inhibit undesirable behaviour. The distinct method of the paradigm is the experiment method.

The assumption towards the integrated paradigm revolves around that these multiples paradigms that this three (3) Social fact, Social definition and social behaviour tends to focus only on one aspect of social reality thereby, paying little or no attention to the other forms of social realities. According to Ritzer, the social facts paradigms is concerned with the MACROSTRUCTURES, the Social definitionist is interested in ACTION and the social behaviorist focuses on BEHAVIOUR REFLECTED THESE BIASNESS of the multiple paradigms science. Ritzer therefore, suggested that a conceptual skinner is evidently needed in an effort to deal with social phenomena of the world.

            Therefore, Ritzer expanded on the idea of social interaction and change as a figure of social phenomena. In doing this, Ritzer postulated that the key to an integrated paradigm rest in the level of social reality. The perspective in this case is that there are too many forms of social reality that ranges in various circumstances which makes it difficult to uncover the meaning of social phenomena of such a wide range. According to Ritzer, the levels of social reality are bases on two distinctions, namely;

a)     The Microscopic Continuum and;

b)    The Macroscopic Continuum

Fig. 1: George Ritzer’s Integrated Level of Social Analysis

Both the above distinctions are associated with the objective view; the macroscopic field is concerned with the large scale material phenomena such as the educational parts of the society and how education can be effective in a positive way.

On the other hand, the microscopic field is associated with the small scale none-material phenomena, example; this will includes patterns of behavior and interaction, in this case, one can identify the micro level with individual’s subjective components influenced by the actor and the objective patterns of actions in which the actor partakes.

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