Disciplines and

Ideas in the
Social Sciences
Applications and Intersections of
the Approaches in Addressing
Social Problems
Welcome to the Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences 11 worksheet on
Applications and Intersections of the Approaches in Addressing Social
Problems!
 What I Need to Know

MOST ESSENTIAL LEARNING COMPETENCY:

Analyze the practical use of Social Sciences in addressing social concerns
and phenomenon

humans. It is safe to say that these issues arise due to inequalities in society and even humans played the biggest role for th
approaches for these issues and different applications will be explained in the most efficient and practical way.
d in understanding the social problems that occur in the society and also help them prepare and solve these issues. They wil

At the end of the worksheet, you should be able to:

Objectives:

 Identify the theoretical perspectives, its major assumptions and approaches

in addressing social problems;
 Explain the importance of application and intersections of the approaches
in addressing social problems;at
 Show appreciation for these theoretical perspectives by applying these
perspectives in their day to day lives
What I Know
Pre-test:
Directions: Read the statements below, and write TRUE if the statement is
correct, and FALSE if it is wrong. Place your answers in your activity
notebook.
1. Adequate socialization and social integration are necessary for social stability.

2. Social problems weaken a society’s stability but it reflects fundamental

faults in how the society is structured.

3. Society is characterized by pervasive inequality based on social class, race,

gender, and other factors.

4. People construct their roles as they interact; they do not merely learn the
roles that society has set out for them.

5. Social problems do not arise from the interaction of individuals.

Match the following statements in Column A with its proponent in Column

B. Write the letter of the correct answer in your activity notebook.

Column A Column B

6. Blaming-the-victim approach would say the children’s a. Wright Mills

parents do not care about their learning, fail to teach them b. Karl Marx
good study habits, and do not encourage them to take
c. Emile Durkheim
school seriously.
d. Herbert Blumer
7. The sociological imagination involves the ability to
recognize that private troubles are rooted in public issues e. William Ryan
and structural problems. f. Sigmund Freud
8. Symbolic interactionists feel that people do not merely
learn the roles that society has set out for them; instead
they construct these roles as they interact.
9. A society is divided into two classes based on the
ownership of the means of production (tools,
factories, and the like‖.

10. He felt that human beings have desires that result in chaos
unless society limits them.
 What’s In

Social sciences are like different people. Each discipline has its own interest
on how to approach society for help. Some forms of help raise awarenss among us,
others take the challenge to perform a task in different angles.

What’s New

Sociological Perspectives on Social Problems

The Sociological Imagination

Many individuals experience one or more social problems personally. For

example, a lot of people are poor and unemployed, many are in poor health, others
have family problems, drink too much alcohol, or commit crime.
Sociology takes a different approach, as it stresses that individual problems
are often rooted in problems stemming from aspects of society itself. This key insight
informed C. Wright Mills’ (1959) classic distinction between personal
troubles and public issues. Personal troubles refer to a problem affecting individuals
that the affected individual, as well as other members of society, typically blame on
the individual’s own personal and moral failings. Examples include such different
problems as eating disorders, divorce, and unemployment. Public issues, whose
source lies in the social structure and culture of a society, refer to social problems
affecting many individuals.
To illustrate Mills’ viewpoint, let’s use our sociological imaginations to
understand some contemporary social problems. We will start with unemployment,
which Mills himself discussed. If only a few people were unemployed, Mills wrote, we
could reasonably explain their unemployment by saying they were lazy, lacked good
work habits, and so forth. If so, their unemployment would be their own personal
trouble. But when millions of people are out of work, unemployment is best
understood as a public issue because, as Mills (1959) put it, ―the very structure of
opportunities has collapsed. Both the correct statement of the problem and the range
of possible solutions require us to consider the economic and political institutions of
the society, and not merely the personal situation and character of a scatter of
individuals.‖
Picking up on Mills’ insights, William Ryan (1976) pointed out that Americans
typically think that social problems such as poverty and unemployment stem from
personal failings of the people experiencing these problems, not from structural
problems in the larger society.
To help us understand a blaming-the-victim ideology, let’s consider why poor
children in urban areas often learn very little in their schools. According to Ryan, a
blaming-the-victim approach would say that the children’s parents do not care about
their learning, fail to teach them good study habits, and do not encourage them to
take school seriously.
As this example suggests, a blaming-the-victim approach points to solutions
to social problems such as poverty and illiteracy that are very different from those
suggested by a more structural approach that blames the system. If we blame the
victim, we would spend the small amount of money we have to address the personal
failings of individuals who suffer from poverty, illiteracy, poor health, eating disorders,
and other difficulties. If instead we blame the system, we would focus our attention
on the various social conditions (decrepit schools, cultural standards of female
beauty, and the like) that account for these difficulties. A sociological understanding
suggests that the latter approach is ultimately needed to help us deal successfully
with the social problems facing us today.

Theoretical Perspectives

Three theoretical perspectives guide sociological thinking on social problems:

functionalist theory, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionist theory. These
perspectives look at the same social problems, but they do so in different ways.
Their views taken together offer a fuller understanding of social problems than any of
the views can offer alone. Table 1.1 ―Theory Snapshot‖ summarizes the three
perspectives.
Theoretical Major assumptions Views of social problems
perspective
Functionalism Social stability is necessary Social problems weaken a
for a strong society, and society’s stability but do not
adequate socialization and reflect fundamental faults in
social integration are how the society is structured.
necessary for social stability. Solutions to social problems
Society’s social institutions should take the form of gradual
perform important functions social reform rather than
to help ensure social sudden and far-reaching
stability. Slow social change change. Despite their negative
is desirable, but rapid social effects, social problems often
change threatens social also serve important functions
order. for society.
Conflict theory Society is characterized by Social problems arise from
pervasive inequality based fundamental faults in the
on social class, race, gender, structure of a society and both
and other factors. Far- reflect and reinforce inequalities
reaching social change is based on social class, race,
needed to reduce or gender, and other dimensions.
eliminate social inequality Successful solutions to social
and to create an egalitarian problems must involve far-
society. reaching change in the
structure of society.
Symbolic People construct their roles Social problems arise from the
interactionism as they interact; they do not interaction of individuals.
merely learn the roles that People who engage in socially
society has set out for them. problematic behaviors often
As this interaction occurs, learn these behaviors from
individuals negotiate their other people. Individuals also
definitions of the situations in learn their perceptions of social
which they find themselves problems from other people.
and socially construct the
reality of these situations. In
doing so, they rely heavily on
symbols such as words and
gestures to reach a shared
understanding of their
interaction.
Functionalism
Functionalism, also known as the functionalist theory or perspective, arose
out of two great revolutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The first was
the French Revolution of 1789, whose intense violence and bloody terror shook
Europe to its core.
The Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century reinforced these concerns.
Starting first in Europe and then in the United States, the Industrial Revolution led to
many changes, including the rise and growth of cities as people left their farms to live
near factories. As the cities grew, people lived in increasingly poor, crowded, and
decrepit conditions, and crime was rampant. Here was additional evidence, if
European intellectuals needed it, of the breakdown of social order.
This general framework reached fruition in the writings of Émile Durkheim
(1858–1917), a French scholar largely responsible for the sociological perspective,
as we now know it. Adopting the conservative intellectuals’ view of the need for a
strong society, Durkheim felt that human beings have desires that result in chaos
unless society limits them (Durkheim, 1952). It does so, he wrote, through two
related social mechanisms: socialization and social integration. Socialization helps
us learn society’s rules and the need to cooperate, as people end up generally
agreeing on important norms and values, while social integration, or our ties to other
people and to social institutions such as religion and the family, helps socialize us
and integrate us into society and reinforce our respect for its rules.
Today’s functionalist perspective arises out of
Durkheim’s work and that of other conservative intellectuals
of the nineteenth century. It uses the human body as a model
for understanding society. In the human body, our various
organs and other body parts serve important functions for the
ongoing health and stability of our body. Our eyes help us
see, our ears help us hear, our heart circulates our blood, and
so forth. Just as we can understand the body by describing
and understanding the functions that its parts serve for its
health and stability, so can we understand society by
describing and understanding the functions that its parts—or,
more accurately, its social institutions—serve for the ongoing
health and stability of society. Thus, functionalism
emphasizes the importance of social institutions such as the
family, religion, and education for producing a stable society.
Émile Durkheim was a founder of sociology and is largely credited with
developing the functionalist perspective.
As these comments might suggest, functionalism views social problems as arising
from society’s natural evolution. When a social problem does occur, it might threaten a
society’s stability, but it does not mean that fundamental flaws in the society exist.
Accordingly, gradual social reform should be all that is needed to address the social
problem. Functionalism even suggests that social problems must be functional in some ways
for society, because otherwise these problems would not continue. This is certainly a
controversial suggestion, but it is true that many social
problems do serve important functions for our society. For example, crime is a major
social problem, but it is also good for the economy because it creates hundreds of
thousands of jobs in law enforcement, courts and corrections, home security, and
other sectors of the economy whose major role is to deal with crime. If crime
disappeared, many people would be out of work! Similarly, poverty is also a major
social problem, but one function that poverty serves is that poor people do jobs that
otherwise might not get done because other people would not want to do those
(Gans, 1972). Like crime, poverty also provides employment for people across the
nation, such as those who work in social service agencies that help poor people.

Conflict Theory

In many ways, conflict theory is the opposite of functionalism but ironically

also grew out of the Industrial Revolution, thanks largely to Karl Marx (1818–1883)
and his collaborator, Friedrich Engels (1820–1895).
According to Marx and Engels, every society is divided into two classes based
on the ownership of the means of production (tools, factories, and the like). In a
capitalist society, the bourgeoisie, or ruling class, owns the means of production,
while the proletariat, or working class, does not own the means of production and
instead is oppressed and exploited by the bourgeoisie. This difference creates an
automatic conflict of interests between the two groups. Simply put, the bourgeoisie is
interested in maintaining its position at the top of society, while the proletariat’s
interest lies in rising up from the bottom and overthrowing the bourgeoisie to create
an egalitarian society.
Marx and Engels’ view of conflict arising from unequal positions held by
members of society lies at the heart of today’s conflict theory. This theory
emphasizes that different groups in society have different interests stemming from
their different social positions. These different interests in turn lead to different views
on important social issues. Some versions of the theory root
conflict in divisions based on race and ethnicity, gender, and
other such differences, while other versions follow Marx and
Engels in seeing conflict arising out of different positions in the
economic structure. In general, however, conflict theory
emphasizes that the various parts of society contribute to
ongoing inequality, whereas functionalist theory, as we have
seen, stresses that they contribute to the ongoing stability of
society. Thus, while functionalist theory emphasizes the
benefits of the various parts of society for ongoing social
stability, conflict theory favors social change to reduce
inequality.
Karl Marx and his collaborator Friedrich Engels were
intense critics of capitalism. Their work inspired the later
development of conflict theory in sociology.
 Conflict theory in its various forms views social problems as arising from
society’s inherent inequality. Depending on which version of conflict theory is being
considered, the inequality contributing to social problems is based on social class,
race and ethnicity, gender, or some other dimension of society’s hierarchy. Because
any of these inequalities represents a fundamental flaw in society, conflict theory
assumes that fundamental social change is needed to address society’s many social
problems.

Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic interactionism focuses on the interaction of individuals and on how

they interpret their interaction. Its roots lie in the work of early 1900s American
sociologists, social psychologists, and philosophers who were interested in human
consciousness and action. Herbert Blumer (1969), a sociologist at the University of
Chicago, built on their writings to develop symbolic interactionism, a term he coined.
Drawing on Blumer’s work, symbolic interactionists feel that people do not merely
learn the roles that society has set out for them; instead they construct these roles as
they interact. As they do so, they negotiate their definitions of the situations in which
they find themselves and socially construct the reality of these situations. In doing
so, they rely heavily on symbols such as words and gestures to reach a shared
understanding of their interaction.
Symbolic interactionism focuses on individuals,
such as the people conversing here. Sociologists favoring
this approach examine how and why individuals interact
and interpret the meanings of their interaction.
An example is the familiar symbol of shaking
hands. In the United States and many other societies,
shaking hands is a symbol of greeting and friendship. This
simple act indicates that you are a nice and polite person
with whom someone should feel comfortable with. To
reinforce this symbol’s importance for understanding a bit
of interaction, consider a situation where someone refuses
to shake hands. This action is usually intended as a sign
of dislike or as an insult, and the other person interprets it
as such. Their understanding of the situation and subsequent interaction will be very
different from those arising from the more typical shaking of hands. As the term
symbolic interactionism implies, their understanding of this encounter arises from
what they do when they interact and from their use and interpretation of the various
symbols included in their interaction. According to this theory, social order is possible
because people learn what various symbols (such as shaking hands) mean and
apply these meanings to different kinds of situations. If you visited a society where
sticking your right hand out to greet someone was interpreted as a threatening
gesture, you would quickly learn the value of common understandings of symbols.
 Applying the Three Perspective

To explain armed robbery, symbolic interactionist focus on how armed

robbers decide when and where to rob a victim and on how their interactions with
other criminals reinforce their own criminal tendencies.
To help you further understand the different views of these three theoretical
perspectives, let’s see what they would probably say about armed robbery, a very
serious form of crime, while recognizing that the three perspectives together provide
a more comprehensive understanding of armed robbery than any one perspective
provides by itself.
A functionalist approach might suggest that armed robbery actually serves
positive functions for society, such as the job-creating function mentioned earlier for
crime in general. It would still think that efforts should be made to reduce armed
robbery, but it would also assume that far-reaching changes in our society would be
neither wise nor necessary as part of the effort to reduce crime.
Conflict theory would take a very different approach to understanding armed
robbery. It might note that most street criminals are poor and thus emphasize that
armed robbery is the result of the despair and frustration of living in poverty and
facing a lack of jobs and other opportunities for economic and social success. The
roots of street crime, from the perspective of conflict theory, thus lie in society at
least as much as they lie in the individuals committing such crime. To reduce armed
robbery and other street crime, conflict theory would advocate far-reaching changes
in the economic structure of society.
For its part, symbolic interactionism would focus on how armed robbers make
such decisions as when and where to rob someone and on how their interactions
with other criminals reinforce their own criminal tendencies. It would also investigate
how victims of armed robbery behave when confronted by a robber. To reduce
armed robbery, it would advocate programs that reduce the opportunities for
interaction among potential criminal offenders, for example, after-school programs
that keep at-risk youths busy in ―conventional‖ activities so that they have less time
to spend with youths who might help them get into trouble.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
 According to C. Wright Mills, the sociological imagination involves the ability to
recognize that private troubles are rooted in public issues and structural
problems.
 Functionalism emphasizes the importance of social institutions for social
stability and implies that far-reaching social change will be socially harmful.
 Conflict theory emphasizes social inequality and suggests that far-reaching
social change is needed to achieve a just society.
 Symbolic interactionism emphasizes the social meanings and understandings
that individuals derive from their social interaction
 Process questions:

Select an example of a ―private trouble‖ and explain how and why it may reflect a structural problem in so

At this point in your study of social problems, which one of the three sociological theoretical perspectives so
most appealing to you? Why?

What is It

Activity: Graphic Organizer

Direction: Complete the graphic organizer below by writing down the three sociological
theoretical perspectives, their major assumptions and views of social problems. Copy and
answer the graphic organizer in your activity notebook.

Sociological Theoretical Perspective

 What’s More

Activity 1: Five Thinking Hats

What are the three sociological theoretical perspective?

Who are the founders of the three sociological theoretical perspective?

Why is it important to tackle sociological theoretical perspectives

inclined to social problems?

When should we use sociological theoretical perspective in addressing

social problems?

How does the three sociological theoretical perspective differ from one
another?

Activity 2: Identify the theoretical perspective described in each number, by

analyzing the major assumptions and views of social problems given
below. Write your answers in your activity notebook.
Theoretical Major assumptions Views of social problems
Perspective
1. People construct their roles Social problems arise from the
as they interact; they do not interaction of individuals.
merely learn the roles that
society has set out for them.
2. Social stability is necessary Social problems weaken a
for a strong society, and society’s stability but do not
adequate socialization and reflect fundamental faults in how
social integration are the society is structured
necessary for social stability.
3. Society is characterized by Social problems arise from
pervasive inequality based on fundamental faults in the
social class, race, gender, structure of a society and both
and other factors. reflect and reinforce inequalities
 based on social class, race,
gender, and other dimensions

4. Society’s social institutions Solutions to social problems

perform important functions to should take the form of gradual
help ensure social stability. social reform rather than sudden
Slow social change is and far-reaching change.
desirable, but rapid social
change threatens social
order.
5. As this interaction occurs, Individuals also learn their
individuals negotiate their perceptions of social problems
definitions of the situations in from other people.
which they find themselves
and socially construct the
reality of these situations

What I Have Learned

Directions: Complete the following statements below. Write your answers in your
activity notebook.

The thing that strikes me the most about Sociological Perspective on Social Problems
is .

An all –encompassing statement that summarizes what addresses social problem

is .

Three most important concepts from this lesson are: 1.

2.
3.
 What I Can Do

REVIEW: CONCEPT MAP

Complete the diagram by writing the types of social problems on the empty
circles below. Copy and answer the concept map in your activity notebook.

Assessment
Directions: Read each item carefully and write the letter of the correct
answer in your activity notebook.

1. This refers to a problem affecting individuals, wherein the affected individual, as

well as other members of society, typically blame the individual’s personal and
moral failings.
a. Personal troubles c. Conflict theory
b. Public issues d. Functionalism

2. Refers to social problems affecting many individuals whose source lies in the
social structure and culture of a society.
a. Symbolic Interaction c. Public issues
b. Functionalism d. Conflict theory

3. Emphasizes the importance of social institutions for social stability and implies
that far-reaching social change will be socially harmful.
a. Symbolic interaction c. Public issues
b. Conflict theory d. Functionalism
4. This theory emphasizes on social meanings and understandings that individuals
derive from their social interaction.
a. Conflict theory c. Personal troubles
b. Symbolic interaction d. Functionalism

5. Emphasizes on social inequality and suggests that far-reaching social change is

needed to achieve a just society.
a. Conflict theory c. Symbolic interaction
b. Functionalism d. Personal troubles

6. According to this philosopher, ―every society is divided into two classes based
on the ownership of the means of production (tools, factories, and the like)‖.
a. Herbert Blumer c. Karl Marx
b. Emile Durkheim d. Wright Mills

7. He coined the term symbolic interactionism and felt that people do not merely
learn the roles that society has set out for them; instead they construct these
roles as they interact.
a. William Ryan c. Emile Durkheim
b. Karl Marx d. Herbert Blumer

8. He felt that human beings have desires that result in chaos unless society limits
them.
a. C. Wright Mills c. William Ryan
b. Emile Durkheim d. Karl Marx

9. According to this philosopher, blaming-the-victim approach would say that the

children’s parents do not care about their learning, they failed to teach them good
study habits, and do not encourage them to take school seriously.
a. Blumer c. Emile Durkheim
b. C. Wright Mills d. William Ryan

10. This philosopher believed that sociological imagination involves the ability to recognize
that private troubles are rooted in public issues and structural problems.

a. Karl Marx c. Emile Durkheim

b. C. Wright Mills d. Herbert Blumer
 Additional Activities

Read the statements below and write your answers in your activity
notebook.

1. If you have problems with your allowance, to whom do you prefer to ask for it? Why?

2. If you have problems with your love life to whom do you open about it? Why?

3. If you have problems with your school projects, to whom do you approach to for help?
Why?