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Sociological Theories Essay

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Sociological Theories One of the sociological theories is conflict theory. The conflict theory deals with people's level on wealth, or class. The conflict theory says that social change is beneficial, contrary to focuses on social order. In the story of the woman and her children, the conflict theory plays a big role on the situation. Police of higher class are threatening the homeless woman. The conflict theory is a constant struggle of people of higher class over powering people of lower class, or the weaker. The police are trying to over power the woman by telling her to leave. Even though the woman and her children were doing nothing wrong, the police used their power to tell her to leave. Also the people of the area showed …show more content…

The symbolic interactionist theory is another theory that plays a part in the situation of the homeless woman and her children. The symbolic interactionist theory deals with the interactions people make to one another by using gestures. In order to understand each other, they have to put themselves in the other person?s position to find out what they are trying to say. The woman could have been using gestures such as the clothes she was wearing. She was probably wearing the same clothes every day. This showed she had no money to spend. Also she had a van parked around where she was always seen sitting. This could be a symbol that she had no home and was forced to live in her van. The woman may not have felt welcome there because the people of the community may have looked at her funny. They might have used such gestures as turning their heads when she looked at them, or trying to avoid her when she tried to talk to them. On the other hand the people may have felt sorry for the woman and her children and could have used gestures such as a sad face. They may have called the police to take her to a homeless shelter. The cops may have used some symbolic gestures such as making a disgusted face or a sad face when they were talking to the woman. There are many possibilities of people using symbols that may have occurred. The functionalist

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