This assignment is intended to help you apply one of the 3 major sociological perspectives, Symbolic Interaction, Conflict and Functionalism, to a movie of your choice. Think about how the movie’s characters, story line, setting etc., might be used to explain the main ideas of one of the perspectives. Disney movies are usually easy to see the theories. Think about the Lion King and conflict – who are the have’s and the have nots, what are the scarce resources that the conflict is over? What about the Symbolism in the movie? Once you pick your movie and theory the examples will come. YOU CANNOT USE THE LION KING. In the additional materials I have given an example of how it should look like. SECTION I State the movie you will use. Identify and define the Theoretical Perspective you will use. What are the main ideas of the Perspective? You may use more than one Perspective if you wish. SECTION II Give examples (explain/apply) that illustrate how the theoretical perspective can be seen in the movie that you chose. What happens in the movie that can be understood using the Perspectives you selected? Explain at least three different scenes in this section. In the explanation you will use at least five (5) sociological terms from the book. Please highlight or put the terms in bold. The theories do not count in this number. Be sure to use the terms correctly. SECTION III Briefly state your thoughts on the assignments. Explain why you liked or did not like the assignment – be specific. You could also add any suggestions on how to improve this assignment. Theory Definitions: Conflict theory provides a third perspective on social life. Unlike the functionalists, who view society as a harmonious whole, with its parts working together, conflict theorists stress that society is composed of groups that compete with one another for scarce resources. The surface might show cooperation, but scratch that surface and you will find a struggle for power. Many sociologists extend conflict theory beyond the relationship of capitalists and workers. They examine how opposing interests run through every layer of societywhether in a small group, an organization, a community, or an entire society. The functionalist perspective is based largely on the works of Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons, and Robert Merton. It is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. According to functionalism, society is a system of interconnected parts that work together in harmony to maintain a state of balance and social equilibrium for the whole. Symbolic interactionism is a theoretical perspective in which society is viewed as composed of symbols that people use to establish meaning, develop their views of the world, and communicate with one another. The central idea of symbolic interactionism is that symbolsthings to which we attach meaningare the key to understanding how we view the world and communicate with one another. Charles Horton Cooley (18641929) and George Herbert Mead (18631931) developed this perspective in sociology.
