Theoretical Perspectives
The first of the theoretical perspectives is functionalism. Functionalism is often referred to as structural functionalism. An easy approach at functionalism is thinking of society being made up with many parts and each part having its’ own function. Functionalism is a macro-level perspective, because, it is large scaled and does not focus on a particular group, but does focus on civilizations. Emile Durkheim is one of the earliest known functionalists. Durkheim work was not early known due to her being a female. During this time period women were not considered to be as intelligent as men and her work was ignored. Sociologist Robert Merton, theory of functionalism is manifest and latent. Manifest is an individual intended outcome, while latent