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Foundations of Sociology : Exercise 2 - Theoretical paradigms of sociology


Instructions: Read each passage and click on the correct answer. Scroll down if you do not see the Answer box. If wrong, try again.
Click here to review the key terms for this exercise.


What Is a Theoretical Paradigm?

     In order to explain social behaviors (the way people act in group situations), sociologists need to look at and study societies. When sociologists start to study a society, they already have a certain number of assumptions (ideas or views thought to be true, but not proven) about that society. For example, an assumption a sociologist might have is that societies are stable systems (systems not likely to change). The assumptions sociologists bring to the study of society provide them with frameworks. Frameworks are structures (approaches) sociologists use to examine human societies. These frameworks, called theoretical paradigms, guide their thinking and research. The three major paradigms in sociology are: the structural-functional paradigm, the social-conflict paradigm, and the symbolic-interaction paradigm.

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