Читать книгу Our Social World - Kathleen Odell Korgen - Страница 71

A theoretical perspective is a basic view of society that guides sociologists’ research and analysis. Theoretical perspectives are the broadest theories in sociology, providing overall approaches to understanding the social world and social problems. Sociologists draw on major theoretical perspectives at each level of analysis to guide their research and to help them understand social interactions and social organizations. Theories are statements or explanations regarding how and why two or more facts are related to each other and the connections between these facts. A good theory also allows social scientists to make predictions about the social world.

Recall the description of the social world model presented in Chapter 1. It stresses the levels of analysis—smaller units existing within larger social systems. Some theories are especially useful when trying to understand small micro-level interactions, whereas others tend to be used to make sense of large macro-level structures. Either type of theory—those most useful at the micro or macro level—can be used at the meso level, depending on the research question being asked. To illustrate four of the major theoretical perspectives on the social world, we delve into our examination of Hector’s circumstances, introduced at the beginning of this chapter.