How To Answer Your Stimulus Response Question

Althea Swaby-Burton
Contributor

SOCIOLOGY IS a subject that is changing rapidly. It is a discipline in which evidence is normally open to more than one interpretation and questions can be defined in a variety of ways, and this has stimulated a variety of perspectives. As a result of these changes in the subject matter, examinations in the subject is also changing. One of the ways in which students are examined at the CAPE Level is by the use of stimulus response questions, not in its entirety, but it forms part of the questions in paper I.

The following section of this paper will address the basic rules that should be followed when attempting stimulus response questions.

Firstly, study the stimulus material carefully.

Although stimulus questions are not normally comprehensive tests, and one should not expect to find the 'answers' in the material that is given, they are just there to guide you. The material is part of the question and if you ignore it, you are actually ignoring the context in which the examiner has given the issues that you are required to explain and discuss.

It is, therefore, imperative that you check the information given as this serves two purposes. The advantages are that it may either prompt further ideas that will help to answer the questions that follow, or reveal information of direct use to your answer. It also acts as a precaution against overlooking something important in the stimulus material or misinterpreting the question.

Secondly, make sure to answer questions asked in part and clearly indicate which part it is you are answering. If you write an extended part to the question without indicating which part of the question you are referring to, you will lose marks. Also if you give information that is not relevant to the question asked you will gain no extra marks. If you do not answer all parts of the question you will be marked out of the maximum possible marks.

Thirdly, divide the time available to you roughly in line with the marks available for each part of the question. You need to bear in mind that it is not your opinion about the relative importance of the different parts of a question that counts. It is the examiner's!

THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE PART II

(a) Identify the main sociological perspectives?

(b) List the main sociologists associated with these perspectives?

(c) Summarise the concepts developed by these sociologists

Three main paradigms have dominated sociological thinking: functionalism, conflict and action theory.
Functionalism is a framework for building theory that envisions society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. Functionalism views society as a living organism, and argues that to understand any particular aspect of that society, it is essential to see that aspect in its full social context.

This paradigm begins by recognising that our lives are guided by social structure, meaning relatively stable patterns of social behaviour. Secondly, this paradigm leads us to understand social structure in terms of social functions, or consequences for the operation of society.

Functionalism owes much to the ideas of Auguste Comte, a Frenchman who is recognised as the first real sociologist. It was he who coined the word sociology from Latin and Greek: Socios which mean society and logos the knowledge of.

Comte established two specific problems for sociological investigation, 'social statics' and 'social dynamics'. Social statics refers to the problem of order and stability ­ how and why societies hold together and endure? Social dynamics refers to the problem of social change. What makes societies change and what determines the nature and direction of the changes?

Comte was confident that the scientific method would unlock the secrets of society that he came to regard sociologists as a 'priesthood of humanity", experts who would not only explain social events but would also guide society in the direction of greater progress. (It was he who argued in 1838, that the methods of science should be applied to the study of society).

The origins of functionalism as a school of thought and method of approach lie in the 19th century with writers such as Spencer & Durkheim. Spencer was a student of both the human body and society. He saw the two as having much in common. To Spencer just as how each structural part of the body contribute to the survival of the entire body, in the same way, he reasoned that various social structures are interdependent working in concert to pressure society.

Emile Durkheim, the French sociologist (1858-1917) also strongly influenced the discipline. He dealt with the problem of social order, arguing that societies are held together by the shared beliefs and values of their members, especially as these are expressed in religious doctrines and rituals.

However, in the twentieth century Talcott Parsons (1902-79) is widely acknowledged as the key thinker of Sociology. He argued that consensus, or agreement on values, was central to a stable society, and as such he laid down four basic functions which any society has to address:

(a) adaptation to the physical environment

(b) agreement on goal
attainment

(c) the motivation of members to accept existing patterns and management of tensions

(d) the integration of the
various parts of the social system

The fact that Parsons treated society as a system he suggested that various systems exist to carry out these functions:

1. an economic subsystem ensures the allocation of material resources, for example wealth or poverty; (adaptation)

2. a political sub-system determines goals and enables their achievement, through the Houses of Parliaments, etc.; (goal
attainment)

3. a kinship sub-system manages tensions and trains children in the values of society through the family, thereby contributing to socialisation and cultural continuity; (pattern maintenance)

4. community and cultural organisations integrate people into society, reinforcing values and traditions and encouraging involvement in for example local community projects. (integration)

It must be noted however that not all functionalists accept the entire Parsonian scheme. Coser for example, has argued that Parson presents too rosy a picture of societal functioning and that conflict is often apparent.

Robert K. Merton (1910 - 1968), an American sociologist, is also counted among the most important functionalists. He expanded the concept of social function in novel ways. He explains first that the consequences of any social pattern are likely to differ for various members of a society. Secondly, he notes that people rarely perceive all the functions of a particular social structure. He raised the ideas of manifest and latent functions, functional alternatives and dysfunctions.

A manifest function is one that was intended when the institution was established, while a latent function was not.

Functional alternatives involves the idea that a particular function can be performed by different structures thereby rendering no single structure essential for
society.

The concept of dysfunction involves the idea that a particular structure can be harmful as well as positive effects on society.

THE CONFLICT PARADIGM

If functionalism views society as an integrated whole based on a harmony of values, the conflict approach or theory emphasises division, coercion hostility. The conflict paradigm is a framework for building theory that envision society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change. This approach complements the functional paradigm by highlighting not solidarity but division based on inequality.

Guided by this paradigm, sociologists investigate how factors such as social class, race, ethnicity sex and age are linked to unequal distribution of money, power, education and social prestige. Conflict analysis points out that rather than promoting the operation of society as a whole, social structure typically benefits some people while depriving others. Perhaps the most significant contribution to the conflict perspective has come from the writings and ideas of Karl Marx and his followers, with their emphasis on the role of class interests in shaping society.

Karl Marx (1818-83) was a German of Jewish origin, but after being expelled from various countries for his revolutionary activities, he eventually settled in England. To Marx, the task of the social scientists was not merely to describe the word: it was to change it. Whereas Spencer saw social harmony and the inevitability of progress, Marx saw conflict and the inevitability of revolution. The key to history, he believed, is class conflict ­ the bitter struggle between those who owned the means of production (the bourgeoisie) and those who do not (proletariat) a contest that would end only with the overthrow of the ruling exploiters and the establishment of a free, humane, classless society. Marx placed special emphasis on the economic base of society. He argued that the character of virtually all other social arrangements is shaped by the way goods are produced and by the relationship that exist between those who work to produce them and those who live off the production of others.

Modern sociologists, including many who reject other aspects of Marx's theories generally recognise the fundamental influence of the economy on other areas of society.

Conflict theory is often limited in its coverage to Marx and his followers, but it does in fact embrace a whole range of writers who attempt fundamental criticisms of the Marxist model. Examples include Mosca and Pareto, who argue that whatever the outward aims of a state, it is inevitably ruled by a small elite that operates in its own interests; and Dahrendorf, who sees advanced industrial society as containing a wide variety of social relationships based on power and subordination.

Conflict theory in essence offers a useful contrast to the functionalist approach and it shows how the same social phenomena can be interpreted in contrasting ways.

THE ACTION PARADIGM

Both the functional and conflict paradigms share a macro-level orientation; meaning a focus on broad structures that characterise society as a whole. Action theory by contrast, starts with the ways in which people orientate themselves to each other and how they do so on the basis of meanings. This provides a micro-level orientation, meaning a focus on social interaction in specific situations.

The founder of the action or interactionist paradigm is Max Weber, who emphasised the importance of understanding the social world from the view point of the individuals who act
within it.

In his approach Weber emphasises how human meanings and action shape society. Weber understood the power of technology, and he shared many of Marx's ideas about social conflict. He however, diverts from Marx's materialist analysis, arguing that societies differ primarily in terms of the ways in which their members think about the world. For Weber, beliefs and values have transforming power. Thus he saw modern society as the product not just the new technology and capitalism, but a new way of thinking.

The interactionist perspective is a broad one, containing a number of loosely linked approaches. Erving Goffman, for example, takes a dramaturgical approach to social interaction. In other words he saw social life as a form of theatre, in which people play different parts and 'stage-manage' their lives and the impressions they create on others.

Harold Garfinkel adopts what he calls an ethnomethodological approach. This approach simply implies an attempt to scrape below the surface of social behaviour to find out how people create and share their understandings of social life, and how they base their actions on those understanding. The most widely used approach is that of 'symbolic interactionism' (Mead 1934, Blumer 1969).

The interactionist perspective then leads the sociologist to enquire into people's interpretation of, and response to their interaction with others. As such sociologists using this perspective usually focus on the specific, detailed aspects of personal everyday life.