RESEARCH PAPER

Research paper

Research paper

Thesis statement

Functionalism is many people's way to view the world sociologically. It states clearly that the objectivity of the researcher is necessary and can be accomplished. There are three main points, which make up a functionalist theory on sociological expression. The first point is that culture is made up of interacting, interdependent parts.

Introduction

Conflict Theory and Functionalism

Scientific Inquiry provides a forum to facilitate the ongoing process of questioning and evaluating practice, presents informed practice based on available data, and innovates new practices through research and experimental learning.

In recent years, research in health disparities has become an important focus of nursing science. This research explores the relationship between health and social factors such as race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic position, and educational attainment. Research of this nature has significantly enhanced our understanding of the factors that contribute to differences in health among various groups of people. However, researchers are challenged to understand the complexities of how inequalities in health came to be and how we can more comprehensively address them. In particular, we need to avoid ascribing deficits in health to particular characteristics of an individual or group.

In clinical practice, pediatric nurses are faced with similar challenges. They develop and implement interventions to improve health promotion behaviors and thereby reduce health disparities. However, nurses are constrained by the institutional settings and standards within which they practice. In our present healthcare system, interventions tend to focus primarily on the individual or family unit. Locating the individual as the primary site of health in nursing research and practice is limiting, because it sets aside wider social structures that serve to maintain and engender these disparities. These structures may include economic organization, political systems, and societal power relationships that privilege some individuals while marginalizing others. Critical social theory provides a useful approach for capturing these broader contextual perspectives. (Maryanski, Alexandra and Jonathan Turner 1992)

Explanation

How does each theory apply to the selected sociological institution? What are the similarities? What are the differences?

Critical social theory predominantly refers to a series of ideas that emerged during the 1920s and 1930s from the Institute of Social Research at the University of Frankfurt in Germany. Expounded and reinterpreted over generations by theorists such as Habermas, the critical social theory does not have a unified definition; however, historical and contemporary versions of this theoretical framework share many fundamental tenets. As a form of science and inquiry, critical social theory examines relationships of power and the underlying structures in society that produce population inequalities. These societal structures determine, for example, the types of employment and wages that are made available to certain groups of people, distribution of wealth, access to education, and availability of healthcare services. Through the internalization of ideologies such as racism, sexism, and classism, these (mis)representations of social processes are made to appear inevitable, natural, and constant, yet serve to reinforce interests of the dominant group. (Maryanski, Alexandra and Jonathan Turner 1992)

An assumption of critical social theory is that cultural, political, and economic ...