Race-conflict approach: A point of view that focuses on inequality and conflict between people of different racial and ethnic categories.

Definitions of key terms for the five basic sociological perspectives – Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism, Social Action Theory and Postmodernism.

These include Conflict, Functionalism, Symbolic Interactionism, and Social Exchange Theories; second, Middle-Range Theory, which is a theory derived from specific scientific findings and focuses on the interrelation of two or more concepts applied to a very specific social process or problem.

In social science, racial inequality is typically defined as “imbalances in the distribution of power, economic resources, and opportunities.” Racial inequalities have manifested in American society in ways ranging from racial disparities in wealth, poverty rates, bankruptcy, housing patterns, educational opportunities …

Social inequality occurs when resources in a given society are distributed unevenly, typically through norms of allocation, that engender specific patterns along lines of socially defined categories of persons.

Examples. Examples of institutionalized discrimination include laws and decisions that reflect racism, such as the Plessy vs. Ferguson U.S. Supreme Court case. The verdict of this case ruled in favor of separate but equal public facilities between African Americans and non-African Americans.

Institutionalized discrimination refers to the unjust and discriminatory mistreatment of an individual or group of individuals by society and its institutions as a whole, through unequal intentional or unintentional bias or selection; as opposed to individuals making a conscious choice to discriminate.

Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person’s social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. The term was conceptualized and coined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw.

In the culture of the U.S., the celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day, by many Americans, not just of Irish descent, is an example of symbolic ethnicity.

Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw (/ˈkɪmbərli/; born 1959) is an American lawyer, civil rights advocate, philosopher, and a leading scholar of critical race theory who developed the theory of intersectionality.

May 4, 1959 (age 62 years)

Role conflict occurs when there are incompatible demands placed upon a person relating to their job or position. Conflict among the roles begins because of the human desire to reach success, and because of the pressure put on an individual by two imposing and incompatible demands competing against each other.

Social developments The presence of violent conflict is not always indicative of social decay. Due to the complex character of state-building and shifts in political systems, violence is not a reliable indicator of political decay or development.

John Locke in particular exemplified this new age of political theory with his work Two Treatises of Government. In it Locke proposes a state of nature theory that directly complements his conception of how political development occurs and how it can be founded through contractual obligation.

Role theory is a concept in sociology and in social psychology that considers most of everyday activity to be the acting-out of socially defined categories (e.g., mother, manager, teacher). Each role is a set of rights, duties, expectations, norms, and behaviors that a person has to face and fulfill.

Social psychology utilizes a wide range of specific theories for various kinds of social and cognitive phenomena. The theory divides the way people attribute causes to events into two types. External or “situational” attributions assign causality to an outside factor, such as the weather.

As additional scientific evidence is gathered, a scientific theory may be modified and ultimately rejected if it cannot be made to fit the new findings; in such circumstances, a more accurate theory is then required.

A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may either be scientific or other than scientific (or scientific to less extent).

The theory posits that the force of gravity is the result of tiny particles or waves moving at high speed in all directions, throughout the universe.