key features of each of the following theories: conflict evolutionary functionalist interactionist. COPY Flashcards
ET: who are the main theorist of social theory of evolution?
Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer
ET: what does this theory suggest?
society develops in a very steady manner over a considerable period of time.
ET: what assumption is made?
socieities in their earliest form were more simplistic and that they have become more complex and specialised (post-industrial) over time.
ET: how was this view supported?
by examples where there is progression from an agricultural based society to a more modern, industrialised society.
ET: when was this theory particularly popular?
around time of Charles Darwin and completed his understanding between various groups based on biological evolution.
ET: What was the other assumption?
not only does every society develop over time and passes thru same process of change but that every society aspires to reach the same destination.
ET: what is the destination?
to reach the standards and characteristics of western civlisation.
although huge assumption, common in Darwin’s time.
ET: what did this theory fit nicely with?
the colonial era of Britain and other colonising countries which were heavily involved in bringing their ‘superior advanced’ form of society to more ‘primitive’ societies (ethnocentrism was rife during this period)
ET: what is a weakness of this theory?
only looks at slow, gradual change and doesn’t explain quick change, e.g. war, natural disasters that may change society.
ET: what does every society pass through?
develops over time and passes thru same linear process of change through phases such as:
- hunting and gathering societies
- agricultural societies
- industrial societies
- post industrial societies
ET: criticism?
- assumes all societies follow same path
- believes post industrial society superior to primitive
- adopts ethnocentric view of world
- equates change with progress and adaptions of western societies.
