Chapter Objectives

Chapter 1: STUDYING SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

By the end of this chapter students will be able to:

• Define what constitutes a social problem.
• Differentiate between a social problem that affects all members of society and those that affect specific members of the population.
• Understand and apply the sociological imagination.
• Apply the macro- and microlevels of analysis appropriately to social problems.
• Summarize the major points and the three sociological perspectives.
• Specify the differences between the three major sociological perspectives.
• Define and apply the concepts of manifest function, latent function, and dysfunction.
• Apply the functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist perspectives to aid in the understanding of a particular social problem, such as violence.
• Summarize and apply the major research methods sociologists employ in their study of social problems.