Name: Mark Gil Dela paz

Section : 11 Honesty

Social conflict theory 

is a Marxist-based social theory which argues that individuals and groups (social classes) within society
interact on the basis of conflict rather than consensus. Through various forms of conflict, groups will
tend to attain differing amounts of material and non-material resources (e.g. the wealthy vs. the poor).
More powerful groups will tend to use their power in order to retain power and exploit groups with less
power.

Conflict theorists view conflict as an engine of change, since conflict produces contradictions which are
sometimes resolved, creating new conflicts and contradictions in an ongoing dialectic. In the classic
example of historical materialism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels argued that all of human history is the
result of conflict between classes, which evolved over time in accordance with changes in society's
means of meeting its material needs, i.e. changes in society's mode of production.

Symbolic interactionism
 is a sociological theory that develops from practical considerations and alludes to people's particular
utilization of dialect to make images and normal implications, for deduction and correspondence with
others. In other words, it is a frame of reference to better understand how individuals interact with one
another to create symbolic worlds, and in return, how these worlds shape individual behaviors.It is a
framework that helps understand how society is preserved and created through repeated interactions
between individuals. The interpretation process that occurs between interactions helps create and
recreate meaning. It is the shared understanding and interpretations of meaning that affect the
interaction between individuals. Individuals act on the premise of a shared understanding of meaning
within their social context. Thus, interaction and behavior is framed through the shared meaning that
objects and concepts have attached to them. From this view, people live in both natural and symbolic
environments.

Symbolic interactionism comes from a sociological perspective which developed around the middle of
the twentieth century and that continues to be influential in some areas of the discipline. It is
particularly important in microsociology and social psychology. It is derived from the American
philosophy of pragmatism and particularly from the work of George Herbert Mead, as a pragmatic
method to interpret social interactions.

R. Collins views symbolic interactionism as studying the way the social world is created through
interaction between individuals and their environment.