In this Discussion exercise, you will use the sociological perspective to demonstrate how a single interaction that occurred in your own life during the past week might be explained by all three sociological theories.

For example, consider the routine chore of stopping to fill your car with gas at the local quick stop. Your sociological imagination can help you look for the strange in this familiar activity. You might begin by applying the structural functional theory by considering how putting gas in your car is part of a system of interrelated cogs and wheels. Fueling up the car helps you get to work, where you earn the paycheck that helps you keep your household functioning. Then, conflict theory might help you see the struggle that you face as you use the scarce resource of money for gas when there are so many other things you could use the money for. Finally, from the symbolic interactionist perspective, you might view this act of putting gas in the car as a form of symbolic communication between you and the oil companies during which you insert a card that symbolizes money into a machine that symbolizes customer service that delivers the oil company's product to you

Sociological Perspective

Choose any routine interaction that you took part in over the last week. It might be as simple as driving children to a soccer game or as complex as making a big presentation at work. Once you have the interaction in mind, apply each of the sociological theories explain the interaction. Do not forget to use the sociological perspective to look for the strange in the familiar.