Three Paradigms of Sociology According to George Ritzer, Here's the Explanation!

Sociology Info – There are three paradigms in Sociology. What are the paradigms ? According to sociologist George Ritzer, the three paradigms are social facts, social definitions, and social behavior. Let's check out the following explanation! 

Sociological paradigm is a 'way of looking at social problems or phenomena. The term paradigm was originally introduced by Thomas Kuhn (1962) in his work 'The Structure of Scientific Revolution'.

Paradigm is a basic view of the problems studied by science. Simply put, the paradigm can also be understood as a 'way of looking' at a problem.  

The concept of paradigm was popularized in sociology by Robert Friedrichs (1970) through his work 'Sociology of Sociology'. 

George Ritzer (1992) wrote specifically the paradigms that exist in sociology. In his book 'Sociology: A Multiple Paradigm Science', Ritzer describes three paradigms of sociology as social sciences, namely the paradigm of social facts, social definitions and social behavior. 

These three paradigms affirm that sociology is not a science that has a single view on a subject matter. Sociology is the science of multiple pararadigma.

Here are three paradigms : 

Social Facts. The paradigm of social fact is a way of looking at social fact as something real that exists outside the individual, outside the self, outside the subject.  

The emphasis is that social facts have their own reality. The outline of this paradigm is divided into two, namely social structures and social institutions. 

Social structures can be exemplified such as class, caste and social strata. Social institutions for example, values, norms, roles and social positions.  

Structural-functional theories and conflict theories are categorized by Ritzer into this paradigm. Sociologists who represented him, among others Durkheim and Marx.

Social Definition. The paradigm of social definition is a way of emphasizing that social reality is subjective.  The existence of social reality is inseparable from the individual as an actor who performs an act. 

Social structures and social institutions are thus shaped by individual interactions.  Through this paradigm, social actions seek to be understood and interpreted subjectively. 

Weber's action theory, symbolic interactionism, dramaturgy and phenomenological theory fall into this paradigm category.

Social Behavior. The paradigm of social behavior is a perspective that focuses on the relationship between the individual and the environment. 

Social reality is an objective reality formed through real and empirical individual behaviors.  The behavior of individuals interacting with their environment is a form of social reality itself. 

The theory of behavior or behavioral and social exchange theory of Homans and Blau can be categorized into this paradigm.

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