Navigating Social Problems: The Functionalist Perspective on Marijuana Decriminalization

Name Institutional Affiliations Date Theoretic Approaches in a Social Problem There are three main theories that sociologists employ while analyzing a social problem. Functionalism theory allows functionalists to see a social problem from the perception of societal imbalance, arguing that many societies experience changes and fail to successfully adapt to the employed change that leads to a social problem (Mooney, Clever, and Van Willigen, 2021). Conflict theory views the social problem from the societal inequalities arguing that in most instances, a social problem emerges due to conflicts amongst leaders as the powerful tend to humiliate the powerless (Loyal and Malešević, 2021). Finally, symbolic interaction theory argues social problems from people's interpretations. Symbolic interaction theorists assume that through people interactions, people analyze each other's