
Social Problem: a social condition that has
negative consequences for individuals, our social
world, or our physical world

The “objective” reality of a social problem: some
aspects of a social problem can be proven by the
collection of data.



E.g. The Center for Disease Control released that by the
end of 2003, 1.2 million Americans were living with
HIV/AIDS
It is not necessary for you to have contracted HIV to
understand that it is a problem
The “subjective” reality of a social problem: all social
problems must be defined as problematic

E.g. Is war necessary or is it a social problem? The
answer depends on your outlook on the world

“Social Constructionism” (Berger & Luckmann,
1966): our world is a social creation, created
from our everyday thoughts and actions.


For example, although there is the “objective”
problem of 1.2 million Americans living with
HIV/AIDS, some people may not consider it a
problem: some would argue that HIV only affects IV
drug users and the sexually promiscuous so it should
not count as a social problem; some may argue that
medical advances mean it is no longer a social
problem
Conditions that harm people may exist, but they
are not social problems until humans categorize
them as troublesome and in need of a solution
 Homelessness
can be seen as a problem by
people who are not sympathetic to the
problem

E.g. Many people blame homeless people
themselves for the homeless epidemic; this
ignores more structural problems like the lack of
a living wage or affordable housing
 The
construction of
social problems and
solutions has to do
with power
 For
whom is it a problem?
 Who says it is a problem? (Who has the
power to say so?)
 Why is it a social problem (as opposed to a
personal problem for a large number of
people)?
 When does a private concern become a social
problem?
 What alternative solutions exist?
 Who decides what solution is adopted or
tried?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Seeing the general in the particular: social
forces shape our lives in unseen yet significant
ways
Seeing the Strange in the Familiar:
questioning everyday assumptions
Seeing Personal Choice in Social Context:
seeing what social forces caused individual
behavior and how individual behavior is
patterned
Marginality & Crisis: being an outsider
enhances sociological thinking
Seeing How Relationships are Shaped by
Power: how systems grant rewards and
punishments and how some individuals reap
benefits they may not even know about
a
sociological imagination: a way of thinking
that helps link our personal lives to the social
world.


It means you have to see what can not be seen in
front of your eyes.
It means that you have to be able to creatively
imagine the connections between events which
give birth to current social life
 Individual
Trouble: a problem that is
experienced by the individual
 Social Issue: a patterned social problem that
has wide-reaching effects

E.g. unemployment

Functional-Structuralism examines the
functions (or consequences) of the structure
of society
Basic Belief: Society is made up of inter-related
parts that depend on one another to maintain
order in society
 Society is the product of the agreed upon norms
and values of its individuals.
 Society is like a puzzle – each individual must play
by the rules so that society can function
 Functionalists on social problems: social
problems are actually functional or they would
not exist. Functionalists might ask, what
purpose does a social problem serve?

 Conflict
theorists: examine how society
is held together by power relations and
how people in power coerce those
without power to maintain the system
Basic Belief: Society is characterized by
social inequality
 Society is defined by people’s struggle to
secure scarce resources

 Conflict
theorists on social problems:
social problems exist because people with
power make life difficult for those
without social power; they are also
interested in how people with power can
define something as a social problem

Symbolic Interactionists: focus on how we use
language, words, and symbols to create and
maintain our social reality


Basic Belief: Society is the sum of the interactions of
people and groups; it is a micro theory
Human beings act in accordance with how they believe
they are expected to act; we learn behavior
expectations through interaction with others
 Symbolic


Interactionists on social problems:
1. We learn behavior from others (e.g. no one is
born a “juvenile delinquent”, but learns how to
behave like one)
2. The language we use to define a social
problem m (E.g. national healthcare or socialized
medicine? “Pro-choice” or “pro-abortion”?)