Approaches in Mass Media and Satisfiers in Marriage Essay

Logic and Biological Explanations of Human Behavior

What are the logic or biological explanations of human behavior? Why do sociologists argue that they are misguided/

Logical explanations of human behavior are common enough. For instance, in the society, it is always believed that it is natural for a woman and a man to fall in love, be married, and start a family. Equally, it is natural for this nuclear family to exist as a unit, with the parents going to work to provide for their children. The wife also devotes some of her time to looking after the kids and being a mother. As the family grows and becomes more independent, it is only logical for the kids to live at home with their parents at least until their late teen years. By this time, it is only logical for them to leave their parents' home and want to make money in their world, and start looking for marriage partners. Hence, they may start their families. The consequence of these logical behaviors is that it could be illogical not to want to marry of getting married for reasons other than love. Equally, it could be illogical for a couple not to want children, or for mothers not to want to look after their kids or for wives not to want to have children. Although it is illogical for kids to abandon their family home much younger than eighteen, it is obviously not logical for them not to want to leave at all to marry of getting married, so that they can start their families. Nevertheless, such illogical behaviors and desires are common enough in today's society. Many people prefer being single or married depending on the circumstances and "opportunities." Various women do not like the notion of motherhood and some females do not wish to spend their entire lives solely being mothers and wives. A great number of kids desire to leave their home long before they attain eighteen while any number of them is comfortable staying as members of their parents' household until they age.

The argument that behavior is the bi-product of psychological makeup is gaining popularity. The application of this theory is common today. For instance, failure or success in education is always presumed to be merely a reflection of intelligence. This implies that dim children fail while bright children succeed. Often, criminals are viewed as morally deficient persons, lacking any actual sense of wrong or right. Equally, unemployed persons tend to be condemned as lazy, work-shy or scroungers who prefer to gain something for nothing instead of working for it. Suicide is regarded as an act of the unstable individual, only undertaken when the balance of the mind is disturbed. Such explanations appear attractive some people and have proven to be useful in sociological criticism. However, on a tight analysis, if academic success is merely a reflection of intelligence, then why do kids from manual employees' households perform so poorly unlike kids from middle-class families? Clearly, it is non-logical to suggest that engaging in a particular job rather than another can determine the intelligence level of a child. In some way, the characteristics of a kid's background tend to influence academic achievement.

2. Outline the Difference between Functionalist, Critical, and Interpretive Approaches to the Mass Media.

As created by Morgan and Burrell in 1979, the interpretive approach is an overarching paradigm that in contrast to the functionalist approach employs a subjective rather than objective reality. Moreover, it concentrates on the symbolic rather than instrumental factors of life. Although functionalists approach shows that instrumentally real news stories affect the society, interpretive approaches examine how various publics interpret news stories as real. Concerning mass media, a functionalist approach emphasizes how news articles determine societal relations while an interpretive approach emphasizes how news articles create societal reality.

Evidently, the functionalist and interpretive approaches are umbrella perspectives, which cover various academic traditions. However, proponents of interpretivism have a tendency of emphasizing some features likely to influence mass media communication. As such, this approach emphasizes the subjectivity of news items and de-emphasizes their objectivity. They do not concentrate on how news items affect the behavior of the society but rather concentrate on how the public interpret these news items. Hence, the interpretive approach looks at the meaning of various news items.

In contrast, the critical approach to mass media is related either to the consequences that may be unintentionally detrimental…