What basic view of culture underlies the structural-functional approach? The social conflict approach? This question refers to the basic view of culture underlying these two paradigms.

Structural-functionalism views society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote teamwork and stability. This approach observes society from a macro-level perspective, looking at it’s social structure and it’s functions. Culture broken down into subgroups such as: religion, politics, language, traditions, etc. is what makes up all of society and these parts need to be understood as an integrated function of society.

In the social conflict approach, it focuses on how social groups use power to influence, control, or exploit other social groups that possess less power than them. The class conflict and inequality influences the evolution of society. This culture with those higher in hierarchy vs those at the bottom and the rich vs poor needs to be studied and understood in order to break down and explain how this social evolution will take place.