The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how overpopulation causes social problems. To do so you must take many things into consideration, such as different views of racial problems and conflicting definitions of a social problem. Social problems can be defined in many different ways. They effect everyone and some of us encounter problems everyday as a result of our race, religion, gender, or low income.
Others experience problems from technological change or declining neighborhoods, others are affected directly by crime and violence in their own neighborhood, and sometimes definitions of social problems are changed by society because of changes around you. Finally in order to achieve the purpose of this which is to examine and discuss different issues and situations that cause social problems such as poverty. Overpopulation and social problems go hand and hand in todays society and there are many reasons and factors as to why these problems exist.
Factors that lead to overpopulation that causes social problems are the increase in the number of single mothers in poor neighborhoods opposed to the decline in birth rates in the more efficient parts of the country, how the death rate is at a steady decline because of medical advances in rich and poor countries, the effects immigrants have on an environment and the population growth that occurs, the influence parents leave on children, and what is being done to help prevent the spread of AIDS because this is a deadly disease which is lowering our population but causing many social problems.
Elements of a Social Problem There are also elements that make up a social problem. One of these elements is that they cause physical or mental damage to individuals or society (Carter p16) which means that sometimes people may permanently suffer before any action is taken to solve the problem because everybody thought it was not that big of a deal until sometimes permanent or short term damage has occurred.
Another element is they offend the values or standards of some powerful segment of society (Carter p16) which means no matter what you do someone will always take offense against your actions because everyone has different views and values and what is important to some may not be to others. Another element is that they persist for an extended period of time(Carter p16) and everyone can picture that being true because as you solve one problem another always arises.
The last element of a social problem is generating competing proposed solutions because of varying evaluations from groups in different social positions within a society, which delays reaching consensus on how to attack the problem (Carter P16). This is caused because there are many different social groups that have different ideas and solutions to the problems we may face. Sociological Perspectives on Social Problems
There are also different sociological perspectives on social problems such as the functionalist, conflict, interactionist, feminist, and the postmodernist orientations. The functionalist view on social problems focuses on the social structures that hold a society together over time and they also see sociology as the science of social order. The second conflict orientation sees most social problems as arising from disorganization due to group differences.
Another view is the interactionist orientation, which concentrates on how people perceive and define the events that influence their lives. The feminist orientation gives women a voice in a world that has been dominated by male-oriented perspectives in the past. The last and final one is the postmodernist orientation which, is an emerging and still controversial approach to studying society. Postmodernist insist that the change is so great that a more complex and far less hopeful world has supplanted the modern one we thought we lied in.
The Effect of AIDS and Birth Rates are falling but Population is not. Aids is a deadly disease which is hurting a large amount of our population but at the same time it is causing many conflicts and social problems within our society. This disease has made people outcasts in our society because they have this disease that can kill or make someone ill for a long period of time which will adventually lead to death.