conflict of interest

Examples of conflict of interest in the following topics:

• Research Funding

  • Research funding comes from grants from private groups or governments, and researchers must be careful to avoid conflicts of interest.
  • A conflict of interest can occur when a sociologist is given funding to conduct research on an issue that relates to the source of the funds.
  • If the funding source for a research project has an interest in the outcome of the project, this can represent a conflict of interest and a potential ethical breach.
  • The existence of a conflict of interest, or a potential one at that, can call into question the integrity of a sociologist's research and findings.
  • Examine the process of receiving research funding, including avoiding conflicts of interest and the sources of research funding

• Conflict

  • War is the quintessential example of conflict.
  • Conflict theory emphasizes interests deployed in conflict, rather than the norms and values.
  • This perspective argues that the pursuit of interests is what motivates conflict.
  • The three tenets of conflict theory are as follows:
  • While societies may portray a sense of cooperation, a continual power struggle exists between social groups as they pursue their own interests.

• The Conflict Perspective

  • " The answer, for a conflict theorist attuned to unequal distributions of wealth, is the wealthy.
  • The conflict perspective, or conflict theory, derives from the ideas of Karl Marx, who believed society is a dynamic entity constantly undergoing change driven by class conflict.
  • Wright Mills is known as the founder of modern conflict theory.
  • In his work, he believes social structures are created because of conflict between differing interests.
  • In the conflict perspective, change comes about through conflict between competing interests, not consensus or adaptation.

• Conflict Theory

  • Conflict theory was developed in part to illustrate the limitations of structural-functionalism.
  • Change occurs as a result of conflict between competing interests rather than through adaptation.
  • A heuristic device to help you think about society from a conflict perspective is to ask, "Who benefits from this element of society?
  • Not surprisingly, the primary limitation of the social-conflict perspective is that it overlooks the stability of societies.
  • This is particularly true of structural-functionalism and social-conflict theories.

• The Conflict Perspective

  • Conflict theory is particularly interested in the various aspects of master status in social position—the primary identifying characteristic of an individual seen in terms of race or ethnicity, sex or gender, age, religion, ability or disability, and socio-economic status.
  • According to the Conflict paradigm, every society is plagued by inequality based on social differences among the dominant group and all of the other groups in society.
  • According to conflict theorists, the family works toward the continuance of social inequality within a society by maintaining and reinforcing the status quo.
  • Conflict theorists have also seen the family as a social arrangement benefiting men more than women, allowing men to maintain a position of power.
  • According to conflict theorists, the family works toward the continuance of social inequality within a society by maintaining and reinforcing the status quo.

• The Conflict Perspective

  • Conflict theory argues that the economic and political structures of a society create social divisions, inequalities, and conflicts.
  • While many of these perspectives hold parallels, conflict theory does not refer to a unified school of thought, and should not be confused with, for instance, peace and conflict studies.
  • Wright Mills has been called the founder of modern conflict theory.
  • In Mills's view, social structures are created through conflict between people with differing interests and resources.
  • Individuals and resources, in turn, are influenced by these structures and by the "unequal distribution of power and resources in the society. " Mills argued that the interests of the power elite of American society (for example, the military-industrial complex) were opposed to those of the people.

• Intergenerational Conflict

  • Intergenerational conflict plays a key role in the conflict perspective of aging.
  • The conflict perspective of aging is a strand of general sociological conflict theory, which is the theory that sees conflict as a normal aspect of social life rather than as an abnormal occurrence.
  • Conflict theory has three main premises: first, that society is comprised of different groups that compete for resources; second, that despite social attempts to portray a sense of cooperation, a continual power struggle exists between social groups as they pursue their own divergent and competing interests; third, social groups will use resources to their own advantage in pursuit of their own goals, even if it means taking advantage of another group of people.
  • The conflict perspective of aging is not solely about resource acquisition.
  • Members of the powerful generation act as gatekeepers and orchestrate the distribution of resources and powers to be in line with their own interests, often at the exclusion of the needs of other individuals and generations.

• Conflict Theory

  • Provide an overview of conflict theory, including its most prominent theorists.

• The Conflict Perspective: Class Conflict and Scarce Resources

  • Conflict theory of stratification holds that inequality is harmful to society because it creates a fixed system of winners and losers.
  • Conflict theorists cite this type of employee as evidence that capitalism results in winners and losers, but allows for little crossover in between.
  • According to conflict theory, social stratification benefits the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor.
  • Functionalists criticize this approach by arguing that people do not always act largely out of economic self-interest.
  • Compare the conflict theory of inequality to the funcionalist theory of inequality

• Role Conflict

  • An example of someone experiencing role conflict by way of work/family conflict is the professional who is also a parent and must decide whether to work an extra hour at the office or attend a meeting at his child's school.
  • The most obvious example of role conflict is work/family conflict, or the conflict one feels when pulled between familial and professional obligations.
  • He is therefore unable to satisfy both of these incompatible expectations, and role conflict is the result .
  • Individual personality characteristic conflicts can arise when "aspects of an individual's personality are in conflict with other aspects of that same individual's personality. "
  • Interpret how role conflict affects an individual's perception of him/herself and his/her place within society