instrumentalism

Examples of instrumentalism in the following topics:

• Functions of the State

  • Various schools of thought consider the state to be either a neutral entity separated from society or an immoral partisan instrument.
  • Marxists view the state as a partisan instrument that primarily serves the interests of the upper class.
  • Anarchists believe that the state is inherently an instrument of domination and repression, no matter who is in control of it.

• The Law as an Instrument of Oppression

• Ideology

  • In the Marxist account of ideology, it serves as an instrument of social reproduction.

• Gender and Research

  • Two instruments incorporating the multidimensional aspects of masculinity and femininity have dominated gender identity research: the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ).
  • Both instruments categorize individuals as either being sex typed (males report themselves as identifying primarily with masculine traits, females report themselves as identifying primarily with feminine traits), cross sex-typed (males report themselves as identifying primarily with feminine traits, females report themselves as identifying primarily with masculine traits), androgynous (either males or females who report themselves as high on both masculine and feminine traits) or undifferentiated (either males or females who report themselves as low on both masculine and feminine traits).

• Fieldwork and Observation

  • Questionnaires can also be used to aid the discovery of local beliefs and perceptions and, in the case of longitudinal research where there is continuous long-term study of an area or site, they can act as valid instruments for measuring changes in the individuals or groups studied.

• Authority and Legitimate Violence

  • The police and the military are the state's main instruments of legitimate violence, but this does not mean that only public force can be used: private force can be used, too, as long as it has legitimacy derived from the state.

• Traditional Authority

  • Military force is an important instrument of patrimonial rule.

• The Conflict Perspective on Deviance

  • In a capitalist society, the worker's alienation from his and her humanity occurs because the worker can only express labor, a fundamental social aspect of personal individuality, through a privately owned system of industrial production in which each worker is an instrument, a thing, not a person.

• Women in Medicine

  • Monique Frize, née Aubry (born 1942) is a Canadian academic and biomedical engineer known for her expertise in medical instrumentation and decision-support systems

• Education and Health

  • The eHealth literacy model is also referred to as the Lily model, which incorporates the following literacies, each of which are instrumental to the overall understanding and measurement of eHealth literacy: basic literacy, computer literacy, information literacy, media literacy, science literacy, health literacy.