Social+Theory


 * __Structural__-__Functional Approach__-framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability; vision of society as stable and orderly, ignoring the inequalities of social class, race, ethnicity, and gender that generate tension and conflict
 * The Mentalist is focused on the CBI which tries to promote a stable society and ideas associated such as social class, race, ethnicity, and gender when dealing with cases in order to solve the case.
 * Within every episode of the Mentalist society is regulated and stabilized by the different levels of society including the police, government and other civilians.

 
 * __Social-Conflict Approach__-framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change; focus is on race, gender, ethnicity, class, distribution of wealth, power, education, and social prestige
 * In one episode Jane and the team are investigating a murdered miner. Jane discovered that this man had found gold in a different area and that his murderer had killed him in order for him to have all of it.
 * In one episode the son of a victim has to put off college even though he has been saving his whole life all because his father spent it on mining equipment without his permission.
 * __Symbolic-Interaction Approach__-framework for building theory that sees society as the product of the everyday interactions of the individual; loses sight of the influence of culture and social factors by concentrating so deeply on the individual
 * Sometimes during cases the team gets so deep into thinking about one factor of a case that they lose sight of everything else involved so they get stuck until they step back and look at other factors of the case.
 * In every episode the CBI team works together and protects each other. If one fails to protect another there is a chance that someone from the team will be hurt which would affect the team as a whole.