Overview of Macrosociology

            Sociologists study the world of sociology with either a macro or micro level point of view. The macro approach closely examines the structural functionalism of society. Structural functionalism focuses on the big picture where contributing factors are out of our control and that societal factor is what shapes the interactions between individual. On the other hand, micro-level approaches closely follows symbolic interactionism theory which "looks at the meaning (the symbolic part) of daily social interaction of individuals " (Steckley, 2014, p.33). The belief that everyday interactions between individual is what shapes and defines society. Based on the in class discussion, micro individual-level factors had clearly prevailed over the societal-level factors when explaining the cause of student attrition. .
             During the class discussion, we determined the macro-level issues included economics, cultural expectations, and structural inequalities. Economics was a major determining factor due to the nature of how expensive universities can be. The cultural expectations and structural inequalities also created barriers for various groups of students. The SFU study concluded the macro-factors to be course availability, student services, and group differences (Morris & Heslop, 2007). Group difference or cultural difference was a common issue presented in class and also the report. It has a major impact on the individual as people from different demographics have different characteristics. These issues reside most commonly as societal-level factors as they are out the individual's control. Such problems can also be explained by Émile Durkheim concept of social facts where people have patterned ways of thinking (Steckly, 2014). .
             From a micro-level approach on society, we found the reason for student attrition to be financial issues, low commitment, family or personal issues, levels of stress and other opportunities that arise.