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             Spencer viewed society as being very similar to a biological organism, that all different aspects of society have a special purpose to help it survive. He strongly believed in a Darwinian view of natural selection and applied the phrase "survival of the fittest" to the social world. He thought that governments shouldn't interfere with society so that we could evolve into more sophisticated beings. Spencer believed in a functionalist society which is made up of institutions like, family, religion, education, state, and economy. He claimed that knowledge was of two kinds, knowledge gained by the individual, and knowledge gained by race. He said that intuition, or knowledge learned unconsciously, was the inherited knowledge or experience of the race.

             Weber was an interactionist who studied the role religions play in economic development. He became famous for his controversial theory of the Puritan, or Calvinistic, origin of capitalism. He believed the critical aspect of sociology is the intensions, values, beliefs, and attitudes that underlie peoples behaviour. He wanted to learn the meaning behind the actions. Through this method sociologists try to place themselves in the shoes of other people to identify what they think & feel. Weber stressed the importance of a value free sociology where sociologists should not let their personal biases affect the conduct of their research. .

             Cooley who was also an interactionist, talked about the looking glass self which is the way we think other people view ourselves. He said its an ongoing process sectioned into three phrases. Imagining how we appear to others, imagining how others judge our appearance, and then developing some sort of feeling on the basis of what we perceive others' judgements to be. He also talked about self image, which is a temporary mental conception we have of ourselves. Self conception, a more over riding view of ourselves.