Functionalism

Question 1

Functionalism

Answer 1

The social perspective / concept / theory that breaks society down into its separate components and institutions (systems), and that focuses on the idea that these institutions all need to work together to create a perfect functioning society. A successful society has a stable social structure, based on a balance of social cohesion (integration) and social control (regulation). How society is organised has the most influence, as functionalism is a Structural (macro) approach studied through the Consensus Lens.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16mwO2yaIa0kRqR5eOz3ZAKGGEyBfPyEPYmaC63CFIOk/edit

Question 2

Emile Durkheim

Answer 2

The French Sociologist who came up with the idea of functionalism. Structural consensus approach, social institutions shape behaviour through socialisation, successful societies are based on value consensus and all social phenomena have a positive effect on society

Question 3

Consensus Theory

Answer 3

The lens of functionalism - one of the main two lens through which society is observed - functionalism is a consensus approach.

Question 4

Talcott Parsons

Answer 4

Introduced to functionalism the idea of the 4 conditions or prerequisites that society needs to meet in order to perfectly function. Society was viewed as a system, and that any social system has 4 basic functions;
- Adaptation
- Goal attainment
- integration
- pattern maintenance
Society must solve these in order to survive.

Question 5

Organic Analogy

Answer 5

The idea that society holds similarities to the human body with a self-regulating and interdependent system (system needs and functions) - each organ can be assigned an institution, and builds on the functionalist theory that society shows symptoms in some areas, such as high crime rates, when an institution is ‘ill’, such as a corrupt education system.
Whilst organs and cells have individual functions, they are inter-related and needed to work together to keep the body alive; people are the cells of society, coming together to create the institutions (organs). People must work interdependently to sustain society. Society is made up of various institutions that act as organs of the human body; all need to function for the body/society to function.

Question 6

Socialisation (according to Durkheim and Functionalism)

Answer 6

Critical to the idea of functionalism - socialisation in a consensus society creates social solidarity, collective conscience and value consensus, as well as creating core norms and a consensus culture. These are all key to the concept of functionalism; institutions are mainly responsible to this socialisation as part of the structuralist approach and consensus lens of functionalism. Primary and Secondary socialization are both needed to pass on the norms and values of society to ensure the correct behavior.

Question 7

Social cohesion

Answer 7

The extent to which people are bound together in common purpose. One of the two factors needed to be kept in balance in order for a functionalist society to work - this cohesion refers to the consensus on norms, values and solidarity, and discusses how connected and together society is. This must be kept in balance, as too much cohesion means a lack of desire for personal progression, harming advancement, due to a want to not harm anyone else, and too little cohesion causes violence and a selfish society. Controlled progression.

Question 8

Social Control

Answer 8

Refers to the extent to which people are prevented from behaving in an anti-social manner. The other factor that needs to be kept in balance in order for a functionalist society to work - this control refers to education and media, but also more physical political options such as police and military in order to prevent mass tyranny. Too much social control, and a dictatorship, tyrannical and oppressive society is created; too little and no one will obey the rules and norms, and society will be too chaotic - freedom but controlled. The balance is maintained best by consensus.

Question 9

August Comte

Answer 9

Believed that you can understand how society functions by comparing it with the functioning of the human body (furthered the organic analogy)

Question 10

What are Consensus theories?

Answer 10

Theories that see people in society as having shared interests and society functioning on the basis of there being broad agreement on norms and values. Functionalism is the main consensus theory.

Question 11

Key functionalist ideas

Answer 11

Organic change (not radical)
Meritocracy (people achieve their position in society through effort and ability, not inheritance)
Social institutions having positive functions

Question 12

Key Functionalists

Answer 12

Talcott Parsons
Davis and Moore
Young and Wilmott
Robert Merton 
Walt Rostow 
Emile Durkheim
August Comte

Question 13

Functionalism - a summary

Answer 13

• Macro, structural, consensus theory; they argue that there is a value consensus in society which is maintained by various interrelated institutions which all work together and they draw an organic analogy (organs = institutions which allow the body of society to function
• Parts of society that do not function result in anomie (normlessness) and this is not always bad, as small amounts of crime act as a deterrent to others and this acts a form of boundary maintenance
• The family, education and religion all play an important role in primary and secondary socialisation - functionalists view this as a centrally important process
• Functionalists take a ‘march of progress’ view, the view that society is constantly improving
• Parsons noted that through industrialisation claim that structural differentiation occurred, which means that institutions become increasingly specialised, benefiting individuals, assuming that changes are generally positive because of the March of Progress
• Functionalists also take a positivist view of research, claiming that it is possible to establish social facts and therefore identify solutions to social problems
• Comte - coined the term ‘sociology’ and ‘positivism’
• Dominant theory in society between the 1940s and 1970s in the USA, influenced by European ideas also

Question 14

Durkheim - key thinker

Answer 14

• Makes the assumption that people act in their own interests - they need to be socialised to share values and co-operate so that society works effectively, stressing the importance of a collective conscience (agreement on norms and values) and the collective moral beliefs which bind people together and build a sense of people feeling part of a group (social solidarity) or social cohesion (absence of tension)
• Agents of socialisation are crucial in integrating individuals into society based on consensus, harmony and social order
• Starting point was the organic analogy, imagining society as a living being which adapts to its environment and comprised of components each performing some action that helps the living being survive e.g. the organs are institutions that function for the maintenance of society, and just as our bodies need to resolve basic needs to survive, so do societies
• This led to the development of functional analysis - this explains how institutions exist in terms of the function they perform for society, and Durkheim was well known for advocating positivist research methods, looking for correlation in statistical data (Durkheim on Suicide)

Question 15

Parsons - Key Thinker; GAIL Model

Answer 15

• Wanted to provide a theoretical framework that combined Durkheim’s ideas with a systematic attempt to understand the structures of societies and their functions
• His work represents the structural approach as his work focuses on the functioning of society as a whole and explains human social behaviour in relation to this structure

Parsons argued that for society to work, certain prerequisites need to be in place:

1) Goal attainment (the political function)- how society sees its goals and makes decisions, and societies vary from dictatorship to democracy
2) Adaptation (the economic function) - how society organises basic needs and provides the adequate standard of life for the survival of its members, ranging from hunter societies to complex industrial societies e.g. through the economy
3) Integration (social harmony) - making sure we are all socialised into the same values; there is no guarantee that each institution in society will develop elements / functions that do not conflict with each other (e.g. in capitalism economic inequalities may lead to possible resentment between groups) - specialist institutions which seek to limit this potential conflict therefore develop, such as religion and charities
4) Latency (individual beliefs and values) - ensure people have somewhere to deal with stress and tension; the problem of creating, perserving, and transmitting the system’s distinctive culture and values, e.g. family, consisting of two areas of coping
- > Pattern maintenance; this refers to the problems faced by people when conflicting demands are made of them, such as being part of a minority religious group and a member of a largely Christian society (issue of identity)
- > Tension management - if society is going to continue to exist, then it needs to motivate people to continue to belong to society and not leave or oppose it

Question 16

Parsons cont.

Answer 16

• The existence of institutions such as education and religion is explained in terms of these functional prerequisites, with each institution having certain social roles associated with norms and behaviours
• E.g. the role of husband and wife associated with heterosexual families and teachers and students associated with schools
• Because of the existence of roles and shared norms, society generally runs smoothly with relatively few misunderstandings
• The whole social system is underpinned by a general agreement on values about what is good and desirable, or bad and undesirable, which Parsons calls the general agreement of value consensus

Question 17

Social evolution and differentiation - Parsons

Answer 17

• Although societies share these prerequisites, they do not stay static, and Parsons believed that as societies change, they retain a degree of balance in order to continue functioning effectively
• If one part of the social structure changes the other parts adapt to fit around it e.g. a period of immigration or a new technology is introduced causes society to change and adapt to accommodate these new elements and balance is quickly restored
• This is known as the moving equilibrium
• As they develop and evolve, modern societies generally become more effective and efficient at raising living standards and meeting the needs of their members, involving a change in cultural values or ‘pattern variables’

Question 18

The pattern variables - Parsons

Answer 18

There are two sets of pattern variables, one of which is more typical of modern societies (pattern variable B) whereas the other is more typical of simpler, pre-modern societies (pattern variable A)

PVA is based on emotional ties, and PVB is based on rationality and efficiency; only in families, which are based on close emotional ties, do PVAs remain centrally important in today’s society

1) Pattern Variables A -> Ascription (status is ascribed), Diffuseness (people enter relationships with others to satisfy a large range of needs), Particularism (individuals act differently towards particular people), Affectivity (gratification is immediate) and Collective Orientation (people put the interests of social groups to which they belong before their own interests) -> TRADITIONAL SOCIETY
2) Pattern Variables B -> Achievement (status is achieved), Specificity (people enter relationships to satisfy particular needs), Universalism (individuals act according to universal principles), Affective Neutrality (gratification is deferred) and Self-orientation (people pursue their own interest first, rather than those of the social group they belong to) -> MODERN SOCIETY

Question 19

Social evolution and differentiation cont.

Answer 19

• As well as cultures changing as societies evolve, Parsons also sees them as becoming more structurally complex, known as structural differentiation
  Simple societies rely on two institutions to carry out more functions, religion and family, but modern industrial societies develop new and more efficient specialist institutions
• For example, schools, colleges and universities take over the educational functions of families and the welfare state takes over many of the caring roles previously carried out by families and churches

Question 20

Criticisms of functionalism - external sources (Sharrock et al 2003)

Answer 20

1) Functionalism overemphasised the level of consensus in society - in complex societies, there are different values and attitudes, and this criticism is mainly emphasised by Marxists and Feminists who identify these conflicts
2) The positivist approach is often criticised for its ignorance of meanings
3) Parsons suggested that society is like an organism, but society is much different as it is a concept rather than a natural form, and consists of the activities of millions of people without any natural cycle or form (critical of organic analogy)
4) Functionalists fail to explain social change - if institutions need to exist to fulfil social needs, then once these needs are filled there is no need to change them, and so societies should never change form unless an external change impacts the prerequisites
5) As a method, functional analysis claims to explain why institutions exist, but it only explains the effects of some institutions - it explains why something is needed but not how and why it came to be
6) Parsons seems to ignore differences in power, but these can have a strong impact on the form and interests of a society
7) Finally, as interactionists point out, human beings in the Parsonian model of society seem like puppets being pulled by all powerful societies through pattern variables, but they point out that people are much more ‘reflexive’ and make choices that construct their lives; Functionalism is therefore overly deterministic as it assumes behaviour is determined by external forces and individuals are not credited with having free will

Question 21

Anomie and key concepts - Durkheim

Answer 21

A sense of normlessness that comes from a lack of strong norms and values - this dysfunction is useful to help identify issues and allow organic change (gradual shifts and growth to occur) and allows for boundary maintenance

• Promoting social solidarity in society - The integration of people through shared values or the collective conscience - the sense of belonging
• Boundary maintenance - The act of reaffirming the values of society through discouraging others from rule breaking
• Adaptation and change - The ability of the economy to provide for the material needs of the population. The economy needs to adapt to ensure that that these needs are met eg: through employment
• Teaching pupils specialist skills for complex division of labour - As well as learning shared values in school, children would not necessarily all get the same education, but instead might learn different things depending on their likely future roles.

Question 22

Durkheim - Types of social solidarity

Answer 22

• Mechanical solidarity - solidarity from collective conscience in pre-modern society
• Organic solidarity - solidarity from inter-dependence, such as families relying on hospitals for healthcare, the economy requires commmunal effort - modern societies; agents of socialisation
• > Mechanical solidarity is the social integration of members of a society who have common values and beliefs. These common values and beliefs constitute a “collective conscience” that works internally in individual members to cause them to cooperate (traditional society).
• > Organic solidarity is social integration that arises out of the need of individuals for one another’s services (modern society). In a society characterized by organic solidarity, there is relatively greater division of labour, with individuals functioning much like the interdependent but differentiated organs of a living body.

Question 23

Parsons in functionalist theory

Answer 23

• Functional prerequisites; what needs to be in place, and society has 4 of these functional prerequisites
• GAIL Model - Goal attainment, adaptation, integration and latency
• Latency -> pattern maintenance and tension maintenance
• Pattern variables - A; specific, B; communal

Universal functionalism - if one part of the system changes, another one will also need to change
Structural differentiation - gradual change where specialised institutions are developed (structure differs to suit society)
- Social changes occur in one part of a system and facilitate changes elsewhere in society - universal functionalism; cause and effect (e.g. government introduces a law on values and other institutions promote it)

Goal attainment -> (I)Government (laws) institution functionality
(I)Adaptation -> Economy institution functionality; work
(E)Integration -> Education, family, religion and media institution functionality
(E)Latency functions -> Family and friends institution functionality

Instrumental problems -
Setting and achieving social goals; adapting to and achieving basic needs for survival
Expressive problems - maintaining efficient cooperation and social solidarity; managing conflicts and tensions between individuals

Question 24

The GAIL Model - Goal Attainment; explanations and subsystems - Instrumental

Answer 24

Goal attainment -

• The selection and definition of a society’s priorities and aims/goals and providing the means of achieving them
• Parliament and the government set the goals by making and carrying out policy decisions, and provide the means of achieving them by allocating resources raised through taxation
• Political system; parties, pressure groups, government, Parliament and state agencies
• Norms - MPs represent the needs of constituents

Question 25

The GAIL Model - Adaptation; explanations and subsystems - Instrumental

Answer 25

• Adapting to the environment and providing the basic material necessities to continued human existence and sufficient resources to achieve valued social goals
• Economy - for example, organisations like factories, financial institutions and shops concerned with economic production
• Norms - punctuality, everyone works to gain money and this provides their needs, the economy needs to be stabilized with low unemployment, responsibility, work ethic

Question 26

The GAIL Model - Integration; explanation and subsystems - Expressive

Answer 26

• Coordinating all parts of the system to achieve through shared goals, with people having a sense of belonging to society, and socialisation into shared values, beliefs and goals promises social harmony and solidarity with social control to prevent deviance
• Cultural / community organisations such as the media, education, religion and family socialise individuals and conformity to social norms and values and the criminal justice system and other social control agencies restrict threat to the social order
• Norms - honesty, teach people the norms and values of society, uphold social cohesion and control the views of society to prevent anomie; welcoming people into the social group

Question 27

The GAIL Model - Latency; explanantion and subsystems - Expressive

Answer 27

• Minimizing social tensions and interpersonal conflicts which might prevent individuals and society working efficiently, and preserving / monitoring commitment to the culture and pattern of values
• Family and kinship, such as the family, act as key agents of socialisation and social control; a place to recharge batteries, let off steam and escape and recover from the stresses and destabilising influences of daily life outside the family
• Norms - role model, provide comfort and warmth from the bureaucracy of institutions, release stress, protection, teaching what is needed to become part of the social group

Question 28

Cause and effect in functionalist society

Answer 28

1) Social institutions -> Social institutions control the rate of social change to create stable change rather than radical change which upsets the social balance -> Organic change
2) Functional prerequisites -> Economic needs met through employment; goals met through meritocracy; integration met through agents of socialisation; latency achieved through kinship -> Meets the needs of people in society
3) Meritocracy -> People are sifted and sorted into correct roles based upon their ability, which produces a class system -> Create social stratification
4) Inadequate socialisation -> Unable to function adequately in society as the lack of norms and values to succeed in employment are not present, causing them to end up on benefits -> Higher levels of welfare dependency
5) Anomie -> Decline in norms and values leads to people being unsure of how to act leading to dysfunctional institutions -> dysfunction in society
6) Positivist methodology -> Use of social ‘observable facts’ to measure behaviours and make predictions about future behaviours -> Greater understanding of society
7) Dysfunction -> if social institutions are unable to function, other institutions will provide basic needs - e.g. welfare state provides basic material needs -> Functional autonomy
8) Boundary maintenance -> social bounds are reinforced through uniting to condemn those that have done wrong -> Greater social solidarity
9) Deviance -> Deviant acts are adopted by small groups, and others begin to accept these deviant norms and values as the norm and eventually this impacts on wider society -> Organic change in society
10) Socialisation -> Children are taught the norms and values of society through different social institutions which enables them to understand shared norms and values of society

Question 29

Internal critiques of functionalism - Merton on Parsons

Answer 29

A criticism from someone who shares the same theoretical perspective but not the same explanation

1) Criticises Parsons’ explanation as being too simplistic - Merton argued that not all ‘functions’ within society are deliberate. He said that there are two categories of function: manifest and latent functions
- Manifest functions - functions that have been considered and are deliberate, as someone has decided to do a particular thing to get a specific result
- Latent functions - something that happens as well as the deliberate / manifest functions as an added bonus

2) Not every part of society is indispensable - there are parts of society that could be replaced with something else that could do the job just as well - e.g. functional alternatives such as a same-sex family or reconstituted family over a nuclear one

Question 30

Internal critiques of Functionalism - Merton on Parsons cont.

Answer 30

3) There is no ‘Functional Unity’ - Parsons assumes that all parts of society are connected, and functions as part of one unit; however, Merton suggested that modern societies are more complex, and that parts are not necessarily connected or have unity, they instead have ‘functional autonomy’. Complex modern societies have many parts, some of which may only be distinctly related rather than having causal effects on one another e.g. no connection between banking and the rules of netball
4) There is no ‘Universal Functionalism’ - Parsons assumes that everything in society performs a positive function for society as a whole, but Merton suggests that some things may be functional for some groups but dysfunctional for other groups

The central point behind Merton’s criticism is that we cannot simply assume that society is always and necessarily a smooth-running, well-integrated system.

Question 31

External criticisms of functionalism - logical criticisms

Answer 31

• Teleology - things exist because of the effect they have or the function they perform, such as the family being explained in terms of the effect it has
• Logically, a cause comes by effect, and so real explanations come from an identification of its cause, but functionalism explains the existence of something in terms of something else that is it’s effect, not its cause - socialisation only comes after families, but nothing is said to come before the family
• Also criticised for being unscientific - the theory is not falsifiable by testing, as functionalists see deviance as both dysfunctional (conformity) and functional (solidarity) - if deviance is both, the theory cannot be disproved and is unscientific
• Logisists’ say that functionalists can only explain the cause of an institution by its effect; the effect of an institution is explained but what caused the institution is not.

Question 32

External criticisms of functionalism - Conflict theories

Answer 32

• Conflict theorists ((Marxists) criticise functionalism for being unable to explain conflict and change, and this is because of the organic analogy.
• Organisms are relatively stable and harmonious in which all parts work together for the common good - Marxists stay that society is instead based on exploitation and divided into classes with conflicting interests and unequal power
• Stability is simply the result of the dominant class being able to prevent change by using coercion and ideological manipulation - shared values conceal the interests of the dominant class
• Conflict theorists see functionalism as a conservative ideology that legitimates the status quo, as it focuses on stability and harmony, not conflict and change and uses assumptions such as universal functionalism and indispensability to justify the existing social order as inevitable and desirable
• Critics argue that this approach legitimates the power of the bourgeoisie who would have most to lose from any fundamental changes to society.

Question 33

External criticisms of functionalism - Action theories

Answer 33

• Action perspective; Wong (1961), says that functionalism is an over socialised and deterministic view of the individual - he views the functionalist social system as using socialisation to shape behaviour so that they will meet the needs of the system through prescribed roles
• Individuals have no free will - action perspectives see this as a mistake, as although functionalists see human beings as shaped by society, action theorists believe that individuals create society through interactions
• Functionalism reifies society - it is treated as a distinct ‘thing’ over and above individuals with its own needs
• Action approaches argue that society is not this and is not in its own independent existence, where the only social reality is the one that individuals construct by giving meaning to their worlds.

Question 34

External criticisms of functionalism - Postmodernism

Answer 34

• Postmodernism argues that functionalism assumes society is stable and orderly, and so it cannot account for diversity and instability in today’s postmodern society
• In the postmodernist view, functionalism is an example of a meta-narrative (big story) that attempts to create a model of the workings of society as a whole, but overall theories such as functionalism are no longer possible because of the fragmentation of society

Question 35

How useful is functionalist theory?

Answer 35

Useful -

1) It wants to find out how social order is possible
2) Does give a reasonable general theory of how societies work
3) Explains largely why most societies have social order and stability

Not useful -

1) Overstates consensus and ignores conflict
2) Humans aren’t puppets - it is too deterministic
3) Explains the effects of institutions not why they exist in the first place
4) Doesn’t really explain social change well enough
5) It’s a meta-narrative that doesn’t fit today’s world