Functionalism Flashcards
Parsons:Organic Analogy
Parsons argues that society is a lot like the human body:
* System- institutions in society like education, religion,
and the family are like organs sustaining the body.
* System needs- functionalists argue society has basic
needs to survive, like members being socialised.
* Functions- contributions that meet the system’s
needs/ensure survival, like the economy helping
maintain the social system by meeting food/shelter
needs.
Parsons: Value Consensus & Social Order(How is social order possible? how are individuals able to cooperate harmoniously
- Parsons argues that social order is achieved through the central value system/shared culture of norms, values, beliefs and goals that all members of society share.
- This system gives individuals a framework to cooperate- it lays down rules, expectations and what goals to pursue.
- Social order is only possible if everyone agrees on these norms and values- aka value consensus.
Parsons: Social Change
Parsons identifies both traditional and modern
society, which have separate sets of norms.
* For example, in modern society we pursue our
individual self-interest and are judged by
universalistic standards, while in traditional
society individuals put collected interested first
and are judged by particularistic standards.
* Parsons argues that these changes are gradual,
coming about due to increasing complexity and
structural differentiation.
Parsons: Integration of individuals
The function of value consensus is t make social order possible.
* This is done by integrating individuals into the social system, which directs them to meeting the system’s needs.
* EG: the system ensures that material needs are met, which means the consensus is that people have to work.
Parsons argues that the system has 2 ways to ensure individuals conform to norms and meet system needs:
- Socialisation- teaching us to want to do what is required of us, internalising they system’s norms and values as our own. Agents like the family, education and religion help do this.
- Social control- positive sanctions reward conformity, negative sanctions punish deviance.
As individuals are intergrated through socialisation and social control into a shared value system, their behaviour is oriented towards pursuing societys shared goals and meeting its needs
Parsons:Parts of social system
- At the bottom is individual actions, which are governed by specific norms.
- These norms come in clusters called status roles which exist in a give social system, such as teachers in school. Their role is a set of norms telling us how the individual with the status must act (teachers must be fair, knowledgeable, etc).
- Status-roles come in clusters called institutions, such as the family being made up of the roles of mother, father, child.
- Related institutions are then put in sub-systems, like shops, banks, factories, etc being the economic subsystem that meets society’s material needs.
- Finally, these sub-systems come together to make society as a whole.
Parons:the system’s needs
Parsons identifies 4 basic needs of the system that are each met by a separate sub-system of institutions:
1. Adaptation- social system meets member’s needs through the economic sub-system.
2. Goal attainment- society needs to set goals and allocate resources to meet them, which the political sub-system sees to.
3. Integration- different system parts must integrate together to pursue shared goals: the sub-system of education, religion and media has this role.
4. Latency- maintaining society over time, which the kin sub-system does through pattern maintenance (socialising us to do what is required) and tension management (place to let off steam after work).
Merton criticises three key assumptions of Parsons
Indispensability- Parsons assumes that everything in society (like family, religion, etc) are indispensable in its existing from. Merton argues
that this is an assumption that ignores that there may be functional alternatives, like other family types being able to primarily socialise children just as well as the nuclear family does.
- Functional unity- Parsons assumes all parts of society are tightly integrated into a single unity, and that each part is functional for the rest-
meaning that changing just one part will have a knock on effect on others. However, this isn’t necessarily true, as complex modern societies
have many parts, some may only be distantly related to others, meaning they have functional autonomy instead of functional unity.
3. Universal functionalism- Parsons assumes everything in society performs a positive function for society as a whole. However, what may by
functional for some groups may be dysfunctional for others.
Merton:Manifest & latent functions:
Merton distinguishes between manifest and latent functions.
* EG: in times of drought, the Hopi Native Americans would perform rain dances. This is a manifest function.
* The ritual may also have an unintended (latent) function: promoting a sense of solidarity in times of hardship.
Merton’s manifest and latent functions helps us see the hidden connections between social phenomena, which actors may not be aware of.
Logical criticisms: External critiques of functionalism
Functionalism is criticised for being
teleological (the idea that thing sexist because of their
effect/function).
* EG: functionalists explain the existence of the family in terms of something that can only be its effect (socialisation).
* Also criticised for being unscientific, as functionalism is unable to be falsified- as they see deviance as
both dysfunctional and functional.
Conflict perspective criticisms: External critiques of functionalism
Marxists criticise functionalism for its inability to explain conflict and change.
* They argue that society is not a harmonious whole, instead it’s based on exploitation and divided into classes of unequal power.
* Conflict theories sees functionalism as a conservative ideology that legitimises the status quo.
* Focusing on harmony/stability instead of conflict/change, as well as assumptions of universal functionalism and indispensability all help justify
the existing social order as inevitable and desirable.
Postmodernist criticisms: External critiques of functionalisms
They argue that functionalists assume society is stable
and orderly, which means the theory therefore can’t
account for the instability and diversity of postmodern
society today.
* Postmodernists sees functionalism as just another
metanarrative that tries to create a model of the
workings of society as a whole.
* However, postmodernists argue this isn’t possible
because today’s society is too fragmented.
Action perspective criticisms: External critiques of functionalism
Wrong (1961)- criticises functionalism deterministic
view of the individual, as it sees them as puppets
manipulated by the social system.
* Action theorists therefore see functionalism as
fundamentally mistaken because of this, as they
believe the opposite- that individuals create society
through their interactions.
