Functionalism: Society as a system Flashcards
What are the three similarities that Parsons identifies between society and a biological organism?
- system
- system needs
- functions
How are society and a biological organism both a system?
- both self-regulating systems of inter-dependent and inter-related parts that fit together in fixed ways
- in society, these parts are the institutions
How do society and a biological organism both have system needs?
- functionalists view the social system as having needs to be met ie. members must be socialised
How do both society and a biological organism have functions?
- the function of any part of a system is the contribution it makes to the meeting of the system’s needs
How does Parsons answer his big question ‘how is social order possible/ achieved’?
- achieved through the existence of a shared culture/ central value system
What function does the shared culture serve?
- allows individuals to cooperate by laying down rules about how they should behave, defining the goals they should aspire to etc.
What is the basic function of the value consensus? (give an example)
- to make social order possible by integrating individuals into the social system and directing them towards meeting the systems’ needs
ie. system has to ensure people are fed, the consensus is the need to work, to achieve this goal there are set rules/ norms eg. punctuality
What are the two mechanisms that Parsons identifies that the system has for ensuring people conform to shared norms and meet the system’s needs?
- socialisation
- social control
What happens in the socialisation process?
- individuals internalise the system’s norms and values so that society becomes a part of their personality structure
Give examples of agencies of socialisation that contribute
- family
- education system
- media
- religion
How does social control work?
- positive sanctions reward conformity
- negative sanctions punish deviance
Because each individual is integrated into a shared value system, what is their behaviour? what does this allow?
- relatively predictable and stable, allowing cooperation between them
What are the ‘building blocks’ of Parsons’ model of the social system?
- bottom = individual actions
- each action governed by specific norms/ rules
- norms come in ‘clusters’ called status-roles
- status-roles also come in ‘clusters’ called institutions
- related institutions grouped into sub-systems
- sub-systems makeup social system
What is the name for the 4 needs of society that Parsons identifies?
- AGIL Schema
How is each need of society met?
- a sub-system of institutions
What are the 4 needs of society that Parsons identifies?
- adaptation
- goal attainment
- integration
- latency
Expand on the need of adaptation (whose role to fulfil this is it?)
- social system meets its members’ material needs through the economic sub-system
Expand on the need of goal attainment (whose role to fulfil this is it?)
- society needs to set goals and allocate resources
- function of the political sub-system
Expand on the need of integration (whose role to fulfil this is it?)
- different parts of system must be integrated to pursue shared goals
- role of sub-system of religion, education and media
Expand on the need of latency (whose role to fulfil this is it?)
- processes that maintain society over time
- kinship sub-system provides pattern maintenance and tension management
What does Parsons describe adaptation and goal attainment as?
- instrumental needs
What does Parsons describe integration and latency as?
- expressive needs
Parsons identifies traditional and modern society - what are the set of norms that modern has?
- pursue individual self-interest
- achieve our status
- all judged by same universalistic standards
Parsons identifies traditional and modern society - what are the set of norms that traditional had?
- put collective interests first
- status is ascribed
- judged by particularistic standards
How does Parsons describe how societies change over time?
- a gradual, evolutionary process of increasing complexity and structural differentiation
Society has moved from simple to complex structures, in traditional society how many institutions were there?
- in traditional society, a single institution (kinship system)
What functions did the kinship system provide?
- organises production and consumption (adaptation)
- provides political leadership (goal attainment)
- socialises its members (latency)
- performs religious functions (integration)
As societies develop, what does the kinship system lose these functions?
- factories
- political parties
- schools
- churches
What does Parsons call this process of separate, functionally specialised institutions developing?
- structural differentiation
Merton’s internal critique of functionalism
Merton criticises three assumptions of Parsons - what are these three?
- indispensability
- functional unity
- universal functionalism
Merton’s internal critique of functionalism
How does Merton critique Parsons’ assumption of indispensability?
- assumes everything in society is functionally indispensable in its existing form
- untested assumption
- possibility of ‘functional alternatives’ eg. assumes nuclear family is best but single parents might do just as well
Merton’s internal critique of functionalism
How does Merton critique Parsons’ assumption of functional unity?
- assumes all parts of society are tightly integrated into a single whole ‘unity’ and each part is functional for the rest
- assumes a change in one part will have a ‘knock-on effect’
- however, complex societies have many parts, some of which are only distantly ‘related’ - some parts may have ‘functional autonomy’
Merton’s internal critique of functionalism
How does Merton critique Parsons’ assumption of universal functionalism?
- assumes everything in society performs a positive function for society as a whole
- some things may be functional for some and not others
- neglected in functionalism - conflicts of interest, inequality (keeping arrangements in place to the detriment of others)
Manifest and latent functions
Merton uses the example of the Hopi Indians’ rain dance to distinguish between manifest and latent functions. How does Merton use this to reveal hidden connections between social phenomena?
- action has an intended function (manifest)
- ritual may have an unintended function (latent) ie. promoting solidarity
- actors may not be aware of this function
External critiques
What are the 4 areas of criticism?
- logical criticisms
- conflict perspective criticisms
- action perspective criticisms
- postmodernist criticisms
External critiques - logical criticisms
How could functionalism be said to be teleological?
- explains the existence of social phenomena due to their effect or function
- real explanation of something is one that identifies the cause
External critiques - logical criticisms
How could functionalism be critiqued for being unscientific?
- theory is only scientific if its principle can be falsified which this cannot be
- eg. sees deviance as both dysfunctional and functional
External critiques - conflict perspective criticisms
How would Marxists critique functionalism?
- society is not a harmonious whole
- based on exploitation and divided into class with inequality and conflicting power
- ‘stability’ is the result of the RC preventing change via force/ ideological manipulation
External critiques - conflict perspective criticisms
Functionalism could be described as a conservative ideology. How could this be a criticism?
- focuses on harmony and stability
- helps to justify the existing social order
- legitimates privileged position of powerful groups
External critiques - action perspective criticisms
Why does Wrong describe functionalism as ‘over-socialised’ or deterministic?
- assumes individuals have no free will or choice
- action theorists see society as created by individuals through their actions
External critiques - action perspective criticisms
How could a criticism be made that functionalism ‘reifies society’?
- treats it as its own distinct ‘thing’ over and above individuals
- society is not a thing ‘out there’ with its own independent existence
External critiques - postmodernist criticisms
Why do postmodernists criticise the fact that functionalists view society as stable and orderly?
- cannot account for the diversity and instability in postmodern society
External critiques - postmodernist criticisms
Why do postmodernists critique functionalism on the basis that it is a meta-narrative?
- such an overall theory is no longer possible because society is increasingly fragmented
What are the different sections of the functionalist perspective?
Organic analogy
- system
- system needs
- functions
Value consensus and social order
Integration of individuals
- socialisation
- social control
The parts of the social system
The systems’ needs - AGIL schema
- adaptation
- goal attainment
- integration
- latency
Social change
What are the different sections of criticism?
Merton’s internal critique of functionalism
- indispensability
- functional unity
- universal functionalism
- manifest and latent functions
External critiques
- logical
- conflict perspective
- action perspective
- postmodernist
