🎅🏼Functionalism theories Flashcards
3 main facts about functionalism
- macro level of analysis
- structural- top-down approach
- looks at how society controls its people
Functionalism
What was Durkheim concerned with
He was concerned by the rapid social change, from a traditional society with a simple social structure to a more complex modern society
Functionalism
What do functionalists use to compare society with
Organic analogy to compare society to the human body
Functionalism
What 3 similarities did Parsons identify between society and a biological organism
- system
- system needs
- functions
Functionalism- organic analogy
Explain system
Organisms, such as the human body and societies are both self-regulating systems of inter-related, interdependent parts
Functionalism- organic analogy
Explain system needs
Organisms have needs that must be met in order to survive
Functionalism- organic analogy
Explain functions
The function of any part of a system is the contribution that is makes to meeting the system’s needs and thus ensuring survival
Functionalism
For Parsons, how is social order achieved
Through the shared culture- a central value system which creates a value consensus. It does this by integrating individuals into the social system, thereby directing them to meet the system’s needs
Functionalism
What are the 2 mechanisms for ensuring that individuals conform to shared norms and meet the system’s needs, argued by Parsons
1) Socialisation
2) Social control
Functionalism- mechanisms to meet society’s needs
Explain socialisation
Individuals do what is expected of them by internalising the system’s norms and values so that society becomes part of their personality structure- different agencies of socialisation all contribute to this process
Functionalism- mechanisms to meet society’s needs
Explain social control
Individuals who conform to society’s norms and values are rewarded with positive sanctions, while those who deviate are punished with negative sanctions. Therefore, because individuals are integrated, through socialisation and social control into a shared value system, their behaviour will be relatively predictable, stable and cooperative
The system’s needs: AGIL schema
What does Parsons argue about the AGIL schema
That the system has 4 basic needs: the AGIL schema and each need is met by a separate sub-system of institutions
The system’s needs: AGIL schema
What are the 4 parts to the AGIL schema
- adaptation
- goal attainment
- integration
- latency
The system’s needs: AGIL schema
Explain adaptation
The social system meets its members’ material needs through the economic sub-system
The system’s needs: AGIL schema
Explain goal attainment
Society needs to set goals and allocate resources to achieve them. This is the function of the political sub-system, through institutions such as parliament
The system’s needs: AGIL schema
Explain integration
The different parts of the system must be integrated together to pursue shared goals. This is the role of the sub-system of religion
The system’s needs: AGIL schema
Explain latency
Refers to processes that maintain society over time. The kinship sub-system provides pattern maintenance and tension management
(Family)
The system’s needs: AGIL schema
What type of needs are adaptation and gaol attainment
Instrumental needs (means to an end)
The system’s needs: AGIL schema
What type of needs are integration and latency
Expressive needs (channeling of emotions)
-society needs to work emotionally to satisfy people’s needs
Social change
What are traditional societies based on
Ascribed status, norms and particularistic collective orientation and immediate gratification is emphasised
Social change
What are modern societies based on
Achieved status, norms and more universalistic and individualism and deferred gratification is emphasised
Social change
For Parsons, what is change
Change is a gradual, evolutionary process of increasing complexity and structural differentiation
Social change
How has the family changed
In a traditional society, a single institution e.g. the family performs many functions. However, as society develops, the family may lose some of these functions to new specialised institutions. This is structural differentiation
Social change
What is structural differentiation
A gradual process in which separate, functionally specialised institutions develop, each meeting a different need.
Social change
How does gradual change occur by what process
Gradual change occurs through moving equilibrium: as a change occurs in one part of the system, it produces compensatory changes in other parts
Internal evaluation
What does Merton argue
That Parsons is wrong to assume that society is always a smooth running, well integrated system. He criticises three key assumptions made by Parsons
Internal evaluation
What are the three key assumptions that Merton criticises from Parsons’ work
- indispensability
- functionality unity
- universal functionalism
Internal evaluation
Explain indispensability
Parsons sees everything in society as functionally indispensable in its existing form. Merton argues that this is an untested assumption and that there may be ‘functional alternatives’
Internal evaluation
Explain functionality unity
According to Parsons, all parts of society are tightly integrated into a single whole, so a change in one part affects all other parts. However, complex modern societies have many parts, some of which may be only distantly ‘related’ to one another and mat have ‘functional autonomy’ from others
Internal evaluation
Explain universal functionalism
For Parsons, everything in society performs a positive function for society as a whole. Yet some things like poverty may be functional for some groups and dysfunctional for others
What does Merton make a distinction between
Manifest (intended) and latent (unintended) functions: this distinction helps to reveal the hidden connections between social phenomena that the actors themselves may be unaware of.
What are the 4 external evaluation points
1) logical criticisms: teleology and unfalsifiability
2) conflict perspective criticisms
3) action perspective criticisms
4) postmodern criticisms
external evaluation points
Explain logical criticisms (2)
(A) Teleology- is the idea that a thing exists because of its purpose or function. For example, functionalism claims that the family exists to socialise children- it explains the existence of the family in terms of its effect
(B) unfalsifiability: Functionalism is unscientific because its claims are not falsifiable by testing. It sees deviance as both dysfunctional and functional- something which could never be disproved
external evaluation points
Explain conflict perspective criticisms
Marxists argue that ‘shared’ values are not agreed but imposed on society in the interests of the dominant class. Conflict theorists see functionalism as a conservative ideology legitimating the status quo; e.g. assumptions of ‘indispensability’ help to justify the existing social order as inevitable and desirable
external evaluation points
Explain action perspective criticisms
Wrong criticises functionalism’s ‘over-socialised’ or deterministic view of individuals in which they have no free will or choice- they are puppets whose strings are pulled by the social system
external evaluation points
Explain postmodernist criticisms
PMs argue that functionalism cannot account for the diversity and instability that exist in today’s society. Functionalism is an example of a metanarrative of ‘big story’ that attempts to create a model of the workings of society as a whole. Such an overall theory is no longer possible because today’s society is increasingly fragmented