General Functionalism Flashcards
Durkheim: social order, value consensus and social integration
Believes people are selfish , without common values/commitment to society we would fall into chaos
Agencies of socialisation integrate into society and creates a stable predictable society with minimal conflict.
Emphasises the importance of primary socialisation in the family as it internalises personality
Durkheims research
Known for advocating positional research methods based on looking for correlations in statically data
Carried out pioneering study on suicide rates in different European countries
Evaluation of durkheim
Recognised importance of social structure in comprehension of society and how links exist between institutions
Organic analogy is incorrect as organisms have life cycles and society doesn’t
Doesn’t explain how/why institutions developed/exist
Doesn’t acknowledge how value consensus and socialisation cause social change when they should discourage it
Parsons GAIL model
GOAL ATTAINMENT need ways to make decisions in dictatorships to democracies. is the selection/ definition of societies priorities/goals e.g. Parliament/government set goals by making policy decisions
ADAPTATION Society must provide a good standard of life for members in order to survive. Human societies vary from primitive communism to complex industrial societies involved adapting to the environment/providing basic material necessities
INTEGRATION institutions develop in response to particular functions, however different institutions may have elements that conflict. Subsystems of this would be community organisations e.g. Media/education etc socialise into norms/values
LATENCY minimises social tensions/interpersonal conflicts that may prevent society working efficiently. Family is a key agency of socialisation/social control this helps recover form stress/destabilising influences
Pattern maintenance (parsons)
The issues faced by people who have conflicting demands made of them, e.g. Being a religious minority and belonging to a Christian society. This is an issue of identity
Tensions management
For society to continue to exist motivation is required for them to belong to a society and not leave/oppose it
Social change
As society changes it must retain a degree of balance to continue functioning. As one institution changes the others adapt to fit around it as a moving equilibrium.
Modern societies evolve and become more effective at improving living standards as a change in pattern variable
Criticisms of parsons
Assumes if an institution was functional for one part of society it was for all parts. Merton says he ignores dysfunction e.g. Religion brings people together and drives them apart.
Merton says parsons failed to see the difference between manifest and latent functions/ consequences. Parsons model is too simplistic and society is more complex than this
Merton
Recognised there’s plenty of space for things to go wrong and there maybe consequences when beneficial functions have harmful effects
Merton and dysfunction
Some parts of the social structure don’t work properly, they have negative effects e.g. Technology helps with science but brings environmental pollution and climate change
Three faults of dysfunction (postulate of the functional unity of society)
Societies aren’t functional/harmonious unions all the time, not all societies are happy/ well-integrated. Civil war/ African American in 1950s
3 faults of dysfunction
Postulate if indispensability
Doubts that every institution performs a specific function, several institutions can provide the same function or none at all. It’s impossible to know what functions are vital or not to society
3 faults of dysfunction
Postulate of universal functionalism
Disproves the idea not all ideals work for everyone in society, believe some things may have consequences that are generally dysfunctional for some but functional for others. E.g. Poverty benefits the rich as can maintain wealth but don’t help the poor, institutions and values can be functional for society as a whole
Manifest functions/ latent functions
Manifest: the intended functions
Latent: unintended functions
A hospital has manifest functions of providing health care but latent fiction of worked meeting partners and the dysfunction of spreading disease e.g. MRSA
Merton and roles
Emphasised that a person doesn’t hold one role/status but have a status set on the social structure that carries a set of expected behaviours
