Parsons Flashcards
achievement versus ascription
one of Parsons’s five pat- terned value-orientations whereby, for example, modern society emphasizes achievement rather than ascriptive (e.g., inherited status) criteria.
adaptation
economic function (or institutional subsystem) necessary in all societies and societal sub-units.
Christianizing of secular society
the thesis that christian- derived values (e.g., Protestant individualism, the Golden Rule) penetrate the everyday culture and non-religious institutional spheres of modern secular society.
cultural lag
when societies that experience economic and social modernization experience a delay in adjusting their (traditional) values to accommodate change.
cultural system
institutionalized norms, values, motivations, symbols, and beliefs (cultural resources).
functions
necessary tasks accomplished by specific social institutions (e.g., family, economy, law, occupational structure) ensuring the smooth functioning of society.
goal attainment
political function (or institutional sub- system) necessary in all societies and societal sub-units.
integration
regulatory(e.g.,legal) function (or institutional subsystem) necessary in all societies (and societal sub-units).
latency (or pattern maintenance)
cultural socialization function (or institutional subsystem) necessary in all societies and societal sub-units.
modernization theory
the thesis that all societies will inevitably and invariably follow the same linear path of economic (e.g., industrialization), social (e.g., urbanization, education), and cultural (e.g., democracy; self-orientation) progress achieved by American society.
neutrality versus affectivity
one of Parsons’s five pat- terned value-orientations whereby, for example, modern societies differentiate between institutional spheres and relationships based on impersonality (e.g., work) rather than emotion (e.g., family).
pattern maintenance
(latency); socialization function (or institutional subsystem) necessary in all societies and soci- etal sub-units.
pattern variables
Parsons’s schema of five separate, dichotomously opposed value-orientations determining social action.
self versus collectivity orientation
one of Parsons’s five patterned value-orientations whereby, for example, modern society emphasizes individual over communal interests.
socialsystem(s)
interconnected institutional subsystems and relationships that comprise society and all of its sub-units.
specificity versus diffuseness
one of Parsons’s five pat- terned value-orientations whereby, for example, modern society emphasizes role specialization rather than general competence.
structural-functionalism
term used to refer to the theorizing of durkheim and Parsons because of their focus on how social structures determine, and are effective in (or functional to) maintaining, the social order, society (social equilibrium).
subsystems
spheres of social (or institutional) action required for the functioning and maintenance of the social system (society) and its sub-units (institutions, small groups, etc.).
uneven modernization
when societies experience modernization more quickly in one sphere of society (e.g., the economy) than in another (e.g., in education, the failure to develop the educated workforce necessary to the changed economy).
universalistic versus particularistic
one of Parsons’s five patterned value-orientations whereby, for example, modern society emphasizes impersonal rules and general principles rather than personal relationships.
value system
shared value-orientation (culture) that functions to maintain societal cohesion/integration.
