FUNCTIONALISM: Major Tenets

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FUNCTIONALISMMajor Tenets

• Society as organism
• Functionally inter-related parts
• Societal survival depends on satisfying
  
• the needs of the system.
• Social Stratification ensures the proper
  distribution of social resources.
• Dominant Theory in the 50s and 60s

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Talcott ParsonsFunctional Imperatives

• The basic assumptions all involve the Hierarchy
  of Relations of Control.
• The basic subsystems of the total system
  constitute a hierarchical series of controlling
  agencies over the behavior of the individual.
• Father Mother Oldest Youngest
• Mother Father Oldest Youngest
• President Provost Dean Chair Professor
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• Individuals act in situations that includes
  others.
• Not just any others, but others with some
  specific set of ordered relations to the
  individual
• The others are the source of modes of action,
  rewards, deprivations
• Powerful controlling elements in the social
  organism.

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1 LATENCY Pattern- Maintenance

• Refers to the imperative that the patterns of
  institutionalized culture remain stable (orderly
  change)
• Two Components to the imperative
• Pattern of values
• Motivational commitment

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2 Goal Attainment

• Refers to the prioritized use of scarce resources
  for the attainment of various goals within the
  system of goals.
• There is a pluralism of goals (set) and of
  facilities (resources), which result in the
  problem of organizing resources in the system.
• The primary criteria for organization is
  flexibility.
• maximizing disposability of resources in the
  process of allocating for alternative goals.
• Therefore, while it is possible to have a social
  system with only one goal, most situations
  involve many environments and require a system of
  goals.

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3 Adaptation

• Refers to a directional change to reduce the
  discrepancy between the needs of the system and
  the conditions of the environment.
• The system is inter-related to a physical and
  socio-political environment, therefore,
  adaptation is essential to survival.
• Usually seen in the form of shifting societal
  goals.

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4 Integration

• Refers to the mutual adjustment of subsystems in
  a way that contributes to the effective
  functioning of the total system.
• All social systems are composed of smaller
  subsystems.
• In complex, highly differential societies the
  integrative function is found in the system of
  legal norms.
• The allocation of rights and obligations to
  differing subsystems.
• The differences in integrative function offers
  the greatest distinction between societies and is
  the focus of sociological theory.

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Age and Sex in the Social Structure of the United
States by Talcott Parsons (1940s)

• Age Grading does not involve direct
  categorization
• Age Grading is inter-related with other social
  elements
• As an organizing point for many social
  components
• Kinship structure (Preferential treatment of
  older children birth order is irrelevant)
• Education
• Occupation
• Community participation

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Sex Differences in Social Structure

• Perhaps play interests and dress differences are
  diminishing with time, BUT
• Females are still more apt to be docile and
  conformist
• No female equivalent to the bad boy.
• Males are more apt to be recalcitrant to
  discipline and defiant of adult authority

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Conformist v. Deviant

• One explanation for the difference is that from
  an early age girls are initiated into many
  aspects of the adult female role.
• Mothers teach young girls the activities of the
  house and the importance of the activities
• Fathers, on the other hand, are not present for
  most of the young boys
• Young boys are not able to see the work of Dad.

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Male Role Model Isolation

• The son is not able to see his father work.
• Especially true of the urban setting
• The son is then left with no tangible model to
  emulate
• Farm boys tend to have good sense, but urban
  boys lack good sense.

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Age and Sex Stratification Transitions

• Throughout the life course there are certain
  transitional periods where fundamental changes in
  stratification take place.
• During each transition new features of the social
  setting create change in the influence of age and
  sex on the hierarchy of authority.

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Childhood to Adolescence

• End of sex role symmetry
• Begin girl chaperonage and supervision
• Begin boys being given more unsupervised activity
• Begin a complex combination of age and sex
  grading
• Youth culture
• Many activities repudiate adult interests
• Adult males are responsible and dependable, but
  young males are irresponsible and undependable

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Male Examples

• Emphasis on athletics or comparable interests
• Attractiveness is a value in athletics
• An average roundedness of competence is valued
  over the performance of a specific function
• He is a nice guy.

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Female Examples

• Tendency to accentuate sexual attractiveness
• Dating success is a form of prestige
• Popularity and prestige are based on the
  superficial qualities not concrete qualities

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Adolescence to Adulthood

• Both sexes experience a loss of the glamorous
  element
• Males move from the athletic to the business
  executive model
• Males are not genuinely respected unless they
  have an occupational status that earns a living
• Females move from the beautiful, sexy to the
  domestic model (in some cases the business)
• Females that take the domestic route are not
  employed or are employed in jobs that do not
  compete for the same status as males
• Females that take the business route are not
  married and do not have children the very few
  that are have dramatically altered home
  lifestyles from the general population

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Adult Sex Role Tension

• The emergence of the occupation as the principle
  status component is the main source of adult sex
  role tension in marriage
• In modern society the wife has lost the equality
  of rural society
• The wife has a Pseudo occupation based on the
  drudgery of chores
• A disassociation of the personality from the
  tasks being performed
• Advertisements focus attention of the
  disassociation by using the desire to have hands
  that do not look like they wash dishes
• Thus, the domestic model is most closely followed
  and defended by those that cannot compete in
  occupational status

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Female Sex Role Change

• Two Trends are present today
• One is the modified domestic model
• The symbols of female attractiveness has been
  taken over by practices traditionally beyond the
  scope of respectable society
• Female emancipation
• Women smoking, drinking, tattoos, piercing, etc.
• The second is a humanistic model
• Here the concern is for the progress of community
• The wife as good companion and civic patriot

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Female Sex Role Categories

• Domestic
• Wife
• Mother
• Home Management
• Glamour
• Beauty
• Leisure
• Attraction
• Companion
• Community
• Social Welfare
• Politically Attentive

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Male Sex Role Change

• Many Elements of Strain
• Expectations
• Achievement
• Responsibility
• Authority

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Male Sex Role Limitations

• Occupational Specialization
• High levels of energy required
• High levels of time required
• Very narrow behavioral content
• All restrict the area to share common interests
  and experience (especially with the wife or
  girlfriend)
• Open relationships that are work related create a
  rivalry friction in the marriage

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Old Age

• The most common feature of old age is Isolation
  from the rest
• Two Structural Reasons
• Children become independent through marriage and
  occupation
• Parents are left without any significant
  continuous kinship group
• Occupational structure creates a gradual
  retirement process (not abrupt)
• The elder is in a position where the functions
  are gradually reduced, so aging reduces the job
  and the attachment to community
• Social isolation, less than physical
  deterioration may be responsible for the
  increasing numbers of physical maladies among the
  elderly (Heart disease, Alzheimer's, and Cancer)

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The System of Modern Societies

• Society is a social system with the highest level
  of self-sufficiency.
• Relative to the surrounding environs
• Depends on the inputs received through
  interchanges with environs
• Stability means balancing the inputs and outputs
  exchanged surrounding environs

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Self-Sufficiency of the Social System

• Four components
• Economic Involves the adaptive function of
  society.
• Political Involves the goal attainment function
  of society.
• Personality Involves the pattern-maintenance
  function of culture in relation to values.
• Social Involves the degree to which
  institutions are legitimized and integrated by
  the consensual value commitments of its members.

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Subsystems of Society

• Subsystem Function
• Societal Community Integrative
• Fiduciary Pattern Maintenance
• Polity Goal Attainment
• Economy Adaptation

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Societal Community

• Primary function is to define the obligations of
  loyalty to the societal collective.
• Loyalty is the readiness to respond to properly
  justified appeals for action in the name of
  public interest.
• The big problem for the individual is the
  adjustment of obligations among competing
  loyalties.
• Family v. work

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Fiduciary

• Value commitments in contrast with loyalty are
  independent of cost or punishment.
• To not meet your agreements of trust is
  illegitimate.
• Value commitments are a matter of honor and or
  guilt.
• Fiduciary agreements are generalized not
  specific.
• The agreement to not exploit others is different
  from lending money for interest.

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Polity

• The organizational component responsible for
  enforcing normative standards.
• In complex societies the function is performed by
  specialized agencies.
• Police
• Court systems combine the determination of
  obligations with the specific interpretation of
  the meaning of norms.
• Constitutional law
• A social system is political when it involves the
  mobilization of resources for the attainment of
  collective goals.
• Business firms and universities are political
• Government is centered on two primary functions
• Maintain society against generalized threats
• Collective action to promote the public interest

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Economy

• Governing the practical matters of managing
  social resources.
• Involves the development of a generalized
  monetary medium.
• The development of markets and monetary
  instruments.
• Rests on the rights component of citizenship.
• An economy that is purely administered by
  government violates the individuals freedom ot
  engage in market transactions.
• Once highly developed however, government
  administration becomes an important channel to
  mobilize societal resources.

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Manifest and Latent Functions by Robert K. Merton

• Manifest Functions refer to the conscious
  motivations for social behavior
• Building a new road to relieve traffic congestion
• Latent Functions refer to the objective
  consequences of the same behavior
• Increased congestion, fostering a need for more
  roads
• Manifest (motive) and Latent (function) vary
  independently
• The subjective categories of motivation vary
  independently of the objective categories of
  consequence.

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Two Specific Uses of Manifest and Latent Function

• Clarifies analysis of seemingly irrational social
  patterns.
• Many social patterns persist even though the
  purpose is clearly not attained.
• If purpose and outcome do not (or cannot) be
  coordinated there is a tendency to attribute the
  behavior to ignorance or superstition.
• The problem for sociology is that the perspective
  ignores the function the behavior may fulfill
  which is separate from the motivation.
• For example, the rain dance may perform a
  function that has nothing to do with producing
  rain.
• Only the meteorologist should be concerned with
  whether or not the dance produces rain!
• Sometimes irrational behavior maybe positively
  functional for the group.

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2. Directs attention toward theoretical
thinking.

• Directs attention to latent functions which are
  beyond the manifest functions of behavior.
• Does the new system of wage payment reduce
  employee turnover?
• An important question, but confined to the
  manifest, the study is directed by practical
  concerns, and not the theoretical interests of
  the sociologist.
• The terms of appraisal are fixed by the question.
• Armed with the concept of latent function the
  sociologist can investigate the idea that the
  propaganda campaign not only increase the
  tendency to buy war bands, but also decreased the
  tendency to express ideas which differ from
  official policies.
• Hawthorne Western Electric

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Conspicuous Consumption

• The manifest purpose of buying goods is to
  satisfy needs
• Costlinessexcellence of the goods
• The latent purpose is to heighten or reaffirm
  social status
• Costlinessmark of higher social status

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Conspicuous Consumption (2)

• The problem with making the manifest function the
  end is
• Manifest functions do not fully account for the
  prevailing patterns of consumption.
• If status enhancement were removed from the
  pattern of consumption, the patterns would change
  in dramatic ways that no economist could predict.

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Manifest Functions of Consumption

• People eat caviar because they are hungry.
• People buy Ferraris because they want the best
  car.
• People have dinner by candle light because they
  like the peaceful atmosphere.
• The common-sense manifest motives of the
  purchasing practice gives way,
• To the many latent functions which are also,
  perhaps more significantly fulfilled by the
  practices.

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Manifest and Latent Functions in Politics and
Business

• Functional deficiencies of the official political
  structure generate an alternative structure to
  fulfill the needs of a specific sub-group.
• Both illicit activities and political machines
  derive their power from the connection to the
  local community.
• Providing services that are not attainable
  through official legal structures.
• Hamas
• Drug Dealers
• Politics is transformed into personal ties.

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Legal and Illegal Business

• In real (functional) terms there is no difference
  between illegal and legal business.
• Both are concerned with providing goods that are
  in economic demand.
• Vice, crime, and drug dealing are big business.
• In functional terms there is no difference
  between providing liquor to the people of a dry
  county and providing liquor to the people of a
  wet county.

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Common Structural Features legal and illegal
business

• Market demand drives the supply of goods and
  services
• Major concern for maximizing profits
• Need for partial control of government to avoid
  interference in the operation
• Need for a central agencies to act as a liaison
  between business and government