Structural Functionalism

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Structural Functionalism
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• Structural functionalism is primarily concerned
  with large-scale social structures and
  institutions of society, their interrelationships,
  and their constraining effects on actors.

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Structural Explanation in Sociology

• Type of casual explanation that is specifically
  designed to account for patterns of human action
  and choices

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Patterns Operate Within A Social System

• Relationships, practices, and beliefs operate to
  structure the choices and actions of individuals

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Consensus Theory

• Consensus theories see shared norms and values as
  fundamental to society.
• They focus on how the social order is based on
  tacit agreements.
• They view social change as occurring in a slow
  and orderly fashion.
• Structural Functionalist Theories are considered
  consensus theories.

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In the History of Social Thought

• For many years structural functionalism dominated
  social thought in the United States.
• Kingsley Davis said structural functionalism was,
  for all intents and purposes synonymous with
  sociology.
• Yet over the last thirty years, it has become an
  embarrassment in contemporary sociological
  theory. Wilbert Moore.

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The Functional Theory of Stratification and its
Critics

• Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore argue that no
  society is ever unstratified, or totally
  classless.
• Stratification is a functional necessity.
• Certain positions come to carry with them
  different degrees of prestige, this is the focus,
  and not on how individuals come to occupy certain
  positions.
• Is this prestige earned?
• Is it necessary?

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Functional Theories of Stratification

• Two key problems
• 1) How does a society instill in the proper
  individuals the desire to fill certain positions?
  
• 2) Once people are in the right positions, how
  does society then instill in them the desire to
  fulfill the requirements of those positions?

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Proper social placement in society is a problem
for three basic reasons

• 1) Some positions are more pleasant to occupy
  than others.
• 2) Some positions are more important to
  survival than others.
• 3) Different social positions require different
  abilities and talents.

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Critique

• The Functional Theory of stratification simply
  perpetuates the privileged position of those
  people who already have power, prestige, and
  money. It does this by arguing that people
  deserve their rewards.
• The theory assumes that simply because a
  stratified social structure has existed in the
  past, it must continue to exist in the future.
• The idea that functional positions vary in their
  importance is difficult to support. Who has what
  needs?

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Talcott Parsons
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The Social System

• The Social System
• mutually dependent parts
• parts contribute to functioning of system
• moving equilibrium disturbance induces
  counter-reaction to maintain equilibrium

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Talcott Parsons Structural Functionalism

• -AGIL- A function is a complex of activities
  directed towards meeting a need or needs of the
  system.
• -There are Four Functional Imperatives that are
  necessary for (Characteristic of) all social
  systems-
• A- Adaptation
• G- Goal Attainment
• I- Integration
• - Latency (pattern maintenance)

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Social Stratification Defined

• "differential ranking of human individuals who
  compose a given social system and their treatment
  as superior or inferior relative to one another
  in certain socially important respects" (Parsons,
  Analytical Approach to Social Strat., 69)

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Fundamental Axis of Stratification Ascription
vs. Achievement

• Ascribed Status results from birth or biological
  herditary qualities (e.g. age, sex)
• Achieved status results from personal actions
  (effort, hard work, talent)

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TALCOTT PARSONS

• When strong ties have been formed situational
  pressures force modification and impose strains
  on the individuals.

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• In order to communicate symbolically,
  individuals must have culturally organized common
  codes, such as those of language, which are also
  integrated into systems of their social
  interaction. In order to make information stored
  in the central nervous system utilizable for the
  personality, the behavioral organism must have
  mobilization and retrieval mechanisms which,
  through interpenetration, subserve motives
  organized at the personality level. pg 299

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• Structure of social systems analyzed in terms of
• values
• norms
• collectives
• roles.
• To be institutionalized in a stable fashion,
  collectivities and roles must be governed by
  specific insofar as they are implemented by
  particular collectivities and roles.

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Moral Evaluation

• Ranking done on basis of moral evaluation,
  resulting in degrees of respect or disapproval
  (status)

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6 Bases of Differential Moral Evaluation

• Membership in kinship unit (by birth, marriage)
• Personal qualities (sex, age, personal beauty,
  intelligence strength)
• Achievements (result of individual's actions)
• Possessions (material non-material things
  belonging to an individual and transferrable)
• Authority ("institutionally recognized right to
  influence actions of others", p. 76 resides in
  position or office)
• Power (ability to influence others and secure
  possessions which is not institutionally
  sanctioned)

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2 Dominant Aspects of American Stratification

• Occupation universalistic criteria achieved
  status not determined at birth equality of
  opportunity
• Kinship ascribed status determined at birth

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Kinship Groups as Units of Stratification

• "the class status of an individual is that rank
  in the system of stratification which can be
  ascribed to him (sic) by virtue of those of his
  (sic) kinship ties which bind him to a unit in
  the class structure" (77-8)

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TALCOTT PARSONS

• Childs relations outside the family are only to
  a small extent. A play group is a large extent
  to find his own level in competition with
  others.

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TALCOTT PARSONS- The Kinship Example

• Effective kinship unit is normally small conjugal
  family. The childs emotional attachments to kin
  are confined to a few persons.

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TALCOTT PARSONS

• Youth culture is a pleasure seeker. A simple
  matter of apprenticeship in adult values and
  responsibilities.

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TALCOTT PARSONS

• Our society was characterized by striking
  assimilation of the roles of the sexes to each
  other.

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TALCOTT PARSONS

• American society manifests a high level of
  emancipation of women, which involves relative
  assimilation to masculine roles in accessibility
  to occupational opportunity.

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TALCOTT PARSONS

• Sex role assimilation in our society are
  conspicuously combined with elements of
  segregation which are even more striking in other
  societies.
• Can you think of any examples?

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Contradiction between Occupation and Kinship

• Parsons In the American system of
  stratification, women cannot be allowed to
  compete on an equal footing for the jobs of men
  otherwise, this would threaten the stability of
  the family, and hence of society.

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TALCOTT PARSONS

• Historically, Western culture, has strong
  tendency to define the feminine role as one of
  dependency.

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ASYMMETRICAL RELATION

• Has both exceedingly important positive
  functional significance and is at the same time
  an important source of strain in relation to the
  patterning of sex roles

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POSITIVE FUNCTIONAL SIDE

• Separation of sex roles to prevent competition
• "One mechanism which can serve to prevent the
  kind of 'invidious comparison' between husband
  and wife which might be disruptive of family
  solidarity is a clear separation of the sex roles
  such as to ensure that they do not come in
  competition with each" (Parsons, 79-80).
• Exclusion of Women's Independent Status
• "The separation of the sex roles in our society
  is such as, for the most part, to remove women
  from the kind of occupational status which is
  important for the determination of the status of
  a family" (Parson, 80)

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PROCESS OF MUTUAL ACCOMODATION

• Our kinship system is of a structural type which
  interferes least with the functional needs of the
  occupational system exerting little pressure
  for the ascription of an individuals social
  status the conjugal unit can be mobile in status
  independently of the other kinship ties of its
  members
• By confining the number of status-giving
  occupational roles of the members of the
  effective conjugal unit to one, it eliminates any
  competition for status, especially as between
  husband and wife, which might be disruptive of
  the solidarity of marriage so long as the lines
  of achievement are segregated and not directly
  comparable, there is less opportunity for
  jealousy, a sense of inferiority to develop.

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PROCESS OF MUTUAL ACCOMODATION

• Its aids in clarity of definition of the
  situation by making the status of the family in
  the community relatively definite and
  unequivocal there is much evidence that this
  relative definiteness of status is an important
  factor in psychological security.

• B) Small conjugal unit can also be strongly
  solidary unit prevalence of the pattern that
  normally only one of its members has an
  occupational role which is of determinate
  significance for the status of the family as a
  whole.

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Instrumental vs Expressive Roles

• Instrumental Roles men outside family
  occupational world adaptation of society
• Expressive Roles women inside family tension
  management in family socialization of children

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Dress and Gender/Sex Roles

• Women's interests...run... far more in the
  direction of personal adornment and the related
  qualities of personal charm... . Men's dress is
  practically a uniform, admitting of very slight
  play for differentiating taste" (Parsons, 80)
• "This serves to concentrate the judgment and
  valuation of men on their occupational
  achievements, while the valuation of women is
  diverted into realms outside the occupationally
  relevant sphere. " (Parsons, 80)
• This difference appears particularly conspicuous
  in th urban middle classes where competition for
  class status is most severe. ... this phenomenon
  is functionally related to maintaining family
  solidarity in our class structure" (Parsons, 80)
• "...the qualities and achievements of the
  feminine role have come to be significant as
  symbols of the status of the family, as parts of
  its 'standard of living' which reflect credit on
  it. The man's role ... is primarily to determine
  the status of his

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STRAINS IN RELATION TO THE PATTERNING OF SEX
ROLES

• Two pressures tend to counteract this dependency
  and have played a part in the movement for
  feminine emancipation

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STRAINS IN RELATION TO THE PATTERNING OF SEX
ROLES

• The multilineal symmetry of the kinship system,
  which gives no basis of sex discrimination, and
  which in kinship terms favors equal rights and
  responsibilities for both parties to a marriage.
• Character of the marriage. Resting as is does
  primarily on affective attachment for the other
  person as a concrete human individual puts a
  premium on a certain kind of mutuality and
  equality. There is no clearly structured
  superordination-subordination pattern. Each is a
  fully responsible partner with a claim to a
  voice in decisions, to a certain human dignity,
  to be taken seriously.

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STRAINS IN RELATION TO THE PATTERNING OF SEX
ROLES

• Conspicuous tendency for the feminine role to
  emphasize broadly humanistic rather than
  technically specialized achievement values. The
  more humanistic cultural traditions and amenities
  of life are carried out by women.

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STRAINS IN RELATION TO THE PATTERNING OF SEX
ROLES

• Since these things are of high importance in the
  scale of values in our culture, and since by
  virtue of the system of occupational
  specialization even many highly superior men are
  greatly handicapped in respect to them.

• Parsons Example
• good taste in personal appearance, house
  furnishings, cultural things life literature and
  music

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STRAINS IN RELATION TO THE PATTERNING OF SEX
ROLES

• Parsons Example
• glamour girl pattern

• Use of specifically feminine devices as an
  instrument of compulsive search for power and
  exclusive attention, which are conspicuous.

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Concepts In the Readings

• Social Capital
• Cultural Capital
• Status Characteristics
• Typification
• Power Dependency and Power Balancing Operation

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Most Important Concept

• Power/Dependency
• Robert Emerson (1962) famous essay
• - Power Dependence Relations
• Emersons concept is relational one partys
  power in a relationship is equal to the other
  partys dependence on rewards or resources
  derived from the relationship
• Relationships are power imbalanced, party with
  greater power seek a higher level of reward from
  the other

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Cultural Capital

• Quality and quantity of information that actors
  can deploy in social interaction

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Status Characteristics

• Attributes commonly associated with age,
  physical, attractiveness, class, race and gender

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Social Capital

• Pool of favors and obligations in ones social
  network

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Typification

• Degree of knowledge that people have different
  domains of experience

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Manifest and Latent Functions

• Robert K. Merton

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What are Manifest and Latent Functions?

• Manifest Function- objective consequences for a
  specified unit (person, subgroup, social system
  or cultural system) which contribute to its
  adjustment or were so intended.
• Latent Function- unintended or unrecognized
  consequences.

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Purpose of the Distinction

• Clarifies the analysis of irrational social
  patterns.
• Helps in interpreting social practices even
  though their manifest purpose is not achieved
• When this occurs, the practices are called
  superstitions, irrationalities.
• When group behavior does not achieve its apparent
  purpose, attribute its occurrence to ignorance,
  lack if intelligence.
• With latent function, a behavior may have a
  function or purpose although it is different from
  its intended purpose.

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Example of Hopi Ceremonial Rain Dance

• Although in some cases the rain dance may not
  bring rain it has other purposes that are not so
  obvious or visible.
• Its latent function is to reinforce group
  identity by assembling group members to engage in
  a common activity.
• It is a source of group unity.

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Other purpose of Latent Functions

• The distinctive intellectual contribution of a
  sociologist usually occurs when studying
  unintended consequences (latent functions) of
  social practices as well as in the study of
  anticipated consequences (manifest functions)
• Sociologists have made their individual and
  unique contributions when doing research when
  they have focused on studying latent functions.

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Sociological Knowledge

• The discovery of latent functions represents
  significant increase in sociological knowledge.
• Latent functions of a practice or belief are not
  common knowledge because they are unintended or
  unrecognized social and psychological
  consequences.
• Research about latent functions is a greater
  increase in knowledge than that about manifest
  functions because it is about things that we do
  not know.
• Latent functions show that social life is not as
  simple as it seems.

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The Importance of Dysfunction

• Merton makes us aware that sometimes dysfunction
  or deviance plays an important role in a social
  system. Deviance is often a necessary component.