TALCOT PARSONS THEORY OF FUNCTIONALISM

Rai Nisseem KrishnaRoll No.- 179

The Functionalism theory was developed by Emile Durkheim and was refined by Talcott Parsons.

Functionalism views society as a social system which is very well organised and systematic and all parts perform important role in its maintainance. Eg. relegion, marriage, kinship, family etc.

FUNCTIONALISM

Its all parts are interrelated and interdependent to each other and each one makes contribution for smooth functioning of society.

The early Functionalists always drew analogy between society and an organism such as human body.

They argues that just as an organism has certain basic needs which must be satisfied, society has also some basic needs which must be met if it is to continue to exist.

Functionalists also employ the concept of dyfunction to refer to the effects of any social institution which detract from maintainance of the society.

TALCOT PARSONS (1902-1979)

He was an American Sociologist who also served as a Professor in Hardvard University.

He Founded the Department of Social Relations combining Sociology, Anthropology, and Psychology in 1944.

He was heavily influenced by the writings of Durkheim

Key works:The Structure of Social Action (1937)The Social System (1951)Social Structure and Personality (1964)The System of Modern Societies (1971)The Structure and Change of the Social System(1983)

Parsons spent his whole career trying to develop a general theory of social action and of social system by means of which and within which, social action takes place.

A system is something that has a boundary, so that there is an inside and an outside to the environment comprising the system.

TALCOT PARSONS THEORY OF STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM

System has interdependent parts, order or equilibrium, and a tendency to maintain the boundaries and relations of the parts to the whole.

These are action system in sense that they involve social action, and each system has certain needs or conditions that are necessary for the survival and continued operation of system.

THE UNIT ACT: Parsons in his theoretical scheme of social

action firstly specified that the basic building block of all social action is ‘the unit act’. This is ‘the smallest unit’ of an action system which still, makes sense as a part of a concrete system of action.

He identified four basic elements, all of which have to be included for a particular piece of behaviour to be counted as action for the purposes of his theory of action.

These basic elements are:i. An agent or actorii. A goal or endsiii. Responses made to situational

conditions. These can be thought of as a means to achieving particular ends.

iv. The business of acting to achieve a purpose by responding to environmental conditions has to be done in a way that conforms to the prevailing norms of the society.

THE ACTION FRAME OF REFERENCCE: Parsons refers to his approach as an

‘action frame of reference’ as he was keen to specify that he was developing a theoretical framework not only for making objective assessments of social action in the manner of a positivist, but also to include the subjective assessment or voluntaristic dimesions of action as well.

He regards social actors as concious,

knowledgeable and intentional.

THE SOCIAL SYSTEM: Parsons discussed a theoretical framework

of the overall social system where action takes place. He suggested that society must fulfill four basic functions in order for it to function as a society. These are:

1. Adaptation: It refers to the relationship between the system and its environment. The economy is the institution primarily concerned with this function.

2. Goal attainment: It refers to the need for all societies to set goals towards which social activity is directed. Political system is the main institution concerned with this function.

3. Integration: It refers primarily to the ‘adjustment of conflict’. It is concerned with the coordination and mutual adjustment of the parts of the social system. The law is the main institution which meets this need.

4. Pattern maintainance: It refers to the ‘maintainance of basic pattern of values, institutionalized in the society’. Institutions which perform this function includes the family, the education system and religion.

PATTERN VARIABLES: Parsons constructed a set of variables that

can be used to analyze the various systems. The Pattern Variables provide a means of looking at various forms that norms and social actions can take, and what their orientation is. There can be certain pattern variables but Parsons considered four of these as essential to the satisfactory functioning of the social system.

These are:i. Affectivity versus affective neutrality: It

refers to the level of emotion or rational detachment that is appropriate or expected in a given form of situation.

ii. Diffuseness versus specificity: It refers to whether the range or scope of obligations in an interaction situation is broad or narrow.

iii. Universalism versus particularism: It refers to whether ‘evaluative standards’ are based on universal criteria or beliefs of a particular society.

iv. Achievement versus ascription: It refers to whether social status is assessed in terms of ‘performance criteria’, i.e. how successful actors are in their achievements, or of ‘ forms of endowment’, i.e. labels and categories based on something other than merit.

Parsons was also very much concerned with the question of how social order is possible .

He observed that social life is characterized by ‘mutual advantage and peaceful cooperation rather than mutual hostility and destruction.

He considered the views of Thomas Hobbes who claimed to have discovered the basis of social order.

According to Hobbes self preservation is the fundamental basis of establishing social order.

Parson argued that Hobbes picture of man pursuing personal ends and restrained only by sovereign power fails to provide an adequate explanation of social order and believed that only a commitment to common values provides a basis for order in the society, i.e. Value consensus forms the fundamental integrating principle in the society.

According to Parsons the main task of sociology is to analyse the ‘institutionalisation of patterns of value orientation in the social system’.

When values are institutionalised and behaviour structured in terms of them, the result is a stable system.

A state of ‘social equilibrium’ is attained when there is balance between various parts of the system.

There are two ways in which social equilibrium is maintained. The first involves socialization by means of which society’s values are transmitted from one generation to the next and internalized to form an integral part of individual personalities. The second involves the various mechanisms of social control which discourages deviance and so maintain order in the system.

It has been critcised for failing to provide an adequate explanation for social change.

Stronger criticisms include epistemological argument that functionalism is tautologous, that is it attempts to account for the development of social institutions solely through recourse to the effects that are attributed to them and thereby explains the two circularly.

CRTICISM

A further criticism directed at functionalism is that it contains no sense of agency, that individuals are seen as puppets, acting as their role requires.

Conflict theorists criticised functionalism's concept of system as giving far too much weight to integration and consensus, and neglecting independence and conflict.

The feminists argued that the functionalism neglected the suppression of women within the family structure.