Functionalist's perspective on society
- Created by: priceell09
- Created on: 07-01-16 17:17
View mindmap
- Fuctionalist's view on society
- Functionalism is a macro theory where it bring a consensus approach to society.
- Social order is maintained through values and consensus being internalised from a young age; the young learn their social position.
- Conflict is minimised, as individuals accept their position in society; as every role has a function (cog theory)
- Society is made up of system parts: education, mass media, religion and family, which all contributes to social solidarity.
- Functionalism sees society as a body (organic analogy), all the institutions work together to make society
- Society is made up of system parts: education, mass media, religion and family, which all contributes to social solidarity.
- Focuses too much on harmony and co-operation and fails to take into account the differences and conflicts between groups in society.
- Family
- Murdock- 4 Functions of the family; Sexual,
Reproductive, Education and Economic.
- Sexual: Healthy sex life,stable adults. Reproductive: Producing the next generation. Economic: Man works, Women house keeps, taxes paid, food and shelter. Educational: Primary socialisation and norms and values.
- Parsons- 2 Functions of the family; Primary
Socialisation and Stabilisation of Adult Personalities.
- Primary Socialisation: typically occurs during childhood and is when a child learns the attitudes, values and actions appropriate to individuals as members of a particular culture.
- Stabilising Adult Personalities: the idea that the family provides a relaxing environment for the stresses of the day to be relieved.
- Murdock- 4 Functions of the family; Sexual,
Reproductive, Education and Economic.
- Durkheim
- Domestic Division of labour: In early society, everybody farmed and similar lives. In modern society, our lives a vastly different, yet we still all depend on each other and pull together.
- Mechanical Solidarity: is used to describe early society, where people were unified through shared experiences, similar activities and responsibilities; very religious and had strict laws.
- Organic Solidarity: describes societies with very different jobs and roles, which encouraged co-dependence, moral individualism(judged by own standards), restitutive law(offenders pay for harm), less religious and rigid.
- Dynamic Density, caused shift from mechanical to organic solidarity- this means population increased while there were fewer rescources (food&energy). This created more competition and the idea that some didn't deserve to have things.
- We had to find new ways to resolve conflict through cooperation and greater efficiency, so people took a wider variety of roles to give us what we needed (industrialisation)
- Social Facts are all the social structures (like laws), norms and values that control us.
- Material Social Facts: are directly observable, like demographics& populations. Non-Material Social Facts: things like culture, norms and values that are put their through socialisation.
- Criticisms:
- There is no evidence to suggest that in the absence of collective conscience, humans become like cave people.
- Durkheim's functionalist theory is morally prescriptive and conservative which isn't good for social change.
- It doesn't address conflict; which is what causes it and what to do about it.
- Struggles to be relevant to modern society, which is far more complicated than in Durkheim's day.
- Structural Functionalism
- Parsons said there are 4 main aims of social systems: Adaption, Goal Attainment, Integration and Pattern Maintenance.
- Adaption: How we change to meet needs of society.
- Integration: How we rake on norms, values and culture.
- Goal Attainment: How we use our personalities to get what we want in life.
- Pattern Maintenance: How we use the cultural system (schools) to pass on culture from generations.
- He focuses on how societies have evolved; and how socialiazation and social control allow the social system to maintain and balance, to keep us on track.
- Divided functions up into latent & manifest. Latent functions related to what was the intention behind an act and Manifest is what actually happened.
- Banning the Burka in France might have the Latent function of integrating Muslim women into the French culture, but it might have the Manifest Function making them feel excluded.
- Criticisms:
- Parsons does not really examine the history roots of society.
- His theories are based on American society, so they'll not be entirely applicable to other societies.
- Only focuses on harmonious relationships.
- Has a conservative bias because of what it ignores (conflict & inequality) and what it focuses on (family values)
- Parsons said there are 4 main aims of social systems: Adaption, Goal Attainment, Integration and Pattern Maintenance.
- Crime
- Merton
- Crime exists due to society sharing the American dream- rich, successful and fulfilled.
- A strain exists between the goals and ambitions of people and their ability to achieve them.
- Conformity, Innovation, Ritualism, Retreatism and Rebellion.
- Lower class and ethnic minorities are more likely to commit criminal acts because of their position in the social structure.
- Durkheim argues that crime is needed within society; if it was reduced then it would result in Anomie (a lack of usual social norms and values)
- Inevitable, Functional, Universal and Relative
- Punishment reinforces the norms and values of society
- Merton
- Functionalism is a macro theory where it bring a consensus approach to society.
Comments
No comments have yet been made