The Functionalist Perspective

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The functionalist perspective attempts to explain social institutions as collective means to meet individual and social needs.

KEY POINTS

  • In the functionalist perspective, societies are thought to function like organisms, with various socialinstitutionsworking together like organs to maintain and reproduce societies.
  • According to functionalist theories, institutions come about and persist because they play a function insociety, promoting stability and integration.
  • Functionalismhas been criticized for its failure to account forsocial changeand individual agency; some consider it conservatively biased.
  • Functionalism has been criticized for attributing human-like needs to society.
  • Emile Durkheim's work is considered the foundation of functionalisttheoryin sociology.

TERMS

  • functionalism

Structural functionalism, or simply functionalism, is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promotesolidarityand stability.

  • social institutions

In the social sciences, institutions are the structures and mechanisms of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given human collectivity. Institutions include thefamily, religion, peergroup, economic systems, legal systems, penal systems, language, and the media.

  • manifest function

the element of a behavior that is conscious and deliberate

  • latent function

the element of a behavior that is not explicitly stated, recognized, or intended, and is thereby hidden

Functionalism

The functionalist perspective attempts to explainsocial institutionsas collective means to meet individual and social needs. It is sometimes calledstructural-functionalismbecause it often focuses on the ways social structures (e.g., social institutions) meet social needs.

Functionalism draws its inspiration from the ideas of Emile Durkheim. Durkheim was concerned with the question of how societies maintain internal stability and survive over time. He sought to explain social stability through the concept of solidarity, and differentiated between the mechanical solidarity of primitive societies and the organic solidarity of complex modern societies. According to Durkheim, more primitive or traditional societies were held together by mechanical solidarity; members of society lived in relatively small and undifferentiated groups, where they shared strong family ties and performed similar daily tasks. Such societies were held together by shared values and common symbols. By contrast, he observed that, in modern societies, traditional familybondsare weaker; modern societies also exhibit a complexdivision of labor, where members perform very different daily tasks. Durkheim argued that modern industrial society would destroy the traditional mechanical solidarity that held primitive societies together. Modern societies however, do not fall apart. Instead, modern societies rely on organic solidarity; because of the extensive division of labor, members of society are forced to interact and exchange with one another to provide the things they need.

The functionalist perspective continues to try and explain how societies maintained the stability and internalcohesionnecessary to ensure their continued existence over time. In the functionalist perspective, societies are thought to function like organisms, with various social institutions working together like organs to maintain and reproduce them. The various parts of society are assumed to work together naturally and automatically to maintain overall socialequilibrium. Because social institutions are functionally integrated to form a stable system, a change in one institution will precipitate a change in other institutions. Dysfunctional institutions, which do not contribute to the overall maintenance of a society, will cease to exist.

In the 1950s, Robert Merton elaborated the functionalist perspective by proposing a distinction between manifest and latent functions. Manifest functions are the intended functions of an institution or a phenomenon in a social system. Latent functions are its unintended functions. Latent functions may be undesirable, but unintended consequences, or manifestly dysfunctional institutions may have latent functions that explain their persistence. For example, crime seems difficult to explain from the functionalist perspective; it seems to play little role in maintaining social stability. Crime, however, may have the latent function of providing examples that demonstrate the boundaries ofacceptable behaviorand the function of these boundaries to maintain socialnorms.

Social Institutions

Functionalists analyze social institutions in terms of the function they play. In other words, to understand a component of society, one must ask, "What is the function of this institution? How does it contribute to social stability? " Thus, one can ask of education, "What is the function of education for society? " A complete answer would be quite complex and require a detailed analysis of the history of education, but one obvious answer is that education prepares individuals to enter the workforce and, therefore, maintains a functioningeconomy. By delineating the functions of elements of society, of the social structure, we can better understand social life.

Criticism of Functionalism

Functionalism has been criticized for downplaying the role of individual action, and for being unable to account for social change. In the functionalist perspective, society and its institutions are the primary units of analysis. Individuals are significant only in terms of their places within social systems (i.e., socialstatusand position in patterns of social relations). Some critics also take issue with functionalism's tendency to attribute needs to society. They point out that, unlike human beings, society does not have needs; society is only alive in the sense that it is made up of living individuals. By downplaying the role of individuals, functionalism is less likely to recognize how individual actions may alter social institutions.

Critics also argue that functionalism is unable to explain social change because it focuses so intently on social order and equilibrium in society. Following functionalist logic, if a social institution exists, it must serve a function. Institutions, however, change over time; some disappear and others come into being. The focus of functionalism on elements of social life in relation to their present function, and not their past functions, makes it difficult to use functionalism to explain why a function of some element of society might change, or how such change occurs.

The Conflict Perspective

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Conflict theory sees society as a dynamic entity constantly undergoing change as a result of competition over scarce resources.

KEY POINTS
  • Conflict theorysees social life as a competition, and focuses on the distribution of resources, power, andinequality.
  • Unlike functionalist theory,conflict theoryis better at explainingsocial change, and weaker at explaining social stability.
  • Conflicttheoryhas been critiqued for its inability to explain social stability and incremental change.
  • Conflict theory derives from the ideas of Karl Marx.
TERMS
  • conflict theory

A social science perspective that holds that stratification is dysfunctional and harmful insociety, with inequality perpetuated because it benefits the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor.

  • functionalism

Structuralfunctionalism, or simply functionalism, is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability.

EXAMPLES
  • A conflict theorist might ask, "Who benefits from the current higher educational system in the U.S.? " The answer, for a conflict theorist attuned to unequal distributions of wealth, is the wealthy. After all, higher education in the U.S. is not free. The educational system often screens out poorer individuals, not because they are unable to compete academically, but because they cannot afford to pay for their education. Because the poor are unable to obtain higher education, they are generally also unable to get higher paying jobs, and, thus, they remain poor. Such an arrangement translates into a viciouscycle of poverty. While a functionalist might say that the function of education is to educate the workforce, a conflict theorist might point out that it also has an element of conflict and inequality, favoring onegroup(the wealthy) over other groups (the poor). Thinking about education in this way helps illustrate why both functionalist and conflict theories are helpful in understanding how society works.

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TheConflict Perspective

The conflict perspective, or conflict theory, derives from the ideas of Karl Marx, who believed society is a dynamic entity constantly undergoing change driven byclassconflict. Whereas functionalism understands society as a complex system striving for equilibrium, the conflict perspective views social life as competition. According to the conflict perspective, society is made up of individuals competing for limited resources (e.g., money, leisure, sexual partners, etc.). Competition over scarce resources is at the heart of all social relationships. Competition, rather thanconsensus, is characteristic of human relationships. Broader social structures and organizations (e.g., religions, government, etc.) reflect the competition for resources and the inherent inequality competition entails; some people and organizations havemoreresources (i.e.,powerand influence), and use those resources to maintain their positions of power in society.

C. Wright Mills is known as the founder of modern conflict theory. In his work, he believes social structures are created because of conflict between differing interests. People are then impacted by the creation of social structures, and the usual result is a differential of power between the "elite" and the "others". Examples of the "elite" would be government and largecorporations. G. William Domhoff believes in a similar philosophy as Mills and has written about the "power elite of America".

Sociologists who work from the conflict perspective study the distribution of resources, power, and inequality. When studying a socialinstitutionor phenomenon, they ask, "Who benefits from this element of society? "

Conflict Theory and Change

While functionalism emphasizes stability, conflict theory emphasizes change. According to the conflict perspective, society is constantly in conflict over resources, and that conflict drives social change. For example, conflict theorists might explain the civil rights movements of the 1960s by studying how activists challenged the racially unequal distribution of political power and economic resources. As in this example, conflict theorists generally see social change as abrupt, even revolutionary, rather than incremental. In the conflict perspective, change comes about through conflict between competing interests, not consensus or adaptation. Conflict theory, therefore, gives sociologists a framework for explaining social change, thereby addressing one of the problems withthe functionalist perspective.

Criticism of Conflict Theory

Predictably, conflict theory has been criticized for its focus on change and neglect of social stability. Some critics acknowledge that societies are in a constant state of change, but point out that much of the change is minor or incremental, not revolutionary. For example, many modern capitalist states have avoided a communist revolution, and have instead instituted elaborate social service programs. Although conflict theorists often focus on social change, they have, in fact, also developed a theory to explain social stability. According to the conflict perspective, inequalities in power and reward are built into all social structures. Individuals and groups who benefit from any particular structure strive to see it maintained. For example, the wealthy may fight to maintain their privileged access to higher education by opposing measures that would broaden access, such asaffirmative actionor public funding.

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The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

Symbolic interactionism looks at individual and group meaning-making, focusing on human action instead of large-scale social structures.

KEY POINTS

  • Symbolic interactionism has roots inphenomenology, which emphasizes the subjective meaning of reality.
  • Symbolicinteractionism proposes a socialtheoryofthe self, or a looking glass self.
  • Symbolic interactionists study meaning and communication; they tend to usequalitativemethods.
  • Symbolic interactionismhas been criticized for failing to take into account large-scale macro social structures and forces.

TERMS

  • phenomenology

A philosophy based on the intuitive experience of phenomena, and on the premise that reality consists of objects and events as consciously perceived by conscious beings.

  • behaviorism

an approach to psychology focusing on behavior, denying any independent significance for mind, and assuming that behavior is determined by the environment

  • role theory

assumes that people are primarily conformists who try to achieve the norms that accompany their roles;groupmembers check each individual's performance to determine whether it conforms with that individual's assigned norms, and apply sanctions for misbehavior in an attempt to ensure role performance.

EXAMPLES

  • A good example of the looking glass self is a person trying on clothes before going out with friends. Some people may not think much about how others will think about their clothing choices, but others can spend quite a bit of time considering what they are going to wear. While they are deciding, the dialogue taking place inside their mind is usually a dialogue between their "self" (that portion of theiridentitythat calls itself "I") and that person's internalized understanding of their friends and society (a "generalized other"). An indicator of maturesocializationis when an individual quite accurately predicts how other people think about him or her. Such an individual has incorporated the "social" into the "self. "

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Symbolic interactionism is a theoretical approach to understanding therelationshipbetween humans andsociety. The basic notion of symbolic interactionism is that human action and interaction are understandable only through the exchange of meaningful communication or symbols. In this approach, humans are portrayed as acting, as opposed to being acted upon. The main principles of symbolic interactionism are:

  • Human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings that things have for them
  • These meanings arise out ofsocial interaction
  • Social action results from a fitting together of individual lines of action

This approach stands in contrast to the strictbehaviorismof psychological theories prevalent at the time it was first formulated (the 1920s and 1930s). According to symbolic interactionism, humans are distinct from infrahumans (lower animals) because infrahumans simply respond to their environment (i.e., a stimulus evokes a response or stimulus ⇒ response), whereas humans have the ability to interrupt that process (i.e., stimulus ⇒ cognition ⇒ response). Additionally, infrahumans are unable to conceive of alternative responses togestures. Humans, however, can. This understanding should not be taken to indicate that humans never behave in a strict stimulus ⇒ response fashion, but rather that humans have the capability of responding in a different way, and do so much of the time.

This perspective is also rooted in phenomenological thought. According to symbolic interactionism, the objective world has no reality for humans; only subjectively defined objects have meaning. Meanings are not entities that are bestowed on humans and learned by habituation; instead, meanings can be altered through the creative capabilities of humans, and individuals mayinfluencethe many meanings that form their society. Human society, therefore, is a social product.

The Looking Glass Self

Neurological evidence, based on EEGs, supports the idea that humans have a "social brain," meaning, there are components of the human brain that govern social interaction. These parts of the brain begin developing in early childhood (the preschool years) and aid humans in understanding how other people think. In symbolic interactionism, this is known as "reflected appraisals" or "the looking glass self," and refers to our ability to think about how other people will think about us. In 1902,Charles Horton Cooleydeveloped the social psychological concept of the looking glass self. The term was first used in his work,Human Natureand the Social Order. There are three main components of the looking glass self:

Charles Cooley

Cooley developed the idea of the looking glass self.

  • We imagine how we must appear to others
  • We imagine the judgment of that appearance
  • We develop our self through the judgments of others

Cooley clarified this concept in his writings, stating that society is an interweaving and interworking of mental selves.

In hypothesizing the framework for the looking glass self, Cooley said, "the mind is mental" because "the human mind is social. " As children, humans begin to define themselves within thecontextof theirsocializations. The child learns that thesymbolof his/her crying will elicit a response from his/her parents, not only when they are in need of necessities, such as food, but also as a symbol to receive their attention.

George Herbert Meaddescribed self as "taking the role of the other," the premise for which the self is actualized. Through interaction with others, we begin to develop an identity about who we are, as well as empathy for others. This is the notion of, "Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. " In respect to this, Cooley said, "The thing that moves us to pride or shame is not the mere mechanical reflection of ourselves, but an imputed sentiment, the imagined effect of this reflection upon another's mind. "

It should be noted that symbolic interactionists advocate a particularmethodology. Because they see meaning as the fundamental component of the interaction of human and society, studying human and social interaction requires an understanding of that meaning. Symbolic interactionists tend to employmorequalitative, rather thanquantitative, methods in theirresearch.

The most significant limitation of the symbolicinteractionist perspectiverelates to its primary contribution: it overlooks macro-social structures (e.g.,norms, culture) as a result of focusing on micro-level interactions. Some symbolic interactionists, however, would counter that the incorporation ofrole theoryinto symbolic interactionism addresses this criticism.

KEY TERM GLOSSARY (for conflict theory and functionalism)

Conflict Perspective - perspectives in social science based on Conflict Theory, that emphasize the social, political, or material inequality of a social group.

Appears in these related concepts:
  • Social Control
  • Intergenerational Conflict
  • Screening and Allocation: Tracking

Conflict Theories - Perspectives in social science that emphasize the social, political, or material inequality of a social group, critique the broad socio-political system, or otherwise detract from structural functionalism and ideological conservatism.