Week 3: Structural functionalism, exchange theory and rational choice theory, causality and social mechanisms

Question 1

Functionalism

Answer 1

The analysis of social and cultural phenomena in terms of the functions they perform in a sociocultural system. In functionalism, society is conceived of as a system of interrelated parts in which no part can be understood in isolation from the whole. A change in any part is seen as leading to a certain degree of imbalance, which in turn results in changes in other parts of the system and to some extent the reorganization of the system as a whole.

Question 2

What are the three elements of functionalism?

Answer 2

1. The general interrelatedness, or interdependence, of the system’s parts.
2. The existence of a “normal” state of affairs, or a state of equilibrium, comparable to the normal or healthy state of an organism.
3. The way that all the parts of the system reorganize to bring things back to normal.

Question 3

Shared values

Answer 3

Generally accepted standards of desirability as a central concept.

Question 4

Value consensus

Answer 4

Individuals will be morally committed to their society.

Question 5

How does functionalism and conflict theory contrast each other?

Answer 5

Whereas functionalism emphasizes the unity of society and what its members share, conflict theorists stress the divisions within a society and the struggles that arise out of people’s pursuits of their different material interests. The concept of anomie holds an important space in modern functionalism, as does alienation (Marx) in conflict theory. However, whereas Durkheim emphasizes people’s needs for firmly established and common social norms, Marx sees alienation as the pernicious result of a social order that tightly control its citizens, and he argues that mankind needs far greater freedom from regulation.

Question 6

What is Herbert Spencer’s (1820-190) differentiation?

Answer 6

The mutual dependence of unlike parts of the system which is brought about inevitably by an increase in society’s size.

Question 7

Integration

Answer 7

Or social solidarity, is the incorporation of individuals into the social order, which is important for the maintenance of social equilibrium, according to Durkheim.

Question 8

Collective conscience

Answer 8

The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to average citizens of the same society.

Question 9

Durkheim’s social fact

Answer 9

That which is general over the whole of a given society whilst having an existence of its own, independent of its individual manifestations. Laws, morals, beliefs, customs, and fasions.

Question 10

Institution

Answer 10

Beliefs and modes of behavior instituted by their collectivity.

Question 11

Anomie

Answer 11

Normlessness, a situation where rules and norms are absent.

Question 12

What are the two types of anomie?

Answer 12

1. Acute anomie: The result of of an abrupt change, like a business crisis or a divorce.
2. Chronic anomie: A state of constant change, characteristic of modern industrial society.

Question 13

What are Parson’s four systems level?

Answer 13

Cultural, social, personality systems and behavioral organism.

Question 14

Cultural system

Answer 14

The basic unit of analysis is “meaning”, or “symbolic system”. Examples are religious beliefs, languages, and national values. A key concept here is socialization.

Question 15

Socialization (Parsons)

Answer 15

Societal values are internalized by a society’s members; that is, they make society’s values their own. In Parsons’ view, socialization is a very powerful integrative force in maintaining social control and holding a society together.

Question 16

Social system

Answer 16

The basic unit is “role interaction”. A social system consists in a plurality of individual actors interacting with each other in a situation which has at least a physical or environmental aspect, actors who are motivated in terms of a tendency to the “optimization of gratification” and whose relation to their situations, including each other, is defined and mediated in terms of a system, of culturally structured and shared symbols.

Question 17

Personality system

Answer 17

The basic unit is the individual actor, the human person. His focus at this level is on individual needs, motives, and attitudes.

Question 18

Behavioral organism

Answer 18

The basic unit is the human being in its biological sense - that is, the physical aspect of the human person, including the organic and physical environment in which the human being lives. In referring to this system, Parsons explicitly mentions the organism’s central nervous system and motor activity.

Question 19

How are Parsons’ 4 system levels interrelated?

Answer 19

They are interrelated based on Parsons’ view of socialization: At birth we are simply behavioral organisms; only as we develop as individuals do we gain any personal identity. And then we start to internalize the values of a society; that is, they make the social values of the cultural systems their own by learning from other actors in the social system what is expected of them. Thus, the values come from the cultural system; the corresponding normative or role expectations are learned in the social system; the individual identity comes from the personality system; and the biological equipment comes from the behavioral organism.

Question 20

Parsons’ theory of action

Answer 20

1. It starts with an “actor”, who could be either a single person or a collectivity.
2. Parsons sees the actor as motivated to spend energy in reaching a desirable goal or end, as defined by the cultural system.
3. The action takes place in a situation, which includes means (facilities, tools or resources) and conditions (obstacles that arise in pursuit of the goal.
4. All of the above elements are regulated by normative standards of the social system.

Question 21

What are the differences between primitive communities (gemeinschaft) and modern industrial societies (gesellschaft)?

Answer 21

Gemeinschaft is characterized by a predominance of close personal bonds or kinship relations; labeled as “mechanical solidarity” (where the collective conscience was strong); the relationships (which are predominantly stable and personal) as expressive. Gesellschaft is characterized by a predominance of more impersonal or business-type relationships; labelled as “organic solidarity”; relationships (which are predominantly impersonal and business-like) instrumental.

Question 22

Parsons’ pattern variable

Answer 22

A dichotomy, one side of which must be chosen for an actor before the meaning of a situation is determinate for him, and thus before he can act with respect to the situation. In other words, each pattern variable represents a problem or dilemma that must be solved by the actor before action can take place. Expressive: ascription, diffuseness, affectivity, particularism and collectivity. Instrumental: Achievement, specificity, neutrality, universalism, and self.

Question 23

Ascription and achievement

Answer 23

Or quality and performance, respectively. The dilemma here is whether to orient oneself toward others on the basis of what they are or on the basis of what they can do or have done.

Question 24

Diffuseness and specificity

Answer 24

Here the issue is the range of demands in the relationship. If the number and types of demands or responsibilities are wide-ranging, it is a diffuse relationship; if the scope is narrow or very limited, the relationship is functionally specific.

Question 25

Affectivity and affective neutrality

Answer 25

Here the issue is simply whether or not the actor can expect emotional gratification in the relationship.

Question 26

Particularism and universalism

Answer 26

Here the choice is between reacting on the basis of a general norm or reacting on the basis of someone's particular relationship to you or one's membership in a particular group.

Question 27

Collectivity and self

Answer 27

The dilemma of whether private interests can be gratified, or some collective obligation or duty must be fulfilled.

Question 28

The four functional system problems AGIL

Answer 28

Adaption, Goal attainment, Integration, and Latent pattern maintenance-tension management. These are the prerequisites for social equilibrium, according to Parsons.

Question 29

Social institutions

Answer 29

Interrelated systems of social norms and roles that satisfy social needs or functions and help to solve social system problems

Question 30

Adaption

Answer 30

Parsons means the problems of securing sufficient resources from the environment and distributing them throughout the system. Economic.

Question 31

Goal attainment

Answer 31

The system's need to mobilize its resources and energies to attain system goals and to establish priorities among them. Political.

Question 32

Integration

Answer 32

At the heart of the four-function paradigm, because the solution to this problem has been a priority for functionalists. The need to coordinate, adjust, and regulate relationship among various actors or units within the system, thus preventing mutual interference, in order to keep the system functioning. Legal.

Question 33

Latent pattern maintenance-tension management

Answer 33

Latent pattern maintenance-tension management: first, the need to make certain that actors are sufficiently motivated to play their parts in the system or maintain the value "pattern"; and second, the need to provide mechanisms for internal tension management. This problem is one of keeping the value system intact and guaranteeing the conformity of the members of the system by transmitting societal values and by invoking value commitment. Educational, religious, family.

Question 34

Theories of the middle range

Answer 34

They are theories with limited sets of assumptions, from which specific hypotheses can be derived and tested empirically. In Merton's view, middle-range views could gradually consolidate into more general theory.

Question 35

Merton's functional paradigm

Answer 35

It differs from Parson's functionalism as the paradigm is not open to criticisms of inherent conservation and teleology ("explaining" things by their functions). At the same time, however, Merton offers fewer specific propositions about the structure of societies than Parsons does.

Question 36

Merton's concept of dysfunctions

Answer 36

Two complementary but distinct ideas: 1. Something may have consequences that are generally dysfunctional. 2. These consequences may vary according to whom one is talking about.

Question 37

Manifest functions

Answer 37

Consequences people observe or expect. Parsons tends to emphasize the manifest functions of social behavior.

Question 38

Latent functions

Answer 38

Consequences that are neither recognized nor intended. Merton pays particular attention to the latent functions of things and the increased understanding of society functionalist analysis can bring by uncovering them.

Question 39

Functional alternatives

Answer 39

Substitutes able to perform the same task.

Question 40

Merton's definition of anomie

Answer 40

A discontinuity between cultural goals and the legitimate means available for reaching them.

Question 41

Merton's theory of deviance

Answer 41

Merton utilizes explanatory factors that are typical of functional analysis, namely, cultural goals and institutionalized norms. He uses anomie as a major independent variable. It addresses the fundamental question of why there are variations among societies in the prevalence of deviant conduct. Arguing that the amount of deviance in society depends on whether that society has provided sufficient means to achieve culturally defined goals.

Question 42

Modes of adaptation with their cultural goals and institutionalized means

Answer 42

Conformity + + Innovation + - Ritualism - + Retreatism - - Rebellion +- +-

Question 43

Conformity

Answer 43

The mode of adaptation in which an individual chooses to achieve culturally accepted goals via institutionalized means. Conformists are those who choose to play by the rules. They are the ones who form a major chunk of society. Without their majority, a society would tend to move towards a state of disorder, confusion, and disorganization.

Question 44

Innovation

Answer 44

The mode of adaptation in which an individual desires to achieve culturally accepted goals but does so without following the institutionalized means of achieving them. Innovators, like conformists, are motivated to strive for socially-valued goals but tend to do it in their own way while rejecting the approved means of achieving them. They can adopt such an approach because of various strains, such as financial strains, the strain of being discriminated in society, or, and not limited to, the strains of having marginal or no access to the socially-approved means of achieving culturally-acceptable goals.

Question 45

Ritualism

Answer 45

The mode of adaptation in which an individual has lost his interest in striving for the socially accepted goals but is satisfied in running through the rituals of working within the institutionalized means.

Question 46

Retreatism

Answer 46

The division of people who reject the traditional goals of society and the means of achieving them

Question 47

Rebellion

Answer 47

When an individual replaces goals, as well as means, that are accepted by their society with goals, as well as means, that are not accepted by their society.

Question 48

Status

Answer 48

Position in a social structure with its corresponding rights and duties

Question 49

Role

Answer 49

The behavior that is oriented to others' patterned expectations.

Question 50

Rational choice theory

Answer 50

The underlying assumption is that humans are rational beings who weigh the costs and benefits of various actions in a given situation to act in the most beneficial way possible. This enables the identification of general principles in human action. Constraints of actions: Scarcity of resources, opportunity costs, social institutions (rules of game).

Question 51

How is equilibrium maintained according to the AGIL system?

Answer 51

Ensured by mechanisms of socialization and social control.

Question 52

What two other ideas are basic to rational choice theory?

Answer 52

1. Aggregation mechanism: The process by which the separate individual actions are combined to produce the social outcome. 2. The importance of information in making rational choices.

Question 53

Social exchange theory (Homans)

Answer 53

This theory envisages social behavior as an exchange of activity, tangible or intangible, and more or less rewarding or costly, between at least two persons.

Question 54

The success proposition

Answer 54

For all actions taken by persons, the more often a particular action of a person is rewarded, the more likely the person is to perform that action. First, although it is generally true that increasingly frequent awards lead to increasingly frequent actions, this reciprocation cannot go on indefinitely. At some point, individuals simply cannot act that way as frequently. Second, the shorter the interval is between behavior and reward, the more likely a person is to repeat the behavior, and conversely.

Question 55

The stimulus proposition

Answer 55

If in the past the occurrence of a particular stimulus, or set of stimuli, has been the occasion on which a person's actions has been rewarded, then the more similar the present stimuli are to the past ones, the more likely the person is to perform the action, or some similar action. Generalization and discrimination.

Question 56

The value proposition

Answer 56

The more valuable to a person is the result of his action, the more likely he is to perform the action.

Question 57

The deprivation-satiation proposition

Answer 57

The more often in the recent past a person has received a particular award, the less valuable any further unit of that award becomes for him. Two critical concepts: The cost of any behavior is defined as the rewards lost in forgoing alternatives lines of action. Profit in social exchange is seen as the greater number of rewards gained over costs incurred. This proposition is now: the greater the profit a person receives as a result of his action, the more likely he is to perform the action.

Question 58

The aggressive-approval proposition

Answer 58

Proposition A: When a person's action does not receive the reward he expected, or receives punishment he did not expect, he will be angry; he becomes more likely to perform aggressive behavior, and the results of such behavior become more valuable to him. Proposition B: When a person's action receives the reward he expected, especially a greater reward than he expected, or does not receive punishment he expected, he will be pleased; he becomes more likely to perform approving behavior, and the results of such behavior become more valuable to him.

Question 59

Methodological individualism

Answer 59

All sociological claims ultimately rely on individual's thoughts, feelings, and actions. Social change can only occur when individuals change their behavior.