following structural functional theory sociology quizlet

Some sociologists see the online world contributing to the creation of an emerging global culture. In education, examples of dysfunction include getting bad grades, truancy, dropping out, not graduating, and not finding suitable employment. Social processes that have undesirable consequences for the operation of society are called dysfunctions. Latent functions can be beneficial, neutral, or harmful. Another latent function of education is creating a hierarchy of employment based on the level of education attained. Latent functions of your college years include meeting new people, participating in extracurricular activities, or even finding a spouse or partner. A manifest function of college education, for example, includes gaining knowledge, preparing for a career, and finding a good job that utilizes that education. Manifest functions are the consequences of a social process that are sought or anticipated, while latent functions are the unsought consequences of a social process.

For example, one function of a society’s laws may be to protect society from violence, while another is to punish criminal behavior, while another is to preserve public health.Īnother noted structural functionalist, Robert Merton (1910–2003), pointed out that social processes often have many functions. Each of these social facts serves one or more functions within a society. Social facts are the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the cultural rules that govern social life (Durkheim 1895). In a healthy society, all parts work together to maintain stability, a state called dynamic equilibrium by later sociologists such as Parsons (1961).ĭurkheim believed that individuals may make up society, but in order to study society, sociologists have to look beyond individuals to social facts. Alfred Radcliff-Brown (1881–1955) defined the function of any recurrent activity as the part it played in social life as a whole, and therefore the contribution it makes to social stability and continuity (Radcliff-Brown 1952). He believed that to study society, a sociologist must look beyond individuals to social facts such as laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashion, and rituals, which all serve to govern social life. Durkheim believed that society is a complex system of interrelated and interdependent parts that work together to maintain stability (Durkheim 1893), and that society is held together by shared values, languages, and symbols. Émile Durkheim, another early sociologist, applied Spencer’s theory to explain how societies change and survive over time. The parts of society that Spencer referred to were the social institutions, or patterns of beliefs and behaviors focused on meeting social needs, such as government, education, family, healthcare, religion, and the economy. Functionalism grew out of the writings of English philosopher and biologist, Hebert Spencer (1820–1903), who saw similarities between society and the human body he argued that just as the various organs of the body work together to keep the body functioning, the various parts of society work together to keep society functioning (Spencer 1898). Functionalism, also called structural-functional theory, sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of the individuals in that society.

Following structural functional theory sociology quizlet