IV. Positivism [from:www.uiowa.edu/~c034009/modernpositivism.pdf ]
A. Structural Functionalism
1. Major Thinkers and Works
a. Talcott Parsons 1902-1979
The Structure of Social Action 1937
The Social System 1951, Towards a General Theory of Action 1951
b. Robert Merton 1910-Social Theory and Social Structure 1968
2. Concepts for analyzing society beginning with individual actor and building in stages to the social system
a. individual actor
status-role= the basic structure governing the individual s participation in asocial system; a status is a position in a system of relationships; a role is thebehavior expected of someone in a given status
b. interaction
pattern variables= the culturally derived orientations guiding how individuals
relate to each other in given status-roles; there are five pattern variables and each presents two mutually exclusive alternatives to basic questions a person faces in orienting to another person affective vs. affective neutrality
diffuseness vs. specificity ascription vs. achievement particularism vs. universalism collectivity vs. self
c. institutions
institution= an interrelated system of status-roles and norms organized
around satisfying some basic social need
d. structure and function
structure and function= a method of analyzing society that identifies the key
institutions and the significance of each institution for the other institutions and for the system as a whole manifest function= the socially intended outcome of a social structure latent function= the unanticipated outcomes of a social structure dysfunction= the negative consequences of a social structure
e. social system
AGIL=abbreviation for Parsons model of society in terms of its functional
prerequisites, that is, those processes that any social system must have to survive A=adaptation= the process of adjusting to the external environment
and acquiring from that environment the material essentials for collective
life G=goal attainment= the process of collective decision-making in
response to both external and internal demands I=integration= the process of resolving conflicts that arise within the collectivity L=latent pattern maintenance= the linked processes of transmitting knowledge to group members and managing tension
f. inequality and conflict
i. Davis-Moore Hypothesis on stratification=thesis that stratification is a universal social structure in which unequal rewards are attached to a hierarchy of positions in order to ensure that the most functionally significant positions recruit qualified persons
ii. anomie (Merton s analysis of societally produced dysfunction=structurally
produced disalignment between socially induced goals and socially available means
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