Objectives

 At the end of the lesson, you are expected

to:
  Understand the concept of Structural-
Functionalism
  Identify the early functionalists
  Determine the manifest and latent functions
and dysfunctions of sociocultural phenomena
Activity: “Build a World”
 In groups, you are tasked to organize a
community .
 On a piece of bond paper, draw a
community comprised of different
institutions.
 Be ready to explain your answer why
you choose the institutions and how do
they function in the community
Analysis
 How did you find the activity?
  How did you feel while doing the activity?
  How did you structure your community?
  What did you prioritize in your choice of
institution?
  How did the structures “function” in the society?
  Have you heard of the Structural- Functionalism
Theory?
 Structural- Functionalism
Focus:
 The organization of society and
the relationships between broad
social units, such as Institutions.
The group is the unit of analysis.
A group could be a crowd of
people in a movie theater, or
the members of a family sitting
around the dinner table, what
some call “small groups”
Abstraction:
 Structural-Functionalism-
Corporations, factories,
university systems, and even
communities are groups too.
Structural Functional Theory
(SFT) allows for major
institutions, such as economy,
religion, polity, education and
family to be considered groups
 Structural- Functionalism
Background and History
 The early functionalists
were anthropologists

 Claude Levi-Strauss
 Structural- Functionalism
Background and History
 The early functionalists
were anthropologists

 Alfred Radcliffe-Brown
 Structural- Functionalism
Background and History
 The early functionalists
were anthropologists

 Bronislaw Malinowski
 Structural-Functionalism
 They were seminal thinkers of the middle 1800s who
made direct observations of primitive cultures,
theorizing about the organization of these folk in
relation to Western society.
 Their theories were often quite simple and required
only a few assumptions. The point they were making
was this:
 Individual and group behavior, more often than not,
serves a FUNCTION for the larger society.
 Structural-Functionalism Claude
Levi-Strauss (1908 to 2009)

 iswidely regarded as the father of structural anthropology.

In the 1940s, he proposed that the proper focus of
anthropological investigations was on the underlying
patterns of human thought that produce the cultural
categories that organize worldviews hitherto studied
(McGee and Warms, 2004:
 He believed these processes were not deterministic of
culture, but instead, operated within culture.
Structural-Functionalism Bronislaw
Malinowski and A.R. Radcliffe-
Brown
 had the greatest influence on the development of functionalism from
their posts in Great Britain.
 Functionalism was a reaction to the excesses of the evolutionary and
diffusionist theories of the nineteenth century and the historicism of
the early twentieth (Goldschmidt 1996:510).
 Two versions of functionalism developed between 1910 and 1930:
Malinowski’s biocultural (or psychological) functionalism; and
structural-functionalism, the approach advanced by Radcliffe-Brown
 Malinowski suggested that individuals have
physiological needs (reproduction, food, shelter)
and that social institutions exist to meet these
needs.
 There are also culturally derived needs and four
basic "instrumental needs" (economics, social
control, education, and political organization),
that require institutional devices.
 Each institution has personnel, a charter, a set of
norms or rules, activities, material apparatus
(technology), and a function.
 Structural-Functionalism
Radcliffe-Brown

 focused on social structure rather than biological needs.

 He suggested that a society is a system of relationships
maintaining itself through cybernetic feedback, while
institutions are orderly sets of relationships whose function
is to maintain the society as a system.
 Radcliffe-Brown, inspired by Augustus Comte, stated that
the social constituted a separate "level" of reality distinct
from those of biological forms and inorganic matter.
The Functionalists Perspectives
A perspective is simply a way
of looking at the world.
A theory is a set of
interrelated propositions or
principles designed to
answer a question or explain
a particular phenomenon; it
provides us with a
perspective
 Sociological theories
- help us to explain and predict the social world in
which we live in. The Functionalists Perspectives
 The Functionalists Perspectives is based largely on
the works of Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim,
Talcott Parsons, and Robert Merton.
 According to Functionalism, society is a system of
interconnected parts that work together in harmony
to maintain a state of balance and social equilibrium
for the whole.
 Each of the social institutions contributes important
functions for society: family provides a context for
reproducing, nurturing, and socializing children.
 Education offers a way to transmit a society’s skills,
knowledge, and culture to its youth.
 Politics provides a means of governing members of
society. Economics provides for the production,
distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
 And religion provides moral guidance and an outlet for
worship of a higher power.
The Functionalists perspectives emphasizes the
interconnectedness of society by focusing on
how each part influences and is influenced by
other parts.
For example: The increase in single parent and
dual-earner families has contributed to the
number of children who are failing in school
because parents have become less available to
supervise their children’s homework.
The Functionalists Perspectives
 Forexample: As a result of changes in technology,
colleges are offering more technical programs,
and many adults are returning to school to learn
new skills that are required in the workplace. The
increasing number of women in the workforce has
contributed to the formulation of policies against
sexual harassment and job discrimination.
 The Functionalists
Perspectives Functionalists use the terms
functional and dysfunctional to describe
the effects of social elements on society.
Elements of society are functional if they
contribute to social stability.
They are dysfunctional if they disrupt social
stability.
 The Functionalists Perspectives
 Some aspects of society can be both functional and
dysfunctional. For example, crime is dysfunctional in that
it is associated with physical violence, loss of property,
and fear. But according to Durkheim and other
functionalists, crime is also functional for society
because it leads to heightened awareness of shared
moral bonds and increased social cohesion. Sociologists
have identified two types of functions: manifest and
latent (Merton 1968).
The Functionalists Perspectives
Sociologistshave identified two types of
functions: a. manifest; and b. latent
(Merton 1968)
 Manifest functions are consequences that
are intended and commonly recognized.
 Latent functions are consequences that
are unintended and often hidden.
 The Functionalists Perspectives
 For example:
 The manifest function of education is to transmit
knowledge and skills to society’s youth. But public
elementary schools also serve as babysitters for
employed parents, and colleges offer a place for
young adults to meet potential mates.
 The baby-sitting and mate-selection functions are
not the intended or commonly recognized functions
of education; hence they are latent functions
 Structural functionalism
simply functionalism,
is "a framework for
building theory that
sees society as a
complex system whose
parts work together to
promote solidarity
and stability".
 1. Structural-Functionalists see education as
contributing to the smooth functioning of society.
 Educational systems train the most qualified
individuals for the most socially important positions.
Education teaches people not only the skills and
thinking skills to maximize their potential, but also
teaches them to be good citizens and get along with
others.
 They would NOT see education as contributing to
inequality (along class, race, gender, etc. lines) but
rather as serving the positive function of the overall
society.
Parsons’ Structural Functionalism:
• 1. A- adaptation
2. G- goal attainment
3. I- integration
4. L- latency
Adaptation:
– A system must cope with
external situational exigencies. It
must adapt to its environment and
adapt environment to its needs.
e.g. #1 New Corella as an
Agricultural Municipality sticks on
planting Agricultural Products.
e.g. #2 Rice fields converting to
banana plantation because of its
demand.
Goal Attainment

- A system must
define and
achieve its
primary goals.
Integration -

A system must
regulate the
interrelationship
of its component
parts.
Latency (pattern maintenance)
– A system must
furnish, maintain,
and renew both the
motivation of
individuals and the
cultural patterns that
create and sustain
the motivation.
Structure of the General Action System Cultural
System Social System Action System Personality System
 Action System • Handles adaptation function by adjusting
to and transforming the external world
 Social System • Copes with the integration by controlling
its component parts
 Personality System • Performs the goal attainment
function by defining system goals and mobilizing resources
to attain them.
 Cultural System • Performs the latency function by
providing actors with the norms and values that motivate
them for action.
Functional Requisites of
a Social System Talcott
Parsons
 1. Social system must be structured so that they operate
compatibility with other systems.
 2. To survive, the social system must have the requisite from
other systems
 3. The system must meet a significant proportion of the needs of
its actor.
 4.The system must elicit adequate participation from its
members.
 5. It must have at least a minimum of control over potentially
disruptive behavior.
 6. If conflict becomes sufficiently disruptive, it must be
controlled.
 7. Finally, a social system requires a language in order to survive.
KEY PRINCIPLES OF THE
FUNCTIONALIST
PERSPECTIVE
Interdependency

• Society is made up of
interdependent parts
 • Every part of society is
dependent to some
extent on other parts of
society
 Functions of social structure
and culture •
 Each part of the social system
exists because it serves some
function Social structure –
organization of society,
including institutions, social
positions & distribution of
resources Culture – set of
beliefs, language, rules, values
& knowledge held in common
by members of society
Consensus and Cooperation
• Societies have a tendency
towards consensus, that is to
have certain basic values that
nearly everyone in the society
agrees upon Cooperation –
inability to cooperate will
paralyze the society & people
will devote more and more
effort to fighting one another
rather than getting anything
done.
Equilibrium
• The characteristic of the society when it has achieved the
form that is best adapted to its situation.
• Once a society has achieved the form that is best adapted
to its situation, it has reached a state of balance or
equilibrium, and it will remain in that condition until it is
forced to change by some new condition.