Approaches in Social Sciences

1. Structural-Functionalism
2. Marxism
3. Symbolic Interactionism
4. Psychoanalysis
5. Rational Choice
6. Institutionalism
7. Feminist Theory
8. Hermeneutical Phenomenology
9. Human-Environment Systems
Structural
Functionalism
 What is
Structural
Functionalism?
 Structural
Relating to the way
something is built or
organized.
 Functionalism
 theory that stresses the
interdependence of the patterns
and institutions of a society and
their interaction in maintaining
cultural and social unity.
 Structural Functionalism
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.
 Structural Functionalism
*It is a sociological theory that
attempts to explain why society
functions the way it does by
focusing on relationships between
various social institutions that
make up society.
 Who are the
proponents of
this theory?
 Theorists Responsible
*Auguste Comte
*Herbert Spencer
*Talcott Parsons
*Robert Merton
*Gabriel Almond and Bingham Powell
*Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore
Key Ideas Behind
the Theory
 Key Ideas
1. Systems have a property of order
and interdependent parts.
2. Systems tend towards self-
maintaining order or equilibrium.
3. The system may be static or
involved in an ordered process of
change.
 Key Ideas
4. The nature of one part of the system has
an impact on the form that other parts take.
5. Systems maintain boundaries within
their environments.
 Key Ideas
6. Allocation and integration are two fundamental
processes necessary for a given state of equilibrium
within a system.
7. Systems tend towards self-maintenance involving
control of boundaries and relationships of parts to the
whole, control of the environment and control of
tendencies to change the system from within.
Key Assumptions
about the Theory
 Key Assumptions
*Societies and social units have order and
interdependent parts like a biological organism
held together by cooperation and orderliness.
*Societies and social units work toward the
natural or smooth working of the system, i.e
towards equilibrium.
 Key Assumptions
*Societies and social units, just as
natural (external) environments, are
separate or distinct but adapt to each
other-if one or more parts conflict with
others, others must adapt.
Criticisms
about the
Theory
 Criticisms
*In the 1960s, functionalism was criticized for
being unable to account for social change, or
for structural contradictions and conflict.

*It ignores inequalities including race, gender,

class, which causes tension and conflict.
Example
How these institutions
create balance in the
society? Concept map