STRUCTUR

AL
FUNCTION
ALISM
THEORY
PRESENTED BY:
SHERLY
BENEMERITO
INTRODUCTION
SOCIETIES HAVE ORDER AND
INTERDEPENDENT PARTS LIKE A
BIOLOGICAL ORGANISM HELD TOGETHER
BY COOPERATION AND ORDERLINESS

CREATED BY EMILE DURKHEIM, IT

EXAMINES THE NECESSARY
STRUCTURES OF THE SOCIETY AND HOW
EACH PART HELP TO MAKE SOCIETY
STABLE.
KEY PRINCIPLES OF STRUCTURAL
FUNCTIONALISM
1.
Interdependency
o Society is made up of
interdependent parts. Every
part of society is dependent
to some extent on other
parts of society.
 2. Functions of Social
Structure and Culture
Each part of the social system exists because it serves some
function.
o Social structure - o Culture - set of beliefs,
organization of society, language, rules, values &
including institutions, knowledge held in
social positions & common by members of
distribution of resources. society.
3.Consensus and
Cooperation
Societies have a tendency towards
consensus, that is to have certain basic
values that nearly everyone in the society
agrees upon.

o Cooperation- inability to cooperate will

paralyze the society & people will devote
more and more effort to fighting one
another rather than getting anything done.
4. Equilibrium
The characteristic of the society when it has
achieved the form that is best adapted to its
situation.

o 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.
FUNCTIONALISM
ACCORDING TO
VARIOUS
SOCIOLOGISTS
 English philosopher and biologist, 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). The
parts of society that Spencer referred to
were the social institutions.

HERBERT
SPENCER (1820-
1903)
 French sociologist, applied Spencer's
theory to explain how societies change
and survive over time. Durkheim believed
that society is a complex system of
interrelated and interdependent parts that
work together to maintain stability
(Durkheim 1893).

Durkheim believed that individuals may

ÉMILE DURKHEIM make up society, but in order to study
(1858-1917) society, we need to study social facts.
 Merton and other functionalists viewed
society as an organism with various
parts, and each part has a function to
perform. Merton recognized that some
functions were intentional and other
functions were not. He also
acknowledged that some functions
actually disrupted society. These
functions are known as the manifest
and latent functions and
dysfunctions.
ROBERT MERTON
(1910-2003)
 Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-
Brown, was an English social
anthropologist.

Focused on social structure and

not biological needs suggests
that society is system of
relationships maintaining itself
through communication.
A.R RADCLIFFE-
BROWN (1881-1955)
 Talcott Parsons viewed society as a
system. He argued that any social
system has four basic functional
prerequisites: adaptation, goal
attainment, integration and pattern
maintenance. These can be seen as
problems that society must solve if it is
to survive. The function of any part of
the social system is understood as its
contribution to meeting the functional
TALCOTT PARSONS prerequisites.
(1902-1979,
UNITESTATES)
 STRENGTH
• POSITIVE NATURE: The theory is largely
positive about most things in society, whereas
some other sociological perspectives are quick
to criticize, functionalists take a consensus
approach (in society everyone is working
towards the common good).

DEFINES STRUCTURE: It explains the

importance of the various institutions such as
education and the family, and the theory
provides a clear structure between them.
NO
CRITICISMS
IMPORTANCE
OF AN TOO MUCH
INDIVIDUAL NO ROOM FOR
FOCUSED ON
It contains no sense of INTEGRATION
SOCIAL
agency that
Giving far too much
CHANGE
Individuals are seen
as puppets weight to integration and Critics also argue that
consensus, and neglecting functionalism is unable to
Independence and conflict. explain social change
because it focuses so
intently on social order
and equilibrium in society.
THANK
S!