Outline and Evaluate the Functionalist

Functionalism is a structuralist theory that looks at society as a structure. They see society as more important than the individual, it is their belief that the individual are the product of society, the person is shaped by the norms and values that society teaches. Functionalists see religion, family, the political system and education as part of a complex system that has all the necessary parts in order to keep the system going.

The modern day functionalism began with the work of Émile Durkheim. He started the work of positivism; this was biological analogies to explain how society should function. Durkheim used the human body to show how society should work, based on the natural human process that every organ or part of the body has a part to play in keeping the person alive, and without these vital parts the person will not survive. According to Durkheim's theory society works in the same way, society develops in the same way the body does, without the education system society would not be able to produce the next generations intellectual and even social skills in order for them to perform in the workplace or for the part in society. Durkheim believed that society should share the same culture; through this everyone would be socialized in the same way causing a society with the same values, norms and goals. Using the same body analogy he compared the way the body fights disease, to the way our society deals with problems using mechanisms such as police and the legal system.

Talcott Parsons was another key functionalist thinker. He thought that socialization was the key to understanding the human behavioral patterns. Socially acceptable patterns of behavior are achieved and passed on through generations by the role of social institutions such as education, religion and family. The importance of nuclear family life is socialized into people usually by the media, family and education, as one of the key values of society. Parsons felt it was important to teach history so that it reminded members of society about their shared culture, this can be done by encouraging social solidarity and social integration. Behaviour was controlled by the social institutions such as the government, the police, and the courts. They could control this behaviour by teaching rules of society, and reminding people about what is normal and

Harriet Sawers

socially acceptable. Through this influence individuals won't have to be told that they what doing is socially unacceptable, they will simply not indulge in such behaviour because they have been immersed into common values of society.

In the 1950's functionalism was very popular in sociology, however between the modern world and the 1950's its popularity has decreased, it is said that part of this failure is that it had all kinds of problems trying to explain all the diversity and conflict during the 60's.