Sociology is the systematic study of human behavior and society. The sociological imagination as described by C. Wright Mills refers to understanding the relationship between personal experiences and wider social influences. Functionalism views society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability, like the way organs work to keep a living organism functioning. Key figures in the development of functionalism include Emile Durkheim, who studied how social order and values influence suicide rates, and Talcott Parsons, who sought a grand unified theory of social systems and structures. Robert Merton argued for empirical testing of more focused assumptions rather than abstract grand theories.

1. SOCIOLOGICAL
IMAGINATION AND
FUNCTIONALISM
CHAPTER 1 & FUNCTIONALISM BASICS

2. WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?

3. SOCIOLOGY
• The systematic study of behavior within the social context

4. AND…
TO EXPLAIN BEHAVIOR, STRESSING THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF DAILY LIVING.

5. SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
• C. Wright Mills (1959)
• “...the vivid awareness of the relationship between
private experience and the wider society” (Mills, 1959).
• The sociological imagination enables us to grasp the
connection between history and biography.
What does this mean?

6. SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION CONT.
• The relationship between personal troubles and societal
structure
• Examples
• Unemployment
• Education

7. ORIGINS OF SOCIOLOGY
Science
•Theory testing
Scientific method
•Objective & systematic
Industrial
Revolution
• movement from
country to city

9. FUNCTIONALISM BASICS
• Organismic analogy
• Analogous to living organisms
• All parts of society have purpose through:
• Goal attainment
• Adaptation
• Integration

10. FUNCTIONALISM CONT.
• Society places structural constraints
• Think crime and deviance
• Social order
• Societal values

11. EMILE DURKHEIM
• Father of functionalism
• Suicide
• Rates
• Social solidarity
• Collective conscience

12. TALCOTT PARSONS
• Tried to generate a single grand theory
• Built upon Durkheimian ides

13. An education system

14. A political system…..
.. And so on

15. The systems and the society are held
together because everyone shares the
same values
There is a shared culture

16. ROBERT MERTON
• Stressed importance of empirical work
• Keep assumptions to a minimum
• Considered middle-range
• Grand theory too abstract
• Macro sociology
• Manifest
• Latent
• Dysfunction