Structural functionalism was the dominant sociological perspective in the 1950s. It focuses on how social structures shape human behavior and how social institutions work together in a society. Two leading theorists were Talcott Parsons and Robert Merton. Forerunners included Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Karl Marx, and Emile Durkheim. Comte saw sociology as the scientific study of society and its development. Spencer viewed society as like a living organism with interdependent parts. Functionalism examines how institutions function to ensure society's survival. Parsons analyzed society's core functions of adaptation, goal attainment, integration, and latency.

1. Structural
Functionalism

2. Structural Functionalism
In 1950s and 1960
Functionalism reigned as the
dominant theoretical
perspective in sociology.
Is often referred to as structural
functionalism because of its
dual focus on the structural
forces that shape human

3. Functionalism Background
Two leading structural
functionalist were Talcott
Parsons (grand theory) and
Robert Merton (middle range
theory).
The most significant intellectual
forerunners of functionalism
were Auguste Comte, Herbert

4. Auguste Comte
 Father of Sociology(1798-1857)
 Sociology as the scientific study of
society.
 Three Stages of Development
Religious
Metaphysical
Scientific
( The Course in Positive Philosophy/ Law
Three Stages)

5. The Two Branches:Science of
Society
Static
- the study of organization
that allows society to
endure.
Dynamic
- the study of the process
by which societies change.

6. Comte
He believed that sociologist
would develop a scientific
knowledge of society and
would guide society in a
peaceful, orderly evolution.

7. Herbert Spencer
Englishman
Diff. View of how society works.
Society can be compared to a
living organism.
Why?

8. Herbert Spencer
 Each part of an animal- its heart, lungs, brain,
and so on had its own function to perform, yet
all parts are interdependent, a change in one
part affects all the others
 Each part contributes to the survival and
health of the animal’s survival.
Coined the phrase “
Survival of the Fittest”

9.  Fittest –rich, powerful, or otherwise
successful people.
 Unfit- unsuccessful individuals,
have doomed by the nature to
failure.

10. Karl Marx (1818-
1883)
Communist Manifesto- one of
the most influential political
manuscript.
It presents an analytical
approach to the class
struggle.
Proponent of Marxism.

11. Emile Durkheim (1858-
1917)
Systematic Application of scientific
methods to sociology.
Suicide- first truly sociological
research in1897.
It is not based on speculations.
He made a research plan and
collected a large mass of statistical
data on suicide in various
European Countries.

12. Emile Durkheim
 He argued that sociologist should
consider only what they observed
and should look at “social facts as
things”.
 They should not look, he said to the
notions of people in order to explain
society.
 The Division of Labour in Society in
1893.

13. Max Weber 1864-
1920
 German Sociologist
 Sociologist must go beyond what
people do, beyond what can be
observed directly.
 Individuals always interpret the
meaning of their own behaviour and
act according to these
interpretations.
 Sociologist must therefore find out

14. Verstehan method
 Emphatic understanding of their
subjects.
 Sociologist could obtain an “interpret
understanding” of the meaning of
particular behaviour.
 Bureaucratic Model/ Legal-Rational
Model.
Characteristics
- specialized roles, recruitment.
Based on merit, uniform principles of

15. Talcott Parsons
 Parsons Work
 The Structure of Social Action (1937)
 The Social System and Toward a
General Theory
of Action (1951)
 Essay in Sociological Theory (1949,
1954)
 Working Papers in the Theory of
Acton (1953)
 Structure and Process in Modern

16. AGIL
 Adaptation:
Secure & distribute sufficient
resources or adapt to changes
 Goal Attainment:
Must establish clear goals. This is
primary to political system

17. AGIL
 Integration:
Regulation and coordination of actors
and systems
 Latency:
Tension maintenance and pattern
maintenance
Sufficient motivation for actors
Social institutions are key (family,
peers, education)