Structural-functionalism focuses on the organization of society and relationships between social institutions. It views society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. The early functionalists were anthropologists in the late 1800s who made observations of primitive cultures and theorized about how their organization compared to Western societies. They argued that individual and group behavior usually serves some function for the larger society.

1. Disciplines and Ideas in the Social
Sciences
▶STRUCTURAL –FUNCTIONALISM

2. Structural- Functionalism
Focus: The organization of society
and the relationships between broad
social units, such as Institutions.
The group is the unit of analysis.
A group could be a
crowd of people in a
movie theater, or the
members of a family
sitting around the
dinner table, what
some call “small
groups”
Abstraction:

3. Structural -Functionalism
Corporations,
factories,
university
systems,and
even
communities
are groups too.
Structural Functional Theory
(SFT) allows for major
institutions, such as economy,
religion, polity, education and
family to be considered groups

4. Structural- Functionalism
Background and History
The early
functionalists
were
anthropologists
(i.e., Levi-
Strauss,
Radcliff-Brown,
Malinowski, and
others).
Claude Levi-Strauss
Alfred Radcliffe-Brown
Bronislaw Malinowski

5. Structural-Functionalism
They were seminal thinkers of the middle
1800s who made direct observations of
primitive cultures, theorizing about the
organization of these folk in relation to
Western society. Their theories were
often quite simple and required only a
few assumptions. The point they were
making was this: Individual and group
behavior, more often than not, serves a
FUNCTION for the larger society.

6. ▶ Thank you 