Functionalism views society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet individuals' needs. Functionalist theorists like Durkheim and Parsons believed institutions serve functions to maintain social order, while Merton argued institutions can also cause dysfunction. The document also discusses concepts of functionalism including how it views the roles of family, religion, education, media, and crime/deviance. It then provides overviews of Marxism and symbolic interactionism.

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The Major Social Science Theories

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Functionalism
According to Vincent, 2001, Functionalism, also called
structural-functional theory, sees society as a structure
with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and
social needs of the individuals in that society.
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Functionalist sociologists like Parsons and Durkheim have been
concerned with the search for functions that institutions may have
in society.
However, another functionalist sociologist R. Merton has adopted
a
concept of dysfunction – this refers to the effects of any institution
which
detracts from the conservation of
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FUNCTIONalis
m
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FAMILY
its function is to ensure
the continuity of society
by reproducing and
socializing new member
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RELIGION
sociologists believe that it helps achieve
social solidarity and shared norms and
values, however it could be argued that
it fails to do this as a result of increasing
secularization in recent years and
therefore it creates a divide between
members of society rather than binding
them together (moral glu
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Concepts of Structural - Functionalism
According to Quexbook,2018
• Collective Conscience and Value Consensus
• Social Order
• Functionalism and Education
• Functionalism and Family
• Functionalism and Media
• Functionalism and Crime and Deviance
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8. toolkit Collective conscience and Value Consensus
• Functionalists believe that without collective conscience/ shared values and
beliefs, achieving social order is impossible and social order is crucial for the
well-being of society .
• They believe that value consensus forms the basic integrating principle in
society. And if members of society have shared values, they therefore also
have similar identities, this helps cooperation and avoids conflict.
• Value consensus also ensures that people have shared: Goals, Roles and
Norms. Norms can be described as specific guidelines of appropriate
behavior; for example, queuing when buying www.shsph.blogspot.com 8
things.
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9. toolkit Social Order
Functionalists believe that there are four main basic needs
that an individual requires in order to exist in society.
They also believe that these four basic needs are essential
for maintaining social order. They are: food, shelter, money
and clothing
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10. toolkit Functionalism and Education
• Durkheim believes that education transmits society’s norms and values.
Education brings together a mass and changes them into a united whole
which leads to social solidarity.
• Parsons (1961) believes that education leads to universalistic values and
that education performs a link between family and the wider society which in
turn leads to secondary socialization.
• Education also allows people to train for their future roles in society.
Schools instill the value of achievement and the value of equality of
opportunity.
• Education helps match people with jobs suited to them.
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11. toolkit Functionalism and Family
• George Peter Murdock believes that the family provides four
vital functions for society: sexual, reproductive, economic, and
educational.
• The family is the primary point of socialization in that it
provides children with values and norms. Family also
stabilizes adult personalities.
• A family unit provides emotional security for each person in
the relationship.
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12. toolkit Functionalism and Media
The media operate in the public interest by reflecting the interests of
the audience. It portrays public opinion.
• The media understands that society has a wide diversity of culture and
this is shown by the different amounts of stories it covers.
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13. toolkit Functionalism and Crime and Deviance
• Durkheim shows us that there is such a thing as society, and that it is this
entity called society that creates crime and deviance.
• Crime and deviance are socially constructed – they are not natural,
obvious, or theologically inspired categories.
• They are concepts that were brought into the world solely by humankind.
• Moreover, Durkheim goes beyond this and shows us how socially
constructed definitions of crime and deviance are linked into a wider social
structure.
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Marxism
According to Quexbook, 2018, Marxism is a social, political, and
economic philosophy named after Karl Marx, which examines the
effect
of capitalism on labor, productivity, and economic development
and
argues for a worker revolution to overturn capitalism in favor of
communism. Marxism posits that the struggle between social classes,
specifically between the bourgeoisie, or capitalists, and the proletariat, or
workers, defines economic relations in a capitalist economy and will
inevitably lead to revolutionary communism.
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15. toolkit Concepts of Marxism
• Marxism believes that capitalism can only thrive on the exploitation of the
working class.
• Marxism believes that there was a real contradiction between human
nature and the way that we must work in a capitalist society.
• Marxism has a dialectic approach to life in that everything has two sides.
Marxism believes that capitalism is not only an economic system but is
also a political system.
• The profit difference between what goods are sold for and what they
actually cost to make; Marxism refers to as a “surplus profit”.
• Marxism believes that economic conflict produces class (rich, middle and
poor) and inherently class
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16. toolkit Symbolic Interactionism
According to Quex book, 2018, The symbolic
interaction perspective, also called symbolic
interactionism, is a major framework of the
sociological theory.
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This perspective relies on the symbolic meaning that
people develop and build upon in the process of
social interaction. Although symbolic interactionism
traces its origins to Max Weber's assertion that
individuals act according to their interpretation of the
meaning of
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Social Psychological Theory developed from the work of Charles
Horton Cooley and George Herbert Mead in the early part of the
twentieth century (the actual name of the theory comes from
Herbert Blumer, one
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19. toolkit ACTIVITY
BUILD A WORLD!
Direction: Draw a community comprised of different institutions, then answer the following
questions with at least two (2) sentences. Use a separate bond paper for this activity.
1. How did you find the activity?
2. How did you feel while doing the activity?
3. How did you structure your community?
4. What did you prioritize in your choice of institution?
5. How did the structures function in the society?
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Make a poster with the theme “Marxism in Today’s Society” and
explain your work. Use a separate bond paper
BUILD A WORLD!
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