Talcott Parsons and
FUNCTIONALISM’S PRECURSORS (in various ways)
Comte, Spencer, Durkheim, Malinowski, Gilman
FUNCTIONALISM THEMES
Organic Analogy
“Evolutionary” Change – Complexity, Adaptability
Systems, Sub-Systems
Structural Arrangements
Structural Differentiation
Specialization
Integration
System Equilibrium
Nested Systems
Coordination and Control
Steering
Talcott Parsons
Born1902- Died 1979
Education:
• Undergraduate work at Amherst University in biology and medicine
• Studied economics in the London School of Economics
• Strongly influenced by the social anthropologist Brownislaw
Malinowski (a functionalist)
• Attended Heidelberg University, in Germany, on
an educational exchange
• Alfred Weber (Max Weber’s brother) was
his primary teacher
• Also sat under the instruction of Karl Mannheim
3
Talcott Parsons
 Harvard Professor of Economics, and
then Sociology, 1927-1973
 Founded the Department of
Social Relations combining
Sociology, Anthropology,
and Psychology, 1944
 Key works:
The Structure of Social Action (1937)
The Social System (1951)
Social Structure and Personality (1964)
The System of Modern Societies (1971)
The Structure and Change of the Social System
(1983)
4
Talcott Parsons
a partial bibliography
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1937, The Structure of Social Action
1939, Action, Situation and Normative Pattern
1951, The Social System
1951, Toward a General Theory of Action - with Shils, Tolman, Stouffer & Kluckhohn
1953, Working Papers in the Theory of Action - with Robert F. Bales and Edward A. Shils.
1954, Essays in Sociological Theory
1955, Family, Socialization and Interaction Process - Robert F. Bales and James Olds.
1956, Economy and Society - with Neil Smelser
1960, Structure and Process in Modern Societies
1961, Theories of Society - with Edward Shils, Kaspar D. Naegele and Jesse Pitts
1964, Social Structure and Personality
1966, Societies: Evolutionary and Comparative Perspectives
1967, Sociological Theory and Modern Society
1969, Politics and Social Structure
1971, The System of Modern Societies
1973, The American University - with Gerald Platt
1977, Social Systems and the Evolution of Action Theory
1978, Action Theory and the Human Condition
1978, The Theory of Social Action: the Correspondence of Alfred Schutz and Talcott Parsons
1983. The Structure and Change of the Social System (from Parsons' second visit to Japan).
Parsons’ Department of Social Relations 1945-1972
interdisciplinarity:
CULTURE
WEBER: Culture & Social Systems
Borderline
SOCIAL
DURKHEIM: Social System Integration
PSYCHOLOGY
PHYSIOLOGY
FREUD: Social Systems & Personality Integration
STRUCTURE
for UNDERSTANDING HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Talcott Parsons
and Grand Theory
 “The dominant figure in American sociology – if not worldwide – from the mid-1940’s to the mid-1970’s.” (Bell, 1979)
 “Talcott Parsons was probably the most prominent theorist
of this time, and it is unlikely that any one theoretical
approach will so dominate sociological theory again.”
(Turner 1998)
 “Parsons’ theory of society is plagued by an absence of
clarity. His work abounds with ambiguities in both
semantics and syntax.” (Perdue, 1986)
9
Talcott Parsons
and Grand Theory
C. Wright Mills (a conflict theorist in the tradition of Marx)
introduced the term 'Grand Theory' as a criticism of Parsons’ theory.
• Used overly abstract, overblown language (“bloated nonsense”)
that was difficult to understand.
• Many key principles were not subject to observation or testing
• Presumed that people were “overly socialized.”
• Assumed that if power structures exist in a certain configuration
they must be functional and essential instead of realizing that power
structures promote inequality and create stress for the majority of
citizens (and is therefore non-functional).
• Drew (questionable) conclusions about all societies based on a
discussion of one specific society.
• Ignored historical developments, cultural values, and social change.
PARSONIAN THEORY
micro
– MACRO
MACRO LEVEL
TYPES OF SOCIETIES
GEMEINSCHAFT
GESELLSCHAFT
PATTERN VARIABLES
Affectivity
Affectively Neutral
Diffuseness
Specificity
Particularism
Universalism
Ascribed/Quality
Achieved/Performance
Community-Oriented
Self-Oriented
micro level
VOLUNTARISTIC THEORY of ACTION
limiting
CONDITIONS
ACTOR
GOALS
cultural
MEANS
enabling
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
TALCOTT PARSON’S MODEL ala BERGER
Man is a social product.
<
MODES of ORIENTATION
INTERNALIZATION
SOCIALIZATION,
ENCULTURALIZATION
Society is an
objective reality
NEED
DISPOSITIONS
INSTITUTIONALIZATION
OBJECTIVATION,
SOCIAL FACTICITIES,
SOCIALLY-CONSTRUCTED
REALITY
EXTERNALIZATION,
PUTTING ONE’S SELF
INTO EFFECT
STRUCTURED PATTERNS of INTERACTION
Society is a human product
>
FUNCTIONALISM’S FUNDAMENTAL PREMISES ala PARSONS
• EVERY SYSTEM HAS REQUISITE NEEDS THAT MUST BE MET
FOR THAT SYSTEM TO SURVIVE.
• SPECIALIZED STRUCTURES FUNCTION TO SATISFY THE
NEEDS OF THE SYSTEM.
• SOCIAL STRUCTURES, FUNCTIONS, AND THE SYSTEMIC
WHOLE ARE THUS INTRISICALLY RELATED AND AFFECT ONE
ANOTHER.
• SPECIALIZATION OF STRUCTURES OCCURS THROUGH THE
EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS OF DIFFERENTIATION.
• SYSTEMS TEND TO BECOME MORE COMPLEX THROUGH
STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIATION.
• STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIATION MAKES SYSTEMS MORE
ADAPTIVE.
• DIFFERENTIATION CREATES PROBLEMS OF COORDINATION
AND CONTROL, WHICH CREATES PRESSURES FOR THE
SELECTION OF INTEGRATING PROCESSES.
• INTEGRATING PROCESSES TEND TO KEEP THE SYSTEM IN A
STATE OF EQUILIBRIUM
Talcott Parsons:
The Structure of Social Action
• Voluntaristic Theory of Action:
the Unit Act
– Involves these basic elements
• Actors are individual persons
• Actors are viewed as goal seeking
• Actors possess alternative means
to achieve their goals
14
Talcott Parsons:
The Structure of Social Action
• Actors are confronted with a variety of situational conditions,
including their own biological makeup and heredity as well as
various external ecological constraints, that influence the
selection of goals and means.
• Actors are governed by values, norms, and other ideas such
that these ideas influence what is considered a goal and what
means are selected to achieve it.
• Action involves actors making subjective decisions about the
means to achieve goals, constrained by these ideas, the
situational conditions including the means available.
15
PARSONS’ VOLUNTARISTIC UNIT ACT:
CONDITIONS
THE
ACTOR
THE NORMATIVE ORDER
GOALS
ENDS
SELF
EGO
MEANS
Talcott Parsons:
The Structure of Social Action
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
TYPES OF ACTION
VALUE SYSTEMS
COGNITIVE APPRECIATIVE
MORAL
Empirical
Aesthetic
Ultimate
Factual
Emotional
Right/Wrong
Strategic
Cathectic
Evaluative
Beliefs
Expressive
Values
“What Is”
Feelings
“What Ought”
(meaning)
(membership)
(order)
Orientation
Toward
Social
Situation
Needs
And
Values
Types
Of
Cultural
Patterns
Types
Of
Social
Action
PARSONS’ MODES of ORIENTATION that
CONSTRAIN and PATTERN SOCIAL ACTION
GENERAL
VALUES
CULTURAL
PATTERNS
MOTIVES
COGNITIVE
Belief System
Cognitive
APPRECIATIVE
Expressive Symbols
Cathectic
MORAL
Value-Orientation Standards Evaluative
ACTION
FUNDAMENTAL
TYPES
PHILOSOPHICAL STUDY
Strategic,
EPISTEMOLOGY
Instrumental
Expressive
AXIOLOGY
Moralistic
ONTOLOGY
PARSONS’ MEDIA of EXCHANGE for
FACILITATING COMMUNICATION and COOPERATION
LANGUAGE
Money
Power
Influence
generic
adaptive
goal attainment
integration
PARSONS’ VOLUNTARISTIC UNIT ACT:
“ENVIRONMENTAL”
CONDITIONS
THE
ACTOR
THE NORMATIVE ORDER
GOALS
ENDS
SELF
EGO
NEED
DISPOSITIONS
MOTIVATIONS
(psychodynamic)
-----------------
•Cognitive
•Appreciative
•Evaluative
“AVAILABLE”
MEANS
VALUE
ORIENTATIONS
(cultural frameworks)
--------------------------
•Cognitive Significance
•Expressive Symbolism
•Moral Standards
SUBJECTIVE (Social Psychology)
W. I. Thomas
and
The Definition of
The Situation
•Attitudes
•Predispositions to Activity
•Connected to the Four Wishes
Security
Response
Mastery
Recognition
New Experience
•Directed toward
“Something Out There”…
HEDONISTIC
(pleasure oriented)
OBJECTIVE (Sociology)
•Cultural Values
•Folkways
•Mores
•Norms and Rules
•Social Practices
•Laws
•Social Institutions
•Social Organization as such
•Technology
Continual Interplay
Disruptive
Disequilibrating
Dialectical
UTILITARIAN
(safety oriented)
THE DEFINITION OF THE SITUATION
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
How do social systems
survive?
More specifically, why do
institutionalized patterns of interaction persist?
23
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
THE PROCESS OF INSTITUTIONALIZATION
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
CYBERNETIC HIERARCHY OF CONTROL
Historical Typology – Types of Society
SWEEP OF HISTORY
GEMEINSCHAFT
Theological
Metaphysical
Militaristic
Feudalism
Mechanical
Solidarity
Traditional
Subjective Culture
(more life)
Primary Group
Ferdinand Tonnies
August Comte
Herbert Spencer
Karl Marx
Emile Durkheim
Max Weber
Georg Simmel
Chicago School
RECAPITULATION
GESELLSCHAFT
Positivist Scientific
Industrial
Capitalism
Organic
Solidarity
Rational-Legal
Objective Culture
(more-than life)
Secondary Group
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
GEMEINSCHAFT
Feudalism
Mechanical
Traditional
Subjective Culture
Primary Group
(Ferdinand Tonnies)
(Karl Marx)
(Emile Durkheim)
(Max Weber)
(Georg Simmel)
(Chicago School)
GESELLSCHAFT
Capitalism
Organic
Bureaucratic
Objective Culture
Secondary Group
PARSONS’ PATTERN VARIABLES
Affectivity
Affective Neutrality
Diffuseness
Specificity
Particularism
Universalism
Ascription
Achievement
Collective Orientation
Self Orientation
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
The Four Functional Imperatives
• Adaptation
– Securing sufficient resources from the physical
and social environment and then distributing
these throughout the system.
• Goal Attainment
– Establishing priorities among system goals and
mobilizing system resources for their attainment.
28
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
The Four Functional Imperatives
• Integration
– Coordinating and maintaining viable
interrelationships among system units thru
communication and common value systems.
29
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
The Four Functional Imperatives
• Latency (Two related problems):
• Pattern Maintenance
– Ensuring that actors in the social system display the
appropriate characteristics
• Motives
• Needs
• Roles
• Tension Management
– dealing with the internal tensions and strains of actors as
they meet the demands of the social system.
30
External Environment
(Natural & Social)
ACTION SYSTEMS within
PARSONS’ AGIL MODEL
ADAPTATION
GOAL ATTAINMENT
Economic:
Energy for Environmental
Interactions
Political:
Selective
Group-Determination
INTEGRATION
LATENT PATTERN
MAINTENANCE &
TENSION
MANAGEMENT
Cultural-Legal System:
Institutions of
socialization and social
control
Kinship (family) System:
Values and Norms,
Beliefs and Ideologies
Bare Materials (Human Nature)
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
The AGIL Model of Social Organization
NESTED FUNCTIONAL IMPERATIVES
AGIL
Adaption
Goal Attainment
A
G
A
G
I
L
I
Integration
L
Latent Pattern
Maintenance &
Tension Management
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
Here are several illustrations of how the
Four Functional Imperatives
can illustrate the
workings of social systems:
34
A U.S NAVAL DESTROYER AS
A SOCIAL SYSTEM:
GOAL ATTAINMENT comprises the activities related to
sinking enemy ships as when all hands are at battle stations.
ADAPTATION involves keeping the ship afloat and operating –
repairs, drills, recruitment and training of personnel.
INTEGRATION is the maintenance of smooth relations between the
various departments – gunnery, supply, engineering, and so on, in
order to reduce jealousy and enhance cooperation.
LATENT PATTERN MAINTENANCE & TENSION MANAGEMENT
involves the efforts of each crew member to reconcile the goals
and standards of the ship with those of his/her other roles
(husband, wife, son, daughter, father, mother, ethnic group, etc.)
and providing allowing ways of relieving tension and strain.
The WNBA
as a Social System
36
The WNBA
as a Social System
How to Integrate the WNBA into the
United States’ Sports Consciousness
• Adaptation
– Resources are allocated to the WNBA
• The United States is evaluated as ready for a women’s
league similar to the NBA.
• Resources are deliberately allocated to help give the
WNBA a structure similar to the NBA.
• Return on those allocated resources will not be
immediate.
37
The WNBA
as a Social System
• Goal Attainment
– Priorities are developed to insure goals are
attained
• Media space (television) is given to the WNBA even
though the audience is not yet fully developed.
• Integration
– Coordinating various relationships within the
sports world.
38
The WNBA
as a Social System
• Latency (after the WNBA is integrated into the
nation’s sports consciousness)
– Pattern Maintenance
• Establishing proper roles and motives
– Tension Management
• Dealing with internal tensions and strains of actors in
the social system
39
The WNBA
as a Social System,
If any of the four components “fails,”
then the WNBA will not be “integrated”
into the social system of organized professional
athletics in the United States….
….and so will any Social System fail.
40
PARSONIAN THEORY
micro
– MACRO
MACRO LEVEL
TYPES OF SOCIETIES
GEMEINSCHAFT
GESELLSCHAFT
PATTERN VARIABLES
Affectivity
Affectively Neutral
Diffuseness
Specificity
Particularism
Universalism
Ascribed/Quality
Achieved/Performance
Community-Oriented
Self-Oriented
micro level
VOLUNTARISTIC THEORY of ACTION
limiting
CONDITIONS
ACTOR
GOALS
cultural
MEANS
enabling
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
TALCOTT PARSON’S MODEL ala BERGER
Man is a social product.
<
MODES of ORIENTATION
INTERNALIZATION
SOCIALIZATION,
ENCULTURALIZATION
Society is an
objective reality
NEED
DISPOSITIONS
INSTITUTIONALIZATION
OBJECTIVATION,
SOCIAL FACTICITIES,
SOCIALLY-CONSTRUCTED
REALITY
EXTERNALIZATION,
PUTTING ONE’S SELF
INTO EFFECT
STRUCTURED PATTERNS of INTERACTION
Society is a human product
>
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
GEMEINSCHAFT
Feudalism
Mechanical
Traditional
Subjective Culture
Primary Group
(Ferdinand Tonnies)
(Karl Marx)
(Emile Durkheim)
(Max Weber)
(Georg Simmel)
(Chicago School)
GESELLSCHAFT
Capitalism
Organic
Bureaucratic
Objective Culture
Secondary Group
PARSONS’ PATTERN VARIABLES
Affectivity
Affective Neutrality
Diffuseness
Specificity
Particularism
Universalism
Ascription
Achievement
Collective Orientation
Self Orientation
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
PARSONS’ PATTERN VARIABLES
& TYPES OF SOCIETIES
GEMEINSCHAFT
GESELLSCHAFT
Affectivity
Affective
Neutrality
Diffuseness
Specificity
Particularism
Universalism
Ascription
Achievement
CollectivityOrientation
SelfOrientation
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
PARSONS’ PATTERN VARIABLES
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
PARSONS’ PATTERN VARIABLES
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
PARSONS’ PATTERN VARIABLES
Parsons discusses five pattern variables of role-definition,
although he says that there are many more possibilities.
The first is the gratification-discipline dilemma: affectivity vs. affectiveneutrality.
The dilemma here is in deciding whether one expresses their orientation in
terms of immediate gratification (affectivity) or whether they renounce
immediate gratification in favor of moral interests (affective-neutrality).
parsons says, ''no actor can subsist without gratifications, while at the same
time no action system can be organized or integrated without the renunciation
of some gratifications which are available in the given situation''.
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
PARSONS’ PATTERN VARIABLES
The second set of pattern variables of role-definition are the private vs.
collective interest dilemma: self-orientation vs. collectivity orientation. I
In this case, one's role orientation is either in terms of private interests or the
interests of the collectivity.
Parsons explains, ''a role may define certain areas of pursuit of private
interests as legitimate, and in other areas obligate the actor to pursue the
common interests of the collectivity.
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
PARSONS’ PATTERN VARIABLES
The third pair of pattern variables are the choice between types of valueorientation standard: universalism vs. particularism.
Simply put, ''in the former case the standard is derived from the validity of a
set of existential ideas, or the generality of a normative rule, in the latter from
the particularity of ... an object or of the status of the object in a relational
system.”
Example: the obligation to fulfill contractual agreements vs. helping someone
because she is your friend.
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
PARSONS’ PATTERN VARIABLES
The fourth pair of pattern variables are achievement vs. ascriptive role
behavior.
The choice here is between modalities of the social object. Achievementorientation roles are those which place an emphasis on the performances of
the people, whereas ascribed roles, the qualities or attributes of people are
emphasized independently of specific expected performances.
Talcott Parsons:
The Social System
PARSONS’ PATTERN VARIABLES
The fifth pair of pattern variables are specificity vs. diffuseness.
This applies to the definition of the scope of interest in the object.
If one adopts an orientation of specificity towards an object, it means that the
definition of the role is orienting to the social object in specific terms. In
contrast, in a diffuse orientation, the mode of orientation is outside the range
of obligations defined by the role-expectation.
PARSONS’ MODEL OF SOCIAL CHANGE
(countering the systemic tendency toward equilibrium)
2. SUB GROUP ORGANIZATION
• Emergence of expressive leadership
S: Situation (chaotic, unstable)
I: Individual (charismatic leader)
S: Symbols (resonating with previous traditions)
A: Audience (marginal, experiencing anomie)
• Creation of alternative set of normative expectations and sanctions
• Evasion of current cultural sanctions
1. INCREASED SOCIAL
STRAIN
• Critical mass
• Dissatisfaction
• Value inconsistencies
PARSONS’ MODEL OF SOCIAL CHANGE
(countering the systemic tendency toward equilibrium)
4. RECONNECTION TO THE DOMINANT
SOCIAL SYSTEM
• Introduction of internal discipline
• Institutionalization of new core values
• Adaptive concessions to external realities
3. DEVELOPMENT OF MEANINGFUL
IDEOLOGY
• Acceptable claim to legitimacy
• Symbols with wide appeal
• Coherent
• Relevant
Talcott Parsons:
The System of Modern Societies
A historical study of societal evolution
as evident in the stages of systematic
development within Western history.
.
54
Talcott Parsons:
The System of Modern Societies
• This went from feudalism to a differential and interdependent division
of labor that marked the European system.
• During this process, feudal institutions came to be replaced by early
capitalism with some growing centralization of political power.
• Then came the Renaissance and the development of secular culture
within the framework of a still vibrant religious order.
• Reformation (the Religious Revolution): During this period, the
priesthood began to lose its exclusive entitlement to the keys to the
kingdom, an event that signaled the advent of individualism.
55
Talcott Parsons:
The System of Modern Societies
• Era Two: First Crystallization of the Modern System
– Centered in the European northwest (England, France, and
Holland), this era saw the centralization of a form of state power
and the establishment of mercantile capitalism. One noteworthy
development here was the coming of a pluralist political system
in England, the result of the Political Revolution.
56
Talcott Parsons:
The System of Modern Societies
• Era Three: Age of Revolutions
– During this era, the Industrial Revolution featured the expansion
of financial markets, while the Democratic Revolution saw the
spreading of the differentiation of rule by people throughout
Western Europe, and by this time the Scientific Revolution was
beginning to realize its full impact on society.
57
Talcott Parsons:
The System of Modern Societies
 Era Four: New Lead Society
◦ The promise of the industrial and democratic revolutions could
not be realized in Europe because of its aristocratic, stratified,
and monarchal traditions.
Given its lack of such restrictions, together with its educational
revolution and political pluralism, the “new lead society” is (for
Parsons) the United States. It is here that Parsons locates the
highest form of general adaptation, the embodiment of the
evolutionary principle that drives systems and systematic
theories.
58
Talcott Parsons
1902 - 1979
Leaves a mixed legacy….
?
??