Assess The Contribution Of Functionalism To Our Understanding Of Society
Access the contribution of functionalism to our understanding of the society
The key concepts within functionalism are collective conscience, that all of society must have shared values and beliefs as it is crucial to achieve social order for the well being of society, they believe that this can be achieved through value consensus, that for society to live in consensus it must socialise its members into a set of norms and values to ensure society can work harmoniously and to meet it’s basic needs and goals. They stress the positive role of the family and education on its importance to help maintain society and justify how crime and deviance is essential in society to maintain order; they also believe that the media can perpetuate the …show more content…
His aim of his research was to establish causal explanations of social behaviour and the functions of social facts also know as causes and effects. He thought social facts, collective ways of acting that exist outside of individuals, could exert obligations on individuals, determining their actions. Examples of Durkheim’s work include his study on suicide, functional analysis of the division of labour which he argues can be seen within the education system, School creates a social division of labor, it gives certain pupils certain skills to get certain jobs, it does this by offering both academic and vocational courses at various levels which require different skills and talents, this contributes to value consensus as it ensures that everybody is working and all types of jobs are fulfilled in society so people are able to support their families but most importantly keeping the economy …show more content…
Merton uses the idea of ‘anomie’, the lack of the usual social or ethical standards in an individual or group, to show the way in which value consensus assumed to exist by parsons, it is not so definite. He claims that although socialisation can attempt to establish the same set of values to all people, Merton argues that some individuals can react in different ways. He believes that individuals can go four ways, they can conform to society, they can rebel against it, they can retreat from it or they can create a new one, but realises that the majority of people go through the motions with the values that supposedly form a
The key concepts within functionalism are collective conscience, that all of society must have shared values and beliefs as it is crucial to achieve social order for the well being of society, they believe that this can be achieved through value consensus, that for society to live in consensus it must socialise its members into a set of norms and values to ensure society can work harmoniously and to meet it’s basic needs and goals. They stress the positive role of the family and education on its importance to help maintain society and justify how crime and deviance is essential in society to maintain order; they also believe that the media can perpetuate the …show more content…
His aim of his research was to establish causal explanations of social behaviour and the functions of social facts also know as causes and effects. He thought social facts, collective ways of acting that exist outside of individuals, could exert obligations on individuals, determining their actions. Examples of Durkheim’s work include his study on suicide, functional analysis of the division of labour which he argues can be seen within the education system, School creates a social division of labor, it gives certain pupils certain skills to get certain jobs, it does this by offering both academic and vocational courses at various levels which require different skills and talents, this contributes to value consensus as it ensures that everybody is working and all types of jobs are fulfilled in society so people are able to support their families but most importantly keeping the economy …show more content…
Merton uses the idea of ‘anomie’, the lack of the usual social or ethical standards in an individual or group, to show the way in which value consensus assumed to exist by parsons, it is not so definite. He claims that although socialisation can attempt to establish the same set of values to all people, Merton argues that some individuals can react in different ways. He believes that individuals can go four ways, they can conform to society, they can rebel against it, they can retreat from it or they can create a new one, but realises that the majority of people go through the motions with the values that supposedly form a