Structural Functionalism

Functional imperatives that are

necessary for all systems are:
Adaption: A system must cope with the external
situational exigencies. It must adapt to its environment
and adapt environment to its need.
 Goal attainment: A system must define and achieve its
primary goals.
Integration: A system must regulate the
interrelationship of its component parts. It must also
manage the relationship among other three functional
imperatives.
Latency: A system must furnish, maintain, and review
both the motivation of individuals and the cultural
patterns that create and sustain the motivation.
• Action system- handles the adaptation
function by adjusting and transforming the
external world.
• Personal system- performs the goal-
attainment function by defining system goals
and mobilizing resources to attain them.
• Social system- copes with the integration
function by controlling its components parts.
• Cultural system- performs latency function
by providing actors with the norms and
values that motivate them for action.
Parson’s set of assumption
1. System have the property of order and
interdependence of parts.
2. System tend toward self-sustaining order or
equilibrium.
3. The system may be static or involved in an
ordered process of change.
4. The nature of one part of the system has an
impact on the form that the other parts can
take.
5. System maintain boundaries with their
environment.
6.Allocation and integration are two
fundamental processes necessary
for a given state of equilibrium of a
system.
7.System tend toward self-
maintenance involving
maintenance of the relationships
of parts of the whole, control
environment variations, and
control of tendencies to change the
system from within.
•Parsons’ conception of the
social system begins at the
micro level with
interaction between ego
and alter ego, defined as
the most elementary form
of the social system.
• He described a social system as
something which consist plurality of
individual actors interacting with
each other in a situation which has
at least a physical or environmental
aspect, actors who are motivated in
terms of the “optimization of
gratification” whose relation to
their situation. Including each other,
is defined and mediated in terms of
system of culturally stucted and
shared symbols.
 Functional Requisites of a
Social System
1. Social system must be structured so
that they operate compatibly with
other system.
2. To survive, the social system must
have the requisite from other systems.
3. The system must meet a significant
proportion of the needs of its actors.
4. The system must elicit adequate
participation from its members
5. It must have at least
minimum of control over
potentially disruptive
behaviour.
6. If conflict becomes
sufficiently disruptive, it must
be controlled.
7. Finally, a social system
requires a language in order to
survive.