What Is A Social Institution
What Is A Social Institution
What Is A Social Institution
-a group of social positions, connected by social relations, performing a social role, e.g. universities,
government, families
Characteristics of an Institution
Palispis (1996) pointed out the following characteristics and functions.
1. Institutions are purposive. Each of them has the satisfaction of social needs as its own goal or
objective.
2. Relatively permanent in their content. The pattern roles and relations that people enact in a
particular culture become traditional enduring. Although institutions are subject to change, the change
is relatively slow.
3. Institutions are structured. The components tend to band together, reinforce one another. This is
because social roles and social relations are in themselves structured combinations of behavior
patterns.
4. Institutions are a unified structure. They function as a unit.
5. Institutions are necessarily value-laden. Their repeated uniformities, patters and trends become
codes of conduct. Most of these codes subconsciously exert social pressures. However, others are in
form of rules and laws.
Functions of an Institution
1. Institutions simplify social behavior for the individual person. The social institutions provide
every child with all the needed social and cultural mechanisms through which he can grow socially.
2. Institutions provide ready-made forms of social relations and social roles for the individual.
The principal roles are not invented by the individuals, they are provided by the institutions.
3. Institutions also act as agencies of coordination and stability for total culture. The ways of
thinking and behaving that are institutionalized “make sense” to people.
4. Institutions tend to control behavior. They contain the systematic expectations of the society.
• Social Institutions can take many forms, depending on a social context.
• It may be a family, business, educational, or political institution.
EDUCATION
Multiple Functions of Schools
Technical/economic - refers to the contributions of the school to the technical or economic
development and needs of the individual, the institution, the local community, the society and
the international community.
Human/social - refers to the contributions of the school to human development and social
relationships at different levels of society.
Political - refers to the contributions of the school to the political development at different levels
of society.
Cultural - refers to the contributions of the school to the cultural transmission and development
at different levels of society.
Education - refers to the contributions of the school to the development and maintenance of
education at the different levels of society.
Manifest and Latent Functions of Education
Manifest functions of education are defined as the open and intended goals or consequences
of activities within an organization or institution.
Socialization
Social control
Social placement
Transmitting culture
Promoting social and political integration
Agent of change
Latent functions of education are the hidden, unstated and sometimes unintended consequences of
activities within an organization or institution.
Restricting some activities
Matchmaking and production of social networks
Creation of generation gap
RELIGION
Religion is the socially defined patterns of beliefs concerning ultimate meaning of life’ it assumes the
existence of the supernatural. -Stark
Characteristics of Religion
Belief in a deity or in a power beyond the individual
A doctrine (accepted teaching) of salvation
A code of conduct
The use of sacred stories
Religious rituals (acts and ceremonies)
Functions of Religion
Religion serves as a means of social control.
It exerts a great influence upon personality development.
Religion always fear the unknown.
Religion explains events or situations which are beyond the comprehension of man.
It gives man comfort, strength and hope in times of crisis and despair.
It preserves and transmits knowledge, skills,
spiritual and cultural values and practices
It serves as an instrument of change.
It promotes closeness, love, cooperation, friendliness and helpfulness.
Religion alleviates sufferings from major calamities.
It provides hope for a blissful life after death.
Elements of Religion
Sacred - refers to phenomena that are regarded as extraordinary, transcendent, and outside the
everyday course of events - that is, supernatural.
Legitimation of norms – Religious sanctions and beliefs reinforce the legitimacy of many rules and
norms in the community.
Rituals – are formal patterns of activity that express symbolically a set of shared meanings.
Religious Community – Religions establishes a code of behavior for the members, who belong and
who does not.
ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS
GOVERNMENT
The institution which resolves conflicts that are public in nature and involve more than a few people is
called a government. It can be city, provincial, national or even international.