Structural functionalism

1. Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences  STRUCTURAL –FUNCTIONALISM Elenita Filomena Zenaida
Ramos-Miranda Tanay Senior High School

2. Objectives  At the end of the lesson, you are expected to:  Understand the concept of Structural-
Functionalism  Identify the early functionalists  Determine the manifest and latent functions and
dysfunctions of sociocultural phenomena

3. Activity: “Build a World”  In groups, you are tasked to organize a community .  On a piece of
cartolina, draw a community comprised of different institutions.  Be ready to explain your answer why
you choose the institutions and how do they function in the community

4. Analysis  How did you find the activity?  How did you feel while doing the activity?  How did you
structure your community?  What did you prioritize in your choice of institution?  How did the
structures “function” in the society?  Have you heard of the Structural- Functionalism Theory?

5. Structural- Functionalism Focus: The organization of society and the relationships between broad
social units, such as Institutions. The group is the unit of analysis. A group could be a crowd of people in
a movie theater, or the members of a family sitting around the dinner table, what some call “small
groups” Abstraction:

6. Structural -Functionalism Corporations, factories, university systems,and even communities are

groups too. Structural Functional Theory (SFT) allows for major institutions, such as economy, religion,
polity, education and family to be considered groups

7. Structural- Functionalism Background and History The early functionalists were anthropologists (i.e.,
Levi- Strauss, Radcliff-Brown, Malinowski, and others). Claude Levi-Strauss Alfred Radcliffe-Brown
Bronislaw Malinowski

8. Structural-Functionalism They were seminal thinkers of the middle 1800s who made direct
observations of primitive cultures, theorizing about the organization of these folk in relation to Western
society. Their theories were often quite simple and required only a few assumptions. The point they
were making was this: Individual and group behavior, more often than not, serves a FUNCTION for the
larger society.

9. Structural-Functionalism Claude Levi-Strauss (1908 to 2009) is widely regarded as the father of

structural anthropology. In the 1940s, he proposed that the proper focus of anthropological
investigations was on the underlying patterns of human thought that produce the cultural categories
that organize worldviews hitherto studied (McGee and Warms, 2004: 345). He believed these processes
were not deterministic of culture, but instead, operated within culture.

10. Structural-Functionalism . His work was heavily influenced by Emile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss as
well as the Prague School of structural linguistics (organized in 1926) which include Roman Jakobson
(1896 to 1982), and Nikolai Troubetzkoy (1890 to 1938). From the latter, he derived the concept of
binary contrasts, later referred to in his work as binary oppositions, which became fundamental in his
theory. Claude Levi-Strauss

11. Structural-Functionalism Claude Lévi-Strauss: (1908 to 2009) “Father of Structuralism;” born in

Brussels in 1908. Obtained a law degree from the University of Paris. He became a professor of sociology
at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil in 1934. It was at this time that he began to think about human
thought cross-culturally and alterity, when he was exposed to various cultures in Brazil. His first
publication in anthropology appeared in 1936 and covered the social organization of the Bororo
(Bohannan and Glazer 1988:423). After WWII, he taught at the New School for Social Research in New
York. There he met Roman Jakobson, from whom he took the structural linguistics model and applied its
framework to culture (Bohannan and Glazer 1988:423). Lévi-Strauss has been noted as singly associated
for the elaboration of the structuralist paradigm in anthropology (Winthrop 1991).

12. Structural-Functionalism Bronislaw Malinowski and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown had the greatest influence
on the development of functionalism from their posts in Great Britain. Functionalism was a reaction to
the excesses of the evolutionary and diffusionist theories of the nineteenth century and the historicism
of the early twentieth (Goldschmidt 1996:510). Two versions of functionalism developed between 1910
and 1930: Malinowski’s biocultural (or psychological) functionalism; and structural-functionalism, the
approach advanced by Radcliffe-Brown.

13. Structural-Functionalism Malinowski suggested that individuals have physiological needs

(reproduction, food, shelter) and that social institutions exist to meet these needs. There are also
culturally derived needs and four basic "instrumental needs" (economics, social control, education, and
political organization), that require institutional devices. Each institution has personnel, a charter, a set
of norms or rules, activities, material apparatus (technology), and a function.

14. Structural-Functionalism Radcliffe-Brown focused on social structure rather than biological needs.
He suggested that a society is a system of relationships maintaining itself through cybernetic feedback,
while institutions are orderly sets of relationships whose function is to maintain the society as a system.
Radcliffe-Brown, inspired by Augustus Comte, stated that the social constituted a separate "level" of
reality distinct from those of biological forms and inorganic matter.

15. Structural-Functionalism Radcliffe-Brown argued that explanations of social phenomena had to be

constructed within the social level. Thus, individuals were replaceable, transient occupants of social
roles. Unlike Malinowski's emphasis on individuals, Radcliffe- Brown considered individuals irrelevant
(Goldschmidt 1996:510).

16. Structural Functionalism The Functionalists Perspectives A perspective is simply a way of looking at
the world. A theory is a set of interrelated propositions or principles designed to answer a question or
explain a particular phenomenon; it provides us with a perspective

17. Structural-Functionalism Sociological theories - help us to explain and predict the social world in
which we live in. The Functionalists Perspectives The Functionalists Perspectives is based largely on the
works of Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons, and Robert Merton. According to
Functionalism, society is a system of interconnected parts that work together in harmony to maintain a
state of balance and social equilibrium for the whole.

18. Structural Functionalism The Functionalists Perspectives For example: Each of the social institutions
contributes important functions for society: family provides a context for reproducing, nurturing, and
socializing children. Education offers a way to transmit a society’s skills, knowledge, and culture to its
youth. Politics provides a means of governing members of society. Economics provides for the
production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. And religion provides moral guidance
and an outlet for worship of a higher power.

19. Structural -Functionalism The Functionalists Perspectives The Functionalists perspectives emphasizes
the interconnectedness of society by focusing on how each part influences and is influenced by other
parts. For example: The increase in single parent and dual-earner families has contributed to the
number of children who are failing in school because parents have become less available to supervise
their children’s homework.

20. Structural-Functionalism The Functionalists Perspectives For example: As a result of changes in

technology, colleges are offering more technical programs, and many adults are returning to school to
learn new skills that are required in the workplace. The increasing number of women in the workforce
has contributed to the formulation of policies against sexual harassment and job discrimination.

21. Structural Functionalism The Functionalists Perspectives Functionalists use the terms functional and
dysfunctional to describe the effects of social elements on society. o Elements of society are functional if
they contribute to social stability. o They are dysfunctional if they disrupt social stability.

22. Structural Functionalism The Functionalists Perspectives Some aspects of society can be both
functional and dysfunctional. For example, crime is dysfunctional in that it is associated with physical
violence, loss of property, and fear. But according to Durkheim and other functionalists, crime is also
functional for society because it leads to heightened awareness of shared moral bonds and increased
social cohesion. Sociologists have identified two types of functions: manifest and latent (Merton 1968).

23. Structural Functionalism The Functionalists Perspectives Sociologists have identified two types of
functions: a. manifest; and b. latent (Merton 1968)  Manifest functions are consequences that are
intended and commonly recognized.  Latent functions are consequences that are unintended and often
hidden.

24. Structural Functionalism The Functionalists Perspectives For example: The manifest function of
education is to transmit knowledge and skills to society’s youth. But public elementary schools also
serve as babysitters for employed parents, and colleges offer a place for young adults to meet potential
mates. The baby-sitting and mate-selection functions are not the intended or commonly recognized
functions of education; hence they are latent functions

25. Structural Functionalism For sociology, many of these functional anthropological notions were drawn
together by Talcott Parsons, a young professor at Harvard University around 1950, with considerable
input from early social philosophers Max Weber, Herbert Spencer, and Emile Durkheim. Parsons' work
was further extended by subsequent sociologists of the time and after. Structural-functional theory
became the paradigm theory in sociology for about twenty years or so, because it saliently defined
society as a system with checks and balances. Sociological Perspectives

26. Application  Discuss the concept of Structuralism  Discuss Merton’s concept of Manifest and
Latent Functions and Dysfunctions of sociocultural phenomena

27.  Thank you 