Structural functionalism

The basics

Background• Social systems theory

– Spencer– Durkheim– Marx– Weber

• Anthropology– Radcliffe-Brown– Malinowski

• Chicago School– Organic analogy– Mass society theory

Background

• Formal structural functionalism– Parsons

• Functional prerequisites• Patterned role expectations

– Merton• Dysfunctions• Manifest and latent functions• Functional alternatives

Structural functionalism

• Heavy use of analogy– Organic– Mechanistic

Structural functionalism

• A form of systems theory– Looks at systems and subsystems– Interrelations among parts– Processes

• Maintenance, equilibrium

• Adaptation and change

Structural functionalism

• Structures– Repetitive behaviors

• Functions– Implications for system maintenance

• Early, conservative S—F assumed maintenance was the main (positive) goal

Structural functional analysis

• Identifies the structures of a system

• Defines the part played by such structures

• Examines the consequences of social phenomena for the systems of which they are a part, and

• Examines how new structures emerge

• Assumptions: The conceptual assumptions underlying the approach can be divided into two basic areas: – the social system is the prior causal reality and the system parts are

functionally interrelated, – all social phenomena have functions for the larger social system.

Concerning these functions: • they may be functional for the whole system or only part of it, • there may be functional alternatives, • there may be multiple consequences from particular phenomena, and

finally, • dysfunctions account for tension and change in the system.

• The approach assumes that systems can be identified and specified, that the boundaries are measurable.

Structural functional explanation

• Recurring behaviors (structures) are thought to exist because they in some way contribute to system maintenance (function)

• The identification of structures and the ways that they contribute are major goals

• Society is thought to maintain an equilibrium state (organic analogy) and if forced out of that state will adjust in ways that tend to reinstate equilibrium (though not necessarily the original equilibrium)

Structural functional explanation

• Certain functions are required for the existence of the system (society)– Functional prerequisites

• In some cases, more than one structure can provide the same function – Functional alternatives

Okay, maybe, but systems change

• Change is generated mainly from outside the system, as the system will normally maintain its status quo

• A second source of change is the existence of dysfunctions (actions that break down the system)– Implications of a structure for different

subsystems may conflict

Manifest v. latent (Merton)

• Manifest functions are commonly recognized

• Latent functions are not commonly recognized– Often they are still the reason for structures to

exist• May be the “real” reason

Culture• Basis for consensus

– Main means of integration of parts (communication)

• Consensus brings pressure to bear on “deviates” in order to maintain equilibrium– Deviation considered a problem to be dealt with– The role of social control is to maintain system

• (in the interest of the population overall)

– Source of deviance unclear

• Socialization through a wide array of social institutions, including the media

Advantages of structural functionalism

• Provides a wide-ranging explanation for many social phenomena

• Has guided a great deal of valuable research

• Latter models allow not only for stability, but also for conflict, social change, and power relationships

• Has contributed useful concepts to the field

Disadvantages of structural functionalism

• An ideal model of society rather than an empirically derived one– Operational definitions are hard to come by

• At its outset had a tendency to value stability, consensus

• Cannot explain the existence of societies in the first place

Structural functionalism

• Cannot easily explain rapid social change or breakdown of societies– Social change and social conflict became

significant topics in the latter period of functionalist dominance

• Rests on assumptions that are hard (perhaps impossible) to test

• Explanations can be tautological

Lasswell’s functions

“The communication process in society performs three functions: (a) surveillance of the environment, disclosing threats and opportunities affecting the value position of the community and of the component parts within it; (b) correlation of the components of society in making a response to the environment; (c) transmission of the social inheritance.”

Lazarsfeld and Merton

• “Increasingly, the chief power groups, among which organized business occupies the most spectacular place, have come to adopt techniques for manipulating mass publics through propaganda in place of more direct means of control.”

• “these media have taken on the job of rendering mass publics conformative to the social and economic status quo”

• Fear that mass media lower the ‘esthetic tastes’ of their audiences

Status conferral function

• “The mass media confer status on public issues, persons, organizations and social movements.”“Recognition by the press or radio or magazines

or newsreels testifies that one has arrived, that one is important enough to have been singled out from the large anonymous masses, that one’s behavior and opinions are significant enough to require public notice.”

Enforcement of social norms

• “The mass media may initiate organized social action by “exposing” conditions which are at variance with public moralities.”– Publicity closes the gap between “private

attitudes” and “public morality.”

Narcotizing dysfunction

• “this vast supply of communications may elicit only a superficial concern with the problems of society, and this superficiality often cloaks mass apathy.”

• “As an increasing meed of time is devoted to reading and listening, a decreasing share is available for organized action. The individual reads accounts of issues and problems and may even discuss alternative lines of action. But this rather intellectualized, rather remote connection with organized social action is not activated. The interested and informed citizen can congratulate himself on his lofty state of interest and information and neglect to see that he has abstained from decision and action.

• “In short, he takes his secondary contact with the world of political reality, his reading and listening and thinking, as a vicarious performance. He comes to mistake knowing about problems of the day for doing something about them. His social conscience remains spotlessly clean. He is concerned. He is informed. And he has all sorts of ideas as to what should be done. But, after he has gotten through his dinner and after he has listened to his favored radio programs and after he has read his second newspaper of the day, it is really time for bed.

Social conformism

• “Since the mass media are supported by great business concerned geared into the current social and economic system, the media contribute to the maintenance of the system.”– Advertisement of products

– Stories contain some element of approval of current structure of society

– Fail to raise essential questions about the structure of society

Esthetic tastes

• Hard to determine overall effect

• Widening of audience for higher arts– Accessibility vastly increased

Conditions for media effects

• Monopolization– Little or no opposition in media to the diffusion of

values, policies or public images

• Canalization– Rather than attempting to change or create attitudes or

behavior, directing pre-existing behaviors and attitudes in the direction you want

• Supplementation of media presentation with interpersonal communication

The Field• Lasswell’s classic definition of the field:

– Who Says– What– In Which Channel– To Whom– With What Effect?

• Often cited (and used as a model) in subsequent research

• The “transmission” view of communication