a.

Origin/History

The beginnings of functionalism may be linked to an earlier generation of writers working in the field of
anthropology in the early twentieth century, even though it only became popular as a school of
sociological theory in the 1950s. The anthropologists Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942) and Alfred
Radcliffe-Brown (1884-1942), both from the United Kingdom, were among them (1881-1955). Emile
Durkheim's work can also be linked back to elements of a functionalist way of thinking (1858-1917).

The actions of individuals can only be explained by the function they serve for the system of social life.
There are different elements of social life that depends on each other to fulfil functions for the
maintenance of social order.

Anthropologist observed the Hopi Tribe of N. America on how they perform rituals for their crops. The
anthropologist concludes that the dance is not a form of instrumental activity instead it is a form of
expressive activity that brings them together. The Hopi rain dances are explained by the function they
fulfil in the life of the tribe as a whole.

However despite this study there are some problems in explaining the functionalism during the 20th
century. This is where the 1950's American sociological theorist enter and become the beginning of
functionalism.

William James tries to understand the global stream of consciousness why humans and animals have a
particular type of consciousness and the reason why does it developed and evolved in a particular
manner. According to the functionalist view consciousness of thinking is relevant only in relationship to
behavior.

James and the other members of the function school were strongly influenced by the origin of speech
species of Charles Darwin and Darwin's theory of natural selection. This meant that any characteristics
that an organism has came only because it proved useful during the evolution. Like the human
characteristics change and evolve to adapt and perform in a particular function and serve the
betterment of human experience. Functionalism continues to influence modern psychology.
b. Focus/Scope

FOCUS

Functionalism, particularly the structural functionalism is a macro perspective theory that considers
society as a collection of parts (aspects of society like institutions, individuals, culture, traditions, norms,
morals, ideologies etc.) that work together to help a society function as a whole. It studies interactions
between individuals, families, coworkers and communities to understand what it means and the reasons
behind it (Conerly, 2021). Structural functionalism emphasizes interdependence, control, structure and
system (Vincent, 2015). But, centralized on social stability and shared cultural values. This theory states
that all aspects of society interacts and depends to each other because of their purpose, role or function
which is absolutely necessary in the maintenance of the larger structured society (or long-term survival
of the society).

Interdependence

The definition of the theory describe the society as a complex system where you can’t just reduced it in
a single aspect like only looking at family without considering other connected aspect such as institution
like government and workplaces, culture and traditions, and etc. This complexity is connected through
interdependence.

For example, just by looking at a particular institution: the relationship between an employer and his
employees is an example of interdependence, where the employees are paid (because money is
essential to provide basic needs which is why they work) to provide services that the employer needed.
There have a mutual need for each other.

Social Control

All of the components of social structure work together to maintain social order (as the theory states)
through guidance, limitation and organization of human behavior (Merton, 1948/1968).

For example, in the view of a functionalist; the process of socialization forces the people to abide on the
norms agreed among the members of the society which protects us from one another and keeps society
stable in the way a society and its institutions remain predictable, reliable and balanced. This is
important because it allows the participants in society such as individuals and groups to plan and
interact without disruption. Even though it sounds dominating but it actually describes adaption and
adjustment or consensus rather. Still, control is for the primary goal of the society, according to the
theory which is social stability.
Social Structure

Any comparable stable pattern of social behavior found in social institutions is referring to social
structure (Form, 2020). People act accordingly with their developed perceptions, attitudes, and
behaviors from their place in the social structure. Social structure can also be said to be the framework
upon which a society is established. It makes us realize our roles; we can trace from the definition of the
theory that function is the reason for interaction. It was able to explain how people connect to larger
complex society.

In your home where you are assigned to a particular role (which is the behavior expected of people in
various statuses) like the one who should manage the garbage disposal, laundry works or cleaning. In a
society, we also have roles to fulfill as a functional member:

For example, the tax payers (could be a laborer or a corporation) and the government, each of them
have a role as social institutions. They interact and form an interdependent relationship (tax payers
provide funds and the government use the funds to provide variety of public services to the tax payers
and keep the state functional) which creates an organisation that affirm the effective interaction within
the social relationship of the tax payers and the government. Their repetitive interaction creates a
pattern of organisation that we call social structure. The social structure now controls the social
behavior of the institutions (it is what is expected to tax payers and the government to do) through
application of rules and norms, and including positions and status which helps to maintain their
interdependent relationship. As we know that society is a complex system, we are only looking at a
single relationship in this example so if we link the other institutions such as schools (that shape people
into law-abiding citizens) and banks (related to our economic security), they form a large group (an
organization) that follows rules and procedures to achieve specific goals. Even if they differ from one
another in many aspects. But their goals and other characteristics share something in common.

Social System

Mentioned earlier that in the view of a functionalist, society is a complex system. Explaining society in
single aspect like institutions (family, government, education, etc.) and culture is rather incomplete
because interdependence exist among the aspects of society. The characteristic of the society: having a
large population, centralized government (and other institutions), specialization and division of labor
(Timothy, 2008); which is why there’s a variety of job; in medicine for example there’s a specialist for
each section of a body like in cardiology, neurology, etc. It is pretty much telling us about bureaucracy.
Structural functionalism analyzes and explain how social interactions happen in a complex society and
how it manages to maintain the social order.
SCOPE

Aside from being a large and irreducible complex system in a functionalist perspective, the society is also
COLLECTIVE rather than individualistic, for example: The presence of interdependent characteristic in
society tells us that it is truly large. Let us look at the relationship of government, schools, work and
businesses. Schools educate people to get a job, when people get a job they were able to spend money
on local businesses for their needs, then these businesses pay taxes to the government and the
government use the taxes to fund schools. We can already see from here that there’s already a big
connection among these social institutions and we could even adjust the lens of our view to see the
other connected institutions that is also interdependent. The fact that structural functionalism was
discussing society on that scale tells us that this theory is a macro perspective.

c. Significance

• It is a way to analyze the different aspect of society that keeps it working. It shows us how our society
stays balanced through socialization, mutuality and working together (Henry, 2016). We were able to
understand the relationship of different aspect of society that before was believed to be functioning
individually.

For example:

We are now able to relate family (before we believe that only the large corporations has something to
do with the economic problems like price hikes and drop of currency value) to government and
economic institutions, and the government to economic institutions and vise versa.

As well as how culture and traditions influence the creation of social structure that dictates the social
behavior.

• It explains how society minimizes conflict by socialization and social control, opposing the conflict
theory (James, 2017)

Socialization helps us learn the rules and why we should work together. Our connection to other people
and to social institutions such as family, religion and schools, helps us socialize and strengthen our
respect for the rules and finally integrate us into society.

Education is a good example: functionalists see schools as providing the needs of society by preparing
students for their future roles, or functions (learning the knowledge, attitudes and values that they will
need as productive citizens), in society. The result is that socialization and social integration help build a
strong set of social norms. But without a strong society and effective socialization, social order will
crumble, and violence and other signs of disorder in society is the result. For example, the students
delinquency is the result of being unsupervised by the teachers and adults, and ineffective school rules.
Because these delinquents have desires (such as money, good time, basically doing what they want) that
result in chaos unless the school limits them. So, the school will create a new set of guidelines as an
adaptive response like dress codes (uniform, proper haircut, prohibition of piercings and such; improper
school attire indicates an act of school delinquency), wandering in school corridors during class hours is
prohibited, in-out of school premises during class hours without permission is prohibited, etc. The
school will rehabilitate these delinquents through counseling and teach them how to behave in public
places which is an example of socialization. Because as mentioned earlier, the school have the purpose
to prepare these students for their future roles. Through this social control and rehabilitation programs
of the school, the conflict was minimized and the students were able to study without disturbance.

• Structural functionalism also shows the importance of shared culture being the basis of social stability
(Elwell, 2009).

Functionalists view society as a system in which all parts work together to create society as a whole. In
this way, society need culture to exist. Cultural norms work to support the smooth operation of society,
and cultural values guide people in making choices.

In building a family, cultural values help us to find our lifetime partner. For example, romantic love as
the basis for marriage excludes other patterns for choice of partner such as parental selection (arranged
marriage) or marriage for the purpose of economic alliance (Merton, 1994/1996). This norm is adapted
as a basis, a marriage out of a meaningful relationship and not just in materialistic perspective.

d. Limitation

• It is teleological and cannot explain change adequately (Vincent, 2015).

Let’s look at this example. A massive unemployment broke out, so a disruption in the economic system
occurs and the jobless became criminals (perhaps to support their basic needs or such). The system
adjusts to improve the employment and job opportunities and attempts to rehabilitate (through jail or
other means) the criminals for them to become law-abiding and taxpaying citizens once again. But in
order to do that project, there is a need to subtract some budget on other government projects and
departments affecting the performance of the government to fulfill its other functions.

And so there’s a contradiction present: should we discourage or adapt social change.

Inequalities exist within a culture’s value system. Therefore, a society’s cultural norms benefit some
people but hurt others. In some places where immoral and unjust practices (sometimes particular to a
certain gender, class or race) are perceived as something cultural by its locals wouldn’t be shareable nor
acceptable in the perspective of foreigners; so it is contradictory to the functionalist perspective on
culture as an undifferentiated value that produces social harmony.

Relating the two limitation, when some part of a social system changes or became disrupted, a tension
between this and other parts of the system is created, which will be resolved when the other parts
adapt. And functionalism also perceive social change as something undesirable because the various
parts of society will naturally compensate for any problems that may arise (like from the example). We
can’t just always conform, comply or abide because we lose our individuality and the burden have
negative consequences that may result to conflict. Also, it ignores the inequalities in race, gender, and
class, which cause tension and conflict as well. In this case, conformity isn’t desirable as well when the
change is unfavorable to the other party.

• Structural functionalism also suggests that people have certain defined roles within society depending
on their relationship to each other. This theory is critized for being conservative because of its emphasis
on social stability and consensus that would produce unobservable internal conflict and contradictions
in social systems (Fearon, 2016).

Structural functionalism defined the role of the mother within the family as caregiver and homemaker,
and father as the breadwinner. These are seen as complementary parts of the family structure. Let’s
create an example to visualize the conservative nature of structural functionalism. Unfortunately,
financial problems arose when people did not fulfil their defined roles correctly, when the mother went
out to work, that meant the role of caregiver was not being fulfilled completely which was a problem
(because we all know a mother’s care is really different). Similarly, the father should be there to provide
financially for the family but if he wasn’t there emotionally or physically so much that didn’t matter
because that was not his major role (as a provider). We can see from this that when a change
particularly a problem arise, there’s an aspect neglected.
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