talcott parsons and. talcott parsons born1902- died 1979 education: undergraduate work at amherst...

Talcott Parsons and

Talcott ParsonsBorn1902- Died 1979

Education:•Undergraduate work at Amherst University in biology and medicine•Studied economics in the London School of Economics•Strongly influenced by the social anthropologist Brownislaw Malinowski (a functionalist)•Attended Heidelberg University, in Germany, on an educational exchange•Alfred Weber (Max Weber’s brother) was his primary teacher•Also sat under the instruction of Karl Mannheim

2

Talcott Parsons

Harvard Professor of Economics, and then Sociology, 1927-1973

Founded the Department ofSocial Relations combiningSociology, Anthropology,and Psychology, 1944

Key works:The Structure of Social Action (1937)The Social System (1951)Social Structure and Personality (1964)The System of Modern Societies (1971)The Structure and Change of the Social System(1983)

3

1937, The Structure of Social Action 1939, Action, Situation and Normative Pattern 1951, The Social System 1951, Toward a General Theory of Action - with Shils, Tolman, Stouffer & Kluckhohn 1953, Working Papers in the Theory of Action - with Robert F. Bales and Edward A. Shils. 1954, Essays in Sociological Theory 1955, Family, Socialization and Interaction Process - Robert F. Bales and James Olds. 1956, Economy and Society - with Neil Smelser 1960, Structure and Process in Modern Societies 1961, Theories of Society - with Edward Shils, Kaspar D. Naegele and Jesse Pitts 1964, Social Structure and Personality 1966, Societies: Evolutionary and Comparative Perspectives 1967, Sociological Theory and Modern Society 1969, Politics and Social Structure 1971, The System of Modern Societies 1973, The American University - with Gerald Platt 1977, Social Systems and the Evolution of Action Theory 1978, Action Theory and the Human Condition 1978, The Theory of Social Action: the Correspondence of Alfred Schutz and Talcott Parsons 1983. The Structure and Change of the Social System (from Parsons' second visit to Japan).

Talcott Parsonsa partial bibliography

Parsons’ Department of Social Relations 1945-1972 interdisciplinarity:

for UNDERSTANDING HUMAN BEHAVIOR

PHYSIOLOGY

PSYCHOLOGY SOCIAL

STRUCTURE

CULTURE

DURKHEIM: Social System Integration

WEBER: Culture & Social Systems Borderline

FREUD: Social Systems & Personality Integration

Talcott Parsonsand Grand Theory

“The dominant figure in American sociology – if not world-wide – from the mid-1940’s to the mid-1970’s.” (Bell, 1979)

“Talcott Parsons was probably the most prominent theorist of this time, and it is unlikely that any one theoretical approach will so dominate sociological theory again.” (Turner 1998)

“Parsons’ theory of society is plagued by an absence of clarity. His work abounds with ambiguities in both semantics and syntax.” (Perdue, 1986)

8

Talcott Parsonsand Grand Theory

C. Wright Mills (a conflict theorist in the tradition of Marx) introduced the term 'Grand Theory' as a criticism of Parsons’ theory. • Used overly abstract, overblown language (“bloated nonsense”) that was difficult to understand.

• Many key principles were not subject to observation or testing

• Presumed that people were “overly socialized.”

• Assumed that if power structures exist in a certain configuration they must be functional and essential instead of realizing that power structures promote inequality and create stress for the majority of citizens (and is therefore non-functional).

• Drew (questionable) conclusions about all societies based on a discussion of one specific society.

• Ignored historical developments, cultural values, and social change.

PARSONIAN THEORY

m icro – MACRO

limiting CONDITIONS ACTOR GOALS cultural MEANS enabling

PATTERN VARIABLES Affectivity Affectively Neutral Diffuseness Specificity Particularism Universalism Ascribed/ Quality Achieved/ Performance Community-Oriented Self-Oriented

VOLUNTARISTIC THEORY of ACTION

TYPES OF SOCIETIES

GEMEINSCHAFT GESELLSCHAFT

m icro level

MACRO LEVEL

Talcott Parsons: The Social System

I NTERNALI ZATI ON SOCIALIZATION, ENCULTURALIZATION

EXTERNALIZATION, PUTTING ONE’S SELF INTO EFFECT

OBJ ECTIVATION, SOCIAL FACTICITIES, SOCIALLY- CONSTRUCTED REALITY

TALCOTT PARSON’S MODEL ala BERGER

Man is a social product.

Society is a human product

Society is an objective reality

I NSTI TUTI ONALI ZATI ON NEED DI SPOSI TI ONS

STRUCTURED PATTERNS of I NTERACTI ON >

< MODES of ORI ENTATI ON

FUNCTIONALISM’S FUNDAMENTAL PREMISES ala PARSONS • EVERY SYSTEM HAS REQUISITE NEEDS THAT MUST BE MET FOR THAT SYSTEM TO SURVIVE. • SPECIALIZED STRUCTURES FUNCTION TO SATISFY THE NEEDS OF THE SYSTEM. • SOCIAL STRUCTURES, FUNCTIONS, AND THE SYSTEMIC WHOLE ARE THUS INTRISICALLY RELATED AND AFFECT ONE ANOTHER. • SPECIALIZATION OF STRUCTURES OCCURS THROUGH THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS OF DIFFERENTIATION. • SYSTEMS TEND TO BECOME MORE COMPLEX THROUGH STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIATION. • STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIATION MAKES SYSTEMS MORE ADAPTIVE. • DIFFERENTIATION CREATES PROBLEMS OF COORDINATION AND CONTROL, WHICH CREATES PRESSURES FOR THE SELECTION OF INTEGRATING PROCESSES. • INTEGRATING PROCESSES TEND TO KEEP THE SYSTEM IN A STATE OF EQUILIBRIUM

Talcott Parsons: The Structure of Social Action

• Voluntaristic Theory of Action: the Unit Act– Involves these basic elements

• Actors are individual persons• Actors are viewed as goal seeking• Actors also possess alternative means

to achieve goals

13


• Actors are confronted with a variety of situational conditions, such as their own biological makeup and heredity as well as various external ecological constraints, that influence the selection of goals and means.

• Actors are governed by values, norms, and other ideas such that these ideas influence what is considered a goal and what means are selected to achieve it.

• Action involves actors making subjective decisions about the means to achieve goals, all of which are constrained by ideas and situational conditions.

14

PARSONS’ VOLUNTARISTIC UNIT ACT:

SELF EGO

THE NORMATIVE ORDER

MEANS

GOALS ENDS

THE ACTOR

CONDITIONS

TYPES OF ACTION


VALUE SYSTEMS COGNITIVE APPRECIATIVE MORAL

Empirical Aesthetic Ultimate Factual Emotional Right/Wrong

Strategic Cathectic Evaluative Beliefs Expressive Values

“What Is” Feelings “What Ought” (meaning) (membership) (order)

Orientation

Toward Social

Situation

Needs And

Values

Types Of

Cultural Patterns

Types Of

Social Action

PARSONS’ VOLUNTARISTIC UNIT ACT:

“ENVIRONMENTAL” CONDITIONS

“AVAILABLE” MEANS

SELF EGO

THE ACTOR

GOALS ENDS

THE NORMATIVE ORDER

NEED DISPOSITIONS MOTIVATIONS (psychodynamic)

-----------------

•Cognitive •Appreciative •Evaluative

VALUE ORIENTATIONS

(cultural frameworks) --------------------------

•Cognitive Significance •Expressive Symbolism •Moral Standards

Parsons’ Conceptualization of Social Integration


How do social systems survive?

More specifically, why do institutionalized patterns of

interactions persist?

21


THE PROCESS OF INSTITUTIONALIZATION

CYBERNETIC HIERARCHY OF CONTROL


Historical Typology – Types of Society

GEMEINSCHAFT Ferdinand Tonnies GESELLSCHAFT Theological Metaphysical

August Comte Positivist - Scientific

Militaristic Herbert Spencer Industrial Feudalism Karl Marx Capitalism Mechanical Solidarity

Emile Durkheim Organic Solidarity

Traditional Max Weber Rational-Legal Subjective Culture (more life)

Georg Simmel Objective Culture (more-than life)

Primary Group Chicago School Secondary Group

R E C A P I T U L A T I O N

S W E E P O F H I S T O R Y

GEMEINSCHAFT (Ferdinand Tonnies) GESELLSCHAFT Feudalism (Karl Marx) Capitalism Mechanical (Emile Durkheim) Organic Traditional (Max Weber) Bureaucratic Subjective Culture (Georg Simmel) Objective Culture Primary Group (Chicago School) Secondary Group

PARSONS’ PATTERN VARIABLES

Affectivity Affective Neutrality Diffuseness Specificity Particularism Universalism Ascription Achievement Collective Orientation Self Orientation



The Four Functional Imperatives• Adaptation

– Securing sufficient resources from the physical and social environment and then distributing these throughout the system.

• Goal Attainment– Establishing priorities among system goals and

mobilizing system resources for their attainment.

26


• Integration– Coordinating and maintaining viable

interrelationships among system units thrucommunication and common value systems.

27

The Four Functional Imperatives

Talcott Parsons:The Social System

• Latency (Two related problems):

• Pattern Maintenance– Ensuring that actors in the social system display the

appropriate characteristics• Motives• Needs• Roles

• Tension Management– dealing with the internal tensions and strains of actors as

they meet the demands of the social system.

28

The Four Functional Imperatives

ADAPTATION

Behavioral Organism:Energy for

Environmental Interactions

GOAL ATTAINMENT

Personality System:Selective

Self-Determination

INTEGRATION

Social System: Institutions of

socialization and social control

LATENT PATTERN MAINTENANCE &

TENSION MANAGEMENTCultural System:

Values and Norms, Beliefs and Ideologies

External Environment (Natural & Social)

Bare Materials(Human Nature)

ACTION SYSTEMS withinPARSONS’ AGIL MODEL

ADAPTATION

Economic:Energy for

Environmental Interactions

GOAL ATTAINMENT

Political:Selective

Group-Determination

INTEGRATION

Cultural-Legal System:

Institutions of socialization and

social control

LATENT PATTERN MAINTENANCE &

TENSION MANAGEMENTKinship (family)

System:Values and Norms,

Beliefs and Ideologies

External Environment (Natural & Social)

Bare Materials(Human Nature)

ACTION SYSTEMS withinPARSONS’ AGIL MODEL

NESTED FUNCTIONAL IMPERATIVES

AGIL

Adaption

A

A

G

I

L

G

I

L

Goal Attainment

Integration

Latent Pattern

Maintenance & Tension Management


Here are several illustrations of how the Four Functional Imperatives

can illustrate the workings of social systems:

32

A U.S NAVAL DESTROYER AS A SOCIAL SYSTEM:

GOAL ATTAINMENT comprises the activities related to sinking enemy ships as when all hands are at battle stations.

ADAPTATION involves keeping the ship afloat and operating – repairs, drills, recruitment and training of personnel.

INTEGRATION is the maintenance of smooth relations between the various departments – gunnery, supply, engineering, and so on, in order to reduce jealousy and enhance cooperation.

LATENT PATTERN MAINTENANCE & TENSION MANAGEMENT involves the efforts of each crew member to reconcile the goals and standards of the ship with those of his/her other roles (husband, wife, son, daughter, father, mother, ethnic group, etc.) and providing allowing ways of relieving tension and strain.

The WNBA as a Social System

34


How to Integrate the WNBA into theUnited States’ Sports Consciousness

• Adaptation– Resources are allocated to the WNBA

• The United States is evaluated as ready for a women’s league similar to the NBA.

• Resources are deliberately allocated to help give the WNBA a structure similar to the NBA.

• Return on those allocated resources will not be immediate.

35

The WNBAas a Social System

• Goal Attainment– Priorities are developed to insure goals are

attained• Media space (television) is given to the WNBA even

though the audience is not yet fully developed.

• Integration– Coordinating various relationships within the

sports world.

36


• Latency (after the WNBA is integrated into the nation’s sports consciousness)– Pattern Maintenance

• Establishing proper roles and motives

– Tension Management• Dealing with internal tensions and strains of actors in

the social system

37

The WNBA as a Social System,

If any of the four components “fails,”

then the WNBA will not be “integrated” into the social system of organized professional

athletics in the United States….

38

….and so will any Social System fail.

PARSONIAN THEORY

m icro – MACRO

limiting CONDITIONS ACTOR GOALS cultural MEANS enabling

PATTERN VARIABLES Affectivity Affectively Neutral Diffuseness Specificity Particularism Universalism Ascribed/ Quality Achieved/ Performance Community-Oriented Self-Oriented

VOLUNTARISTIC THEORY of ACTION

TYPES OF SOCIETIES


m icro level

MACRO LEVEL


I NTERNALI ZATI ON SOCIALIZATION, ENCULTURALIZATION

EXTERNALIZATION, PUTTING ONE’S SELF INTO EFFECT

OBJ ECTIVATION, SOCIAL FACTICITIES, SOCIALLY- CONSTRUCTED REALITY

TALCOTT PARSON’S MODEL ala BERGER

Man is a social product.

Society is a human product

Society is an objective reality

I NSTI TUTI ONALI ZATI ON NEED DI SPOSI TI ONS

STRUCTURED PATTERNS of I NTERACTI ON >

< MODES of ORI ENTATI ON

GEMEINSCHAFT (Ferdinand Tonnies) GESELLSCHAFT Feudalism (Karl Marx) Capitalism Mechanical (Emile Durkheim) Organic Traditional (Max Weber) Bureaucratic Subjective Culture (Georg Simmel) Objective Culture Primary Group (Chicago School) Secondary Group


Affectivity Affective Neutrality Diffuseness Specificity Particularism Universalism Ascription Achievement Collective Orientation Self Orientation



PARSONS’ PATTERN VARIABLES & TYPES OF SOCIETIES


Affectivity Affective Neutrality

Diffuseness

Specificity

Particularism

Universalism

Ascription

Achievement

Collectivity-Orientation

Self- Orientation

Talcott Parsons:The Social System

The AGIL Model of Social Organization

There are five pattern variables of role-definition that Parsons discusses, although he says that there are many more possibilities.

The first is the gratification-discipline dilemma: affectivity vs. affective-neutrality. The dilemma here is in deciding whether one expresses their orientation in terms of immediate gratification (affectivity) or whether they renounce immediate gratification in favor of moral interests (affective-neutrality). parsons says, ''no actor can subsist without gratifications, while at the same time no action system can be organized or integrated without the renunciation of some gratifications which are available in the given situation''.



The second set of pattern variables of role-definition are the private vs. collective interest dilemma: self-orientation vs. collectivity orientation. In this case, one's role orientation is either in terms of her private interests or in terms of the interests of the collectivity.

Parsons explains, ''a role, then, may define certain areas of pursuit of private interests as legitimate, and in other areas obligate the actor to pursuit of the common interests of the collectivity. The primacy of the former alternative may be called ''self-orientation,'' that of the latter, ''collectivity-orientation''.



The third pair of pattern variables are the choice between types of value-orientation standard: universalism vs. particularism. Simply put, ''in the former case the standard is derived from the validity of a set of existential ideas, or the generality of a normative rule, in the latter from the particularity of ... an object or of the status of the object in a relational system'' (109). Example: the obligation to fulfill contractual agreements vs. helping someone because she is your friend.



The fourth pair of pattern variables are achievement vs. ascriptive role behavior: the choice between modalities of the social object. Achievement-orientation roles are those which place an emphasis on the performances of the people, whereas ascribed roles, the qualities or attributes of people are emphasized independently of specific expected performances.



The fifth pair of pattern variables are specificity vs. diffuseness: the definition of scope of interest in the object. If one adopts an orientation of specificity towards an object, it means that the definition of the role as orienting to the social object in specific terms. In contrast, in a diffuse orientation, the mode of orientation is outside the range of obligations defined by the role-expectation.



PARSONS’ MODEL OF SOCIAL CHANGE(countering the systemic tendency toward equilibrium)

1. INCREASED SOCIAL

STRAIN • Critical mass • Dissatisfaction • Value inconsistencies

2. SUB GROUP ORGANIZATION • Emergence of expressive leadership

S: Situation (chaotic, unstable)I: Individual (charismatic leader)S: Symbols (resonating with previous traditions)A: Audience (marginal, experiencing anomie)

• Creation of alternative set of normative expectations and sanctions • Evasion of current cultural sanctions

PARSONS’ MODEL OF SOCIAL CHANGE(countering the systemic tendency toward equilibrium)

3. DEVELOPMENT OF MEANINGFUL IDEOLOGY • Acceptable claim to legitimacy • Symbols with wide appeal • Coherent • Relevant

4. RECONNECTION TO THE DOMINANT SOCIAL SYSTEM • Introduction of internal discipline • Institutionalization of new core values • Adaptive concessions to external realities

Talcott Parsons: The System of Modern Societies

A historical study of societal evolution as evident in the stages of systematic development within Western history.

.

53


• From feudalism to a differential and interdependent division of labor that marked the European system.

• During this process, feudal institutions came to be replaced by early capitalism with some growing centralization of political power.

• Then came the Renaissance and the development of secular culture within the framework of a still vibrant religious order.

• Reformation (the Religious Revolution): During this period, the priesthood began to lose its exclusive entitlement to the keys to the kingdom, an event that signaled the advent of individualism.

54

• Era Two: First Crystallization of the Modern System

– Centered in the European northwest (England, France, and Holland), which saw the centralization of a form of state power and the establishment of mercantile capitalism. One noteworthy development here was the coming of a pluralist political system in England, the result of the Political Revolution.

55


• Era Three: Age of Revolutions

– During this time, the Industrial Revolution featured the expansion of financial markets, while the Democratic Revolution saw the spreading of the differentiation of rule by people throughout Western Europe, and by this time the Scientific Revolution was

beginning to realize its full impact on society.

56


Era Four: New Lead Society

◦Parsons argued that the promise of the industrial and democratic revolutions could not be realized in Europe because of its aristocratic, stratified, and monarchal traditions.

Primarily because of the lack of such restrictions, together with its educational revolution and political pluralism, the “new lead society” is (for Parsons) the United States. It is here that Parsons located the highest form of general adaptation, the embodiment of the evolutionary principle that drives systems and systematic theories.

57


Talcott Parsons1902 - 1979

a mixed legacy….

talcott parsons and. talcott parsons born1902- died 1979 education: undergraduate work at amherst...

Documents