Asking “how” something works instead of “why” something exists has been around for centuries
Origins of this theory - Thomas Hobbes’s question “How is social order possible?”
Greek thinkers, Aristotle and Plato
Every social system needed to achieve a state of order or system equilibrium
Structural
any questions
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Sources of Power
Legitimacy – the belief that the person is entitled to prevail by right.
Money
Physical coercion – threats or force to make up another important source of power
Love – used to coerce someone emotionally
ion
a
Sources of Power
Families have different resources and amounts of power.
There are four important sources of power: legitimacy, money, physical coercion, and love.
As a consequence of competition, inequality results.
Conflict Theory directs attention to how the wider gender, racial, and economic inequalities that result influence families.
ritique
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Conflict Theory derives from politics and economics in which self interest, egotism, and competition are dominant elements. However, people’s behavior is also characterized by self sacrifice and cooperation.
Conflict Theorists do not often talk about the power of love or bonding.
This theory assumes that differences lead to conflict.
Conflict in families is not easily measured or evaluated.
Sources of Conflict in Families
- Conflict theorists believe that conflict is a natural part of family life.
- Families always have conflicts – from small to major.
- Families differ in the number of underlying conflicts of interest, degree of underlying hostility, and the nature and extent of the expression of conflict.
- Conflict can take the form of competing goals or differences in role expectations and responsibilities.
We can analyze marriage and families in terms of internal conflicts and power struggles.
Conflict theorists agree that love and affection are important elements in marriages and families but that conflict and power are also fundamental.
Since marriages and families are composed of individuals with different personalities, ideas, values, tastes, & goals, each person is not always in harmony with others in the family.
Assumptions
- Humans are motivated principally by self-interest
- Conflict is endemic in social groups
- Conflict is inevitable between social groups
- The normal state of society is to be in conflict rather than harmony
- Because conflict is both endemic and inevitable, the primary concern in the study of social groups such as the family is how they manage conflict.
Conflict
Negotiation
- Negotiation happens when both parties state their goals and then use their resources to induce or coerce the other to move closer to their goal.
- Argument, bribery, and deceit may all be involved in negotiation.
key
cepts
Resources
(Power & Authority)
Consensus
(Agreement)
- Knowledge, skill, techniques, and materials that are at the ready disposal of a person or group.
- Resources provide the potential for power and control
Theory
- Achieved when parties to a negotiation agree…
- the preferable outcome of negotiation.
Structure
co
2 kinds of structure
- Structure of the situation: Competition vs. Cooperation
- Competition: Not a process but the way something is organized
- Cooperation
- Structure of the group
- The number of members in the group
- The age of members
- The gender of members
- Combination
Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)
history as ruled by dialectic of ideas: each idea presupposed its opposite
1
Thomas Hobbes “How is social order possible?”
Two laws of all organisms
self preservation and self assertion
humans form social contract where they give up some of rights of self interest to live in stable and secure society
tension
Natural right
thus people’s self interest collides with self interest of others
synthesis
antithesis
2
new thesis
Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels
directly applied conflict theory to family
Conflict
Disagreement, clashes, and discordance in interests or ideas.
attacked Hegelian notions
- people could either control the means of production or labor for those who controlled production
dialectical material explanation of history
Family rooted in biological self interest yet also a form of social organization
- first class opposition: man and woman in marriage
- first class oppression: female sex and male sex
ry
hist
Evolutionary theories
in middle of 19th century
Precursor of 20th century versions of functionalist framework
Now possible to expand functional arguments to explain not only why a set of functions developed but how they might end
Adaptation and selection
perspectives that emphasize social, political or material inequality of a social group that detract from structural functionalism
1820-1917
Spencer & Durkheim
Social theorists
Recognized how functionalism might be used to explain various social institutions and behaviors
Emancipatory vision of conflict theory
- understanding is emancipatory
- knowledge and political action are always tied together
Believed that parts of social system had to be understood as functioning for the whole
Family – supplying various functions such as reproduction to the larger social whole
Oriented towards social goal of integration and order
Social and cultural anthropologists began to pursue explanations of why and how different cultural traditions exist in various social systems
Two anthropologists impacted functionalism
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The Social System has several levels
Biological (Personality)
Social structural
Cultural
conflict theory focuses both on conflict within and conflict between groups
A.R. Radcliffe Brown
(1881-1955)
ions
his
Bronislaw Malinowski
(1884 – 1942)
Equilibrium
- Added the dimension of levels of social systems
- Integral to next contribution by Parsons
- Made functionalism relative to the environment in which society must adapt
- Argued that structure developed to serve a particular system within the parameters of an environment and its demands
- Made it broader in order to incorporate social and cultural variation
Subsystems must articulate with one another so as to maintain the social system at some equilibrium range.
I.e. Envision a thermometer
System
leaves
branches
A tree has many substructures or parts.
Each structure has a function.
Society is made up of subsystems.
trunk
- The system is treated as a whole.
- Structures play a role within the larger system
key
root
Norms
Values
Subsystems are the major institutions such as the family, religion, government, and economy.
Each of these structures performs functions that help maintain society, just as different parts of the tree serve a function in maintaining the tree.
Structural functionalism is deeply influenced by biology and treats society as if it were a living organism.
The theory sometimes uses the analogy of a tree in describing society.
- The social rules that regulate our behavior with each other as well as with cultural objects.
- Norms control the actors behavior
- Values give motive to the actor’s behavior
- Values are the expression of culture interacting with the individual
Action
Action is intentional; Behavior is motivated and intended by the actor.
(1902-1979)
Talcott Parsons
Structure
y
- believed in possibility of "grand theory" of social systems
Comprised of individual members of a group. The links between groups that organize particular patterns of behavior or communication
Function
A function is relational, not a thing itself.
oncepts
application
Religion – spiritual support
Government – ensues order
Economy – produces goods
Family – provides new members for society through procreation and socializes its members so that they fit into society.
divided up the social world into three systems
- cultural system: shared symbols and meanings
- social system: organized social groups and institutions
- personality system: species generic types of personalities
Each system requires
- adaptation
- goal attainment
- integration
- latency
1970s dormant
Education
Resurgence in 1980s
- Alexander 1985
- Kingsbury and Scanzoni 1993
c
itique
Structural-Functionalists see education as contributing to the smooth functioning of society. Educational systems train the most qualified individuals for the most socially important positions. Education teaches people not only the skills to maximize their potential, but also how to be good citizens and get along with others. They would NOT see education as contributing to inequality (along class, race, gender, etc. lines) but rather as serving the positive function of the overall society.
& assump
Structural functionalists examine how the family organizes itself for survival and what functions the family as a whole performs for its members.
Members of family must perform certain functions that are traditionally divided along gender lines. I.e. Men & women have different tasks.
The family molds personalities to carry out certain functions.
The Family As a System
Crime
Reawakening with family scholars
(1950s)
Robert Merton
Such division of labor and differentiation of temperaments is seen as efficient.
Minimize competition
Creating interdependence
Reduce ambiguity
Role allocation may be deemed functional.
Don Swenson 2004
- attempted to unite diverse family theoretical frameworks through functionalism
How to we determine which family functions are vital?
Structural Functionalism looks at the family abstractly. It is not always clear what function a particular structure serves.
Critics argue that the most highly rewarded positions are not necessarily the most important.
William Goode
Structural-Functionalists view crime as a necessary part of society. Through public outrage and legal punishment, the majority of people in a given society recognize, accept, and adhere to a shared set of moral guidelines and rules. Without crime, there would be no legal system or shared morals in our society. A stable crime rate is a sign of a healthy society. Too high crime rates vs. too low crime rates.
(1963)
envisioned modest "middle range" theories
- reference group theory
- theories of social normlessness
Expanded Parson's notion that American family losing extended kinship as result of industrialization
- as family functions changed, structure of family changed
- convergence theory
- modernization theory
- social development theory
Functionalism
Questions about "why" things exist are explained by "how" things exist or the thing's function
1
Explains structure or event by its function for the larger social system
We have a heart by citing the need for a pump in our circulatory system
2
Explains things by producing outcomes that are required by a system
Respiration is a basic function in humans that is needed to survive
Society is a complex system whose parts work together to promote stability
Lolita Lyles
Justine White
& Jessica Chen