Sociology Lecture Flashcards: Parsons, AGIL, Frankfurt School, and Key Concepts

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from the lecture notes on Parsons, AGIL, traditional vs modern society, the Frankfurt School, and related ideas.

Parsons (Talcott Parsons)

Functionalist theorist who described society as a system of interrelated parts (cultural, personality, and social subsystems) with roles, social equilibrium, and pattern variables.

AGIL

Parsons’ four-function schema for a social system: Adaptation, Goal attainment, Integration, and Latent pattern maintenance; necessary for survival and cohesion.

Roles

Social positions with expected behaviors that help coordinate action and contribute to social stability.

Pattern variables

Value orientations guiding role performance, including affective neutrality vs affectivity, universalism vs particularism, achievement vs ascription, diffuseness vs specificity.

Traditional vs modern society

Traditional societies emphasize collective interests and diffuse obligations; modern societies emphasize individual self-interest, universal rules, and specific, achievement-based roles.

Particularistic vs universalistic

Judgments or treatment based on personal relations and status vs applying universal rules to everyone regardless of relationship.

Diffuseness vs specificity

Broad, multi-task obligations in traditional settings vs narrow, task-specific obligations in modern settings.

Affective neutrality

Emotional restraint in pursuing goals; decisions are made with little emotional display.

Interaction: status vs achievement

Traditional societies privilege status-based interactions; modern societies privilege achievement-based interactions.

Instrumental vs expressive

Instrumental roles focus on tasks/goals; expressive roles emphasize emotional support and relationships.

Equilibrium

A stable state of social order achieved when subsystems fulfill their functions and maintain cohesion.

Latent pattern maintenance

The latent function of preserving norms and beliefs over time to sustain culture.

Socialization

Process by which individuals learn norms, values, and expected behaviors to participate effectively in society.

Stratification

Structured inequality that assigns different roles and statuses; education often reinforces or reproduces it.

Integration

Mechanisms that coordinate subsystems and resolve conflicts to maintain social harmony.

Culture industry

Frankfurt School concept that mass-produced culture (media, entertainment) serves capitalist interests by distracting and pacifying the public, inhibiting critical thought.

Reification

Treating social relations and processes as things; mass-produced culture presents social life as natural and unquestioned.

Frankfurt School

Critical theorists (e.g., Horkheimer, Adorno, Fromm, Marcuse) who analyzed culture, ideology, and domination; emphasized culture industry and the critique of modernity.

Enlightenment and myth

Enlightenment aimed to replace myth with reason, but Frankfurt School argues myth and reason are intertwined and can enable domination and false progress.

False freedom

The illusion of freedom through consumer choices and credit that conceals underlying domination by capitalist culture.