SOCI 330-Sociological Theory Final

Talcott Parsons

Key American Sociologist that focused much of his theorization and thought on functionalism and focused on grand theory trying to make total systemic understanding of society

Grand Theory

Broadest most abstract form of theorizing in social science aimed at defining universal truths and comprehensive frameworks

Functionalism or Structural functionalism

Functionalism sees interactions and socialization as a complex system whose parts work on maintaining stability and order. Like a machine

Socialization

Parsons saw socialization as when individuals internalize society’s values to that their personal desires, expectations, and norms align with broader social needs therefore order is maintained

Pattern variables

These are 5 dichotomous pairs which dictate and structure interactions for individuals in society

1. Affectivity vs affective neutrality

2. Universalism vs particularism

3. ascription vs achievement

4. Collectivity vs self

5. Diffusiveness vs specificity

Affectivity vs Affective neutrality

One of Parsons pattern variables

This is whether an individual presents as emotional available and expressive or emotionally distant/reserved or impersonal

Collectivity vs Self

This is one of parsons 5 pattern variables and outlines whether an individual is looking out for the group of for themselves

Universalism vs particularism

One of parsons 5 pattern variables this outlines whether a person works with standards based on universal standards or specific relationships

Ascription vs achievement

One of parsons 5 pattern variables

Describes whether a person has status based on WHO THEY ARE (inherited) or what they have performed or achieved

Diffuseness vs specificity

One of parsons 5 pattern variables

This dichotomous pair structures whether you have extensive contact with someone or only obligatory interactions.

AGIL Model

Parsons model which argues every system (society) needed 4 functions to survive

1. A-Adaptation

2. G-Goal Attainment

3. I-Integration

4. L-Latent Pattern Maintenance

Without all four society falls apart

Adaptation of AGIL

Society must adjust to its environment and secure resources to survive physically

this is done through the economy > businesses, jobs, markets

Goal Attainment of AGIL model

Goal attainments outline how society needs leadership to set priorities and organize efforts

This is done through the government and political systems setting laws and deciding budgets, etc.

Integration of AGIL

Integration is how society keeps people working together as it must coordinate relationships

This is done through laws, courts, social norms, and institutions

Latent Pattern Maintenance of AGIL model

This is needed for society to keep culture and motivation passing on beliefs, norms, and identity through things like family, schools, religion, and culture subtly

Without= people lose shared values and society falls apart

Parsons view on Evolutionary Social Change

Saw that social change happened in 4 step process

1. Differentiation= when a unit breaks up into multiple specialized units

2. Adaptive Upgrading= those units become very good and efficient at their tasks

3. Inclusion= New groups or roles are integrated into social community

4. Value Generalization= Social values become more broad and abstract to cover increasingly complex society

Theory for parsons

Trying to identify systematic understanding of society as a whole (grand theory)

Theory for Merton

Logically interconnected set of propositions (set of ideas) from which empirical uniformities can arise (that help explain observations in our day to day lives).

Key Characteristics of Merton

• Still a structural functionalist

• Complex and ambivalent relationship with Parsons

• looked to develop functionalism Through middle-range theory

• Used empirical approaches and orientation instead of pure logic

• Looked heavily at order and deviance

• Strain theory and anomie

Merton Vs Parsons

1. Merton rejected Functional unity, or the idea that everyone worked as one unified whole. instead he separated people up understanding certain people as being integrated and certain people for which social structure was beneficial

2. Argued against Functional universalism, seeing that not every social structure was used for positive means or useful reason, and that certain social structure could actually have negative and positive outcomes which we should observe.

3. Understood that certain social functions to have functional equivalents (replacements or substitutions), unlike previous functionalist who argued functions were indispensable.

Middle Range theory

“Not hot or cold but just right”

Middle-range theory focuses on not society as a whole system, but looking at certain smaller logically interconnected propositions about specific life areas that could be empirically tested

Manifest and latent functions

Merton saw that institutions or social structure had intended and unintended consequences

Manifest functions= Intended functions of an institution that we recognized objectives (ex: school leading to education)

Latent functions= These were unintended and unrecognized results of social functions/structure that were unintended but apparent patterns (school leading to friendship or discipline).

Anomie

Merton pulls from Durkheim looking at how dissociation and chaos can occur when goals don’t align with institutional means> meaning there is no order to achieving goals or needs

Anomie is formlessness or confusion

Ex: American dream> wealth and success as self made, but actuality hindered by class status and access to institutions

Strain Theory

Built on his conceptualization and understanding of anomie and how social structures exert pressure on individuals> merton saw this as potentially leading to deviant behavior and argued this was a normal reaction

5 typologies of Strain Theory

1. Conformity

2. Innovation

3. Ritualization

4. Retreatism

5. Rebellion

conformity

One of Merton 5 typologies of strain theory

This is where you accept the goals and have the means to achieve them: This is the most common adaptation, where individuals accept the goals (success, wealth, standards) and have the legitimate means to ensure stability

Innovation

One of Merton 5 typologies of strain theory

This is when you have goals but no means to achieve them: this leads individuals to engage in unconventional pathways to meeting those goals (often crime)

Ritualism

one of merton 5 typologies of strain theory

This is when you don’t have goals BUT are given the means to achieve them: you are on autopilot, just going through the motions without purpose, but because the means have been given and locked into you

Retreatism

One of Merton 5 typologies of strain theory

This is when you don’t have goals or the means: Essentially you back out of society and give up effectively

Rebellion

One of Merton 5 typologies of strain theory

This is when you Reject traditional goals and the traditional pathways required to attain those goals, and instead you form your own ideologies and goals and develop on path> Source of revolutionary and ideological conflict.

Durkheim vs Merton

Merton places more emphasis on the fact that goals can outweigh institutional means

Methodological Individualism

The idea that social action or phenomenon can be explained by individuals behavior

• Used heavily by George Homans in modern exchange theory and Neo-utilitarianism

Neoutilitarianism

Modern adaptations of classical utilitarianism

Argues that individuals are driven to maximize THEIR welfare with rational choices often employing ordinal utility rather than measuring intensity

Emerged as critique of mid-century functionalism which theorists saw as too “anti-individualist” and focused too much on social norms as oppose to human behavior

• Exchange theory

• Rational choice theory

• Macro-Micro link

• social capital

all came from this type of theory

Conflict theory

Views societal functions as being the result in constant power snuggles for resources, wealth, and power

• Marx: Class struggle

• Ex: Mills and power elite

C. Wright Mills

Focused a lot on the sociological imagination as a tool for overcoming modern malaise.

• Critical sociologist

• Wanted to observe the links between history and individual biography and common social problems

• Focused on the power elite> few people being in charge

Theory for Mills

Theory was focused on looking a personal experience and linking them to historical broader patterns or observation of individual problems ad historical turmoil

The Power Elite

The idea that in our modern society we have shifted away from have power disturb used amount society and instead decisions are made by three groups with are all intertwined

1. The warlords

1. Political dictorates

2. Corporation chieftains

He believed that his historical shift in power was caused by structural mechanisms, social psychology, as members shared the same origins and attended the same institutions.

Explains this power as a revolving door and uses the example that if a military official retires, he just takes up a government position.

Centralization of power

Mass Society

Mills believed that the public (working and labor classes) had a limited capacity to change this power centralization as they had limited capacity to turn opinions to action or answer to the authorities

• Believed we were distracted by celebrities

• Cheerful robots

• Fewer people have opinions then received them

Professional/Middle class= too conformist to make change> thought they had power but was just an illusion > cling to balance and beloved society had competing groups

Labor class= too absorbed in power structure and lacking any understanding of it > failed to link personal troubles tot he public

Overall effect= No accountability for the power elite and therefore elite operate with little restraint

The Sociological Imagination

Essential a tool Mills proposed in combating modern malaise, vague unease, and mass apathy

The quality of linking personal problems with the broader social structure allowing individuals to see their own experiences located in history and is a step in restoring freedom and democracy

Neo-Utilitarianism

A contemporary return to traditional utilitarianism seeing society as being driven by individuals seeking to maximize their own benefit

Was developed in critique of Parsons, viewing his functionalist perspective and grand theory as too vague and based on assumption and anit-individualist

Self Interested Actor

Idea that as humans we are are purposeful in everything we do and act based on self-interest always over the greater good of society and purely normative obligation

Egotistical Utility Maxmization

The idea that we choose our course of action based on which has the highest personal value or “utility” to us

Methodological Individualism

The study and framework heavily used by George Homans, that macro-phenomena should be linked or understood entirely through individual actions (micro-phenomena) instead of looking at society as a whole> top down.

• Focuses on the aggregation of individual action

Interaction as exchange

Essentially the idea that every relationship or social interaction we have is something we seek to have a give take relationship from

Social interaction viewed as exchange of material and non-material goods

George Homans

Built exchange theory

• Focused on methodological individualism

• Sought to bring “men back into sociology”

• Used behavioral Psychology

Peter Blau

• Macro-micro theory lead

• looked at how micro interactions led to status differentiation which led to macro structures

• Added more nuance too Neo-utalitarinist approaches of Homans

James Coleman

Leader of rational choice theory

• Focused on social norms and social and human capital building

• Was interested in how social context shapes our strategic actions and looked heavily at trust and norms

Operant Conditioning

A concept built off of pigeon experiment conducted by BF Skinner, this describes a learning process in which we modify our behavior based on it’s association with rewards and punishments

• Focuses on elementary forms

• Pigeon exerient involves a pigeon pecking at a button>

• Human behavior involves reciprocity and it is a two way exchange therefore we compare our behavior to alternative lines of action making it a more complex calculation of weighing potential profits before deciding to act.

Exchange theory

Developed by George Homans

Sees social interactions and relationships purely as exchanges of goods which can be material or immaterial:

associated with rewards, punishments, costs, and profits

Rewards

Rewards are the positive value or benefits we can seek from an interaction or exchange

Punishments

The negative value or aversive stimulation we receive from an interaction or relationship which discourages us to further engage in that behavior

Cost

The rewards lost when choosing one line of action over another

Profit

The net gain of the interaction itself which involves subtracting the cost from the rewards

Outcomes of Exchange theory

1. Success Proposition

2. Deprivation-Satiation Proposition

Success Proposition

A rule that states if a person’s actions or choice of one behavior is rewarded, they will continue to repeat that action

Deprivation Satiation proposition

A rule which states that a person receives a specific reward more frequently than they did in the past it looses value for each additional unit of that reward gained > more expected

Examples of exchange theory

1. Friendship exchanges, opinions, social approval, clothing, favors

2. Opinions in face-to-face groups: People with the value of group acceptance against their personal integrity> if the group is viewed as attractive, an individual may change their opinions to achieve social approval

Harold Gerard Study

Anchorage opinions in face-to -face groups

Highlights exchange theory in group conformity as individuals only change their opinions to match groups if the group is deemed attractive and beneficial to the individual.

Critiques of Homans

• Does not explain what rewards are, how they can be defined, or where they come from

• Does not acknowledge that institutions shape individual motivations

• Ignores micro-macro link

Homans Critique on Parsons

Sees Parsons as too focused of broader more abstract view of society

Parsons seen as lacking any explanatory power and only focusing on conceptual schemes and categories

Assumed people would simply always act within an institutional context

Too collectivist

Macro-Micro link

Micro interactions add up to explain macro social forces and power structures;

Highlighted by Blaus status differentiation analysis

Where micro level exchanges like an employee asking a boss for help, add up to give a person prestige and place them higher in hierarchy

Status Differentiation

The process by which social hierarchies are formed not he basis of micro-level interactions and exchanges

Example: An agent in an office who gives advice gains prestige but loses time, while the agent seeking advice gains knowledge but loses prestige.

Result: Their exchange, therefore, creates a status gap

Structural Conditions

Blau understood that there were macro-level factors that either imposed limits or created opportunities for individuals. These were:

1. Network structures: How many alternative opportunities were available to an individual> shapes their bargaining power

2. Social Context: Things like trust levels that could discourage failure to reciprocate through social pressure

How Coleman builds of Homans

Coleman shows HOW rewards are defined through social norms and their genesis

Shows how social context can shape strategic action Ex: having lots of social capital can change the way exchanges are held up and what is sought (what resources are sought)

Rational Choice Theory

Theory created by James Coleman which essentially looked at how individuals are always working towards goals but that those goals are shaped through values or preferences shaped by social context

The two resources that enhance human productivity/goal attainment

1. Human Capital

2. Social Capital

Human capital

An individuals knowledge, capabilities, and skills

Social Capital

A persons access to resources based on their social connections

Forms of Social Capital

1. Trustworthiness of environment

2. Social norms

Trustworthiness

Coleman saw trustworthiness as varied based on factors such as environment and experience in social relationships > if uncertainty presented, reciprocity levels change

The level to which an individual felt obligations would be paid back> Credit slips

If favor is given by a to b, b must eventually return that favor to a

Social Norms (Coleman)

Derive from rational self-interest

the benefits gained from following social norms are what allow those norms to be maintained

Observation and harms derived from breaking norms wish to be avoided

By reinforcing certain actions through approval, and deterring others through sanctions, social norms allow communities to overcome collective-good issues

Symbolic Interactionism

A school of thought in Sociology built around a more creative approach to understanding social functioning and interaction. Built as response to rigid approaches or earlier theorists

Key Focus: Looking at how meanings change during interaction and are shaped and adapted

Influences: Heavily influence by Pragmatism American philosophical movement (Charles sanders pierce, John dewey)> rejected dualist cartesian perspective that mind and body are separate and instead saw that people understand the world through action, experience, and practical problem solving.

Methodology: Qualitative and ethnomethodology approaches which analyzed gestures and conversations

Pragmatism

Heavily influenced the development of symbolic interactionism> the philosophical roots

Developed. by Sanders Pierce, William James, and John Dewey in America

Rejected Cartesian ideas a dualism and the body and mind being separate entities (mind as isolated), instead viewed body nd mind as being unit

Human thinking as always connected to body, environment and everyday experiences

Action, experience, and practical problem solving are how we understand and conceptualize the world

People live through habits and routines and when these are disrupted we begin to think reflectively > reflection therefore is a practical response to challenges helping people creatively solve problems and adapt to situations

Doubt seen as coming from situations which present obstacles, uncertrtainty or difficulty

Theory of Communication

Mead saw that humans communication was formed through gestures, symbols, and language which aided our ability to create meaning of ourselves and the world.

Gestures for Mead  

Communication seen as beginning with gestures> things like waving your hand or patting a back. These were defined as movements by one organism that act as a stimuli for the socially appropriate response of secondary organism 

Animals vs. Humans= Whereas animals are largely instinctual and unthinking about their gestures, humans gestures are MEDIATED through symbols and usually think about the meaning before responding with another gesture or form of communication

Language for Mead

Language= Generates shared understanding (intersubjectivity)> Important as it helps people build shared understanding of one another> intersubjectivity. Language is seen as helping us influence others and guide our own actions. 

Thinking= Thinking is having a silent conversation with yourself and we use words and symbols internally asking ourselves questions and deciding what to do> interal dialouge. Language assists our thinking. Inner dialouge helps us address ourselves as an object 

The Self

For mead the self was not a static thing, but something constantly edited and understood through social relationships and communication efforts

To develop a self, a person must be able to understand themselves as an object while also remaining a subject in circumstances of action

The key mechanism of the self is to be able to see from others perspectives in order to modify own actions

Stages of Development (Mead)

Overarching Idea: Children develop selves through stages 

1. Preparatory Stage : This is when the child is an infant. Stage is defined by….

• Imitation of behavior

• No understanding of underlying purpose 

• Struggle to distinguish themselves from the world 

2. Play Stage: Children age and pretend to be others. Defined as…

• Taking on roles that aren’t their own “mommy” or “daddy” 

• Playing roles 

• First steps towards viewing themselves through eyes of other 

3. Game Stage : fial stage where activities come into play…

• Different roles given through participation in activities (like sports) 

• Organizes childs self around definitive reciprocal expectations 

4. Generalized Other: Final development…

• CHild is able to develop sense of “organized community” or social group as a whole

• Takes attitude of the generalized other to achieved unified self

• Society can now influence them and their behavior

The I and the Me

Mead distinguishes between two dynamic internal aspects of the self

The I= The acting subject. This part of an individual's self is spontaneous and dynamic. The source of innovation, creativity, and self-realization 

The Me= The socialized self. This self is habitual, conventional, and is seen as an object by others 

Dialouge= COnstantly flowing dialouge between the I and the Me

Three Premises of Symbolic Interactionism

Developed by Blumer

1. Meaning-based action: Humans act towards things based on meaning those things have for them

2. Social Origin of Meaning: Meaning derives from social interactions with others

3. Interpretive Process: Meanings constantly change and are not fixed but handled and modified by the person in the situation

Presented Critiques of Symbolic Interactionism

1. Fluidity of meaning combats notions of fixed social norms and goals proposed by Neo-utilitarianism and Functionalism

2. Human behavior can not by determined by quasi-existing forces as parson suggested> it is made in that moment and objects GAIN meaning through action contexts

3. Societies connection with the individual is not unilingual, but constantly negotiated and continuous

4. Self-communicaiton can be pivotal

Erving Goffman

Micro-sociologist focused on face-to-face dynamics of everyday encounters and how interactional order is sustained

Added onto Mea and Herbert in the focus of everyday interactions but instead of just defining them> looked at how they gave order to our lives

Dramaturgical Approach

Presented in the “Presentation of the everyday Self”, written by Goffman, Goffman used to metaphor of a theatrical stage to outline social interaction and self-presentation

Argued that as social actors we put on a performance for others in attempts to sway th way thy perceive us or build an identity

Differeniates both frontstage and backstage performances (Who we are to general public vs how we behave in reserved private)

Impression Management

part of Goffmans outline Dramaturgical approach, simply described how we put on faces and performances to mediate and control the impressions of others

Interaction Rituals

Developed by Goffman as everyday gestures we do in order to perform our social identity and deliver our intent

Civil Inattention

A form of interaction ritual in which is when strangers acknowledge one another’s presence (quick glaces) but then quickly look away to signal no hostility or desire for sustained interaction> But still must gently acknowledge the others

Social Control - Interaction ritual

 Breaking certain rituals > hate stares> are ways to negatively sanction those who break norms or to reproduce power relations 

• Interaction rituals used to control others reactions and expressions 

Frontstage vs. Backstage

Frontstage: The performance, the self we put on display in public 

Backstage: (Us in our sweats lol), this is the guarded reserved self only showed to oneself or intimate others. 

Harold Garfinkel

Key Terms: Enthnomethodology, Breaching Experiments

Core Concepts: PIONEER for ethnomethodology and shifter from Parsons abstract theories to study actual methods people use to measure and make order in social life.

Social Constructionism

Social Constructionism is an idea under the critical sociological school of thought that knowledge and meanings are created through society through interaction, language, and culture> specifically looks at where we see reality as created by social processes rather than natural facts

• Alfred Schultz

• Berger and Luckman

• Mead

Power and Social Constructionism Sociologists

Focualt and Habermas

Michel Foucault

French philosopher who dealt majorly with truth, power, and knowledge creation.

Key terms: Bio-power, the panopticon, Docile Bodies, Madness and Civilization, genealogies of madness and punishment systems, Regimes of truth, Microphysics of power

Core Message: Power does not only repress from above, but produces people from within

Disciplining the Body

Focault concept/focus as he looked at how institutions evolved from simply punishing and controlling the body through physical discipline to completely re-shaping the body and regulating it through institutional practices

Madness and Civilization

Book by Focault which sought to understand how society has transitioned in it’s genealogy of treating and dealing what the mad or “insane”

three periods discussed

1. Renaissance: The made, ill, and criminal all t=just functioned normally along with everyone else. It was a lurking feature of the world, but not separated off

2. Classical period: Society started to separate the mad, ill, and criminal by grouping them all together as one bunch > all interned together

3. Enlightenment: The mad or “clinically insane” became separated from ill and criminal and confined to madhouses for medical intervention.

This shift displays how the Enlightenment envisioned society a becoming more free and rational but actually worked as a trojan horse for power, re-shaping individuals and creating new forms of domination by classifying, diagnosing, and confining people.

Discipline and Punishment

Focaults Second book, still focused on how this enlightenment shift saw itself as more humane, but was actually creating new more dangerous and deeper power structures. This book he focuses on the prisoner and the geology of punishment systems.

Old System: Power seen to be held by one or a few figures (king or state) and disobeying or rebellion led to public, theatrical displays of punishment (like guillotine or hanging). Here power was exerted through using the criminals body as a stage of consequence and built through spectacle

New System: NEW systems of power like new systems of madness, saw themselves as making things more “humane” creating prisons where punishment ws hidden, regular, administered and routinized. Power now entered using training systems, schedules rankings, and surveillance. Power functioned in reshaping individuals as this was seen to create a more productive society. However, it can be argued this form of power ws more dangerous as it CHANGED individuals (overbearing).

Docile Bodies:

Docile bodies is simply a term developed by Focault to explain the modern subjects of power systems . It describes how individuals have become moldable and body/behavior has become shaped to become obedient, productive, useful, and self-controlled

Examples: Student raising their hand instead of shouting out or workers timed for productivity

Society manufactures people instead of repressing them

Panopticon

The Panopticon Became a metaphor/symbol of modern society and power used by Focault

Defention= a prison structure built so that the guard stands in a tower in the center, and the prisoners cells surround that center

Results in= Prisoners feel like they are being constantly surveilled to the point where they start controlling and surveilling themselves, changing their behavior due to perceived policing

WE POLICE OURSELVES THROUGH STRUCTURES IMPLEMENTED BY MODERN SOCIETY

Focaults Conception of power

Sees power as shifted

Traditional: held by few, centralized and understood, and repressive and visible

New Power: New power is embedded throughout society and functions in everything (norms, language, categories expectations) Its not just repressing but produces reality as we know it it.

Ex: Medicine does not just cure it categorizes (Ill vs well or mad vs sane)

Microphysics of Power

Major concept by Focault

Sees modern power as physics, from bottom up

Like in physics with power, it can come and work from the most small and almost invisible things in life (tiny forces with major impact)

Power flow up in every interaction rather than from ruler down to ruled

Examples:

Schools> obedience

Work> Productivity

Family> gender roles

The state BENEFITS from these networks but does not CREATE them

Bio-Power and sexuality

Concept also defined by Focault

Focault posits the the classification/discourse or biological acknowledgement of certain aspects of human body is used for political and economic control and power

Example: When “Homosexuality” became recognized in study and in discourse (became coined) it was then used to regulate and used to control individuals and often restrict them

Shows how discourse brings power to the state