Monday, October 10, 2022 © 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender 1 SYA 3010 Sociological Theory: Talcott Parsons
Monday, October 10, 2022
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender 1
SYA 3010 Sociological Theory:
Talcott Parsons
Monday, October 10, 2022
© 1998-2006 by Ronald Keith Bolender 3
Talcott Parsons Early Life
Father Minister in Colorado Springs, Colorado Also a professor of English Father later became president at Marietta College in Ohio
Believed socialism and Christianity should be one to meet the dynamics of changing culture
Believed culture included doctrine and education
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Talcott Parsons
Education Undergraduate work at Amhest University in biology and medicine Developed an interest in social sciences, especially economics, under the teaching of Walter Hamilton• During this period he read books by Sumner, Cooley, and Durkheim.
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Talcott Parsons Studied economics in the London School of Economics Strongly influenced by a social anthropologist named Malinowski• 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
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Talcott ParsonsGrand Theories
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 1998:28).
Parsons’ theory of society is plagued by an absence of clarity. His work abounds with ambiguities in both semantics and syntax (Perdue 1986:118).
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Talcott Parsons: The System of Modern Societies
The System of Modern SocietiesA historical study of societal
evolution as evident in the stages of systematic development within
Western history.
Parsons, Talcott. 1971. The System of Modern Societies. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
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Talcott Parsons: The System of Modern Societies
Era One: Premodern Foundations of Modern Societies The Christian church was the first crucible for Western culture
Rome--created a highly developed system of law
Medieval society gave witness to the decline of tribalism and the rise of feudalism
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Talcott Parsons: The System of Modern Societies
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
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Talcott Parsons: The System of Modern Societies
Reformation: 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
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Talcott Parsons: The System of Modern Societies
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.
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Talcott Parsons: The System of Modern Societies
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.
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Talcott Parsons: The System of Modern Societies 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 none other than the United States. It is here in his native land that Parsons located the highest form of general adaptation, the embodiment of the evolutionary principle that drives systems and systematic theories.
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Talcott Parsons: The Structure of Social Action
Review of Assigned Reading:
The Units of Voluntaristic Action
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Talcott Parsons: The Structure of Social Action
The Structure of Social Action Voluntaristic Theory of Action
Involves these basic elements Actors are individual persons Actors are viewed as goal seeking Actors also possess alternative means to achieve goals
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Talcott Parsons: The Structure of Social Action
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
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Talcott Parsons: The Social System
The Social SystemHow do social systems survive?How do social systems survive?
More specifically, why do institutionalized More specifically, why do institutionalized patterns of interactions persist?patterns of interactions persist?
Parsons, Talcott. 1951. The Social System. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press.
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Talcott Parsons: The Social System
Pattern Development and Maintenance Adaptation
Involves securing sufficient resources from the environment and then distributing these throughout the system
Goal Attainment Refers to establishing priorities among system goals and mobilizing system resources for their attainment
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Talcott Parsons: The Social System
Integration Denotes coordinating and maintaining viable interrelationships among system units
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Talcott Parsons: The Social System Latency
Embraces two related problems Pattern Maintenance
• Pertains to how to ensure that actors in the social system display the appropriate characteristics– Motives– Needs– Role-playing
Tension Management• Concerns dealing with the internal tensions and strains of actors in the social system
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Talcott Parsons: The Social System
Let us attempt to apply these
concepts in an oversimplified application
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Talcott Parsons: The Social System (WNBA)
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Talcott Parsons: The Social System (WNBA)
How to Integrate the WNBA into the United 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
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Talcott Parsons: The Social System (WNBA) 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
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Talcott Parsons: The Social System (WNBA)
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