![]() To this effect, schools teach skills such as language, numeracy, and vocational and technical skills. One of the primary functions of schools is to impart skills to students and make them employable or capable of generating employment. Below are a few examples of how functionalism is applied to education: 1. The functionalist perspective applied to schools examines the function performed by the school in contributing to society. Examples of Functionalism in SchoolsĪ school is a microcosm of society. In this, the family performs a critical function of taking care of the aged and the infirm. However, in most parts of the world, elderly care is the responsibility of the family. In some countries, such as the United States, there exist state-funded facilities to care for the elderly. As workers, and consequently, families needed to be constantly on the move, the structure of the family adapted itself to the new function required of it. Parsons argued that the pre-industrial extended family could not adapt to the new demands of mobility imposed upon the working populations. The family thus mimics the functioning of an organism that adapts itself to change to continue being functional.Īs an example, Parsons gave the case of the emergence of the nuclear family in response to industrialization that served all the critical familial functions demanded of it. He argued that not only does the family perform all the functions mentioned by Murdock, the family is also a highly adaptive unit capable of modifying itself according to the demands of the society. Talcott Parsons (1951) took the argument on the functionalist perspective of the family one step further. Making sure that the essential needs – food, shelter – of the members of the family are met.Ensuring the transmission of social and cultural values to the young.Ensuring procreation and thus the propagation of the species. ![]() Satisfaction of the biological need for sex.Murdock proposed that a family serves 4 essential functions: ![]() George Peter Murdock (1949) was among the first to articulate clearly the functionalist perspective on the family. It performs several functions that are critical to the smooth functioning of society. The functionalist perspective in sociology views the family as the basic building block of society. This was in keeping with the rapid transition of traditional societies to industrial capitalist societies during his time.įunctionalism was the predominant theoretical framework for sociological thinking till the 1960s, after which it began to retreat following critiques from various intellectual quarters such as feminism, postmodernism, postcolonialism, etc.Īpplications of functionalism today tend to be a lot more nuanced and take into account the critiques offered by the various schools of thought. Hence it was natural that early functionalism came to be modeled on the natural sciences.Įmile Durkehim’s (1858-1917) doctoral dissertation, The Division of Labour in Society published in 1893, was considered a seminal text of structural functionalism.ĭurkheim attempted to reorient functionalist thought towards a more capitalist-industrialist way of thinking. So, some of the earliest formulations of functionalism were expressed in the language of natural biology.Įven before Spencer, Auguste Comte (1798-1857), regarded as the founder of sociology, wanted the sociological discipline to be based on natural sciences such as biology, physics, and chemistry. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), one of the early proponents of functionalism was a biologist by training. ( For examples of functionalism in psychology, see here.) All the individual components of these structures perform indispensable functions. Each part of society performs a function that makes it work as a whole, just as a human body needs all the organs to perform their parts to make the body work (Emile Durkheim and Talcott Parsons).įunctionalism is also sometimes called structural-functionalism because it views society as made up of social structures. They are interdependent on each other.įunctionalists think of parts of society as organs of a body (Herbert Spencer). We all have a role to play in the proper functioning of society.Īll the institutions, structures, and people that make up a society perform important roles. Similarly, the person who builds the road will build roads that the farmer drives on to get his produce to market, which the road builder will then buy to eat. For example, the parents in a family provides for the children, who will in turn care for the parents when they become elderly. Functionalism in sociology sees the parts of society as components of a cohesive whole.
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