Sociology is the systematic study of society and social interaction. In order to carry out their studies, sociologists identify cultural patterns and social forces and determine how they affect individuals and groups. They also develop ways to apply their findings to the real world.
• Adaptation (A): how the system adapts to its environment
• Goal attainment (G): how the system determines what its goals are and how
it will attain them
• Integration (I): how the system integrates its members into harmonious
participation and social cohesion
• (Latent) Pattern Maintenance (L): how basic cultural patterns, values, belief
systems, etc. are regulated and maintained
So for example, the social system as a whole relied on the economy to distribute
goods and services as its means of adaptation to the natural environment; on the
political system to make decisions as it means of goal attainment; on roles and
norms to regulate social behaviour as its means of social integration; and on culture
to institutionalize and reproduce common values as its means of latent pattern
maintenance. Following Durkheim, he argued that these explanations of social
functions had to be made at the level of systems and not involve the specific wants
and needs of individuals. In a system, there is an interrelation of component parts
where a change in one component affects the others regardless of the perspectives
of individuals.
Another noted structural functionalist, Robert Merton (1910–2003), pointed out that
social processes often have many functions. Manifest functions are the
consequences of a social process that are sought or anticipated, while latent
functions are the unsought consequences of a social process. A manifest function of
college education, for example, includes gaining knowledge, preparing for a career,
and finding a good job that utilizes that education. Latent functions of your college
years include meeting new people, participating in extracurricular activities, or even
finding a spouse or partner. Another latent function of education is creating a
hierarchy of employment based on the level of education attained. Latent functions
can be beneficial, neutral, or harmful. Social processes that have undesirable
consequences for the operation of society are called dysfunctions. In education,
examples of dysfunction include getting bad grades, truancy, dropping out, not
graduating, and not finding suitable employment.
Criticism
The main criticisms of both quantitative positivism and structural functionalism have
to do with the way in which social phenomena are turned into objective social facts.
On one hand, interpretive sociology suggests that the quantification of variables in
quantitative sociology reduces the rich complexity and ambiguity of social life to an
abstract set of numbers and statistical relationships that cannot capture the meaning
it holds for individuals. Measuring someone’s depth of religious belief or
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