Question

structural functionalism and describe talcott parason??​

Answer 1

Answer:

Functionalism and Parsons

 

A. Functionalism and sociology

 

Parsons and the functionalist approach to sociology occupy an intermediate position between classical and contemporary sociology.  Some new sociological approaches were developed in North America before Parsons.  But Parsons and the functional approach to sociology became so dominant that by the late 1950s, sociology and functionalism became more or less identical (Adams and Sydie, p. 345).  This meant that sociology studied the roles of institutions and social behaviour in society, the way these are related to other social features, and developed explanations of society in social terms (Wallace and Wolf, p. 17).  

 

Beginning around the time that functionalism became dominant, there were many new developments in sociology.  Microsociological approaches such as symbolic interactionism and the study of individual and small group interaction began, perhaps because these had not been emphasized by earlier sociologists.  Conflict approaches also developed, partly in reaction to the consensus view of functionalists, and partly because functionalism was not able to explain the new social movements and developments in North America and the rest of the world.

 By the late 1980s, functionalism and Parsons were more or less discredited and abandoned, replaced with a variety of sociological models that attempted to develop a variety of non-functionalist approaches to the study of sociology.  More recently, some sociologists have attempted to revive functionalism, the most notable of these being Jeffrey Alexander (Wallace and Wolf, pp. 58-61).  At the same time, some of the alternative approaches that were developed have functionalist aspects to them.  As a result, functionalist theory and the sociology of Talcott Parsons must be studied in order to understand the development of sociological thought.  In addition, some of the ideas of Parsons have proved to be useful to the study of the contemporary social world.

Explanation: