Functionalist views are based on that society is a system of interdependent parts held together by a shared culture or consensus. They believe that every part of society performs functions that help keep society running effectively. They use the example of a body to explain the way society runs as each part of our body has to work together in order for us to stay alive this is the same as society according to a functionalist. Education according to Emilie Durkheim (1903) consists of two main
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The functionalist view of the sociology of health and illness Talcott Parsons – functionalism provided a complete theory of society, all social actions can be understood in terms of how they help society to function effectively or not i.e when a person is sick they are unable to perform their social roles normally. Compared illness to crime, acts as a deviance disturbing the functioning of society, which needs to be controlled and the deviant helped or forced back into their social role once again
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weaknesses of the functionalist view of society. Functionalism is seen as a macro scale approach to society as it doesn’t focus on individual aspects of it but looks at it as a whole. They associate society with a biological organism and Parsons identifies 3 similarities between these two. The first is the system organisms, both society and biological organisms are self-regulating but have parts which are all inter-related to help function as a whole (in the body; cells & organs, in society; institutions)
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Functionalists see the family as an immensely important sub-system of society. Murdock acclaimed that one of the four essential functions that the family performs in order to meet the needs of society and its members is to 'stabilise satisfaction of the sex drive with the same partner'. As this prevents the ‘social disruption’ caused by promiscuity. However, Marxists would argue that this role serves more as an economic function, as it allows property ownership and wealth to be directly passed onto
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Assess the functionalist view that a small amount of crime is useful to society There is a long running argument between sociologists about the existence of crime and deviance and whether or not it can benefit societies in some ways. Many of them in the functionalist point of view argue that it can however, there are many, for example Marxists and feminists, which would argue that it doesn’t benefit anyone. Durkheim, the ‘founding father’ of functionalism believed that a small amount of crime
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Outline and evaluate the functionalist view of the role of the family in society (33 marks). Murdock, a functionalist, describes the family as a universal institution based on the nuclear family model. The functionalist view of the role of the family in society is that it maintains social order. The family is a tool for socialisation and a key social institution in sustaining the value that society works by consensus. Murdock identified four main functions of the family: sexual, reproductive
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Assess the Functionalist view that religion benefits both society as a whole and its individual members? (18) Functionalists see religion in a positive light and as it is a key institution of society. This differs from the Marxist and Feminist view that religion is there to simply reinforce the oppression. For functionalists, society’s key need is for social solidarity and order enabling members to cooperate. Religion ensures that this is maintained, and individuals do not pursue their own selfish
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Assess the view that sociological arguments and evidence support functionalist views of the role and functions of religion in contemporary society. Functionalists see society as based upon consensus, where each institution functions to help society work together as a whole with shared ways of thinking and behaving. One example of this is the Ten Commandments which include a number of the principles highlighted in the U.K law system. As a result of this, functionalists such as Durkheim and Parsons
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Functionalists believe that religion is beneficial for both society as a whole and its individual members, this is because it unifies society and creates consensus, which in turn gives each individual member a source of support when they need it. However some theorists disagree with the functionalist ideology. Firstly, functionalist claim religion benefits society in a number of ways, it creates a sense of social solidarity, meaning a shared sense of identity, history, norms and values (a collective
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elsewhere, assess functionalist views of the role of education in modern society (20 marks) The consensus functionalist approach is just one of many that attempt to explain the role of education in modern society. Functionalism is based on the view that society is a system of interdependent parts held together by a shared culture or value consensus. Each part of society such as the family, economy and education system performs functions that help to maintain society. Functionalists such as Durkheim
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