Who is parsons

While this specialization may create problems of integration, there will also be new values, rules, and norms that lead to new forms of integration in a more complex and more productive society. These can be considered to be essential functions of society — primarily integrative I and latent L — that create problems for society if they are not carried out.

Too often the earlier, classical theorists had taken these for granted, and considered them to be outside the scope of sociological analysis. The structure of the modern nuclear family could be illustrated as follows from Morgan, p. Note that there are two dimensions to family structure, neither of which can be reduced to the other.

Adult Male Adult Female. Father Mother. Instrumental Expressive. Male Child Female Child. Son Daughter. Source: D. The socialization process is on the vertical axis, and this generational axis is the main form in which Parsons views power as being exercised in the family.

The father is the head of the family in that he represents the family unit, and power is exercised by the parents over the children. This is for the children's own good. Recall that power for Weber was often legitimate, and much power within the family is accepted by the subordinate as legitimate.

As such, Parsons may have ignored the power that husbands have over wives, especially when the different activities of husbands and wives and the income differerences are considered. With respect to the horizontal axis, Parsons argueed that the instrumental role should be carried out by the husband. In order to survive, the family needed the income from the husband's occupation, while the family also depended on the wife's expressive and integrative activity.

This could involve attempts to respond to the psychological needs of the husband and children, providing nurturing and warmth, and taking care of the family and household needs. Power could go with either instrumental or expressive, although in different forms. Parsons saw socialization within the family as having two different aspects: a it is the way in which the individual internalizes the culture of a society or group, and b it is the process whereby the individual learns and prepares to take on an autonomous role.

Parsons is concerned with the whole social system, and the functioning of that system, at the same time that he is concerned with the family and the socialization process. Adults must be prepared for their roles within society if the society is to continue functioning, and the socialization process achieves this.

The family is also an autonomous and isolated unit, and the socialization process prepares each child to form a new isolated family unit of his or her own. Morgan notes that this combines the views of Freud development of personality and Durkheim internalization of culture.

Each ignored the contribution of the other, and Parsons attempts to combine these. Socialization thus is not just a cultural process of internalization of societal values cultural system but is also one of developing a personality personality system.

The result of the socialization process is that the personality becomes a mirror image of the experienced social system. Morgan, p. While the family is isolated and autonomous, it is also linked to the wider system through the father's instrumental role. The role of the husband and father is to have a status in the occupational structure i. The social status of the family as a whole is based on the occupation and income of the husband.

This instrumental role serves the dual function of linking the family to the outside world and maintaining the family as a viable entity adaptation function. There are strains for the husband within this role though, because a work itself may be unsatisfying, b there is little chance for real social relationships outside the family, and c the family and the outside activities may have conflicting demands.

By carrying out the expressive role, the wife is just as necessary for the proper functioning of the family. She not only cares for the children and socializes them, but also provides the emotional support for her husband. In doing this, her role is also to provide for internal maintenance of the family unit.

She is linked to the wider society as well, through family and friends, and these undoubtedly provide guidance for assisting in the socialization process. At the same time strains do exist in her role. There are strains associated with a the socialization role as opposed to the emotional support for the husband role.

There is also b a clash between the ideology of equality of opportunity and the role of wife and mother. Note also that an individual family member may perform more than one role. For example, the roles of wife and mother are often identified as a single role, when in fact they may more properly be considered to be different roles. As wife, the adult woman in a family unit may not have great power, perhaps not entirely due to male dominance, but due to the limited opportunities women faced to earn income.

As mother, the adult woman in this unit may have considerable power and status. In spite of these strains and conflicts, Parsons feels that the nuclear family, with this strict division of roles, is well suited to modern industrial society. The differentiation by sex is functional for the individual, the family, and the society as a whole. For Parsons, having definiteness of status is important, both for the individuals involved, and for children who are seeking role models.

Uncertainty and confusion in sex role definition can be damaging to individual personalities and to the social system as a whole. Morgan, pp. Criticisms of Parsons's theory of the family. Parsons' analysis of the family has been subject to much criticism. The fixed nature of roles, the static nature of the family, the rigid division between instrumental and expressive roles, the underestimation of the extent of power usually male , and the inherently conservative and consensus nature of this approach, all have been subject to severe criticism.

Many families today might be considered dysfunctional by Parsons, because they do not perform the functions described by Parsons. Some have argued that confusion concerning roles affect family and socialization negatively, thus weakening the whole society. The family of Parsons was a well established white family in North America in the s and s, usually of middle class or perhaps working class origin and status. Black, immigrant, poor or working class families, and even upper class families, are all considerably different from the ideal types described by Parsons.

It is difficult to know how Parsons would have reacted to the changes in family and household structures that have occurred in the last years — decline in number of children, older age of marriage and childbearing, women entering the labour force, single parent families, blended families, same sex families, etc.

Judged by the AGIL criteria, pattern variables, and social differentiation, it could be argued that these latter changes in the family have become necessary as a result of other social changes, and may be functional for and promote stability in the operation of the social system.

Parsons's contributions. Parsons brought discussions of the family into the mainstream of sociology, and developed an analysis of the social system that has the family as an essential part, assisting in the latent and integrative functions.

This is something that none of the classical sociologists recognized as necessary. The recognition of instrumental and expressive roles is a useful one, and if it is possible for these to be combined in the same person, with each individual carrying out different combinations of these, these concepts might be considered more acceptable.

Johnson argues that Parsons was able to separate power as a concept from the instrumental-expressive concept, and that this multidimensionality of functionalism is a useful approach. In this sense, Parsons makes use of Weberian methodological approaches. Perhaps some of these concepts and approaches could be combined with feminist or other theoretical approaches to produce a more complete model of the social system. Adams, Bert N. Martin's Press, HQ C6. Cuff, E. Sharrock and D.

Francis, Perspectives in Sociology , third edition London, Routledge, HM66 P36 Davis, Kingsley and Wilbert E. Moore, "Some Principles of Stratification," in R. Bendix and S. HT B4 Grabb, Edward G. HT G Johnson, Miriam M. HQ T48 Morgan, D. HQ M HM51 P Parsons, Talcott and Robert F. HQ P3. HM24 R Turner, Jonathan H. HM24 T Wallace, Ruth A. Last edited November 22, It has also been suggested that Parsons was really describing middle-class families and ignored the different experiences of families from different social classes.

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