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Talcott Parsons
Born1902- Died 1979
 Education
◦ Undergraduate work at Amherst University in biology and medicine
◦ Studied economics in the London School of Economics
 Strongly influenced by the social anthropologist Brownislaw
Malinowski (a functionalist)
◦ Attended Heidelberg University, in Germany, on an educational
exchange
 Alfred Weber (Max Weber’s brother) was his primary teacher
 Also sat under the instruction of Karl Mannheim
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Talcott Parsons
 Harvard Professor of Economics, and
then Sociology, 1927-1973
 Founded the Department of
Social Relations combining
Sociology, Anthropology,
and Psychology, 1944
 Key works:
The Structure of Social Action (1937)
The Social System (1951)
Social Structure and Personality (1964)
The System of Modern Societies (1971)
The Structure and Change of the Social System
(1983)
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Parsons’ Department of Social Relations 1945-1972
interdisciplinarity:
CULTURE
WEBER: Culture & Social Systems
Borderline
SOCIAL
DURKHEIM: Social System Integration
PSYCHOLOGY
PHYSIOLOGY
FREUD: Social Systems & Personality Integration
STRUCTURE
for UNDERSTANDING HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Talcott Parsons
and Grand Theory
 “The dominant figure in American sociology – if not world-wide – from the
mid-1940’s to the mid-1970’s.” (Bell, 1979)
 “Talcott Parsons was probably the most prominent theorist of this time,
and it is unlikely that any one theoretical approach will so dominate
sociological theory again.” (Turner 1998)
 “Parsons’ theory of society is plagued by an absence of clarity. His work
abounds with ambiguities in both semantics and syntax.” (Perdue, 1986)
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FUNCTIONALISM’S FUNDAMENTAL PREMISES ala PARSONS
• EVERY SYSTEM HAS REQUISITE NEEDS THAT MUST BE MET
FOR THAT SYSTEM TO SURVIVE.
• SPECIALIZED STRUCTURES FUNCTION TO SATISFY THE
NEEDS OF THE SYSTEM.
• SOCIAL STRUCTURES, FUNCTIONS, AND THE SYSTEMIC
WHOLE ARE THUS INTRISICALLY RELATED AND AFFECT ONE
ANOTHER.
• SPECIALIZATION OF STRUCTURES OCCURS THROUGH THE
EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS OF DIFFERENTIATION.
• SYSTEMS TEND TO BECOME MORE COMPLEX THROUGH
STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIATION.
• STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIATION MAKES SYSTEMS MORE
ADAPTIVE.
• DIFFERENTIATION CREATES PROBLEMS OF COORDINATION
AND CONTROL, WHICH CREATES PRESSURES FOR THE
SELECTION OF INTEGRATING PROCESSES.
• INTEGRATING PROCESSES TEND TO KEEP THE SYSTEM IN A
STATE OF EQUILIBRIUM
Talcott Parsons: The Structure of Social Action
• Voluntaristic Theory of Action: the Unit Act
– Involves these basic elements
• Actors are individual persons
• Actors are viewed as goal seeking
• Actors also possess alternative means to achieve goals
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PARSONS’ VOLUNTARISTIC UNIT ACT:
CONDITIONS
THE
ACTOR
THE NORMATIVE ORDER
GOALS
ENDS
SELF
EGO
MEANS
Talcott Parsons: The Structure of Social Action
 Actors are confronted with a variety of situational conditions,
such as their own biological makeup and heredity as well as
various external ecological constraints, that influence the
selection of goals and means.
 Actors are governed by values, norms, and other ideas such
that these ideas influence what is considered a goal and what
means are selected to achieve it.
 Action involves actors making subjective decisions about the
means to achieve goals, all of which are constrained by ideas
and situational conditions.
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PARSONS’ VOLUNTARISTIC UNIT ACT:
“ENVIRONMENTAL”
CONDITIONS
THE
ACTOR
THE NORMATIVE ORDER
GOALS
ENDS
SELF
EGO
NEED
DISPOSITIONS
MOTIVATIONS
(psychodynamic)
-----------------
•Cognitive
•Appreciative
•Evaluative
“AVAILABLE”
MEANS
VALUE
ORIENTATIONS
(cultural frameworks)
--------------------------
•Cognitive Significance
•Expressive Symbolism
•Moral Standards
TALCOTT PARSON’S MODEL ala BERGER
Man is a social product.
<
MODES of ORIENTATION
INTERNALIZATION
SOCIALIZATION,
ENCULTURALIZATION
Society is an
objective reality
NEED
DISPOSITIONS
INSTITUTIONALIZATION
OBJECTIVATION,
SOCIAL FACTICITIES,
SOCIALLY-CONSTRUCTED
REALITY
EXTERNALIZATION,
PUTTING ONE’S SELF
INTO EFFECT
STRUCTURED PATTERNS of INTERACTION
Society is a human product
>
Talcott Parsons: The Social System
How do social systems survive?
More specifically, why do institutionalized
patterns of interactions persist?
Parsons, Talcott. 1951. The Social System. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press.
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Talcott Parsons: The Social System
The Four Functional Imperatives
• Adaptation
– Involves securing sufficient resources from the
environment and then distributing these
throughout the system
• Goal Attainment
– Refers to establishing priorities among system
goals and mobilizing system resources for their
attainment
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Talcott Parsons: The Social System
• Integration
– Denotes coordinating and maintaining viable
interrelationships among system units
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Talcott Parsons: The Social System
• Latency
– Embraces two related problems
• Pattern Maintenance
– Pertains to how to ensure that actors in the social system
display the appropriate characteristics
» Motives
» Needs
» Role-playing
• Tension Management
– Concerns dealing with the internal tensions and strains of
actors in the social system
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External Environment
(Natural & Social)
ACTION SYSTEMS within
PARSONS’ AGIL MODEL
ADAPTATION
GOAL ATTAINMENT
Economic:
Energy for Environmental
Interactions
Political:
Selective
Group-Determination
INTEGRATION
LATENT PATTERN
MAINTENANCE &
TENSION
MANAGEMENT
Cultural-Legal System:
Institutions of
socialization and social
control
Kinship (family) System:
Values and Norms,
Beliefs and Ideologies
Bare Materials (Human Nature)
Talcott Parsons: The Social System
Here are several illustrations of how the
Four Functional Imperatives can illustrate
the workings of social systems:
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A U.S NAVAL DESTROYER AS
A SOCIAL SYSTEM:
GOAL ATTAINMENT comprises the activities related to
sinking enemy ships as when all hands are at battle stations.
ADAPTATION involves keeping the ship afloat and operating –
repairs, drills, recruitment and training of personnel.
INTEGRATION is the maintenance of smooth relations between the
various departments – gunnery, supply, engineering, and so on, in
order to reduce jealousy and enhance cooperation.
LATENT PATTERN MAINTENANCE & TENSION MANAGEMENT
involves the efforts of each crew member to reconcile the goals
and standards of the ship with those of his/her other roles –
husband, wife, son, daughter, father, mother, church member,
ethnic group, etc.
The WNBA as a Social System
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The WNBA as a Social System
How to Integrate the WNBA into the United
States’ Sports Consciousness
• Adaptation
– Resources are allocated to the WNBA
• The United States is evaluated as ready for a women’s
league similar to the NBA
• Resources are deliberately allocated to help give the
WNBA a structure similar to the NBA
• Return on those allocated resources will not be
immediate
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The WNBA as a Social System
• Goal Attainment
– Priorities are developed to insure goals are
attained
• Media space (television) is given to the WNBA even
though the audience is not yet fully developed
• Integration
– Coordinating various relationships within the
sports world
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The WNBA as a Social System
• Latency (after the WNBA is integrated into the
nation’s sports consciousness)
– Pattern Maintenance
• Establishing proper roles and motives
– Tension Management
• Dealing with internal tensions and strains of actors in
the social system
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The WNBA as a Social System
If any of the four components “fails,” then the WNBA will not be
“integrated” into the social system of organized professional
athletics in the United States.
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PARSONS’ MODEL OF SOCIAL CHANGE
(countering the systemic tendency toward equilibrium)
SUB GROUP ORGANIZATION
• Emergence of expressive leadership
S: Situation (chaotic, unstable)
I: Individual (charismatic leader)
S: Symbols (resonating with previous traditions)
A: Audience (marginal, experiencing anomie)
• Creation of alternative set of normative expectations and sanctions
• Evasion of current cultural sanctions
INCREASED SOCIAL
STRAIN
• Critical mass
• Dissatisfaction
• Value inconsistencies
PARSONS’ MODEL OF SOCIAL CHANGE
(countering the systemic tendency toward equilibrium)
RECONNECTION TO THE DOMINANT
SOCIAL SYSTEM
• Introduction of internal discipline
• Institutionalization of new core values
• Adaptive concessions to external realities
DEVELOPMENT OF MEANINGFUL
IDEOLOGY
• Acceptable claim to legitimacy
• Symbols with wide appeal
• Coherent
• Relevant
Talcott Parsons: The System of Modern Societies
The System of Modern Societies
A historical study of societal evolution as
evident in the stages of systematic development
within Western history.
Published in 1971
.
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Talcott Parsons: The System of Modern Societies
◦ From feudalism to a differential and interdependent division of labor
that marked the European system.
◦ During this process, feudal institutions came to be replaced by early
capitalism with some growing centralization of political power.
◦ Then came the Renaissance and the development of secular culture
within the framework of a still vibrant religious order.
◦ Reformation: During this period, the priesthood began to lose its
exclusive entitlement to the keys to the kingdom, an event that signaled
the advent of individualism
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Talcott Parsons: The System of Modern Societies
• Era Two: First Crystallization of the Modern System
– Centered in the European northwest (England, France, and Holland),
which saw the centralization of a form of state power and the
establishment of mercantile capitalism. One noteworthy development
here was the coming of a pluralist political system in England.
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Talcott Parsons: The System of Modern Societies
• Era Three: Age of Revolutions
– During this time, the industrial revolution featured the expansion of
financial markets, while the democratic revolution saw the spreading
of the differentiation of rule by people throughout Western Europe.
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Talcott Parsons: The System of Modern Societies
 Era Four: New Lead Society
◦ Parsons argued that the promise of the industrial and democratic
revolutions could not be realized in Europe because of its
aristocratic, stratified, and monarchal traditions.
Primarily because of the lack of such restrictions, together with
its educational revolution and political pluralism, the “new lead
society” is (for Parsons) the United States. It is here that Parsons
located the highest form of general adaptation, the embodiment
of the evolutionary principle that drives systems and systematic
theories.
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