Knapp describes how "people act on the basis of their values; their actions are oriented and constrained by the values and norms of people around them; and these norms and values are the basis of social order" ( 1994:191-192). As this essay progresses, the comparison of both Parson’s and Goffman’s theory’s will be expressed in order to understand the way in which society controls the actions and goals of people in their everyday lives and how both functionalist and symbolic interactionist views can be linked to social order and norm expectations. Erving Goffman was a key micro-sociologist and symbolic interactionist who was interested in the ways in which people were influenced and affected by their surroundings
Starting with the Functional Theory, this theory explains the every aspect of our society is interdependent and is necessary for our society to function as one or a whole. It also explains that our society is held together through social cohesion and consensus, where we as members of society work together and agree with each other to achieve what would benefit society the most and what would be our society’s best interest. Functionalism argues that if it is not a useful purpose in our society then it will be phased out from one generation to the next generation. This perspective would see that the purpose of social networking has and is every becoming useful in our society because it use and prevalence continues to increase, the Functional perspective see social networking as a way to enforce
The impact on the personality of the individual, it has the characteristics of participation in the life of the community. The variety of contacts, relationships and active participation in the life of the surrounding general give shape to the human personality. There are two types of social structure, macro and micro which allows the individual to notice, whatever man is constantly in contact, which affects the shape of humans’ personality. One of the most important perspectives of sociological theories is the distinction between structural and social action. Structural action, in other words structuralism, is a perspective which is concerned with the overall structure of society and sees individual behavior molded by social institutions like the family, the educations, the mass media and work.
[1] Society is made up of social institutions that together form the building blocks needed to create a culture, a belief system, a religious belief, a set of values, rules, laws, regulations, and how we're expected to behave and conduct ourselves. When we are born we are surrounded by social institutions that will impact our personality and lifestyle. These are: • the family • the education system • the income available • the environment • the political system • the culture or sub-culture • the religious beliefs • our peers These factors have a major influence on us as we grow and develop. This is also known as 'stratification'. Social class is the system of status layers.
Then there is the socialisation process. This is the process whereby individuals learn the norms and values of the groups they belong, so that they are ready for social interaction. (www.socialsciencedictionary.com). In other words, it means the process whereby culture is passed from one generation to another. Socialisation starts at birth and ends at death and is very powerful in shaping individuals.
In the position as a student of sociology, I believe the Functionalist theory best describes society. The functionalist theory is viewed to sociologist as society to a living organism. Each part serves an important role in keeping society together. Many sociologist classify this theory as macro-level; large in scale. Including social institutions, a system of behavioral and relationship patterns, having specific roles to perform to make society.
Chemers M (1997) showed that leadership has been described as the "process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of common tasks". As a result it might have significant influences to the efforts and motivation of employees on their working performance. In addition, leadership can build; influence and changing the organizational culture and it might contribute to the establishment of the organizational culture. One of the primary responsibilities of strategic leader is to create working
Both functionalists and Marxists believe that people are portrayed as creature within the social system. Functionalists believe that society operates to the benefit of everybody. They stress that societies continue to exist because a lot of the time there is consensus between various aspects of society. Functionalism or (structural functionalism) is macro level analysis. It focuses on how people come together to create society.
In this approach, humans are portrayed as acting as opposed to being acted upon. Mead (1934) proposed that both human development and the meanings we assign to everyday objects and events are fundamentally social processes, they require the interaction of multiple individuals; language is crucial to the development of self and society, the means by which communicate with one another. Society and self were created through communicative acts like speech and gestures; the individual personality was shaped by society, and vice versa. For symbolic interactionists, society is produced and reproduced through our interactions with each other by language and our interpretation of it, and the building block of everything else in society is face-to-face interaction through it we create a meaningful social reality. Blumer in 1969 stipulated three basic tenets the first one says, we act toward things on the basis of their meanings.
They suggest norms and values are flexible guidelines. We apply meanings to social behaviour and are aware of how others see that behaviour and how we should act in a given situation. ----------------------- Social action theory Phenomenology Symbolic interactionism Ethnomethodology Structuration theory Weber Blumer Meaning Goffman Cooley Mead Schutz Garfinkel Giddens Structural and action approaches are both important to fully understand human behaviour. To get a full sociological explanation involves two levels: The level of cause and the level of meaning. (E.g.