S.Y.
2020-
Looking at Society throughSocial Science Major Theories
EXPECTATIONS
You will analyze the basic concepts and principles of the major
Social Science theories: Structural-functionalism, Marxism, and Symbolic
Interactionism.Specifically, this module will help you to:
• understand the concepts and principles of Structural-functionalism, Marxism, and
Symbolic Interactionism;
• determine the manifest and latent functions as well as dysfunctions of social
structure;
• analyze social inequalities in terms of class conflict; and
• appraise the meaning that people attach to everyday forms of interaction in order to
explain social behaviour
In this lesson, you will understand the concepts and principles of the major
Social Science theories namely: Structural-functionalism, Marxism, and
Symbolic Interactionism. Also, you will determine the manifest and latent
functions as well as dysfunctions of social structure. Analyze social inequalities in
terms of class conflict and appraise the meaning that people attach to everyday forms
of interaction in order to explain social behavior.
Content Standard: The learners demonstratean understanding of the
emergence of the Social Sciences and the different disciplines
Performance Standard:The learners shall be able to connect the
disciplines with their historical and social foundations
Most Essential Learning Competencies:*Analyze the basic concepts and
principles of the major social science theories:
a. Structural-functionalism b. Marxism c. Symbolic Interactionism
Learning Module in Discipline and Ideas in Social Sciences
2021
Structural –Functionalism
Corporations, factories, university systems,and even communities are groups
too.
Structural Functional Theory (SFT) allows for major institutions, such as
economy, religion, polity, education and family to be considered groups.
Structural- Functionalism Background and History
The early functionalists were anthropologists (i.e., LeviStrauss, Radcliff-Brown,
Malinowski, and others).
Structural-Functionalism
They were seminal thinkers of the middle 1800s who made direct observations of
primitive cultures, theorizing about the organization of these folk in relation to Western
society. Their theories were often quite simple and required only a few assumptions.
The point they were making was this: Individual and group behavior, more often
than not, serves a FUNCTION for the larger society.
Claude Levi-Strauss (1908 to 2009) is widely regarded as the father of
structural anthropology. In the 1940s, he proposed that the proper focus of
anthropological investigations was on the underlying patterns of human thought that
produce the cultural categories that organize worldviews hitherto studied (McGee and
Warms, 2004: 345). He believed these processes were not deterministic of culture,
but instead, operated within culture. His work was heavily influenced by Emile
Durkheim and Marcel Mauss as well as the Prague School of structural linguistics
(organized in 1926) which include Roman Jakobson (1896 to 1982), and Nikolai
Troubetzkoy (1890 to 1938). From the latter, he derived the concept of binary
contrasts, later referred to in his work as binary oppositions, which became
fundamental in his theory.
Claude Lévi-Strauss: (1908 to 2009) “Father of Structuralism;” born in
Brussels in 1908. Obtained a law degree from the University of Paris. He became a
professor of sociology at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil in 1934. It was at this
time that he began to think about human thought cross-culturally and alterity, when he
was exposed to various cultures in Brazil. His first publication in anthropology
appeared in 1936 and covered the social organization of the Bororo (Bohannan and
Glazer 1988:423). After WWII, he taught at the New School for Social Research in
New York. There he met Roman Jakobson, from whom he took the structural
linguistics model and applied its framework to culture (Bohannan and Glazer
1988:423). Lévi-Strauss has been noted as singly associated forthe elaboration of the
structuralist paradigm in anthropology (Winthrop 1991).
Bronislaw Malinowski and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown had the greatest
influence on the development of functionalism from their posts in Great Britain.
Functionalism was a reaction to the excesses of the evolutionary and diffusionist
theories of the nineteenth century and the historicism of the early twentieth
(Goldschmidt 1996:510). Two versions of functionalism developed between 1910
SHERIDAN D. DIMAANO 1
and 1930: Malinowski’s biocultural (or psychological) functionalism; and structural-
functionalism, the approach advanced by Radcliffe-Brown.
Malinowski suggested that individuals have physiological needs
(reproduction, food, shelter) and that social institutions exist to meet these
needs. There are also culturally derived needs and four basic "instrumental needs"
(economics, social control, education, and political organization), that require
institutional devices. Each institution has personnel, a charter, a set of norms or rules,
activities, material apparatus (technology), and a function.
Radcliffe-Brown focused on social structure rather than biological needs.
He suggested that a society is a system of relationships maintaining itself
through cybernetic feedback, while institutions are orderly sets of relationships
whose function is to maintain the society as a system. Radcliffe-Brown, inspired
by Augustus Comte, stated that the social constituted a separate"level" of reality
distinct from those of biological forms and inorganic matter.
Radcliffe-Brown, inspired by Augustus Comte, stated that the social
constituted a separate "level" of reality distinct from those of biological forms and
inorganic matter.
Radcliffe-Brown argued that explanations of social phenomena had to be
constructed within the social level. Thus, individuals were replaceable, transient
occupants of social roles. Unlike Malinowski's emphasis on individuals,
RadcliffeBrown considered individuals irrelevant (Goldschmidt 1996:510).
The Functionalists Perspectives
A perspective is simply a way of looking at the
world.
A theory is a set of
interrelated propositions or
principles designed to answer a
question or explain a particular
phenomenon; it provides us with a
perspective
The Functionalists Perspectives
Sociological theories - help us to explain and predict the social world in
which we live in.
The Functionalists Perspectives is based largely on the works of Herbert
Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons, and Robert Merton. According to
Functionalism, societyis a system of interconnected parts
that work together in harmony to maintain a state of balance and social
equilibrium for the whole.
Learning Module in Discipline and Ideas in Social Sciences
For example: Each of the social institutions contributes important functions for
society: family provides a context for reproducing, nurturing, and socializing
children. Education offers a way to transmit a society’s skills, knowledge, and
culture to its youth. Politics provides a means of governing members of society.
Economics provides for the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and
services. And religion provides moral guidance and an outlet for worship of a higher
power.
The Functionalists perspectives emphasizes the interconnectedness of
society by focusing on how each part influences and is influenced by other
parts.
For example: The increase in single parent and dual-
earner families has contributed to the number of children
who are failing in school because parents have become
less available to supervise their children’s homework.
For example: As a result of changes in technology,
colleges are offering more technical programs, and
many adults are returning to school to learn new skills
that are required in the workplace. The increasing
number of women in the workforce has contributed to
the formulation of policies against sexual harassment and job discrimination.
Functionalists use the terms functional and dysfunctional to describe the
effects of social elements on society.
 Elements of society are functional if they contribute to social stability.
 They are dysfunctional if they disrupt social stability.
The Functionalists Perspectives
Sociologists have identified two types of functions:
a. manifest; and
b. latent (Merton 1968)
 Manifest functions are consequences that are intended and commonly
recognized.
 Latent functions are consequences that are unintended and often hidden.
For example: The manifest function of education is to transmit knowledge and skills
to society’s youth. But public elementary schools also serve as babysitters for
employed parents, and colleges offer a place for young adults to meet potential
SHERIDAN D. DIMAANO 2
mates. The baby-sitting and mate-selection functions are not the intended or
commonly recognized functions of education; hence they are latent functions

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
Sociological Perspectives
Symbolic interactionism mirrors the miniaturized scale sociological viewpoint,
and was to a great extent affected by the works of early sociologists and scholars
For sociology, many of these functional anthropological notions were drawn
such as George Simmel (1858-1918), Charles Cooley (1864-1929), George
together by Talcott Parsons, a young professor at Harvard University around 1950,
Herbert Mead (1863-1931), and ErvingGoffman (1922-1982). Symbolic
with considerable input from early social philosophers Max Weber, Herbert Spencer,
Interactionism is a theory that centered to human communication both verbal andnon-
and Emile Durkheim. Parsons' work was further extended by subsequent
verbal and to images, symbols significance through language and the manner of
sociologists of the time and after. Structural-functional theory became the
individual understanding.
paradigm theory in sociology for about twenty years or so, because it saliently
defined society as a system with checks and balances.
The symbolic interactionism focuses on the study of human interaction
in which people make sense of their social world through exchange of language
and symbols. The establish meanings come from human interactions with others and
.MARXISM
the society. These definitions develop their views in life and use it to communicate
The starting point of the conflict perspective can be rooted with the
with each other. Communicating with one another makes society goes on and
great works of Karl Marx (1818–1883). He proposed that all social orders
continues.
experience phases of financial turn of events. As societies evolve from agricultural to
Sociologist W.I. Thomas (1966) highlighted the significance of definitions
industrial concern over meeting survival needs is replaced by concern over making a
and implications in social conduct and its outcomes. He recommended that humans
profit, the hallmark of a capitalist system. Industrialization prompts the improvement of
react
two classes of individuals: (1) the bourgeoisie or proprietors of the methods for
to their meaning of a circumstance as opposed to the objective circumstance itself.
creation and (2) the proletariat or laborers who triumph for compensation. The
Subsequently Thomas noticed that circumstances that we characterize as genuine
division of society into two expansive classes of individuals the "haves" and
becomes genuine in their outcomes. Representative interactionism additionally
the "havenots" is valuable to the proprietors of the methods for creation. The
proposes that our personality or feeling of self is formed by social cooperation. We
laborers, who may gain just means compensation, are denied access to the
build up our self-idea by seeing how others collaborate with us and mark us. By
numerous
seeing how others see us, we see a reflection ourselves that Cooley calls the "mirror
assets accessible to the rich proprietors. As indicated by Marx, the
self
bourgeoisie utilize their capacity to control the establishments of society for their
potential benefit. For instance, Marx recommended that religion fills in as a "sedative
of the majority" in that it calms the pain and enduring related with the average workers
way of life and spotlights the laborers' consideration on otherworldliness, God, and
REFERENCES:
existence in the wake of death instead of on such common worries as day to day
Power Point-Disciplines and Ideas in the Social Sciences ,STRUCTURAL –
environments. Basically, religion redirects the laborers with the goal that they focus on
FUNCTIONALISM by :ElenitaFilomenaZenaida Ramos-Miranda Tanay Senior High
being compensated in paradise for carrying on with an ethical life instead of on
School
scrutinizing their misuse.
DIVISION OF CITY SCHOOLS – MANILA
The conflict perspective sees society as made out of various gatherings and
enthusiasm seeking force and assets. The conflict perspective clarifies different parts
of our social world by seeing which gatherings have force and advantage from a
specific social game plan. Max Weber (1864-1920) added that there were also
inequalities of social structure and political power that caused struggle. He noted that
various groups were treated differently based on race, educational, and gender.
Relative to this is the normative feminist view society as a male centric culture—a
various levelled arrangement of association constrained by men. In spite of the fact
that there are numerous assortments of women's activist hypothesis, most would hold
that feminism “demands that existing economic, political, and social structures
be changed” (Weir and Faulkner 2004, p.xii).
Learning Module in Discipline and Ideas in Social Sciences SHERIDAN D. DIMAANO 3
ANSWER SHEET

NAME:______________________ SECTION:_______________

Activity 1.5. Poster Making

Objective: Analyze social inequalities in terms of class conflict
Directions:
1. Use your creativity by drawing a poster reflecting social inequalities in our society
because of class conflict.
2. Write short analysis of your work in a separate sheet.
3. Use coupon bond and any available coloring materials in this activity.
Rubrics
Activity 1.6 ACROSTIC POEM
Evaluate the meaning that people attach to everyday forms of interaction, in
order to explain social behavior in our society using word acrostic poem.
Directions:
1. Using the word “SOCIETY”, create an acrostic poem that tackles symbols,
gestures that we used in human interactions.
2. Use separate sheet of paper for this activity.

Learning Module in Discipline and Ideas in Social Sciences SHERIDAN D. DIMAANO 4