Sociology 319

January 20, 2006

Next week CST, Chapter 4, “Critical Theory”

Reading from Adorno and Horkheimer, “The Culture Industry”
Reading from Marcuse, “The New Forms of Control”
Reading from Habermas, “What is Discourse Ethics?”

Talcott Parsons

5. Action Systems and Social Systems

System. Parsons developed an analysis where he attempted to address issues across the social
sciences, in psychology, economics, and politics, in addition to sociology. For Parsons, there are
many systems or action systems where “the parts are connected” (Adams and Sydie, p. 14). A
system is something that has a boundary, so that there is an inside and an outside to the system,
with the system existing in some environment. Examples of systems of social action are the
social, cultural, and personality systems (Wallace and Wolf, p. 28). The parts of systems are
interdependent, each having connections and influences on other parts. For Parsons, any such
system has tendencies toward order or equilibrium and maintenance of both the system’s
boundaries and the relations of parts to the whole. These systems could constitute society as a
whole, structures or institutions within society (e.g. economy, legal system, religious institutions),
or smaller subsystems (family or individual). These are action systems in the sense that they
involve social action, and each system has particular needs or conditions that are necessary for
the survival and continued maintenance and proper operation of the system. Systems also have
goals that are created and developed from the needs and desires of members of the system.

A physical analogy to an action system is a heating or cooling system for a building. The
building has boundaries, an outside and an inside, and the boundaries are generally fixed or
maintained over time. There are interdependent parts to the system which function together to
maintain a certain level of temperature in the building. Thermostats and furnaces or air
conditioners are used to heat or cool the building, and these are self-regulating, maintaining a
particular temperature. The system tends toward order and equilibrium in that there are
adjustments of the part to changes in the external environment and to changes within the building.

Note: in the following notes, references are to the handout “Action Systems and Social System.”
Also compare this reading with the schematic diagram of “Action Systems of Parsons” (diagram
2 of January 16 handout).

Action system. Parsons argues (p. 1, bottom) that there are a number of systems that are part of a
general system of human action – social, cultural, personability systems and behavioral organism
– with the latter three being part of the environment of the social system. His primary focus is on
the social system, since this is the subject of sociology, concerned with social interaction and

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 relationships among individuals. For social reality as whole, Parsons argues that there is (i) the
physical reality or physical environment where we all live and (ii) the action systems of social
action and interaction, separate from the physical environment (p. 2, bottom). The relationships
among the systems are multiple and complex, with “zones of interpenetration” and “processes of
interchange” among them (p. 3). While the exact structure and relationship of the systems to
each other can be confusing, in broad outlines and with the help of the schematic diagram, the
general patterns should become relatively clear.

The way that Parsons distinguishes the systems is on the basis of the function of each, using the
AGIL schema. The four systems, the functional distinction among them, and their relationship
with each other is as follows (p. 2).

· Personality system. A personality system, concerning human motivation and orientation,

underlies the social system. Individual personality comes from a combination of
biological drives and culture, first through socialization as a child and youth, and then
through social approval and disapproval of others. Also note that in the reading on the
family (“Sex Roles,” p. 1), Parsons suggests that one role of the family is developing this
personality in children and youth. Individuals might be motivated by culture and social
factors, looking for approval in social relationships and attempting to avoid disapproval.
The function of the personality system is goal achievement, with individuals motivated by
“optimization of gratification or satisfaction” (p. 2, middle).

· Behavorial organism. Drives may come from the behavioral or biological organism,
“the primary human facilities” (p. 2, middle) or capabilities. The function is adaptation to
the environment, both the physical environment and other individuals. Its “organization
... [is] affected by the processes of conditioning and learning that occur in the individual's
life.” Ritzer (p. 249) notes that Parsons would be opposed to a strictly biological
interpretation of human behaviour, arguing instead that biological drives were socially
mediated.

Cultural system. Related to the social system is the cultural system, a system of patterned
and ordered symbols. The function of this system is primarily pattern maintenance and
“creative pattern-change” (p. 2). While it is created by humans, this is the “social stock of
knowledge, symbols, and ideas” (Ritzer, p. 247). This includes language and other forms
of communication, systems of morality, and people’s shared knowledge. Parsons refers to
this as the cultural tradition, and argues that elementary communication is not possible
without “some degree of conformity to the ‘conventions’ of the symbolic system.”
(Parsons, 1951, p. 11). Individual actors interpret symbols in in different situations so the
context may lead to a variety of responses to a particular symbol. For social interaction to
occur, it is important that there be a reasonable level of stability in the system of symbols,
“a stability which must extend between individuals and over time, [and] could probably not
be maintained unless it functioned in a communication process in the interaction of a
plurality of actors.” (Parsons, 1951, p. 11).

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 Because it is composed of symbols, the cultural system can move easily between systems,
and strongly affects other systems. Note that it is a separate system, and one that cannot is
external and not reducable to the social system. It affects the social system, creating
norms and values that guide social behaviour, and the personality system through
socialization and learning. Given the power of the cultural system to influence and
control other systems, “Parsons came to view himself as a cultural determinist” (Ritzer, p.
247).

Social System. The social system was Parsons' main concern. This is society as a whole, or the
relationships and interactions among individual actors. It also includes societal institutions such
as family, since these are created and maintained through such interactions and relationships.
Parsons' definition of the social system is:

A social system consists in a plurality of individual actors interacting with each other
in a situation which has at least a physical or environmental aspect, actors who are
motivated in terms of a tendency to the “optimization of gratification” and whose
relation to their situations, including each other, is defined and mediated in terms of a
system of culturally structured and shared symbols (Parsons, 1951, pp. 5-6).

The basic unit of the social system of action is the unit act undertaken by an actor. The unit act
involves an active, conscious agent, who has particular goals or ends that he or she is attempting
to meet, a range of possible choices, an environment exercising various constraints, and a
normative orientation. This is similar to Weber’s approach to social action, but Parsons explicitly
includes a normative orientation for social action, that is, norms and values guiding such action.
These norms and values may specify appropriate goals and means of attaining them, as well as
appropriate forms that action takes – for example, socially acceptable forms of action, within the
laws and conventional patterns of action. Parsons argues that actors act in a rational manner,
considering objective factors (structures, choices available, responses of others), but they also
have a subjective frame of reference (personal values, preferences, views). In order to analyze
such action, a sociologist has to take on the point of view of the actor whose actions are being
considered.

Parsons argued that these systems of social action are structural – there is “a complex unit of
some kind, with boundaries, within which the parts are connected, and within which something
takes place” (Adams and Sydie, p. 14). Since humans as actors regularly interact with others, “a
social system is a system of processes of interaction between actors … it is the structure of the
relations between the actors as involved in the interactive process which is essentially the
structure of the social system. The system is a network of such relationships” (Parsons, The
Social System, p. 25).

For Parsons, this structure involves two things – where the actor is located in the social system
and the relationships of the actor to others. Parsons refers to the former as status and the latter as
role; together these constitute “the status-role bundle” (Parsons, The Social System, p. 25).

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 Status. Status is a structural position within the social system – status is attached to the position
in the social structure. While the individual occupying that position may acquire that status as a
result of occupying the position, the status of the position is attached to the position itself. Status
can be hierarchical, as in positions within an organization, where some positions have more
power and respect than do others. For example, the positions of manager and president normally
have more power and respect attached to them than do positions such as worker, custodian, or
attendant. But status need not be hierarchical, for example status can refer to positions such as
brother or sister in a family, where these are evaluated by others as more or less equal positions.
While Parsons does not emphasize the social evaluations that people attach to status, Weber’s
concept of social honour provides one way that members of society tend to look at these
positions. Additionally, sociologists often consider social class to be associated with these
positions, and there is a certain prestige, recognition, or social status associated with various
positions in society – these are often ranked from high to low status. But for the most part,
Parsons does not emphasize this ranking of status.

Role. The role associated with any position or status in the social system is role is what the
individual in that position is expected to perform – how the social actor performs that role.
Parsons argues that roles are organized so they constitute socially acceptable and expected
patterns of behaviour and action associated with a particular position or status. Parsons
emphasizes the expected, common, and patterned aspects of role performance. Goffman, a
symbolic interactionist meant much the same by role, but emphasizes variability in role
performance (role distance). Adams and Sydie use the terms “ego and alter” (p. 14), denoting the
social actor (ego) in interaction with another social actor (alter). Each actor has an orientation to
others, attempts to achieve his or her own goals in his or her own way, and it is through these
actions that social interaction occurs. Such interactions occur regularly and “become more or less
stable or ‘institutionalized’” (Adams and Sydie, p. 14). Examples of such institutions could be
families or social networks among people with regular and continued friendship and contact.

Needs. Each social system has particular needs and individuals help the system meet these needs
by performing their roles. For example, in an organization such as a business or government,
each individual occupies a position (status) and carries out appropriate activities for that role. For
example, a manger manages and a custodian does the cleaning. The performance of such actions
helps maintain order in the system and ensures that the functions of the system are met. It is
individual social actors, performing to meet expectations associated with the status-role bundle,
that maintain the organization or social system.

Within each social system, there tends to be an equilibrium – a normal form in which the system
operates. Parsons argues that when there are deviations from equilibrium, so that the system may
not be functioning properly, forces exist that tend to return the system to equilibrium. System
equilibrium is produced in two main ways – through preparing individuals to perform their roles
within the system and through social approval and disapproval.

Socialization, education and learning in the child, and continued socialization throughout life are

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 the means by which the norms and values of society are learned by individuals. This is what
binds the individual to the social system as a whole. If successful, this socialization process
means that the norms and values become internalized by individuals, and when people pursue
their own interests, they also serve the needs of the society as a whole. In modern society there
are many roles, statuses and opportunities for individuals to express their different personalities.
For Parsons, this is a positive feature of a social system, and a flexible system of this sort is more
able to maintain order.

There may be times when the system changes or when the actions of some individuals deviates
from the role expected of them. In these cases, there are social control mechanisms that either
draw people back to the role expected and required of them (social approval and disapproval) or
stronger mechanisms, such as the law, that stop the deviance. Parsons comments
Without deliberate planning on anyone's part, there have developed in our type of social
system, and correspondingly in others, mechanisms which, within limits, are capable of
forestalling and reversing the deep-lying tendencies for deviance to get into the vicious
circle phase which puts it beyond the control of ordinary approval-disapproval and reward-
punishment sanctions (Parsons, 1951, pp. 319-320).
Thus the social systems are self-regulating, with individuals being prepared for entry to social
systems through socialization and various social control mechanisms emerging to ensure the
individuals continue to perform their roles.

6. Parsons's analysis of the family

Note: Refer to the reading “Sex Roles in the American Kinship System” and diagram 4 of the
January 16 handout for this section of the notes.

In traditional societies, where families were the basis for social organization, many of the societal
functions (AGIL) were carried out in the family or in kinship-based groupings. Even in medieval
times, there was little distinction between public and private, and the family and household filled
the functions of production, reproduction, socialization, and consumption. As the division of
labour developed in the transition to the modern era, many of the tasks or functions formerly
carried out in the family began to be performed in other institutions. As manufacturing and
business expanded, production increasingly has taken place outside the household in what is
usually referred to as te economy. In addition, some of the socialization function became
detached from the family and moved to educational institutions – or the socialization and
education functions became separated. While some analysts have looked on this as indicating a
decline in the family, Parsons argued that social evolution and change has led to a change in the
functions of the family. This is one part of an evolutionary process where the AGIL functions
become separated from each other, so that separate structures, institutions, and statuses become
responsible for carrying out each of these four functions. Parsons views this functional
differentiation positively, arguing that specialized statuses and roles mean that the functions can
be better performed. While this specialization may create problems of social integration, there
will also be new values, rules, and norms that lead to new forms of integration in a more complex

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