Discipline and ideas in

social sciences
Concepts and Principles of the Major Social Sciences
Theories: Structural – Functionalism, Marxism, and
Symbolic Interactionism
 STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM

Taking its etymology, according to Encyclopedia

Britannica, structural functionalism, “is a school of
thought according to which each of the institutions,
relationships, res, and norms that together constitute a
society serves a purpose, and each is indispensable for
the continued existence of the others and of society as a
whole.”
 STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM

Structural Functionalism is a framework for building

theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts
work together to promote solidarity and stability.
Economy, religion, politics, education, and family are to be
considered groups as a major institution. Individual and
group behavior, more often than not, serves a FUNCTION
for the larger society.
 STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM
Basing from such definition, we can say that the each institution in
a given society play a vital role for its functionality or success. On
a microperspective, each institution may only be functional when
and if each of its members performs the task required and expected
of her/him. Reduce this analysis to the family, where this most
basic social institution may be operational only when all the family
members from the father through the mother and the children
contribute something in support of each other.
 Principles Peculiar to Structural
Functionalism
• Collective Conscience
According to this principle of structural functionalism, the members of a
given society, or if seen from a micro perspective, a given institution, must
have a shared participation in every endeavor. Everything has to be done
collectively and individualism as an end has to be ruled out. Each may work
individually but each would have collective result as an end. As each toils
for the group, he/she must always be guided by shared values like the goals,
norms and roles. This obtains in both macro and micro perspectives.
 Principles Peculiar to Structural
Functionalism
• Social Order
There has to be established security, in terms of the basic
needs, among the people for social order to be in place.
The lack or merely the insufficiency for instance of food
would render an institution not functional already.
 Principles Peculiar to Structural
Functionalism
• Education
Education comes in the form of a well-informed populace.
Education does not necessarily presuppose that everyone must be
degreeholders. Having the know-how about the role one has to
take or the knowledge about the functional norms is education
sufficient enough already for the structure or the institution to be
functional.
 Principles Peculiar to Structural
Functionalism
• Deviance and Crime
The principle of deviance and crime may sound negative but this
is just to show that the society involved to create a functional
structure is also responsible for socially-constructed behavior.
The functionality of a structure or of an institution which may be
distracted by deviance and crime would depend on the other three
principles as discussed earlier.
 MARXISM

Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis

that uses a materialist interpretation of historical
development to understand class relations and
social conflict, as well as a dialectical perspective
to view social transformation.
 MARXISM
Marxism as a socio-economic theory was espoused by Karl Marx
(The Communist Manifesto) and Friedrich Engels during the
nineteenth century. Accordingly Marxism talks about the
capitalist mode of production which enables the bourgeoisie to
exploit the proletariat and as a result, it leads to the struggle of the
proletariat. They strive to obtain freedom from the end of the
proletariat may end up to the overthrow of the bourgeoisie
through an armed struggle.
 Karl Marx
Karl Marx (1818-1883) wrote the Communist Manifesto (1848)
that shows the basic struggle between classes and recommends
action against the 'specter' of capitalism Capital (1867). It shows
how the capitalist system is exploitative in that it "transfers the fruit
of the work of the majority...to a minority=. The book contains
theories about the nature of society and politics, that in their own
words, "The history of all as yet existingsociety is the history of
class struggles"
 Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels (1820 – 1895) was a German social scientist, author,
political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, together
with Karl Marx. He wrote Das Kapital. He organized Marx's notes on
the "Theories of Surplus Value," which he later published as the
"fourth volume" of Capital. He wrote the Origin of the Family,
Private Property, and the State (1884), presents the evolution of
humankind from primitivecommunism, to slavery,
feudalism,capitalism, and finally, industrial communism.
Marx and Engels examined the conflict generated by the increasing
wealth of the capitalists (Bourgeoisie) at the expense of the
working class (Proletariat) who only sunk deeper into poverty.
Violence and repression could reinforce legal power if the
peasantry resisted handing over the surplus. They viewed social
change as an evolutionary process marked by a revolution in which
new levels of social, political, and economic development were
achieved through class struggle. A class is defined in terms of the
relationship of people's labor to the means of production. Each
mode of production produced characteristic class relationships
involving a dominating and a subordinate class.
 Principles of Marxism
• Exploitation and Alienation
This principle refers to the exploitation of the workers by the employers
who are the alter ego of the capitalists. This happens where and when the
workers could be made to render hours of work beyond what is stipulated,
or they could be required to work more than or even less than their job
description.
In the process, the workers experience alienation because they are
deprived of the right to be their own persons as they shall submit to the
will of the bourgeoisie.
 Principles of Marxism
• Class consciousness
It is incumbent in the people to take cognizance of the existence
of stratification- be it according to the socio-economic status, or
according to gender, or to any indicator of distinction of segments
of the population. Relative to this, the people must be conscious
of the probability of inequalities or injustices and must act
according to how they understand their position in the society.
 Principles of Marxism
• Emancipation of the workers
This principle presupposes that the members of the proletariat
themselves are held responsible for their liberation. They cannot
depend on any other social class because they are basically on
their own from the very beginning.
 Principles of Marxism
• Historical Materialism
This principle requires of the members of the proletariat
to be in the know of the whereabouts of class struggle in
the history of man to enable them understand their
struggle and to capacitate them in the fight as well.
 Symbolic Interactionism
Nature of Symbolic Interactionism

According to Blydenian (http://www.blydenian.net/the-nature-ofsymbolic-

interactionism/ ) culled as excerpt from Herbert Blumer, “The Nature of Symbolic
Interactionism”, Chapter 1 in Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method (1969),
symbolic interactionism rests in the last analysis on three simple premises. The first
premise says that human beings act according to the meanings that they attach toward
anything that they perceive around them. The second premise refers to the conception
that such meanings come as a result of the social interaction between and among men.
And, the third premise says that these meanings are dealt with and modified through an
interpretative process by the person and this serves as a guide to his/her encounters in
life.
 Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic interactionism is a sociological theory that develops from practical

considerations and suggests to people's particular utilization of dialect to make
images and normal implications, for deduction and correspondence with others.
This perspective relies on the symbolic meaning that people develop and build
upon in the process of social interaction. The interpretation process that occurs
between interactions helps create and recreate meaning. It is the shared
understanding and interpretations of meaning that affect the interaction between
and among men. And, the third premise says that these meanings are dealt with
and modified through an interpretative process by the person and this serves as a
guide to his/her encounters in life.
Core Principles of Symbolic Interactionism

• Meaning
This principle is the core of symbolic interactionism
because all of man’s actions are anchored from whatever
meaning is attached to the other person, or to a thing or
even to an occurrence.
Core Principles of Symbolic Interactionism

• Language
The second principle talks about the naming or
identification of the thing or things or even the action or
actions. Meanings would not be created if there is no
naming that will take place. The naming process is done
only with the use of language.
Core Principles of Symbolic Interactionism
• Thought
This third principle of symbolic interactionism speaks of how we interpret
the symbols and more often than not it involves imagination.