Functionalism: A Psychological Analysis

Sociology is the study the different aspects of humanity and society. It encompasses a very broad and varying range of topics. It can be studied on a large world-wide scale spanning across several countries, which is called Macrosociology. It can also be studied on a small scale looking at only individual families or neighborhoods, which is called Microsociology. Not only does it peer into humans’ interactions with each other but examines why they act the way they do. It considers the environment, as well as how access to different luxuries can contribute to the people that we become. In this fascinating field there are three primary views on exactly what the fundamental driving force behind society is. Symbolic Interactionalism, the belief that symbols and the meaning that they are given, define how we will perceive life, in this philosophy these meanings are influenced by society and the events of individual lives. Functional Analysis, views society as any other organism, in this theory all parts of the whole must work together cohesively to function. Conflict theory takes a somewhat opposite view than Functionalism, this perspective suggests that rather than wanting to work in unison, society’s underlying motive is a power struggle for resources. Over the course of this paper the reader will explore these different perspectives.

Functionalism was developed as a combination of the Behaviorist theory and the Identity theory. Behaviorism believes being in a mental state is the same as a physical state, which is a noticeable behavioral characteristic. For instance, if one claims they are unhappy, there physical state could include a frowning display or inappropriate posture. On the other hand, the Identity Theory suggests when one

Functionalism is one of the main principles involved in sociology. Emile Durkheim developed the functionalist theory. The method analyzes different parts of society and how they function individually to create a more stable society has a whole. According to Sociology in Our Times, "Functional perspectives are based on the assumption that society is a stable, orderly system. This stable system is distinguished by societal consensus, whereby the majority of members share a common set of values, beliefs, and behavioral expectations." A functionalist society constitutes from the corresponding parts of society that carry out certain functions that strengthen the long-range stabilization of society. Institutions and structures emerge to help play a role in aiding society’s chances of survival. The organizations that add to the survival of the community include family, education, religion, government, and economy. The belief of the functionalist theory is if anything inconspicuous happens to any of the elements stated above, then all parts of society are negatively affected. Another factor that contributes to a stable functionalist society is the participation of the citizens who inhabit the community. To further the functionalist theory, Robert K. Merton divided functionalism into two different aspects of social institutions. The two functions include manifest and latent functions. Manifest functions are intended and excessively noticed by the contributors to society.

Functionalism was developed as a combination of the Behaviorist theory and the Identity theory. Behaviorism believes being in a mental state is the same as a physical state, which is an observable behavioral characteristic. For instance, if one claims they are unhappy, their physical state could include a frowning face or improper posture. On the other hand, the Identity Theory

What is functionalist theory? The functionalist theory also called functionalism. The functionalism can be define is each part of society have their roles in terms of how it contributes to the stability of the whole society. Each part of society that have their own functional for the stability of around society. According to the functionalist perspective, each part of society is related to each part in the whole society. The different part of society is organized to fill different need and each of which has effect for the form and shape of the good society. The parts of society depend on each other. For example, the government is providing education for the children in their country. To running the education services, the government use the taxes income from the family of children, which in pays taxes. This family give responsibility to school to help children grow up to have good jobs in their future so that they can raise and support their own families. These responsibilities take over by the teacher to teaching the children. In the process, the children will in turn to support the state or government by law-abiding and taxpaying citizens. If all part in society

According to McLeod (2017), behaviourism is an approach in psychology that focuses on scientific testing and investigating how environmental interactions cause all human behaviour to be learnt. Behaviourists do not focus on covert behaviour, such as feelings or thoughts, as they cannot be scientifically

Compare and contrast the conflict and the functionalist perspective relative to the political system in the United States. Select one current issue such as healthcare, immigration, or one of your choosing and discuss the issue from both perspectives.

views society as a gadget or shape with indoors established elements (family, economic system, and remedy) that work together t produce relative balance.

Behaviorism is a philosophical theory that rejects the idea behind the causal mental-physical realm relationship attributed to dualism and instead takes on a more direct approach of linking a person’s mental states to their actions within the physical world. Mental states no longer function to govern the physical actions of the body, but rather, the states have become descriptors for the disposition of a physical body to behave in a given way. For example, in a dualist view, pain could be viewed as a mental state that causes for the physical body to react by wincing or yelling as a response. From a behaviorist’s point of view, the wincing and yelling behavior is in itself pain, and its mental state is the disposition for a person to behave by wincing and yelling when they experience it.

The qualities of the behaviourist approach are that behaviourism depends on detectable practices, so it is less demanding to evaluate and gather information and data when directing examination. Since research and trial is an intense apparatus in giving clarifications and clear confirmations about a specific wonder, early scholars and defenders of behaviourism took pride in starting the investigations of noticeable practices instead of those that can't be watched and

Functionalism, one of the most influential and widespread theories of mind of our day, proposes a model of human behaviour based on the way certain inputs are processed when the mind is in a given state, to yield certain outputs. This theory concerns itself only what mental states do, rather than the substance with which they are made, or whether they exist at all; this is called ‘multiple realizability’. In other words, the theory is ontologically modest, or flexible, and this enables functionalism to stay compatible with Cartesian dualism or monisms like materialism, an advantage when other theories lose followers due to their ontological preconceptions. The other notable strength functionalism claims is that it avoids some of the pitfalls of its counterpart theory, behaviourism. However each of these apparent strengths has flaws, both in and of themselves and in comparison to other theories of mind. These strengths and their flaws will be assessed in this essay, but allow me first to outline what the functionalist theory of mind proposes.

Functionalism is a consensus perspective, whereby society is based on shared values and norms into which members are socialised. For functionalists, society is seen as a system of social institutions such as the economy, religion and the family all of which perform socialisation functions.

Functionalism is seen as a macro-scale approach to society; it sees society as a whole rather than looking at parts of it. Due to this, functionalism sees society as a body (organic analogy), all the institutions work together to make society. This is particularly useful when observing society in order to understand the way in which it functions and the way in which all the institutions (organic analogy: organs within the body) work together to sustain society as a whole. Functionalism being a macro-scale approach is therefore seen as a strength as it allows functionalist sociologists to observe society, and its institutions, as a whole.

We survive in a world that, in spite of the fact that it has fringes, it is boundless. Individuals can travel anyplace, see anything, background each inclination that ever existed, yet we are not fulfilled. We attempt to force verges on ourselves, we battle today to be perceived as not having a place with their group, to be named as a feature of a littler gathering.The saddest and cruelest part of mankind to me; is the means by which each progressive era rehashes the same errors of the past one. A man can carry on with his entire life - oblivious of this legacy of collected knowledge. He may never go to these acknowledge until further down the road when on trial for homicide; he looks the mother of his casualty in the eyes and all of a sudden understands the genuine frightfulness of his wrongdoing and the trouble he hath fashioned. Human behavior, function and the way the human body works is always a reliable competition over compelled assets. From this perspective, those with more assets appear to have more power. This unfaltering conflict licenses society to create and moving forward and becoming something great.We often seem to think that our behavior comes from the brain and functions of our body but honestly it comes from the what you want to do, you have control over it all, that why we each call it “my

I think my value reflects the theory I have indicated in from my previous blog response because in the discussions, “Functionalists examine how sports contributes to the development of individuals, believing that sport teaches youth basic values and desirable characters such as team work, discipline, hard work, accepting authority, which help us get along in society, in the world.” (Buchanan 2017). In relation to the response, if it is something that I am passionate about, then I would continuously work with it to become a better productive person. For instance, I have failed many volley ball games but I accepted it by increasing effort to get the good results wanted, having the team look down on me, dependently.