Functionalism, And Continuity Theory Paper

Functionalism is a structuralist theory; this meaning that it sees social structure (the social organisation of society) as more important than individuals. Functionalist sociologists believe that people have a range of basic needs that must be met if society is to run smoothly. Different groups and individuals in society are important because they perform certain functions which meet society's needs. Functionalism supports the family in nearly every way, to the support it offers to the next generation and the way it teaches them the four functions they need to survive. George Peter Murdock described the family as being “a social group characterized

Structural Functionalism aims to understand society in an objective way. It views society as an entity that is “objectively real”. It emphasizes the unity of society, and how individuals perform roles and how these roles are vital in meeting the needs of the collective whole. For instance, because every society has stratification, stratification must have certain functions and these functions can contribute to the survival of the social system as a whole. Furthermore, structural

Activity theory of aging suggest that when elderly people interact with the community and include activities in their daily routine they are their happiest (Baird, 2011, p. 187). Ariel stated that “everyone need some form of release” (Lemmon, 1995).

The Functionalist theory emphasizes the contributions (functions) that all parts of society (e.g., social institutions) make within society. This theory has contributed to sociology by providing a view “which emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain stability.” (Schafer 2013, pg13)

The Functionalist theory believes that Social stratification, including age inequality, is necessary for the functioning of a healthy society. Their perspective of social inequality is the belief that "inequality is not only inevitable but also necessary for the smooth functioning of society’. Functionalists believe that Age has become more important in modern society; age provides the function of social integration leading to social cohesion. Parson argues that social cohesion is based on age groups knowing their place and their role. Children must be socialized into their adult roles. Eisenstadt agreed and argued that children have less status then adults. They must

Successful aging is a complicated and multifaceted concept that varies contextually among individuals, disciplines, and even time. Gerontologists have traditionally considered a person to have aged successfully upon having reached old age with their physical health, mental well-being and spirit still intact. Ultimately, successful aging is a matter of personal perspective, largely influenced by an individual 's values and experiences. Even those within America 's elderly population hold conflicting perspectives on what it means to have aged successfully. A qualitative study published by Reichstadt and Sengupta titled Older Adults ' Perspectives on Successful Aging, concluded that “older adults viewed successful aging as a balance between self-acceptance and self-contentedness on one hand and engagement with life and self-growth in later life on the other” (Reichstadt, "Older Adults ' Perspectives on Successful Aging: Qualitative Interviews", pp. 567-575.)

Erikson’s (1968, 1980, 1982) psychosocial stages of development provide a framework for the different stages of development throughout the human lifespan. These stages of development begin at birth and continue until death, and separate the lifespan into eight stages based on chronological age. Within these eight different aging stages are corresponding psychosocial stages. Each of these psychosocial stages represent a conflict between two characteristics of development for that particular time period in a person’s life.

During the aging process, the elderly may take different approaches to aging and may apply to different theories of aging such as the disengagement theory and the activity theory. All elderly individuals will deal with aging in different ways, they may wish to stay active or they may wish to disengage themselves due to depression or they may be unable to deal with the processes of becoming older. Both of these theories of aging have completely different thoughts and views of the aging process.

The Activity Theory was originally an idea that was proposed by Lemon Bengtson &Peterson this proposal was seen to have a much more hopeful and positive view on ageing in comparison to the disengagement theory by Cumming and Henry. The activity theory suggests that as people get older their ageing process will be more successful if they maintain their roles and responsibilities as they did when they were younger this is if they

The first theory in sociology concerning aging is the disengagement theory from the functionalist perspective, developed by Elaine Cummings and Warren Earl Henry. Cummings and Henry theorized that as people age, older people should disengage from their roles in society and take on more roles that they are more accommodating to their degenerating physical and mental state. By older people leaving their roles in immediate society, they allow younger, more capable individuals to fill those spots, providing more productive and efficient results. A critical problem with this theory is that it assumes that older people are incapable of

Functionalism looks at society in aspects of how it contributes to the steadiness/cohesion of the whole society (Anderson, Taylor, & Logio, P. 18). There are many institutions that are looked at that include the economic system, government, education, religion, health care, and family. All of which have different roles and perform different functions to ensure that society operates in a well-ordered manner. An example of this would be how family reproduces, takes care of children, exposes children to culture and heritage, supports other family members, and shares life experiences. Shared values and social stability are keys to this perspective. When this system breaks down it is because people’s needs are not being covered and shared values are deteriorating. When this occurs, it affects all parts of functionalism and the society must achieve

The Functionalist Perspective in sociology states that everyone in the society holds a position and in this position their status has a set of roles or certain behaviors that are required to perform the tasks at hand (Kornblum and Julian, 2004.) The roles consist of nurses at the medical institutions, lawyer's at international firms or just a blue collar worker at any type of factory. For the most part, each status' role is involved in an institution of some kind and is needed for the economy and society to function as a whole. "The Functionalist Perspective looks at the way major social instructions like the family, military, the health-care system, and the police and courts actually operate (Kornblum and Julian, 2004, 6.)" This basically means that for these institutions that are needed to fulfill these roles and duties for the economy, the roles and behaviors of employees need to evolve as a whole so that the institution can function (Kornblum and Julian, 2004.) For example, a nurse needs to know certain things about her job like what medicine can treat a certain

The source of the activity theory lies on the need to stay occupied in actions persists into older life, but the connotation and the focal point alters. Older individuals have the similar requirements, desires, and motivations as with the individuals in their

As human beings age, according to Erik Erikson, they go through developmental stages that help to create and transform their personalities. If needs are met and the ego is gratified, then the individual is able to move on to the next challenge. Onward they march in life and in stage until they find the end level: integrity versus despair. This has been categorized as adults 65 years and older by Erikson. Here, people are to reminisce and judge their lives in terms of merit or disappointment. Erikson himself had a lot to comb through in his later years.

Throughout this semester we have come across many psychological and social theories. From Vaillant’s aging well, to Erikson’s life stages, to Leont’ev’s activity theory, there is a lot to learn and to understand. For the purpose of this paper, I am going to focus on the Activity Theory of aging. After some thorough research on this topic I was able to come up with some great information about