Retrieved 27 Feb. Skip to main content. Gender Stratification and Inequality. Search for:. The Functionalist Perspective Brief The functionalist perspective of gender roles suggests that gender roles exist to maximize social efficiency. Learning Objectives Describe gender inequality from the view of the functionalist perspective.
Key Takeaways The functionalist perspective sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability.
This approach looks at society through a macro-level orientation and broadly focuses on the social structures that shape society as a whole. This theory suggests that gender inequalities exist as an efficient way to create a division of labor , or as a social system in which a particular segment of the population is clearly responsible for certain acts of labor and another segment is clearly responsible for other labor acts.
Another noted structural functionalist, Robert Merton — , pointed out that social processes often have many functions. Functionalism has been criticized for downplaying the role of individual action, and for being unable to account for social change.
In the functionalist perspective, society and its institutions are the primary units of analysis. Functionalism emphasizes the consensus and order that exist in society, focusing on social stability and shared public values.
From this perspective, disorganization in the system, such as deviant behavior, leads to change because societal components must adjust to achieve stability. Firstly, functionalism has been deemed useful for understanding society on the grounds that it successfully demonstrates that social institutions are connected to, and dependent on one another.
Essentially, this means that if one institution or human organ stops working, the whole system or body collapses. For functionalists, the family creates well-integrated members of society and instills culture into the new members of society. It provides important ascribed statuses such as social class and ethnicity to new members. It is responsible for social replacement by reproducing new members, to replace its dying members. From a functionalist perspective, society is regarded as a system.
Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Ben Davis November 17, One of Wundt's students, Edward B. Titchener , would later go on to formally establish and name structuralism, although he broke away from many of Wundt's ideas and at times even misrepresented the teachings of his mentor.
Wundt's theories tended to be much more holistic than the ideas that Titchener later introduced in the United States. Structuralism is important because it is the first major school of thought in psychology. The structuralist school also influenced the development of experimental psychology. While Wundt's work helped to establish psychology as a separate science and contributed methods to experimental psychology, Titchener's development of structuralism helped establish the very first "school" of psychology.
Structuralism itself did not last long beyond Titchener's death. Other critics argue that structuralism was too concerned with internal behavior, which is not directly observable and cannot be accurately measured. Other theories also surfaced to vie for dominance in psychology. In response to structuralism, an American perspective known as functionalism emerged from thinkers such as the evolutionist Charles Darwin and William James. Functionalists sought to explain mental processes in a more systematic and accurate manner.
Rather than focusing on the elements of consciousness, functionalists focused on the purpose of consciousness and behavior. Functionalism also emphasized individual differences, which had a profound impact on education.
Functionalism was an important influence on psychology. It influenced the development of behaviorism and applied psychology. Functionalism was criticized perhaps most famously by Wundt. While these two schools of thought served as the foundation for the future developments of psychology, there were important differences between the two.
In , Mary Whiton Calkins published an article in Psychological Review asking for a reconciliation between these two schools of thought. Structuralism and functionalism were not so different, she argued, since both are principally concerned with the conscious self. Despite this, each side continued to cast aspersions on the other. William James wrote that structuralism had "plenty of school, but no thought," while Wilhelm Wundt dismissed functionalism as "literature" as unscientific.
Eventually, both of these schools of thought lost dominance in psychology, replaced by the rise of behaviorism , psychoanalysis , humanism , and cognitive psychology through the beginning and middle part of the twentieth century. While neither of these early schools of thought remains in use today, both influenced the development of modern psychology. Structuralism played a role in the drive to make psychology a more experimental science, while functionalism laid the groundwork for the development of behaviorism.
By understanding these two schools of thought, you can gain a greater appreciation of how psychology developed into the discipline it is today. Ever wonder what your personality type means? Sign up to find out more in our Healthy Mind newsletter. King A.
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