Analysis Of The Theory Of Pattern Variables By Talcott Parsons
Talcott Parsons' concept of pattern variables bridges the gap between social action and social system. These pattern variables provide a way of categorizing the types of choices and forms of orientation for individual social actors. Pattern variables also provide a means of describing and classifying institutions, social relationships, and different societies, and the values and norms of these. Parson’s mentions five pattern variables affectivity/affective-neutrality, self-orientation/collectivity-orientation, universalism/particularism, ascription/achievement, and specificity/diffuseness.
Affectively/ affective-neutrality is the amount of emotion that is appropriate in an interaction). Example If we are highly emotional, we want an emotional response. If our approach is highly neutral, we want an indirect response to show that the problem has been thought through. Affectivity: A child is allowed to show ‘love” for his/her parent(s). Affective-neutrality a bureaucrat in an organization; such as, the DMV or a teacher grading papers is expected to be emotionally “neutral. ”
Self-Orientation/ Collectivity-Orientation is the extent of the collective interest, as opposed to self-interest in a social action based on the actor’s needs, goals and interest) Examples: self-orientation: a student decides what to study in college based on his/her own interest. Collectivity- orientation: a child quits school to work to support his/her family.
Universalism/Particularism is the range of people that an individual must consider when involved in social action). Universalism: based on general standards or universal laws and moral rules. Supreme court decides cases according to rules that are valid for the whole community. Particularism- based on the priority and attachment that actors place on relationships. Example: support a friend without considerering whether his/her actions were right or wrong. Parent-child or friendship. relationships tend to be of this sort, where the relationship is likely to be very particular, but at the same time very diffuse. In contrast, a bureaucracy is characterized by universal forms of relationships, where everyone is to be treated impartially and much the same. No particularism or favoritism is to be extended to anyone, even to a close friend or family member.
Ascription/Achievement is the ascription refers to actions based on given attributes qualities like sex, ethnicity, race, family status. Example: elgibiliy for the draft, allowed to buy alcohol or vote because you have reached a specific age. while achievement refers to the actions based on performance). Achievement refers to performance, and emphasizes individual achievement. For example, we might say that someone has achieved a prestigious position even though their ascribed status was that of poverty and disadvantage. Example: graduation from college is based on a student’s completion of requirements for graduation.
Specificity/Diffuseness based on specific criteria or roles. Example: clerk/customer or teacher/ student roles, there are narrowly and clearly defined criteria for interaction. Diffuseness: open guidelines For example: befriending a teacher goes beyond the clear boundaries of the teacher/ student relation 12. According to Parsons, social systems have needs. In order to survive and continue, each social system or subsystem has four characteristics that must be met Parsons conceives of social interaction as a structured affair and provides a series of structural independently variable components: role, collectivity, norm, and value. These roughly cover the social structure from individual to social system. A role we conceive as defining a class of individuals who are involved in a particular collectivity. Hence, roles comprise the primary zones of interpenetration between the social system and the personality of the individual. IN order for interaction to be stable, roles and actions must have meanings and be governed by understood, shared rules. Rules define goals and the consequences of ant given move by one player for the situation in which the other must make his choice A role is never idiosyncratic to a particular individual, however. . For any individual, there are many roles, and one role is only a sector in his behavioral system, and hence of his personality. In addition, in any given system, the concepts of role and collectivity are particularistic A father is specific to his children in his fatherhood, but he is a father in terms of the role-structure of his society. At the same time, he also participates in various other contexts of interaction, filling, for example, an occupational role. Collectivity refers to a miscellaneous set of behaviors in which large numbers of people engage.
These behaviors can be miscellaneous, relatively spontaneous, or relatively unstructured behavior amongst large numbers of individuals acting with or being influenced by other individuals. Examples of common forms of collective behavior include crowds, mobs, panics, riots, and rumors. Some of these forms involve people who are generally in each other’s presence and who are more or less interacting with each other, while other forms involve people who are not in each other’s presence but share certain beliefs or concerns.
Norms are rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members. They provide an action frame of reference for analyzing social structure and its functions. They include not only value components specified to appropriate levels in the structure of a social system, but also specific modes of orientation for acting under the functional and situational conditions of particular collectivities and roles. Examples in western culture, public norms To make a good impression on other members of your community there are social norms that are commonly accepted, such as: Shake hands when you meet someone. Make direct eye contact with the person you are speaking with. Social norms vary between countries and from social class to social class and from social group to social group. Each group can share many of the same social norms; and, the group may have a few special norms. Values are conceptions of desirable types of social systems that regulate the making of commitments by social units. Values give direction to the way that individuals, organizations, and societies act; what they strive for; and what they deem important. Values are culturally approved, internalized wishes that motivate our actions. Values are relatively abstract notions that inspire our beliefs and attitudes and determine what we strive for. Provides goals or ends for the members to aim for. Values provide for stabilities and uniformities in group interaction, hence create sense of belongingness among people who shared commonly. Bring legitimacy to the rules that govern specific activities. Robert K. Merton suggested that the most important values in American society are wealth, success, power, and prestige, but that everyone does not have an equal opportunity to attain these values.
Parsons theorized about social systems having needs, and in order for a social system to flourish, it had four characteristics that must be met (Integration; regulation of social relationships in a group), and L (Latent Pattern Maintenance; management of tensions and diffusing and resolving conflicts). A. G. I. L. (adaptation, goal- attainment, integration, and latent pattern maintenance) is the four functional imperatives for all action systems of Parsons's structural functionalism.
The 1st of Parson's four functional imperatives Adapatation is the ability to adapt or adjust to the environment and is the problem of acquiring sufficient resources. A system must adjust to its environment and adjust the environment to its needs. , as well as, cope with external situational dangers and contingencies. Adaptation is concerned with providing additional disposable facilities independent of their relevance to any particular goal. It is the focus for economic organization. An example are organizations oriented to economic production, such as business firms.
The second of Parson's functional imperatives is goal attainment. Goal- attainment is a sense of purpose. It involves the need for a system to define and achieve its primary goals and is the problem of settling and implementing goals. Systems often have a plurality of goals. For the social system as such, goal-orientation concerns, therefore, not commitment to the values of the society, but motivation to contribute what is necessary for the functioning of the system. Example Org's oriented to political goals -- Government agencies, banks.
The 3rd of Parson's functional imperatives is integration. Integration is the regulation of social relationships in a group. It also involves the management of the relationship among the other 3 functional imperatives. Integration stands between the functions of pattern-maintenance and goal-attainment. The functional problem of integration concerns the mutual adjustments of segmented units or subsystems from the point of view of their contributions to the effective functioning of the system as a whole. In a highly differentiated society, the primary focus of the integrative mechanism is found in the system of legal norms and the associated legal system. The system as a whole is concerned most with the allocation of rights and obligations. Example Integrative Organizations -- Courts, political parties, social-control agencies.
Lastly, the fourth functional imperatives is latent pattern maintenance or just pattern maintenance. This imperative is the management of tensions and diffusing and resolving conflicts. Pattern maintenance involves the need to furnish, maintain, and renew the cultural patterns that create and sustain individual motivation. The function of pattern maintenance refers to the imperative of maintaining the stability of patterns of institutionalized culture defining the structure of the system. There are two distinct aspects of this function. The first concerns the character of the normative pattern itself; the focus lies in the structural category of values. The second concerns its state of institutionalization, which concerns the motivational commitment of the individual. Example Pattern – maintenance organization – museums, educational org's, religious org's. 15. Social mechanisms are the ways that people, activities, and other building blocks of society interact. Social mechanisms include particular ways that people relate to one another, the tendencies we notice about our society, and the sequence in which things typically take place. He looked at social mechanisms as a way of better understanding the glue that holds society together. Status, Power, Privacy, Role- set (role abridgment)Merton pointed out that one social mechanism that comes into play to hold society together is that some of the statuses we have may be more scrutinized than others. If all of our statuses were under a microscope and were equally important all of the time, it would be very difficult for us to act out our role set. Their importance is relative, with some more important and some less important. The part-time volunteer work a person does on the weekends, for instance, does not demand the same attention as a full-time job. You can prioritize the more important status as appropriate which helps simplify things for you and for society. They looked at how one social status includes many roles and behaviors. In order to explain why society can function in spite of the complexity of these role sets, he identified several specific social mechanisms that are the glue that maintains the social structure.
He also noticed that the people within our role set have different levels of power. If all of the people in our role set had equal power and differing opinions, we would be stuck, unable to make a decision. Instead, because they have different levels of power, we can weigh the concerns of the people of importance in our role set and then make a decision of our own.
Another social mechanism he identified is the privacy we have in our relations with those in our role set. For instance, if you are a lawyer, your client does not know all of the demands on your time. You are not under surveillance, being watched by those in your role set. This gives you freedom to advocate for what you need without others having full knowledge of your situation. Like the other mechanisms listed so far, this privacy helps simplify things more than if we could all see into one another's business all of the time.
On the other hand, we do not have 100% privacy, but Merton says that's a good thing. You would not want those in your life to be completely ignorant to the other roles you play. For instance, your coworker may have an expectation that you help him with learning a new task of the job, but if he sees your supervisor putting pressure on you to accomplish your own tasks, his expectations of you may diminish. Just as privacy helps simplify society, a healthy awareness of what others experience helps simplify things as well. Society would not function as well if we were all oblivious to each other's circumstances.
Merton mentions one last mechanism that he considers less common. In a few cases, he notes that a role set may have to be abridged, or purposely limited, due to excessive demands. An example of role abridgment is when a particular relationship must be cut off. Merton described this as a less frequent option but still one of the ways that the larger social structure survives the tension in our role sets.
He noted that not all of our social statuses are of equal importance, and that people and relationships in our role set do not all carry the same weight. As a result, we act more independently than we would if all statuses and relationships were equal. He recognized that we do have some privacy where we are insulated from having our activities scrutinized, but our actions are visible enough that the people in our role set may recognize some of the conflicts we experience. All of these mechanisms contribute to a more stable social structure. In his view, these mechanisms help explain how we can have such complex role sets and yet still function and progress as a society.
