Essay on the Functional Problems of Social System

Essay on the Functional Problems of Social System – The functional theory has to answer questions such as- “If social life is to persist what condi­tions must be met with by the group or social system?” Several of Parsons’ students have compiled a list that they call the “Functionalpre-requisites” of any social system. They can be grouped under four headings.

In fact, they represent four recurrent functional problems which every social system must solve in its attempts to adapt itself to the basic facts of life. As mentioned by H.M. Johnson they are: (i) pattern maintenance and tension management, (ii) adaptation, (iii) goal attainment, and (iv) integration.

1. Pattern Maintenance

A social system has its own patterns which must be maintained. The units of the system, that is, role-occupants or sub-groups, must learn these patterns and develop an attitude of respect towards them. Thus any social system must have mechanisms of “socialisation “.

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Through the process of socialisation the cultural patterns of the system become a part and parcel of the personalities of its members. After they are learnt the cultural patterns have to be renewed. They are renewed through appropriate rituals and other symbols.

2. Tension Management:

A human group cannot endure if it fails to meet the individual human needs of its members. The units of any system, i.e., individuals or sub-groups are subject to emo­tional disturbance and distractions. Man’s emotional, spiritual, and cultural requirements are ex­tremely complex.

Still they must be met with or “managed” if the units are to be able to carry on effectively. All social systems provide for relaxation from tension by means of activities that allow a person to express his or her inner feelings.

For example, dance and the arts do this task. All societ­ies provide special structural arrangements for differences in sex and also for such crucial events as births and deaths. Wherever there is social life, there are structures or patterns of leisure and recre­ation, crafts, art, and some form of religion expressed in myths or elaborate ritual.

3. Adaptation:

Any social system must be adapted to its social and non-social environment for a society to survive it must have a technology adequate to provide food, shelter and clothing. The economy of the society meets this need.

Every ‘permanent’ social system has its own division of labour. Because, for the production of goods and service, ‘role differentiation becomes necessary. It is known that no one person can perform simultaneously all the tasks that have to be performed.

The system must also provide care for the helpless young and protection against animal and human predators. Many of the structures existing in any society are designed to fulfill these essential func­tions.

4. Goal Attainment:

Every social system has one or more goals to be attained, through co­operative effort. ‘National security’- can be cited here as the best example of a societal goal.

Adap­tation to the environment, social and non-social, is necessary if goals are to be attained. Further, in accordance with the specific nature of tasks of the system, the human and non-human resources must be mobilized in some effective way.

For example, in any social system there must be a proper process for determining which persons will occupy what role at what time for what purpose. The problem of allocation of members within the social system will be solved by such a process. The rules regulating inheritance, for example, solve this problem in part.

The allocation of members and the allocation of scarce resources are important for both adap­tation and goal attainment. The economy of a society as a sub-system produces goods and services for various purposes.

The government in complex societies mobilizes goods and services for the attainment of specific goals of the total society. Example: A business firm may have the goal of producing steel. The goal is adaptive for the society because steel can be used for many purposes, including the purposes of other business firms.

The steel company faces the adaptive problem. It means, it had to adjust to the government and to competing firms and provides itself with the neces­sary raw materials for its productive goals.

5. Integration:

Since they live in groups men and women must consider the needs of the group as well as their own needs. They must coordinate and integrate their actions. ‘Integration’ has to do with the interrelations of units of social system, that is, individuals and groups. “To some extent, the members of a system must be loyal to one another and to the system as a whole.

This is a problem of solidarity and morale”. Morale is important for both integration and pattern maintenance. It is closely related to common values. It is the willingness to give oneself to specific undertakings.

In the routine living, the goals and interests of the whole society are not very much interests of the whole society and are not very much present in the minds of most of its mem­bers. That way, the interests of sub-groups are always remembered. But during the period of crisis such as war or revolution the goal and interest must always dominate if the society is to survive an independent group.

In almost every social system, some participants, including whole sub-groups, violate the norms. Since the norms fulfill some social needs, their violations are a threat to the social system. Thus, the need for “social control” arises. It is essential to protect the integrity of the system.

“Thus, the elaborate rules provide orderly procedures to determine who will occupy given sites, to control the use of force and fraud, to co-ordinate traffic, to regulate sexual behaviour, to govern the conditions of exchange, and so on”.

Since the individual members are often motivated by “self-interests” chances of clashes taking place between them cannot be ruled out. Sometimes, even with best morale we find threats to inte­gration. Hence, there must be mechanism for restoring solidarity. Such mechanisms are normally operative most of the time.

It must be noted that even with the well-institutionalized norms, in­stances of deviance do take place. The deviations may even become disruptive. Hence, there is the need for “secondary” mechanism of social control. Example: In the modern state, the whole appara­tus of catching and rehabilitating the criminal represents such a kind of secondary mechanism.