The theory outlined two rights of a sick person and two obligations. “Being Sick” is not simply a “condition” it contains within itself customary rights and obligations based on the social norms that surround it. The general idea is that the individual who has fallen ill is not only physically sick, but now adheres to the specifically patterned social role of being sick. In the functionalist model, Parsons argued that the best way to understand illness sociologically is to view it as a form of deviance that disturbs the social function of the society. Therefore this deviance needs to be policed, which is the role of the medical profession. This is because, from a functionalist perspective, a sick individual is not a productive member of society. Parsons was a functionalist sociologist who argued that being sick means that the sufferer enters a role of “sanctioned deviance”. It is a concept created by the American sociologist Talcott Parsons in 1951. Sick role is a term used in medical sociology regarding sickness and the rights and obligations of the affected. For Talcott Parsons (1902–1979), an American sociologist, “structural-functionalism” came to describe a particular stage in the methodological development of social science, rather than a specific school of thought. A common analogy, popularized by Herbert Spencer, presents these parts of society as “organs” that work toward the proper functioning of the “body” as a whole. Herbert Spencer: Herbert Spencer was a prominent functionalist sociologist, who likened the functioning parts of society as organs within a body.įunctionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements namely norms, customs, traditions, and institutions.

Moore, Robert Merton, and Gabriel Almond and Bingham Powell. Prominent functionalist theorists include Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Talcott Parsons, Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. This approach looks at both social structure and social functions. This approach looks at society through a macro-level orientation, which is a broad focus on the social structures that shape society as a whole. Structural functionalism, or simply functionalism, is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. structuralism: A theory of sociology that views elements of society as part of a cohesive, self-supporting structure.deviance: Actions or behaviors that violate formal and informal cultural norms, such as laws or the norm that discourages public nose-picking.

Structuralism functionalism theory