SOCIAL ACTION – TALCOTT PARSONS

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UPSC SOCIOLOGY – Paper 1 – SOCIOLOGICAL THINKERS – Talcott Parsons – Social System; Pattern Variables. 

 

  • Talcott Parsons is said to be the pioneer of functionalism in Sociology.
  • He introduced grand functional theories.
  • He synthesized micro and macro view which is evident in his theory of social action and social system respectively.
  • He took a systematic view of society and the problems of order and integration work were his central concerns.
  • According to him,  value consensus is the integrating force in society.

 

SOCIAL ACTION

  • He considers that all possible empirical action of the people can be arrested into a universal theoretical framework.
  • He proposed a Voluntaristic Theory of Social Action.
  • His Action Theory tries to bridge the differences between the positivists and the interpretivists by incorporating both the objective and subjective elements and it emphasized on an action frame of reference.

 

DEFINITION AND CONDITIONS OF SOCIAL ACTION

  • In his seminal work ‘The Structure of Social Action’ 1937, Parsons define Social Action as ‘any act,  consciously performed’.
  • Four conditions for social action
    1. It occurs in a social situation.
    2. It is oriented towards attainment of a particular goal.
    3. Action is regulated by norms and values.
    4. It involves investment of energy.

 

 

INFLUENCES ON ACTOR OF SOCIAL ACTION

  • Motivational Orientation – It is due to the personal condition of the actor. It is affected by cognitive and evaluated needs of an individual.
  • Value Orientation – It refers to the influence of norms and values of society.


THREE TYPES OF ACTIONS

  • Instrumental Action
    In this type of action, the evaluative component is the most dominating.
    Both means and ends are logically decided.
  • Expressive Action
    In this type of action, the appreciative component is dominant.
  • Moral Action
    The actor’s own motivation is subordinate to the values of society.

SOCIAL SYSTEM

  • Actions do not occur in isolation.
  • It occurs in the forms of institutionalized  social interactions and this is called the social system.
  • Social interaction is a prerequisite for social system to emerge.
  • Social system consists of plurality of individual actors interacting with each other, in a situation which has an environment with actors who are motivated in terms of a tendency to the optimisation of gratification.