Emotional Warning: This lesson discusses research about suicide. Just a heads up in case that is a traumatic topic for you.
Prep for class
Good students prepare for each class. While you wait for your peers to enter, please review your readings from last night.
You will have to demonstrate your ability to both recall the information from the readings and comprehend it.
Reading Quiz
This quiz will help you see if you can comprehend and recall the readings (Teen-Parent Conflicts and Syllabus) assigned yesterday. Once we are ready to begin, click here to open the reading quiz in this Google Form. Open it in a new window and answer the questions as best you can without using your reading.
Good students prepare for each class. While you wait for your peers to enter, please review your readings from last night.
You will have to demonstrate your ability to both recall the information from the readings and comprehend it.
Reading Quiz
This quiz will help you see if you can comprehend and recall the readings (Teen-Parent Conflicts and Syllabus) assigned yesterday. Once we are ready to begin, click here to open the reading quiz in this Google Form. Open it in a new window and answer the questions as best you can without using your reading.
Today's Lesson
Once you have finished the quiz, click here for the Google Form for today's lesson and open it in a new window so that you can answer the questions as we go along.
Questions 1: Any questions about the syllabus?
If not, then are you fired up?
Meditation
Today's lesson: Emile Durkheim and Structural-Functional Paradigm
Sociology was created as a reaction to the profound changes during the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution brought about changes from:
Meditation
Today's lesson: Emile Durkheim and Structural-Functional Paradigm
Sociology was created as a reaction to the profound changes during the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution brought about changes from:
- agricultural to industrial economy
- rural to urban living
- cottage system to factory system method of production
- a focus on group membership (tribe, religion, nation, family) to a belief in individualism
Structural-Functional Paradigm
The first paradigm we will consider is structural-functional. This paradigm was created by Emile Durkheim.
How was Durkheim's paradigm connected to the industrial revolution?
Durkheim studied suicide and found that within industrial Europe, the rate of suicide varied from country to country but it also stayed stable within each country. So, something that seemed like an individual choice, such as suicide, was really a product of the country a person lived in. Someone living in Britain was much more likely to commit suicide than someone living in Italy. In other words, something was happening in British society that was creating a problem for the individuals living there. Suicide was not an individual problem, it was a social one. Durkheim called these social problems dysfunctions.
How is society like a body? What does Durkheim focus on?
Durkheim said that societies have a structure made up of different systems that function to keep order in society. Just like a body has different systems such as a respiratory, circulatory, digestive and nervous system, a society has different systems like family, education, religion and government etc… These systems serve a function of keeping order in society by creating a structure for stability and continuity. Therefore, Durkheim's paradigm becomes known as structural-functional. Durkheim calls society that is productive and healthy functional, whereas a society that is not healthy is called dysfunctional.
Names as an example of Durkheim's structural-functional paradigm
How was Durkheim's paradigm connected to the industrial revolution?
Durkheim studied suicide and found that within industrial Europe, the rate of suicide varied from country to country but it also stayed stable within each country. So, something that seemed like an individual choice, such as suicide, was really a product of the country a person lived in. Someone living in Britain was much more likely to commit suicide than someone living in Italy. In other words, something was happening in British society that was creating a problem for the individuals living there. Suicide was not an individual problem, it was a social one. Durkheim called these social problems dysfunctions.
How is society like a body? What does Durkheim focus on?
Durkheim said that societies have a structure made up of different systems that function to keep order in society. Just like a body has different systems such as a respiratory, circulatory, digestive and nervous system, a society has different systems like family, education, religion and government etc… These systems serve a function of keeping order in society by creating a structure for stability and continuity. Therefore, Durkheim's paradigm becomes known as structural-functional. Durkheim calls society that is productive and healthy functional, whereas a society that is not healthy is called dysfunctional.
Names as an example of Durkheim's structural-functional paradigm
As an example of the structural-functional paradigm, names, like people, seem individual and unique. For example, when someone calls your name, you probably look up automatically and assume they are talking about you. And, indeed, for many of us, we are the only person who we know with our exact name. I don’t know anyone named Chris Salituro other than myself. However, names are not a unique trait unto ourselves. Instead, names are our first connection to community. Desmond Tutu, the Archbishop of South Africa once said “A solitary individual is not possible. We come into being because a community of people came together.” That community of people gives you a name and sees to it that you survive. We would not be alive if it wasn’t for their influence and nurture. So, names are a great way to examine how sociologists look at the world. Many aspects of our lives that seem like individual choices or individual traits are actually guided by social forces that are larger than us. Our families, schools, religions, governments and other social institutions all influence who we are, including in ways that we don’t even realize. The sociological perspective examines these influences from different perspectives.
1. In what ways does your name:
Some students will say that their parents just chose the name because they liked it. But closer research reveals that even this is not always the case. The Social Security Administration Baby Names Database tracks all of the names babies are given each year. You can view that information here: SSA Baby Name Database.
Additionally, a sociologist named Stanley Lieberson was a respected sociologist from Harvard who studied trends and fashions. He used the Social Security Names database to study how names spread in popularity similar to how fashion spreads. His research is an example of how the social institution of family creates stability. The naming of new babies is not simply personal; families influence each other. Read this NY Times[iii] article about Lieberson then try your own research with the data. If you wish to markup this reading, download it here.
2. Analyze the Teen-Parent Conflict reading using Durkheim. How is school and family functional for teens? How is it dysfunctional?
The structural-functional paradigm is one perspective that sociologists use. Can you explain it? Can you use it to examine your name?
- connect to family?
- connect to religion?
- impart morals and values?
- transmit cultural preferences and popular ideas?
Some students will say that their parents just chose the name because they liked it. But closer research reveals that even this is not always the case. The Social Security Administration Baby Names Database tracks all of the names babies are given each year. You can view that information here: SSA Baby Name Database.
Additionally, a sociologist named Stanley Lieberson was a respected sociologist from Harvard who studied trends and fashions. He used the Social Security Names database to study how names spread in popularity similar to how fashion spreads. His research is an example of how the social institution of family creates stability. The naming of new babies is not simply personal; families influence each other. Read this NY Times[iii] article about Lieberson then try your own research with the data. If you wish to markup this reading, download it here.
2. Analyze the Teen-Parent Conflict reading using Durkheim. How is school and family functional for teens? How is it dysfunctional?
The structural-functional paradigm is one perspective that sociologists use. Can you explain it? Can you use it to examine your name?
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