2 Durkheim's Structural Functional Paradigm; "Hello, My Name is Emile"

As we wait for students to join class, please read the following:

Note:  Sociology can be emotional (and today's lesson involves the topic of suicide)

Sociology as an academic discipline examines all parts of society - to be clear, 

sociology is the study of how society/social groups influence the individuals within them.  

This makes the discipline a very relevant subject.   Students will find just about any topic that interests them has sociological research about it.  However, some topics of everyday life can be emotional.  Just watching the evening news reveals many topics in everyday life that might create a visceral response: murder, environmental pollution, racism, sexual assault and sexism are just to name a few.  All of these are an emotional part of everyday American society.  Sociology as a discipline examines all of these areas.  The researchers studying these topics do not want to be morbid or grotesquely critical of our society out of spite.  Instead, they want to shed light on aspects of society that we might not like to talk about;  with proper academic attention, we can understand these emotional events better and perhaps even improve our society.  I know that talking about suicide or racism or sexual assault all can be emotionally wrought experiences.  But in the end, sociology will help us all understand these and other social ills better and hopefully, help us to strengthen society against them so that we all may live in a more peaceful and content society and be true to ourselves.   

1. Do you think you will be okay discussing these difficult topics?

Please open this Google Form in a new tab and answer question 1 above.  Then, leave the window open and answer the rest of the questions when prompted as we move along in the lesson.

Yesterday's introduction explained that sociology is the scientific study of the ways that individuals are influenced by those whom they interact with (their society).   Three scholars were very influential in the studying of industrial society during the 1800s.  Each scholar created a paradigm that became a foundation for the discipline of sociology.

Emile Durkheim and Structural-Functional Paradigm

The first paradigm we will consider is called Structural-functional.  This paradigm was created by Emile Durkheim.  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.  

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, economy, 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 says that when the structures help to make life healthy for individuals, the structures are functional, whereas structures that are not healthy for individuals are called dysfunctional.

In sum, The institutions/structures provide stability and continuity for individuals - like helping individuals survive and thrive. The structures help us understand what is expected of us and provide an identity and a purpose. This is functional.

Dysfunctions are when these institutions do not meet those needs and instead individuals are harmed by the institutions.

Graphic Organizer for the sociological perspective
Download this framework for understanding sociology.  This will be a graphic organizer to help you quickly recall the lessons from this unit and see the connections between them.  After you download the document, find the top of the pyramid as indicated in the picture below:

Then, add the notes for Emile Durkheim's paradigm:

2.  Any questions so far about the beginnings of sociology and Durkheim and his structural-functional paradigm?


Applying Structural-functional to your life

Revisit the demographic survey that you filled out yesterday. Look at the structures of society that you wrote about in part 1 (especially family, school, work)

3.  How do they provide stability or structure in your life?  

4.  What function do the structures provide - in other words, what purposes do they serve in your life?

5.  What are some ways that these structures interact or depend on each other?

6.  Realize that the individual way that you personally are influenced by these structures is not sociology - instead, the ways that these structures affect unrelated individuals similarly are sociological.  With that in mind, are these similar to the other students at your table?


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 Christopher Joseph 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.

7.  List any ways that your name: 

• connects to family 
• connects to religion 
• represents morals or values 
• transmits cultural preferences and popular ideas

8.  Do you see how your name reflects the influences that come from families, schools/peers, religions, popular culture?  

And do you understand that when people are given a name it can impart values or traditions that connect you to family, religion, or other social structures?  

If you don't understand either of these, please indicate what is confusing.

9.  The structural-functional paradigm is one perspective that sociologists use.  Can you explain it?  Can you use it to examine your own life?