Psychology 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 72: Wield, Ludwig Gumplowicz, Social Fact

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Dr.Mike

Document Summary

Functionalism is a system of thinking based on ideas of emile durkheim that look at society from large-scale perspective, and how each part helps keep society stable: it says that society is heading towards equilibrium. Ex. local businesses must adapt to new ways to cater to customers (in response to a disrupter such as amazon for example: also called structural functionalism. The structural functionalism approach is a macrosociological analysis, with a broad focus on social structures that shape society as a whole. Durkheim imagined a balance between institutions and social facts: institutions are structures that meet the needs of society like education systems, financial institutions, marriage, laws, etc. [also: business, law, military, police force, mass-media, nongovernmental organizations, religion: social facts are ways of thinking and acting formed by society that existed before any one individual and will still exist after any individual is dead.