SOC 201 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Family Therapy
Document Summary
Sociologists who work from a functionalist paradigm tend to share three major assumptions about the nature of the social world: within a particular society, there is a great deal of consensus about what values and norms are important. In a particular society, for example, there may be consensus that working hard is important, that murder is bad, that obtaining a lot of wealth is good, and so on. Regardless of the nature of the values and norms, functional perspectives assume that there is a general consensus about them in society: society is an entity or whole that is made up of many integrated parts. Because all the parts are integrated, or tied together, when one part of society changes, other parts will change in response. For example, if the economic system changes, then the education and family systems will change as well: society tends to seek stability and avoid conflict. Conflict is not normal, but is dysfunctional or pathological.
