action

action theory

actor

culture

evolutionary universals

expressive revolution

historicism

latent pattern maintenance

norm

professionalism

role

sick role

social equilibrium

sociology

structural differentiation

structural functionalism

structurally

theory

value

youth culture

nationality

American

occupation / innovator as

sociologist

university professor

Harvard University

innovator in the field of

analytic realism

voluntarism

scientific organization

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

biologist

university teacher

history

human action is voluntary, intentional, and symbolic

is the idea that action is voluntary, intentional, and symbolic.

is not a person, much less an individual, but the outcome of an intersection between four 'action systems').

In Parsons, 'the actor is not a person, much less an individual, but the outcome of an intersection between four 'action systems'). 'Assuming that whatever an actor actually did, he or she could have done otherwise does not explain what the actor actually did. Free will and agency are moral concessions, not social facts' (Fuchs). . . knowing someone's intentions does not get us much closer to explaining or predicting social outcomes, since intentions and outcomes are very loosely coupled..' (Fuchs 'beyond agency'

is a complex external symbol structure [. . . ] that is able to bring about roughly the same type to orientation in any or all of the actors who happen to orient to it.

Culture has been distinguished from the other elements of action by the fact that it is intrinsically transmissible from one action system to another [by learning and by diffusion]. (p. 159)[. . . ]A complex external symbol structure [. . . ] can bring about roughly the same type to orientation in any or all of the actors who happen to orient to it. (p. 160)The consistency of pattern of such a system will exist to the extent to which the same combination of value judgments [. . . ] runs consistently throught the actors' responses to different situations. (p. 172)(from Toward a general theory of action. New York: Harper and Row. 1951.)

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To the elitist hedonist, life is the avoidance of boredom and routine.

Talcott Parsons criticized historicism as a case of idealistic fallacy in The Structure of Social Action (1937).

is a situational specification of the 'common societal value system'.

Parsons (1969:8), where, at the same time, he defines values by the help of norms and defends a 'distinction between value and differentiated norm' on the basis of the belief that norms can be regarded as situational specifications of the 'common societal value system' (1969:9)

is a standard that an individual relies on in judging how to act toward a given other person.

For Parsons, norms are standards that an individual, or 'ego,' relies on in judging how to act toward a given other person, or 'alter.' Proposals at this level of analysis can generate hypotheses about both specific subjective social values and specific features of social relations (although Parsons himself did not draw or test such predictions). Second, some of Parsons' descriptive claims about particular cultures strike us a promising ways in which to integrate observations by ethnographers and cross-cultural researchers.'

is an objective feature of society. Norms are simply selected. Not selectively constituted.

For Parsons, norms are objective features of society (1949, p. 75). They are simply selected and not selectively constituted by the principle of Wertbeziehung. Parsons's discussion of this principle suits this distinction: the ''subjective' direction of interest of the scientist,' understood by Weber as the basis for selectively constructing facts, is for Parsons an interest determining 'a coice of variables' (1949, pp585n., 683). Objectively specified norms establish the subjective meaning of the means-end relationship of action'

is a theoretical state of balance in a social system, whereby any small change in a social element is followed by changes in other related elements that work toward diminishing the first disturbance.

social equilibrium, a theoretical state of balance in a social system referring both to an internal balance between interrelated social phenomena and to the external relationship the system maintains with its environment. It is the tendency of the social system, when disturbed, to return to its original state, because any small change in a social element is followed by changes in other related elements that work toward diminishing the first disturbance. -- American sociologist Talcott Parsons postulated that all social systems tend to approximate a state of equilibrium, although no concrete system will actually reach a perfectly equilibrated state. To Parsons, the fully . . . (100 of 148 words)' (encyclopedia britanica)

is tasked to resolve the 'problem of order' as it involves the boundedness of social systems, defined by a question of integration... namely what holds the system together in the face of divisions of interest which would 'set all against all.'.

According to Parsons, the preeminent objective of sociology is to resolve the 'problem of order.' The problem of order is central to the interpretation of the boundedness of social systems, because it is defined as a question of integration what holds the system together in the face of divisions of interest which would 'set all against all.' (Giddens 1990:')

is a methodological development focusing on social structures that shape society.

Talcott Parsons, 'structural-functionalism' came to describe a particular stage in the methodological development of social science, rather than a specific school of thought.

 not only formulates what we know but also tells us what we want to know, that is, the questions to which an answer is needed.

Theory not only formulates what we know but also tells us what we want to know, that is, the questions to which an answer is needed. Talcott Parsons

is central to actions and institutions if a society is to be able to function in coherent enterprise.

values had to be central to actions and institutions if a society was to be able to function in coherent enterprise' (alexander meanings 16)

is the creative element in action (causally independent of the positivistic factors of heredity and environment).

the creative element in action in general, that element which is causally independent of the positivistic factors of heredity and environment' (1935: 306)

Talcott ParsonsThinkers

Talcott Parsons