I. Basis for Parsons Theory
....A. Development of small set of abstract concepts that isolate what is most common about.human behavior and
........social reality
........1. these form a “generalized system of concepts”
........2. interrelated concepts that reflect the most important features of social reality
....B. in this way the complexity of social reality is reduced
II. Parsons Theory of Action
....A. Parsons tackles utilitarianism
........1. Problem with utilitarianism
............a. do humans always behave rationally?
............b. are human always free and unregulated?
............c. how is order possible in an unregulated and competitive system?
........2. Positive aspects of utilitarianism
............a. behavior is goal-oriented
............b. choice-making capacity of humans to weigh alternative lines of action
........3. thus Parsons wants to create a sociologically informed utilitarian theory
............a. referred to a voluntaristic action
....C. 6 assumptions of voluntaristic action
........1. actors are individual persons
........2. actors are goal-seeking
........3.  actors have available to them alternative means to achieve goals
........4. actors are confronted by situational conditions that influence selection of means
............a. biological make-up and heredity
............b. external ecological constraints
........5. actors are govenered by values, norms and other ideas that influence choice of goals and means to attain them
........6. action involves
............a. actors making decision about the means to achieve goals
............b. choice constrained by ideas and situational constraints
....D. This is the “unit act”—the most basic social process from which more complex processes and structures are built
........1. like positvist science
............a. finds the smallest particle of society
............b. finds what is most common among all behavior
....E. Example: you need money
........1. what alternative are there
........2. how do situational constraints limit these
........3. how do values and norms limit these
....F. Problem: unit act is too atomistic to explain larger more complex systems
III. Parsons systems thinking in The Social System
....A. Actors are oriented to situations via motives and values—“modes of orientation”
........1. motives—needs and readiness to mobilize energy
........2. 3 types of motives
............a. cognitive—need for information
............b. cathetic—need for emotional attachment
............c. evaluative—need for assessment
........3. values—conceptions of what is appropriate
........4. 3 types of values
............a. cognitive—evaluation by objective standards
............b. appreciative—evaluation by aesthetic standards
............c. moral—evaluation by absolute standards of right and wrong
........5. which ever orientation is strongest will determine the type of behavior
............a. instrumental
............b. expressive
............c. moral
........6. unit acts always contain motivational and value orientation
....B. Process of institutionalization
........1. different actors have different orientations
........2. as they interact, they develop agreements which regularizes their interaction
........3. these stabilized patterns of interaction become “institutionalized”
........4. from institutionalized patterns of interactions social systems emerge
....C. Social systems have their own level of reality
........1. thus not simply an aggregate of interacting situationally-oriented people
........2. as a result social systems require their own higher-order conceptualization
........3. society is a system of statuses, roles and norms
........4. issue: how do interacting oriented actors “fit into” this level of reality
....D. Action at this level composed of 3 interpenetrating action systems
........1. cultural
........2. social
........3. personality--cathectic
....E. institutionalized patterns are limited by
........1. values, beliefs, and norms (cultural system)
........2. motives and role-playing skills (personality system)
....F. Pattern variables—dilemmas of orientation that actor has to choose from before situation becomes defined
........1. cuts across all 3 systems
............a. expectations or predispositions of actors (personality)
............b. pattern of value orientations (cultural)
............c. role-expectations (social)
........2. pattern variables are a dichotomy
............a. 5 variables
............b. one side of all 5 variables must be chosen to orient oneself to a situation
............c. in this way they constitute a system of value standards
............d. the first pattern relates to Gemeinschaft; second pattern relates to Gesellschaft
........3. 5 pattern variables at the level of the social system

....G. Big questions left: why do institutionalized patterns of interaction persist, i.e., how does society survive?
........1. answer: the way personality and cultural systems are integrated with social system
........2. personality system integrated into social system by 2 mechanisms
............a. socialization
................i. means by which cultural system—values, beliefs, language, symbols, etc.—internalized in personality
.................... system
................ii. defines need structure
................iii. creates willingness to conform to roles
................iv. provides interpersonal and other skills to play roles
............b. social control
................i. involves ways in which status-roles are organized to reduce strain and deviance
................ii. types of social control
....................- institutionalization—clear and unambiguous role expectations
....................- interpersonal sanctions and gestures—“looks”  gossip
....................- ritual activities—actors symbolically sources of strain while reinforcing dominant cultural patterns
....................- safety-valve structures—deviant propensities segregated in times and space from normal institutional
........................patterns (sick role, domination and bondage)
....................- reintegrative structures—specifically charged with bringing deviant tendencies back in line
....................- institutionalized capacity to use force and coercion
........3. Functional imperatives—4 survival problems of all systems of action
............a. adaptation—securing sufficient resources from the environment and their distribution throughout the system
............b. goal attainment—establishment of priorities among system goals and mobilizing system resources for their
................ attainment
............c. integration—coordinating and maintaining viable interrelationships among system units
............d. latency—two related problems
................i. pattern maintenance—ensures actors in social system display appropriate characteristics (motives, needs,
....................role-playing skills, etc.)
....................- Davis and Moore theory of stratification
....................- top rewards need to go to top jobs to ensure the top people will be motivated to defer gratification to ........................attain them
....................- “success stories” like Bill Gates
................ii. tension management—ways to deal with stresses and strains of actors in the social system