Man does not live by reason alone. The functional aspect of structure is the social system. Image Guidelines 5. All social organisations are, therefore, ‘social system’, since they consist of interacting individuals. So far as these norms meet social needs, violations are a threat to the social system. These are: Adaptability of social system to the changing environment is essential. TOS 7. For example, there must be a process of ensuring that enough persons, but not too many, occupy each of the roles at a particular time and a process for determining which persons will occupy which roles. They act as controlling agency of different types of human societies. In the words of H.M. Johnson, ” Manifest function are those that are intended and recognised: Latent functions are unrecognised and unintended”. Adaptability of social system to the changing environment is essential. Abiding by them is essential, as otherwise, it will be the domination of might over right, of self over society, and the spirit of mutuality which is based on common welfare, will get eliminated. Status. It is so because different units of the society do not work as independent units but they do not exist in a vacuum but in a socio-cultural pattern. No doubt, a social system is the... 2. It is applicable to, all societies equally. It is different from an aggregate of people and community. Distinction between manifest and latent functions is very narrow. Perhaps the best example of a societal goal is national security. Human interactions or activities of the individual actors should not be aimless or without object. These characteristics are as follows: It means that a system or social system cannot be borne as a result of the activity of one individual. These are integrative and disintegrative and create obstacles in the advancement of integration. It is a dynamic phenomenon which is influenced by the changes caused in the social form. As the time passes due to family liabilities, advancing age, sickness etc. A social system is maintained by the various mechanisms of social control. It is because the traditional order is challenged by the ethical prophet in the name of supernatural. In other words security of service has proved a dysfunction for him. Examples of social function in the following topics: The Functionalist Perspective. We have already seen different constituent units have a unity in order to form a system. It is generally agreed that the social system has four primary functional problems to attend. There may yet be occasions when the components of social system may become subject of distraction and disturbance. Such norms are derived from the existing relations of social member; therefore they are universalistic in nature. Image Courtesy : typophile.com/files/Sociology.jpg. Like the status, society has prescribed different roles to different individuals. There is a significant role of religious ideas as differentiating element in social life. The equilibrium condition, is a “condition of integration and stability”. “Each society”, he wrote, “displays the process of equilibration in the continuous adjustment of its population to its means of subsistence. According to Lapiere, “The term society refers not to group of people, but to the complex pattern of the norms of inter action that arises among and between them.”. Content Guidelines 2. Social system has certain characteristics. It is sometimes made possible with the development of a certain set of productive forces such as pressure groups which brings into being an appropriate super structure of institutions. The acts done or not done according to norms may bring reward and punishment. The underlined unity amongst various constituent units brings about ‘social system’. This characteristic of the social system again point out towards its dynamic or changeable nature. In the general routine of life, it is not the society but the group or the subgroup in which one feels more involved and interested. The occupations which are very important for the well-being of the society are associated with high prestige and those occupations which do not need specialized training are given low status.