Module 8: Social Institutions
Note: If you cannot view the video, download RealPlayer for free. Otherwise, the written version is below.
A. Definition: an established and organized system of social behavior with a recognized purpose; collective solution to a problem of social life; a system or norms, values and behaviors with a specific purpose .
1. It's an abstract concept that cannot be directly observed, unlike social groups (see visual examples below)
2. A patterning of social relationships that exist as distinct from individuals or specific groups
B. Their purposes
1. Societies are organized into groups and institutions in order to meet social needs.
2. Institutions are all of the structural components of a society through which the main concerns and activities are organized and social needs are met (such as those for order, belief, and reproduction).
3. Manifest functions: the stated and open goals of social behavior; intended consequences, or consequences of which participants are aware; the intended and recognized consequences of social action.
4. Latent functions: the unintended consequences of behavior or consequences of which participants are unaware; unintended and unrecognized consequences of social action.
HINT: One way you know you're dealing with a social institution is that usually you can't see or touch it. For example look at the following photographs and see if you can come up with the more abstract idea (the social institution) that it represents.
School
Hospital
Police
Posting:
Imagine you and your discussion group have vanished into another world – nothing exists. You arrive and need to figure out what will make up your new world.
Go to the discussion board and brainstorm over what you need and want to have. For example, do you need money? Protection? Housing? You get the idea.
Once you have brainstormed what you need, what are the overarching institutions that will govern these activities? For example, if you want protection from other countries, the institution is the military. If you want money, the institution is economy.
Now, take ONE of those institutions and see if you can discuss a latent and manifest function. What is something that the military intends to do? What is something that the military does but wasn’t their intent?