Talcott Parsons and Robert Merton
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Talcott Parsons and Robert Merton both see social reality in terms of the development of institutions and patterns of variables that define roles within institutions. Parsons offers a grand theory that attempts to account for the whole system while Merton addresses a middle range of theories concerning societal anomie and theories of deviance. Where Parsons suggests pattern variables as controls, Merton examines modes of adaptation to social institutions. Parsons finds institutional patterns which carry the rules and norms governing our social structure. He begins with the system and finds that every social system is a functioning entity, or a system of interdependent structures and processes tending to maintain relative stability and distinctiveness of pattern and behavior. It is analogous to an organism which is relatively independent from environmental forces: It "responds," to be sure, to the environmental stimuli, but is not completely assimilated to its environment, maintaining rather an element of
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Approximate Word count = 684
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page)
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