▲ According to rational choice theory, people avoid cost or pain and seek benefits. Thus, people in authority try to control others—like this woman—by imposing cost for behaviors that are unwanted. The cost for this woman for speeding is an expensive ticket, and the city council and police hope it will lead to more desired behaviors in her future.
© iStock/Pamela Moore
In summary, rational choice theory involves the following key ideas:
Human beings are mostly self-centered, and self-interest drives their behavior.
Humans calculate costs and benefits (rewards) in making decisions.
Humans are rational in that they weigh choices to maximize their own benefits and minimize costs.
Every interaction involves exchanges entailing rewards and penalties or expenditures.
A key element in exchanges is reciprocity—a balance in the exchange of benefits.
People keep a mental ledger in their heads about whether they owe someone else or that person owes them.
Critique of Rational Choice Theory.
Rational choice theorists see human conduct as self-centered, with rational behavior implying that people seek to maximize rewards and minimize costs. They give little attention to micro-level internal mental processes, such as self-reflection. Charitable, unselfish, or altruistic behavior is not easily explained by this view. Why would a soldier sacrifice his or her life to save a comrade? Why would a starving person in a Nazi concentration camp share a crust of bread with another? Proponents of rational choice counter the criticism by arguing that if a person feels good about helping another that, in itself, is a reward that compensates for the cost.
Thinking Sociologically
How can symbolic interaction and rational choice perspectives help explain everyday behavior? For example, how might a theorist from each perspective explain why people tend to hold the door for a person walking behind them? How would each of the previous micro theories answer this question a bit differently?
Meso- and Macro-Level Theories
Meso- and macro-level theories consider large units in the social world: organizations (e.g., General Motors or the Episcopal Church), institutions (such as family, education, religion, health care, politics, or economies), societies (e.g., Canada or Mexico), or global systems (e.g., the World Trade Organization or World Bank). For example, Hector’s government at the national and international levels affects his life in a variety of ways. As Brazil industrializes, the nature of jobs and the modes of communication change. Local village cultures adjust as the entire nation gains more uniformity of values, beliefs, and norms. Similarly, resources such as access to clean water may be allotted at the local level, but local communities need national and sometimes international support to access resources, as illustrated by tribal elders from Tanzania in the photo on the next page. We can begin to understand how the process of modernization influences Hector, this village in Tanzania, and other people around the globe by looking at two major macro-level perspectives: the structural-functional and conflict theories.
▲ The Tanzanian village elders in this photo continue to have authority to make local (micro-level) decisions about the traditional irrigation canals being improved in their village, but their expanded water supply is possible in part because of international financial support (meso- and macro-level decisions).
© Karen Porter
Structural-Functional Theory.
Structural-functional theory, also called functional theory, assumes that all parts of the social structure (groups, organizations, and institutions), the culture (values and beliefs), and social processes (e.g., legislators working to create a law, an instructor teaching a child, or laws passed to bring about positive social change) work together to make the whole society run smoothly and harmoniously. To understand the social world from this perspective, we must look at how the parts of society (structure) fit together and how each part contributes to the maintenance of society. For instance, two functions (purposes) of the family include having children and teaching them to be members of society. These and other functions help perpetuate society, for without reproducing and teaching new members to fit in, societies would collapse.
Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) is considered the founder of the functionalist perspective. He theorized that society is made up of necessary parts that fit together into a working whole. Durkheim believed that individuals conform to the rules of societies because of a collective conscience—the shared beliefs in the values of a group (Durkheim 1947). People grow up sharing the same values, beliefs, and rules of behavior as those around them. Gradually, individuals internalize these shared beliefs and rules. A person’s behavior is, in a sense, governed from within because it feels right and proper to behave in accordance with what is expected. As such, the functionalist perspective of Durkheim and subsequent theorists places emphasis on social consensus, which gives rise to stable and predictable patterns of order in society. Because people need groups for survival, they adhere to the group’s rules so that they do not stand apart from it. This means that most societies run in an orderly manner, with most individuals fitting into their positions in society.
Functions, consequences of an action or behavior, can be manifest or latent. Manifest functions are the planned outcomes of interactions, social organizations, or institutions. Some of the planned consequences of the microwave oven, for instance, have been to allow people to prepare meals quickly and easily, facilitating life in overworked and stressed modern families. Latent functions are unplanned or unintended consequences of actions or of social structures (Merton 1938, [1942] 1973). Some of the unplanned consequences of microwave ovens were the creation of a host of new jobs and stimulation of the economy as people wrote new cookbooks and as businesses were formed to produce microwavable cookware and prepared foods ready for the microwave.
Latent functions can be functional (helpful) or dysfunctional (bad for the organization or society). Functional actions contribute to the stability or equilibrium of society whereas dysfunctions are those actions that undermine the stability or equilibrium of society (Merton 1938). For example, by allowing people to prepare meals without using a stove or conventional oven, the microwave oven has contributed to some young people having no idea how to cook, thus making them highly dependent on expensive technology and processed foods, and in some cases adding to problems of obesity.
▲ Although the microwave oven and fast-food restaurants have had many benefits for a society in a hurry, one dysfunction is the deterioration of health, especially due to obesity.
© iStock.com/yaoinlove
From a functionalist theory perspective, it is important to examine the possible functional and dysfunctional aspects of life in society in order to maintain harmony and balance.
In summary, the structural-functional perspective
examines the macro-level organizations and patterns in society;
looks at what holds societies together and enhances social continuity;
considers the consequences or functions of each major part in society;
focuses on the way the structure (groups,