Think of society as a living organism which every part of it contributes to its survival. This view is the functionalist perspective, which every parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability. Functionalist regard sports as an almost religious institution that uses ritual and ceremony to reinforce the common values of a society.
In 1968, Robert Merton made an important distinction between manifest and latent functions. Manifest functions of institutions are open, stated, conscious functions that involve intended, recognized, consequences of an aspect of society. Taking sports as an example, manifest function of sports is to keep people stay fit and healthy. It is an objective that widely and well known by everyone. In contrast, latent functions are unconscious or unintended functions that may reflect hidden purposes of an institution. For example, someone who takes part and involve in sport might intend to gain popularity. It is something that only known by the party or the person himself. Besides manifest function and latent function, sociologists define dysfunction as an element or process of a society that may actually disrupt the social system or reduce its stability. Dysfunctions of sports include the usage of performance-enhancing drug by athlete. It does not contribute in maintaining the society’s stability.
From the view of manifest function, sports could help in maintaining people’s physical well-being. Everyone knows that exercise is a good way in maintaining a person health. Practice sport on a regular basis could keep us fit, thus prevent obesity which would lead to diseases like heart attack, diabetes and stroke. With regular badminton play, the main health benefit that we could earn is the reduction ...
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...omote an overall feeling of unity and social solidarity. Besides that, it provides sport lovers a great platform to exchange their ideas with one another. It feels nice and wonderful when everyone with the same interest and the same supporting team gathers together in a stadium. Moreover, when it comes to sport, racialism would no longer exist. Everyone will focus on the same goal to win and to achieve victory, no matter who you are, where you from or what is your race. For example, when our national badminton player, Datuk Lee Chong Wei, managed to get the first silver in the Olympic game for our country, everyone cheered for him. The whole country was so excited about it. Although he is a Chinese, the Malays and Indians were cheered for him too. Everyone gets united. Prove that through sports, we can promote peace. People can get along harmony and avoid conflict.
Functionalism views society as the stability and assimilation of a range of forces that function within it. While society is a separate entity with a life of its own, there are individual elements contributing to that stability. Functionalism as a sociological theory emphasizes assimilation rather than the dissociation of society. Therefore, the society is seen as a whole that is compromised of parts which give one another their identity and their function. The part, whether that is education, such as a school, or sports, such as a football team, operates in relation to the other parts, and cannot be entirely understood in isolation from the other parts. All the parts are interrelated, and when there is a disturbance in any one of the parts, is when you can see the interdependence. But what is important about this theory is that “there will always be some reorganization and tendency to restore equilibrium” (Wallace and Wolf 17). Functionalist do not believe it’s crucial that the people involved in the society to be aware of this interconnectedness anymore than the brain and heart consciously realize that they work together as an organism.
Derived from the works of Durkheim Functionalism theory emphasizes the role each social institution plays in society and how society as a whole seek equilibrium when one dysfunctions. His idea was that society is more than the sum of its parts similar to how each organ serves a specific role and contributes to the body as a whole that is how social institutions work in society. High school for example is one of the major social institutions of society serving the primarily purpose of education. In High school the primary goal is to prepare students for extended education after graduation such as college or a technology oriented school. If students do not wish to attend any further educational institutions they can instead fill in service and minimal skill jobs in society. On a smaller scale high schools also aims to give students a more extensive overview of sexual education and contraceptive or abstinence approaches to sexual relations. Since education up to a high school level is mandatory in the United States high school provides a common ground and minimal standard for society educationally speaking. Without educated and well informed voters our system of government would fail due to the major part voters have in government decisions. If we had fewer people entering the higher level workforce since they didn’t continue with their education past high school our soc...
Journal 1 Entry 1 Why did the Mesoamericans rely on maize so much? Mesoamericans relied on maize not only because it was high in caloric content, but also because it was easily dried and stored. This is perfect for the Gulf Coast’s warm and fertile climate. Luckily for the Mesoamericans, maize can also be harvested twice a year.
According to page 14 of our textbook, “The functionalist perspective, as its name suggests, examines the functions or consequences of the structure of society. Functionalists use a macro perspective, focusing on how society creates and maintains social order. Social problems are not analyzed in terms of how “bad” they are for society. Rather, a functionalist asks, how does the social problem emerge from society?”
Abstract: Society is affected every day by many different kinds of sports. These sports often govern society's way of life. People all over the nation turn their TVs to sporting events, such as golf, during the weekends. Scott Stossel states that "more than six million Americans enjoy watching golf on the weekends." Parents use sports as a teaching tool for their children. Kids learn teamwork and discipline from team sports programs and sports have also helped many students with their grades. Kids who want to compete in school sports are taught to keep their grades up or they won't be able to play, but the greedy coaches and schools often look around grades to keep their "star athletes" in the games. Adults have been affected by sports in their bank accounts. Tax increases for funding a new stadium, golf course and even school programs have hurt the middle class Americans. Sports have taken control of small communities and soon will take control of society
When approaching a subject with the functionalist perspective, manifest and latent functions as well as dysfunctions are looked at and studied. A manifest function of an institution is one that is stated and expected. A latent function is one that is unexpected or can show a hidden purpose of an institution, and a dysfunction is a component of a society that can cause instability (Rothman, 1998). These functions and dysfunctions are use in analyzing a society.
How many Americans spend their Thanksgiving Day watching football? The answer is Millions. Football games have been a tradition of Thanksgiving throughout the years. While high-school students have their own games on that day, many others spend the day at their city’s stadium or in front of television screens, watching a game of NFL or colleges' league while their precious turkey meals are getting prepared at home. I used that example to highlight the importance of the sports in our lives. Even on national holidays like Thanksgiving, American families find sports a rich topic to watch, talk about and gather all together around for some time. “Sports are bigger than life," as an old proverb says (Bradlee). It is something that captures the attention of students at schools and colleges, families at homes, and, of course, it brings millions in audience to media, print and television. Therefore, sports have always been on focus for economic investments, either by public or private sectors.
The functional theory is the defined as a framework for building theory that sees society complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. Augusta Comte and Herbert Spence looked at society as a living organism. For example, an animal or person has organs that function together so does society. Organic solidarity is social unity based on a division of labor that results in people depending on each other. Emile Durkheim developed organic solidarity to explain individuals’ workers to specific bodily organs and a group of people into a body. Different bodily organs serve different functions, without these organs the body would die, and so would the individual organs. Some of the different functions are education, religion, economics, and family. In a society, individual workers perform different kinds of labor, without which society could not function, nor could individual workers succeed.
Emile Durkheim’s Functionalist Theory is predicated on the ideologies that society is composed of components that are dependent on each other. Auguste Comte developed functionalism; Durkheim compared society to the human body. The body consists of different, interrelated organs that support it to survive; society consists of different workings that enable it to survive. There is a state of stability within society and if any component of that society alters it will reorganize itself to maintain stability. Functionalism will interpret the components of society in terms of contributions to the stability of the whole society. Social accord, direction and integration are paramount views of functionalism; society will endure and grow due to the shared norms and values; all individuals have a goal and vested interest to conformity and thus conflict is minimized (Pope, 1975).
Participating in team sports is important not just for health reasons, but also for your healthy intellects and emotions. Playing sports that is in range of the player’s interest helps relieve stress and maintain their mental health. A team is mostly about unity within the team and with the coach, so no one can be selfish. Therefore playing in team sports develops good characteristics within oneself. Being part of a team sport should help create the opportunity to gain meaningful insight into one's leadership, social and cognitive development. Team sports helps build good character because they teach athletes discipline and how to have good sportsmanship. Chatterjee and Jatta declared that human beings learn and work together in various professional
phenomena in terms of the functions they perform. The society conceived in functionalism is a
Referring to slide two Nelson Mandela once said that “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.” Sport is one of the biggest and strongest unifiers in the world. Although there may be certain issues within a country or the world such as political affiliations, gender, race and ideologies, sport always seems to bring people closer regardless of the current issues at hand.
Structural-Functional Theory is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability (Macionis 16). In laments terms the structural functional theory is the idea that systems in society work together as a body, the idea that customs, traditions, and institutions shape society. This theory is outlined by social structure, social functions, and social dysfunction. Social structure is defined as any relatively stable pattern of social behavior. Social structure shapes and impacts our lives in the workplace, families, college, and classroom. Social functions are the consequences of a social pattern for the operation of society as a whole. Social dysfunction is described as any social pattern that may disrupt the operation of society. The main idea of the structural functional theory is its vision of society as stable and orderly.
Within society today, sports have this extraordinary way of making a positive impact. The wide sector of sport over the years has developed, expanded and is becoming more influential in our lives today than it has been historically. My awareness has developed not only in the practical aspects of sport, but in the way it is analyzed through newspaper and other media outlets.
Sport can act as a unifier as when many people support the same team they instantly become friendly even if they do not know one another. Joe Humphrey said that “sport is essentially anti-family and encourages unethical, discriminatory behaviour”. This is the exact opposite of what happens when people join together to support their team. This unifies people of all races and religions. When a person supports their team they do not care if the people around them are different since they focus on the unity of all the people around them supporting them.