Institutional patterns serve as norms and also to define a situation, for any situation is defined in terms of a selection of those aspects which are functionally related to particular orientations, values, interests, and sentiments of the individual.Ĭertain focal patterns can be discerned which define roles and positions. It "responds," to be sure, to the environmental stimuli, but is not completely assimilated to its environment, maintaining rather an element of distinctiveness in the face of variations in environmental conditions (Parsons 143). It is analogous to an organism which is relatively independent from environmental forces: 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. Parsons finds institutional patterns which carry the rules and norms governing our social structure. Where Parsons suggests pattern variables as controls, Merton examines modes of adaptation to social 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. 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.
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