Structural Functionalism

Structural functionalism is a sociological approach that dominated in the middle part of the twentieth century, and is particularly associated with the work of Talcott Parsons. Its foundations can be found in the earlier work of sociologists and anthropologists, with Émile Durkheim being a significant theorist in this regard. A basic premise of structural functionalism is that society needs a certain level of social cohesion, solidarity, or integration in order to function, and structural functionalists can be regarded as attempting to identify, and perhaps promote, the sources and forms of social cohesion.