AP ICET 17 Sep 2021 Shift 2 Paper

Question Numbers : (141 to 145)
Read the passage below and choose the correct answer 141−145
Functionalism is a social theory developed by Emile Durkheim in the late 18th and early 19th century. It is the theory that the society is made up of interrelated smaller parts just as our body is made up of many smaller organs. Durkheim believed that a society can be understood in the same fashion as human body is. The function of various organs in our body is parallel to that of the function of social institutions in society. These social institutions are related in such a manner that failure of one can lead to the failure of another. That is, to extend the metaphor, for a society to function well, all the social institutions need to be fairly healthy and must cooperate amongst themselves.
Two ideas central to functionalism are social cohesion and social control. Social cohesion is the extent to which people are bound together because of the feeling of a common purpose created by society. Social control, on the other hand, is the extent to which people are disallowed from acting in an antisocial manner. Durkheim argues that there needs to be a balance between these two to create a stable and well-functioning society. Also critical to the concept of functionalism is the idea of socialization. This is the process that allows people to come to a consensus on values and consequentially it enforces social solidarity. Functionalists, like other conservative theorists, believe that change in society is gradual and that it happens with change in the value consensus.