Functionalism and Conflict Theory

 Biological determinism, also called

genetic determinism, is the hypothesis that
biological factors such as an organism's
individual genes (as opposed to social or
environmental factors) completely
determine how a system behaves or
changes over time.
 The naturalistic explanation, the
biological determinist argument,
makes six points as follows:
1. we differ in our innate capacities.

2. society derives from innate characteristics

transferred from generation to generation.
3. The differences between us is derived
from our genes

4. These differences in ability are

converted into differences in status
 5. Society, then is naturally hierarchical-
social inequality is inevitable

 6. Social equality- a society of equal

reward and status is biologically
impossible.
  Kinsley Davis and Wilbert Moore
 Functional Theory of Stratification

"Some Principles of Stratification"

(1945)
 Equality is impossible-individuals are

naturally stratified.
 Functionalism- accepts genetic differences
between genders, races, and classes as
natural & inevitable.
 Ie. Sociobiology & Psychoanalytic Theory
 Structural Functionalism
 THAT’S the Way it Is!!!
 All of the above make appeals to nature
 The idea that blood will tell was not
invented by biologist per se, but by
nineteenth century Social Darwinists…
and popular literature such as Oliver Twist
…

 The artful dodger is a “snubbed nosed, flat

browed, common faced boy…etc…
 Sociobiology-
 An early branch of Psychology made wild

claims about human physical

characteristics and behaviours:
 Shifty eyes = criminal
 red hair =violence
 black men with darker skin are more

animalistic
 Not only were differences restricted to
innate individual differences

 Nations and Racial groups were

subjected to the same treatment:
 Ie. Carl Brigham -IQ Tests “the decline of
the American intelligence will be more
rapid…owing to the presence here of the
Negro”
 19th c. Psychologist Louis Agassiz-
argued that the skulls of Negro babies
close earlier, so their brains were
entrapped
 Osburne, President of the American

Museum of Natural history argued that the

northern races invaded the southern
so as to “contribute strong and moral
elements to a more or less decadent
civilization….
 Biology is at the foundation of gender
construction.
 However it is culture that has promoted

gender inequality.
 This was the position of Fredrick Engels

in his famous essay “Origins of Family,

Private Property and the State” (Tucker,
1971)
1. Patriarchy, he argued emerged out of the
development private property….
2. Man’s ownership of land and other
resources led to a belief that female
sexuality had to be controlled..
3. For Engels patriarchy is not inevitable,
this is the thinking of those who fail to look
at history….and material construction of
society
4. Marx’s historical materialism sought to
demonstrate how systems are
dialectically linked…..and capitalism is
not inevitable.
5. Capitalism is only one historical
mode of production.
 Therefore, to CONFLICT THEORISTS:

 Differences in wealth, status and

power between classes, ethnic groups
and genders ARE not natural.
 They are socially constructed by

owners of the means of production

 Adopt Engels’ conflict approach, and apply
it to family relations.
 The family is the most gendered social

institution reflective of the mode of

production.
 The nuclear family is ideal suited to

capitalism.
1. Sex is anatomical, physiological..
2. Gender is societal..
3. Sex is the product of genes, hormones,
and other physiological differences
between males and females
4. One’s anatomy and biology are only
limited aspects of gendered behaviour
4. Gender is a societal construct

5. Gender is culturally based and learned

6. Gender produces stereotypical roles

behaviours for girls and boys
 I.e Girls will be girls; boys will be boys
 =Men are naturally aggressive
 =The maternal instinct-appeal to nature
 =Emphasis on chemicals- testosterone,

estrogen, progesterone, and prolactin.

 All are an appeal to nature over nurture
 Sex is defined as the division of
humanity into biological categories of
male and female. It is determined at the
moment of conception.
 Each fertilized egg contains 23
chromosome pairs.
 The female always contributes the X
chromosome, and the male contributes
either the X or Y chromosome.
 If the male contributes an X the child will
be female, Y it will become male.
 Sex differentiation occurs within weeks.
In the male embryo testosterone is
produces which stimulate the growth of
male genitals.
 105 males are born for every 100
females in Canada but higher death rates
leads to a majority of females in Canadian
Society.
 ie. 1992 median age of women 1.7 years
older than men 33.8 compared to 29.4. For
the first half of this century median age of
women was lower than men.
 Although there are more males born they
die younger as a result of socialization:
 Risky behaviour
 Stress
 Carelessness
 Characteristics of the male role-hegemonic

masculinity vs. female expressed feminitity

(Connell, 1988)
 We are not determined by our genes,
although we are influenced by them..

 Development depends not only on many

materials (many intervening variables)-but
on temp, humidity, nutrition, sight, smell,
sounds including education.
 Even if you knew every molecular
specification of a species, you would not
know what the organism would be.

 A car wins a race-based on physical make-

up of the car, combined with racing team,
driver, racing conditions etc.
 Variations among individuals within a
species are a unique consequences of
both genes and developmental
environment in constant interaction.
 Beyond genes and environment there is
also random variation in growth and
division of cells called developmental noise.
 Developmental noise-random enviro. events
 Genes and Environment
 This refers to the fundamental principle of

developmental genetics that every

organism is the outcome of unique
interaction between genes and
environmental sequences modulated by
random chances of cell growth and divisions
 Even if you could take Beethoven's gene
and reproduce it, circumstances would be
different, you might not get the same
result.
 “There is not one iota of evidence of
any kind that differences in status,
wealth and and power between races
in North America have anything to do
with genes”. (Brym 1999:64)
 85 percent of all variation is between 2
individuals
 8 percent between ethnic groups
 7 percent between races
 Sociobiology is used to legitimate the
dominance of one group over another…

 Ie..Males are the only ones with the y

chromosome therefore the are unique,
superior, more intelligent, creative etc…
etc.. .ect….
 .Sociobiology is derived from animal
research.
 Philip Ruston U. of W. –flawed research

 arguments are rooted in 19th century

thought
 Many of their theories are theoretically

and methodologically flawed,

 Empirical testing in many circumstances

is impossible. NOT GOOD SCIENCe…

 R.C Lewontin in his book, Biology as
Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA (1991)
sums it up this way:
 “There is not one iota of evidence of any
kind that differences in status, wealth and
and power between races in North America
have anything to do with genes”. (1999:64)
 Eurocentrism has been used to
legitimate an ideology of inequality.
1. 85 percent of all genetic variation is
between 2 individuals
2. 8 percent genetic between ethnic
groups
3. 7 percent between races
4. R.C LEWOTIN: “The belief that all good
things are from Northern Europe is
nonsense-”
 Conflict theorists define ideology as a
body of assumptions, ideas, and values the
combine into a coherent world view.

 Marx and Engels-ideas are social

creations, the appropriating class gives
dominance in the ideological as well as the
economic sphere.
 An ideological framework develops.
 Legitimacy comes to us from a variety of

sources:
 We accept when we hear from experts
 We should question those with

`credentials’.
 Parents, teachers,religious leaders, or
some other “expert”
 Our experience-easy explanations of the

reality of our own lives

 Our community-shared believes and

values
 Our class interest- Working class and

upper class more similar than middle.

 Liberalism: The Dominant Ideology of
Capitalism
 Democracy-freedom of choice within
the marketplace-a pervasive notion in
capitalistic societies.
 To conflict theorists

 We accept ideas through historical reality,

 Ideas derive from in the forces of
production
 It is not a mechanical process-society is
not made up of mindless robots, blindly
accepting ideas emanating from the
manipulative ruling class.
 A few people appropriate what is
produced by others. This leads to gross
inequalities of wealth and power
 Few benefit from an economic

arrangement that others must accept….

 We see the social structure as

inevitable, desirable, we accept without

questioning.
 Ascribed status -gender, race, religion,
propinquity
 These differences result in natural

differences in equality.
 Achieved Status -education, income (not

wealth), football star, philathropist ect.

 Social class is a ranking or grouping of
individuals according to position in the
economic scheme of things.
 Class in this sense can be based on

income, source of income (wealth, salary or

wages), and occupation.
 Is a social product
 Culture is different for Structural

Functionalist, Conflict theorists and

symbolic interactionists.
 Roots of sociological paradigms –are value

orientations-conservative, radical, liberal.

 BIOLOGY as Destiny
 Limited “old fashioned” thinking
 Biology as ideology
 Conflict theory
 Shows us how to “see the forest, for the

trees”