of his time he was considered the most admired American sociologist. Parsons was bread into a well-to do family and was given a strong educational foundation as a child. His father was an American Midwest preacher and very academic. As a student Parsons studied philosophy and biology, he felt out of place though so transferred to sociology and economics. As he excelled in these fields, he began his studies in Europe, giving him a wide view on different societies.

In Europe he examined the work of Weber and Marx, and other German sociologists at a time when American sociology was rather parochial. His work was so impressive that he got offered a job at Harvard University, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Talcott Parsons was a key functionalist thinker. His work contributes a great deal to the functionalist theory. He argued that socialisation is the key to understanding human behaviour patterns. The role of social institutions such as the family, education, religion and the media is to ensure the passing on, or reproduction, of socially acceptable patterns of behaviour. The institutions do this by socialising people into key values of society, they encourage soci

Conflict thinkers argue that Parsons ignored the existence of coercion both within and between societies, and by the late 1980s functionalism and parsons were more or less abandoned and replaced by a variety of sociological models that attempted to develop a variety of on-functionalist approaches to the study of sociology.

al solidarity and social integration and they also control behaviour by reminding members of society about what counts as normality and deviance.

Overall, I think that Parsons work is extremely useful, while studying sociology. Parson covers almost every aspect of social life and many of the alternative approaches that were developed have functionalist aspects to them. So as a result the sociology of Talcott Parsons must be studied in order to understand the development of sociological thought. In addition some of Parsons ideas have proved to be very useful to the study of the contemporary world.

Parsons work touches on almost every aspect of social life, and it is clear to see that he fits into the consensus structural approach perfectly. He sees agreement as the basis of social life, without it society would collapse. Consensus maintains a peaceful, harmonious society without much conflict between people and groups. Consensus provides co-operation and co-operation provides social unity.

Parsons also argued that sickness is really a form of deviance, which threate

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