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Unit-3: Theories of Social Stratification-I

His Theory of Social Action : According to parsons “The society may be defined as the total complex Notes
of relationships in so far as they grow out of actions in terms of means end relationship, intrinsic and
symbolic.” Society he believes is an element in the complete whole of human social life. The society
is also effected by environments, heredity and culture on the one hand and religious, metaphysical
and political systems on the other. Society is so complex that it covers and touches all relationships
of man with man. Society comprises of only complex of social relationship He characterised
society as sum total of all human relationship. In this regard he was much influenced by Pareto,
Max Weber and many other social thinkers.

Parsons is known as the chief exponent of Theory of Social Action. For him society
embraced the entire social field of man.

Definition of Social Action : Before we define Social Action’, a point worth noting is that his ideas
in this regard developed with passage of time. It was in his book ‘Structure of Social Action’ that
he tried to analyse the nature and implications of social action. He also gave his ideas in this
regard in another volume ‘The Social System’ which came out in 1951. Parsons has defined social
action by saying that, “It is a process in the actor-situation system which has motivational significance to
the individual actor or in the case of collectivity, its component individuals”. In other words all social
actions proceed from mechanism. Social actions, according to Parsons are concerned with organism
actor’s relations with other persons and social institutions.
Elements of Social Action : Parson’s social action has four elements. The first element is actor,
who is the medium of action and through him all actions are performed. The next characteristic
is the end or the object with which that action is performed. It is believed that each action must
have some end to achieve. Situation is his next characteristic. Each action is performed under
certain situations and not in isolation. Some situations can be within the control of the actors
whereas there might be other situations which would not he under his control. Selection of
Alternative Means is still another characteristic of social action. Each actor has several ends
and also several means of achieving those ends. In other words there are alternative means and
alternative ends. These conditions help in expediting social actions, but are not unavoidable.
Systems of Social Action : After elements, Parsons takes up systems of social actions. These are
also called aspects of social action. The systems are personality, cultural and social. Personality
System is responsible for meeting individual’s needs for which actions are taken. But efforts
cannot be made without completing certain conditions, which are distinguished by various symbols
and symptoms. As the time passes these symbols acquire general meaning and ultimately different
social actors under a particular cultural system perform various social inter-actions. This is cultural
system. As regards social system, in the words of Parsons himself, “A Social System consists in a
plurity of individual actors inter action with each other in a situation which has at least a physical or
environmental aspect, actors are motivated in terms of tendency to be optimization of gratification and
whose relations to the situation including each other, is defined and motivated in terms of system of
culturally structured and shaped symbols.” But all the three systems act as three units of social action.
All the three are related to each other and in fact these are complementary rather than contradictory
to each other.
Though Parsons was influenced by many of his predecessors and contemporaries, yet it cannot be
denied that he presented his ideas in such a way that whole theory became original. It appears
that the ideas were his own and are being presented for the first time.

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