Critically analyse Talcott Parsons conception of pattern variable’. (UPSC CSE Mains 2017 - Sociology, Paper 1)
Parsons speaks about pattern variable in his book ‘the structure of social action’. Man is a bundle of impulses but is bound by compulsions i.e. he wants to do something but culture and norms bind him to do something else. Parsons talks about the interconnectivity between
- Actor
- Social structure
- Cultural structure
Pattern variables talks about the successful negotiation between the above three. Parsons had sought to identify the choices between alternatives that an actor confronts in a given situation and the relative premises assigned to such choices
Prior to Parsons, the study of modernity had been the centrality to sociological inquiry. In his study of modernity. Parsons is influenced by the work of Ferdinand Tonnies (Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft), Durkheim and Weber.
Parsons as defender of modernity indicated that modernity is not just the production of culture, social structure or social action, rather the negation between the personality, social and cultural system and its outcomes sufficiently explain the possibility of modernity in a given society. He develops the theory of pattern variables to explain modernity, recognizing the fact that modernity
- Is a product of actor understanding the demands of action situation
- Negotiating with other actors, confirming to the normative and value system differently
- Realizing the dilemma in an action situation
- Making attempts to neutralize this dilemma
- The outcomes of all these discourses manifest the possibility, degree, form and content of modernity in a given society.
Hence, pattern variable is a mega theoretical framework where parsons defines, how in an action situation
- An actor identifies the counter actors
- The degree of emotional relationship appropriate in an action situation
- Range of obligation of actor towards counter actors
- Form of attachment between the actor and counter actor
- Benefits/results coming out of interaction
PATTERN VARIABLES:
Parsons develops two sets of pattern variables
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PATTERN VARIABLE- A
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PATTERN VARIABLE- B
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· It is a product of expressive orientation demanding the gratification of needs.
· Emphasizing on aesthetic and emotive criteria.
· It is the essence of traditional society
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· Demands objective, rational, goal oriented actions driven by instrumental mode of orientation.
· It is a reflection of a modern society.
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To explain this further, he develops 5 different pairs of Pattern Variables. Through this he explains the mode of orientation of actor, demands of action situation, dilemma in action situation, how it is resolved and what the outcomes of it. There are in all five pattern variables, each side of it represents one polar extreme. These pattern variables are:-
- affectivity versus affective neutrality
- universalism versus particularism
- ascription versus achievement
- specificity versus diffuseness
- self-orientation versus collective orientation
Talcott Parsons’ concept of pattern variables bridges the gap between social action and social system . Social system may be characterised by the combination of solutions offered to these dilemmas. These pattern variables structure any system of interaction.
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