Quotes by Talcott Parsons
“Socialization is the process by which individuals acquire the motives, skills, and values necessary for competent performance in the roles they will enact.”— Talcott Parsons
“Every social system has four functional problems to solve: adaptation, goal attainment, integration, and latency (pattern maintenance).”— Talcott Parsons
“Power is the generalized capacity to secure the performance of binding obligations by units in a system of collective organization.”— Talcott Parsons
“Perhaps the most important single source of the motive power of a society, is the religious aspect of its belief system.”— Talcott Parsons
“The personality is a system of action which is organized by the needs-dispositions of the organism.”— Talcott Parsons
“The social system is a system of action. It is a system of the actions of individuals.”— Talcott Parsons
“The structure of the social system is made up of the institutionalized patterns of normative culture.”— Talcott Parsons
“A social system is a system of the actions of individuals, the principal units of which are roles and constellations of roles.”— Talcott Parsons
“Rationality, in the context of action, is the capacity of an actor to choose the most appropriate means for a given end.”— Talcott Parsons
“A profession is a 'calling' in the sense that it involves a commitment to a set of values.”— Talcott Parsons