SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

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• In sociology, social institutions, such as economy and government, are the 'bike parts' and the overall society is the 'bicycle.' Social institutions are established sets of norms and subsystems that support each society's survival.

WHAT IS A SOCIAL INSTITUTION?

• Social institution is a group of social positions, connected by social relations, performing a social role.

• Any institution in a society that works to socialize the groups of people in it.

• Ex. universities, governments, families,• And any people or groups that you have social

interactions with.• It is a major sphere of social life organized to meet

some human need.

CHARACTERISTICS AND FUNCTIONS OF AN INSTITUTION

• Palispis (1996) pointed out the following characteristics and functions.

1. Institutions are purposive. Each of them has the satisfaction of social needs as its own goal or objective.

2. Relatively permanent in their content. The pattern roles and relations that people enact in a particular culture become traditional enduring. Although institutions are subject to change, the change is relatively slow.

.3. Institutions are structured. The components tend to

band together, reinforce one another. This is because social roles and social relations are in themselves structured combinations of behavior patterns.

4. Institutions are a unified structure. They function as a unit.

5. Institutions are necessarily value-laden. Their repeated uniformities, patters and trends become codes of conduct. Most of these codes subconsciously exert social pressures. However, others are in form of rules and laws.

FUNCTIONS:

1. Institutions simplify social behavior for the individual person. The social institutions provide every child with all the needed social and cultural mechanisms through which he can grow socially.

2. Institutions provide ready-made forms of social relations and social roles for the individual. The principal roles are not invented by the individuals, they are provided by the institutions.

3. Institutions also act as agencies of coordination and stability for total culture. The ways of thinking and behaving that are institutionalized “make sense” to people.

4. Institutions tend to control behavior. They contain the systematic expectations of the society.

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• Social Institutions can take many forms, depending on a social context.

• It may be a family, business, educational, or political institution.

5 MAJOR SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

1. THE FAMILY

• The smallest social institution with the unique function.

• It is the basic unit of Philippine society and the educational system where the child begins to learn his ABC.

• The basic agent of socialization because it is here where the individual develops values, behaviors, and ways of life through interaction with members of the family.

Characteristics of the Filipino Family

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• The Filipino family is usually an extended one and therefore, big.

• In spite of the family planning programs and population efforts promoted all over the country, many Filipinos have more children than would be justified by those who are concerned with population growth.

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• In the Filipino family, kinship ties are extended to include the “compadre’ or sponsors. Compadres and comadres are regarded as relatives and closer ties are formed.

• Parents gets sponsors (ninong and ninang) in the baptism of their child and wedding of a son or daughter.

• In the Asian family, a great difference exists in the roles of man and woman. A woman’s position in the home and society are much lower than that of man.

• A much higher regard is attributed to the Filipino woman, especially with the changing roles and functions of the family.

FUNCTIONS OF THE FAMILY

• Of all the institutions, the family is the most important. It performs the following functions:

1. Reproduction of the race and rearing of the young – a unique function cannot be done by any other institution.

2. Cultural transmission of enculturation – the culture of the family is acquired from the father and the mother.

3. Socialization of the child – in the family, the child learns his role and status.

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4. Providing affection and sense of security.5. Providing the environment for personality

development and growth of self-concept in relation to others.

6. Providing social status – each individual in the family inherits both material goods and social ecognition defined by ascribed status.

KINDS OF FAMILY PATTERNSMembership

Nuclearextended

Residence

NeolocalMatrilocalpartilocal

Authority

PartriarchalMatriarchalequalitarian

Descent

BillinealPatrilinealmatrilieneal

The Family may be classified in different ways.According to structure, there are two types.

types• Conjural or nuclear family. This is the primary

or elementary family consisting of husband, wife and children.

• Consanguine or extended family. It consists of married couple, their parents, siblings, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins.

.• According to terms of marriage, there is

monogamy and polygamy. Polygamy means plural marriage. There are three types of polygamy:

1. Polyandry where one woman is married to two or more men at the same time.

2. Polygamy where one man is married to two or more women at the same time.

3. Cenogamy where two or more men mate with two or more woman in group marriage.

.• As line in descent, the family may be

patrilineal, matrilineal, or bilineal.• Patrilineal – when the descent is recognized

through the father’s line.• Matrilineal – mother’s line• Bilineal – both father’s and mother’s line.

• According to place of residence, the family may be classified as:

1. Patrilocal when the newly married couple lives with the parents of the husband.

2. Matrilocal when the newly married coupld lies with the parents of the wife

3. Neolocal when the newly married pair maintains a separate household and live by themselves.

• With reference to authority or who is considered head, the family may be classified as:

1. Patriarchal when the father is considered the head and plays a dominant role.

2. Matriarchal when the mother or female is the head and makes the major decisions.

3. Equalitarian when both father and mother share in making decisions and are equal in authority.

2. EDUCATION

• Definition: a system consisting of the roles and norms that ensure the transmission of knowledge, values, and patterns of behavior from one generation to the next.

• Schooling is formal education, which involves instruction by specially trained teachers who follow officially recognized policies.

A Change in Education

• In some preindustrial societies, education is largely informal and occurs mainly within the family.

• The basic purpose of education is the transmission of

knowledge. While before education was a family responsibility, along with the community and the church, industrial changed it dramatically.

• Schools become necessary when cultural complexity created a need for specialized knowledge and skill which could not be easily acquired in the family, church or community.

• the complexity of modern life has not diminished the teaching function of the family, but it has added the need for many types of instruction which require specialized educational agencies like school, college or university.

• Are schools to prepare students for college, for vocation, or to achieve high scores on standardized tests?

• Some say schools come down to either preparing students to adjust to society or equipping them to change and improve society.

• Not only do people hold widely divergent views regarding the goals of schools, but these views seem to vary depending on the times.

What are the Functions of Schools?• The primary function is to move young people in the

mainstream of society. • The school is the place for the contemplation of

reality, and our task as teachers, in the simplest terms, is to show this reality to our students, who are naturally eager about them.

• At home we teach reality to children in a profoundly personal, informal, and unstructured way.

• There are also teachers who facilitate learning, who teach children and youth certain types of acceptable behavior, and sees to it that children develop aspects: physically, emotionally, socially and academically.

• The intellectual purposes of schooling include the following:

to teach basic cognitive skills such as reading writing, and mathematics; to transmit specific knowledge.

• Political to inculcate allegiance to the existing political

order (patriotism). To teach children the basic laws of society.

• Social socialize children into the various roles,

behaviors, and values of the society. The key ingredient in the stability of any society.• EconomicTo prepare students for their later occupational

roles and select, train, and allocate individuals into the division of labor.