Manifest and Latent Functions and Dysfunctions - Medical Science Model

Medical Science Model

Broadly stated and here relying on the systems model first developed in medical science, an interrelated bundle of social structures (e.g., Zulu culture), treated as a social system, involves the parts (structural elements) acting in such a fashion so as to help maintain the homeodynamic equilibrium of the system of which they are an element. Manifest functions are the obvious and intended consequences a structural feature displays in the maintenance of the steady state of the system of which it is a part. Latent functions are less obvious or unintended consequences. Both manifest and latent functions contribute to the social system’s unchanging ongoingness or stasis. In this very specific sense both may be interpreted as useful and positive.

In conducting a functional analysis, dysfunctions are consequences of structural elements that produce changes in their environing social system. The flame of the candle system flickers. The structural cause would be labeled dysfunctional. The candle’s steady state has been disturbed or changed. The concept affords the only relief to structural-functionalism’s inherent conservative bias. Dysfunction signifies the mechanism by which social change is evidenced within a social system. Whether that change is manifest or latent is a relatively simple empirical question. Whether that change is good or bad would seem to require interpretative criteria not afforded by a social scientific paradigm for functional analysis.