Parsons, Talcott, 1902–79, American sociologist, b. Colorado Springs, Colo., educated at Amherst College (B.A., 1924), London School of Economics, and Univ. of Heidelberg (Ph.D., 1927). He was on the faculty at Harvard from 1927 until his retirement in 1974. He is known for his attempt to construct a single theoretical framework within which general and specific characteristics of societies could be systematically classified; it is known as structural-functional theory. Parsons was also interested in medical sociology and the professions in general. In recent years he has been criticized for understating the importance of social conflict. Among his writings are The Structure of Social Action (1937), The Social System (1951), Structure and Process in Modern Societies (1960), Social Structure and Personality (1964), Societies (1966), Sociological Theory and Modern Society (1967), and Politics and Social Structure (1969).

Bibliography

See studies by W. C. Mitchell (1967), H. Turk and R. L. Simpson, ed. (1971), and J. Alexander (1984).

Parsons, Talcott

(born Dec. 13, 1902, Colorado Springs, Colo., U.S.—died May 8, 1979, Munich, W.Ger.) U.S. sociologist. Parsons taught at Harvard University from 1927 to 1973. He advocated a structural-functional analysis, a study of the ways that interrelated and interacting units forming the structures of a social system contribute to the system's development and maintenance. He was largely responsible for introducing the work of Émile Durkheim and Max Weber to American sociologists. His major work is The Structure of Social Action (1937). See also functionalism.

Parsons, Talcott (1902–79) sociologist, educator; born in Colorado Springs, Colo. Educated at Amherst College, the London School of Economics, and the University of Heidelberg, he spent his long academic career at Harvard (1927–73), where he founded the department of social relations (1946) and trained three generations of students. His first book, The Structure of Social Action (1937), launched a lifelong effort to supplant traditional empirical sociology with a theoretical approach that synthesized existing theories from all the social sciences. Further developed in such works as The Social System (1951) and Toward a General Theory of Action (with E. A. Shils, 1951), this general theory of human action and social systems was abstract, complex, and controversial; few claimed to understand it fully, but his interdisciplinary theoretical approach exerted a strong influence on academic sociology.