SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS

Meaning and Nature

Sociologically, an institution is not a person or a group. It is a part of the culture, a patterned segment of the way of life of a people. Major Elements are:

Social relations-refers to a relationship between two (i.e. a dyad), three (i.e. a triad) or more individuals (e.g. a social group). Social roles-is a set of connected behaviours, rights and obligations as conceptualised by actors in a social situation.

Characteristics of Institutions
1. Institutions are purposive. Each Institution has its own goal or objective as the satisfaction of social needs. 2. They are relatively permanent in their content. The patterns,roles,and relations that people enact in a particular culture become traditional and enduring. Although institutions are subject to change, this change is relatively slow. 3. Each institution is structured. The components tend to band together and reinforce one another. This is because social roles and social relations are in themselves structured combinations of behavior patterns. 4. Each institutions is unified structure. It functions as a unit. Institutions are dependent on one another. However, each does not function as a distinct series of human behavior. 5. The institution is necessarily value-laden. Its repeated uniformities, patterns, trends become codes of conduct. Most of these codes subconsciously exert social pressures. However, others are in the form of rules and laws. From these characteristics, it may be said that: An institution is a relatively permanent structure of social patterns, roles, and relations that people enact in certain sanctioned and unified ways for the purpose of satisfying basic social needs.

Functions of an Institution
1. Institutions simplify social behavior for the individual person. The ways of thinking and even acting have become largely regularized and prearranged for the individual before he enters the society. The social institutions provide every child with all the needed social and cultural mechanisms through which he can grow. 2. Institutions, therefore, 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 institutions . 3. Institutions also act as agencies of coordination and stability for the total culture. The ways of thinking and behaving that are institutionalized make sense to people. They provide a means of security because they become the normal and proper ways which the great majority of people approve of. 4. Institutions tend to control behavior. They contain the systematic expectations of the society. Group behavior is often subconsciously fixed through constant repetitions, and when there is a need for planning, the group can easily ascertain from its institutions the normal modes, trends, and procedures. Social pressure is maintained even on possibly deviant groups by mere existence of institutions.

Negative Functions of Institutions

1. Obstruction of Social Progress The institutions sometimes conserve patterns of behavior even when the values represented by this behavior have become outmoded. They sometimes conserve social values that are quite inconsistent with the external behavior of the majority of the people. 2. Institutions sometimes serve to frustrate the social personality of individuals. People who do not fit into the culture and who try to resist the control of institutions are considered odd. They may be misfits becaus4 they are unwilling to allow the institution to hold them down too rigidly. 3. Another negative function is the diffusion of social responsibility. Customary ways of behaving that are completely out of date, that harm some individuals aand groups, and that require reform are sometimes permitted to continue because no one takes the responsibility for changing them.

Classification of Institution
Major Institutions-are those which the largest number of people participate in, that are essential to the society, and that are considered most important for the individual and and for the economic, political, religious, and recreational institutions. Subsidiary Institutions-these are numerous, minor, and variable institutions that are that are within the major institutions.

Basic Major Institutions

1. The Familial Institutions. This is the system that regulates, stabilizes, and standardizes sexual relations and reproduction of children. Subsidiary Instutions are: Courtship Marriage Child care In-law relations 2. The Educational Institution. This is basically the systematized process of socialization occurring informally in the home and in the general cultural environment, and formally in the complex educational arrangements of the society. Subsidiary Instutions are: Grading Testing Graduations Degrees Homework Honor System 3. The Economic Institution. This is the configuration of patterned social behaviors through which material goods and services are provided for the society . Subsidiary Instutions are: Banking Bookkeeping Advertising Collective bargaining Seniority systems

4. The Political Institution. This functions primarily to satisfy the need for general administration and public order in society Subsidiary Instutions are: Legal Police Military systems Forms of appointment Diplomatic relations with foreign countries 5. The Religious Institutions. This is the institution that satisfaction mans basic social need for a relationship with God. Subsidiary Instutions are: Lay-relical relationships The systems of prayer Arrangements for divine sacrifices 6. The Recreational Institution. This fulfills the social need for physical and mental relaxation. Subsidiary Instutions are: Games Sports Dancing Swimming Art Music Painting drama