Moore, Robert Merton, and Gabriel Almond and Bingham Powell. Prominent functionalist theorists include Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Talcott Parsons, Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. This approach looks at both social structure and social functions. This approach looks at society through a macro-level orientation, which is a broad focus on the social structures that shape society as a whole. Structural functionalism, or simply functionalism, is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. structuralism: A theory of sociology that views elements of society as part of a cohesive, self-supporting structure.deviance: Actions or behaviors that violate formal and informal cultural norms, such as laws or the norm that discourages public nose-picking.
