1. Social institution is the standard or usual way in which a society meets its basic needs, and its vital impact on your life. The first priority of functionalists is to survive. In the book, there are some functional conditions that every society must meet to survive. Replacing members so that society can continue to thrive and exist, they do this by teaching a child from a young age what it means to be a member of the group the child was born into; showing them the basic expectations of the group. Another would be to produce and distribute goods and services, they must be able to produce the basic resources for example food, clothing and education, they see everyone working together to meet the needs of a human being. These are just a few key functionalist points. There are 5 characteristics of a bureaucracy; separate levels, division of labor, written rules, written communications and records, and impersonality and replaceability. With separate levels, a university would reflect this to its teachers and students. The higher level being teachers assign the student's homework and quizzes or a handout to the lower level to show they understand the information. With the division of labor in a university, it would be the staff who would then be employed. They hire the people they need to solve problems that arise, a janitor to keep the campus clean, a dean to make sure the staff is doing their jobs, and teachers to show students the materials they need to succeed later in life. . For things to go well, there should be written rules; this would make the functioning of the university more efficient. The bigger the university, the more rules there are to set in stone. They would need rules to resolve certain situations that might pose a problem and they wrote them down in a student handbook given to each student. Written communication and records are an essential element in a university. A record will follow you throughout your life, whether good or bad. A written record proves that certain courses or activities that the university may require have been completed. And with impersonality and replaceability, it's simple, if the professor or the dean where to retire would need someone to come. Group dynamics refers to how we influence a group and how the group can influence us. In the 1900s, George Simmel analyzed how the size of a group would affect stability and intimacy. He used the term dyad to refer to the smallest possible group. A marriage, a love story or close friends form the small group. Since the dyad is such a small group, both members must participate if one of them does not show interest the group would fall apart. Simmel also talks about the triad which is a group of three people and how adding the third member to the group fundamentally changes the group. If a couple were to have a baby, while they were still intimate, the baby would absorb most of their attention. Simmel states that a triad is not a stable group however because two people in the group can alienate one member, causing the group to collapse, for example if you had people who were best friends who lived in one next to each other and a new person. moved into their street and they decided to become friends with him. Then slowly the two who were best friends start talking less and one hangs out more