Pattern Variables In Trinidad And Tobago

Since independence was granted so many years ago, to our current date today much social change has taken place. A small island which encompasses a sister isle that now share a union, though they may be seen by many other countries as being underdeveloped holds a history that its natives can appreciate and are celebrated throughout the years as marked public holidays. According to an article by Roshan John Joseph “WTalcott Parsons was born 13 December 1902 in Colorado; in his article Pattern Variables and social change analysis. Pattern variables are five dichotomies developed by Parsons, to draw out the contrasting values to which individuals orient themselves in social interaction. One side of the dichotomies reflects the value patterns dominant in traditional society (Gemieinschaft), the other reflects the dominant values of modern societies (Gesellschaft). Trinidad and Tobago since its independence in regards to its political system has undergone different aspects of social change, also an example of each of the five dichotomies”

The dilemma here is in deciding whether one expresses their orientation in terms of immediate gratification (affectivity) or whether they renounce immediate gratification in favour of moral interests (affective-neutrality). Parsons says, “No actor can subsist without gratifications, while at the same time no action system can be organized or integrated without the renunciation of some gratifications which are available in the given situation”. [5]
Self-orientation versus collectivity orientation Pattern variable, the main issue is that of moral standard in the procedure of evaluation. The moral standard arises from the fact that actor has to make a choice between his or her own gratification and its deferment for the good of a larger number of people, a collectivity. Some form of altruism and self-sacrifice is involved. The dilemma of this pattern variable has always been present in human life from primitive mode of economy and society to modern civilization.
Universalism versus Particularism Is a pattern variable which defines the role situation where the actor’s dilemma is between the cognitive versus the cathective (or emotional standards)

The establishment of other large projects that lay a hallmark in the development of Trinidad and Tobago post-Independence was the Television station TTT, the Hilton, the Piarco airport. According to Besson, “The most socially significant piece of legislation, one that would affect the future of the new nation the most, was the Education Act of 1968. This too was aimed at implementing the political narrative to replace the previous colonial model as it placed the school curriculum under government