For 10 points, name this American sociologist who formulated the "unit act" as part of the action theory presented in his The Structure of Social Action.
Niklas Luhmann extended this thinker's analysis of a problem in which communication cannot occur between two people when they will both base their behavior on the other. That problem of "double contingency" leads to the necessity of stability in this man's theory of interaction between ego and alter. Social choices are made using five axes, including the range between affective neutrality and affectivity, in this man's theory of "pattern variables." Systems must fulfill integration, latency, goal attainment, and adaption according to this man, whose The Social System introduced the AGIL paradigm and pioneered structural-functionalism in sociology. For 10 points, name this American sociologist who formulated the "unit act" as part of the action theory presented in his The Structure of Social Action.
Niklas Luhmann extended this thinker's analysis of a problem in which communication cannot occur between two people when they will both base their behavior on the other.
Talcott Parsons