Essay Plans – Families & Households
Evaluate the contribution of functionalist sociologists to our understanding of the family (20
marks)
Murdock:
4 functions of the family:
Stabilisation of the sex drive, prevent social disruption by a sexual ‘free for all’
Reproduction of the next generation, to continue society
Meeting each members economic needs - food and shelter
Socialisation of the young - learning norms and values
However,
His view regards the nuclear family as the most practical way to meet these
functions, disregarding other institutions.
Neglects conflict and exploitation.
Marxists argue his view favours capitalism, not society as a whole.
Feminists argue that it favours men via oppressing women.
Parsons:
Nuclear family fits the needs of industrial society:
Geographically mobile workforce – nuclear family can move around the country to
where jobs are appearing, as these days industries incline and decline all over.
Socially mobile workforce – modern society is evolving with new technology and
requires new talent and competence.
Status no longer ascribed. Requires most talented to get the best jobs.
Extended family conflict if a son had a higher wok status than his father.
Argues the extended family worked for pre-industrial.
However,
Young and Wilmott found that the nuclear family was the dominant family in pre-
industrial society, not extended as said by Parsons.
Laslett found that short life expectancies meant grandparents struggled to live ^.
Comparison can be considered as invalid.
Parental socialisation of their children into gender roles:
Feminine and masculine roles are (Chapman 2004):
Masculine – be the breadwinner, learn skills needed to be in the workforce
Feminine – girls learn to be the house makers and motherly figure.
Examples etc.
However,
Liberal feminists have noted that many young girls now are taught to aim to be a
breadwinner, due to the increase of women in the workforce and lone parent
families.
Can be argued that girls are no longer socialised into their supposed gender role.
Evaluate the view that, in today’s society, the family is losing its functions (20 marks)
, Essay Plans – Families & Households
Murdock & 4 functions – can be argued that these are now being lost:
Examples:
The function of meeting economic needs can now be performed in other ways
through other institutions (welfare state, child benefits and NHS).
Eliminates the need for the family to be at the forefront of this function
Prime responsibility for children can now be reduced from the family. Play groups,
nurseries and child minders all exist to perform this need.
Parents can now focus more on work.
Socialisation fulfilled by education system instead.
However, sociologists argue that the family is still pivotal for socialisation. Children
still learn a lot from parents and removing this could impact their ability to
understand the family.
Loss of multi-functional families:
Families used to have farms to produce food as well as being a unit of consumption.
Parsons believes as society industrialises, the extended family becomes nuclear and
functions are lost:
Family becomes only a unit of consumption by using wages to provide food. Instead
of producing it themselves.
Parsons believes that due to this, the family has 2 irreducible functions:
o Primary socialisation of children – norms and values.
o Stabilisation of human personalities – sexual division of labour, breadwinner
vs house care etc.
Although the family has lost some functions, it has gained 2.
Traditional functions are phasing out:
Many traditional functions that have phased out over time, and some that are almost
non-existent today.
For example:
Marriage before reproduction – children born to unmarried parents were labelled as
‘bastards’ as they were thought to be conceived illegitimately.
Now it is common amongst society to have children and sexual relationships,
alongside and outside of marriage – this has increased drastically since the 1970s.
Cohabitation, lone-parent families, traditional gender roles, women etc.
Limitations:
o Fletcher argues that the family now has more functions to carry out.
o Believes that introduction of new institutions strengthens the functions of
parental care for children.
o He also says the family plays an important role as a unit of consumption – he
thinks that families regard keeping up with modern goods and living
standards as very important.
Evaluate the contribution of functionalist sociologists to our understanding of the family (20
marks)
Murdock:
4 functions of the family:
Stabilisation of the sex drive, prevent social disruption by a sexual ‘free for all’
Reproduction of the next generation, to continue society
Meeting each members economic needs - food and shelter
Socialisation of the young - learning norms and values
However,
His view regards the nuclear family as the most practical way to meet these
functions, disregarding other institutions.
Neglects conflict and exploitation.
Marxists argue his view favours capitalism, not society as a whole.
Feminists argue that it favours men via oppressing women.
Parsons:
Nuclear family fits the needs of industrial society:
Geographically mobile workforce – nuclear family can move around the country to
where jobs are appearing, as these days industries incline and decline all over.
Socially mobile workforce – modern society is evolving with new technology and
requires new talent and competence.
Status no longer ascribed. Requires most talented to get the best jobs.
Extended family conflict if a son had a higher wok status than his father.
Argues the extended family worked for pre-industrial.
However,
Young and Wilmott found that the nuclear family was the dominant family in pre-
industrial society, not extended as said by Parsons.
Laslett found that short life expectancies meant grandparents struggled to live ^.
Comparison can be considered as invalid.
Parental socialisation of their children into gender roles:
Feminine and masculine roles are (Chapman 2004):
Masculine – be the breadwinner, learn skills needed to be in the workforce
Feminine – girls learn to be the house makers and motherly figure.
Examples etc.
However,
Liberal feminists have noted that many young girls now are taught to aim to be a
breadwinner, due to the increase of women in the workforce and lone parent
families.
Can be argued that girls are no longer socialised into their supposed gender role.
Evaluate the view that, in today’s society, the family is losing its functions (20 marks)
, Essay Plans – Families & Households
Murdock & 4 functions – can be argued that these are now being lost:
Examples:
The function of meeting economic needs can now be performed in other ways
through other institutions (welfare state, child benefits and NHS).
Eliminates the need for the family to be at the forefront of this function
Prime responsibility for children can now be reduced from the family. Play groups,
nurseries and child minders all exist to perform this need.
Parents can now focus more on work.
Socialisation fulfilled by education system instead.
However, sociologists argue that the family is still pivotal for socialisation. Children
still learn a lot from parents and removing this could impact their ability to
understand the family.
Loss of multi-functional families:
Families used to have farms to produce food as well as being a unit of consumption.
Parsons believes as society industrialises, the extended family becomes nuclear and
functions are lost:
Family becomes only a unit of consumption by using wages to provide food. Instead
of producing it themselves.
Parsons believes that due to this, the family has 2 irreducible functions:
o Primary socialisation of children – norms and values.
o Stabilisation of human personalities – sexual division of labour, breadwinner
vs house care etc.
Although the family has lost some functions, it has gained 2.
Traditional functions are phasing out:
Many traditional functions that have phased out over time, and some that are almost
non-existent today.
For example:
Marriage before reproduction – children born to unmarried parents were labelled as
‘bastards’ as they were thought to be conceived illegitimately.
Now it is common amongst society to have children and sexual relationships,
alongside and outside of marriage – this has increased drastically since the 1970s.
Cohabitation, lone-parent families, traditional gender roles, women etc.
Limitations:
o Fletcher argues that the family now has more functions to carry out.
o Believes that introduction of new institutions strengthens the functions of
parental care for children.
o He also says the family plays an important role as a unit of consumption – he
thinks that families regard keeping up with modern goods and living
standards as very important.
