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Changing Family

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Submitted By lizrodriguez7
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Elizabeth Rodriguez

Syg2010

March 11, 2015

The Changing American Family

Unlike in the 1950s, there is no ‘typical’ American family today. Typically in the 1950s an American family consisted of a breadwinning father and a stay at home mother. Today that is not the case for most Americans. What purpose are families actually suppose to serve in contemporary societies? Is it families that create problems or solve them? In the twenty-first century how are we suppose to reduce family related social problem? I will examine Ch.11 The Changing Family and examine the functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interaction views.
Meet Kristi and Michael Burns both have a lot in common. They both share a love for crossword puzzles, going to football games, museums and reading up too five or six books at a time. As for today, their blended family is extensive, sometimes uneasy with two sharp-eyed sons from two of Kristi’s previous husbands, a daughter and son from Michael’s second marriage, an ex-spouses unreliable degrees of involvement, the partners of ex-spouses, the puzzled in-laws and a kitten named Agnes that likes to sleep on computer keyboards. (Angier)
If the Burns seem as an atypical American family how about we throw in the Schulte-Waysers a merry couple of two married dads, six kids and two dogs. The functionalist perspective emphasizes the importance of family. Functionalist perspective also stresses the ability of maintaining the stability of society and well being of individuals. “According to Emil Durkheim, marriage is a microcosmic replica of the larger society.” (Kendall) Talcott Parson view the division of labor as an equallty important factor. Both Durkhiem’s and Parsons’s can be used as a baise for their model of family.
The Schulte-Wayser family can easily resemble the Jetsons: a blend of midcentury traditional and postmodern cool. One

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