...evaluate the usefulness of functionalist approaches to our understanding of families and households (20) This essay will evaluating the usefulness of functionalist approaches such as the families four functions, the distribution of conjugal roles and the symmetrical family, and how these ideas contribute to our understanding of families and households today. The argument of which the family is an essential building block that reflects the wider needs of society is that of the functionalist approach. Murdoch (1949) argues that the family should feature four main functions, which include; stable satisfaction of the sex drive, reproduction, socialisation and economic needs. Murdoch also argues that the nuclear family is the best able to do this so the father can provide for the economic needs, as the breadwinner, and the mother provides socialisation. On the other hand, the feminist and Marxist perspectives identify that this is a ‘rose tinted’ view of the family unit, and a family rarely meets these expectations. Instead, single parents can just as easily serve the needs of their families and society without being a part of a traditional, nuclear family. Within these traditional nuclear families, the roles of husbands and wives are segregated into instrumental and expressive roles. The functionalist view of Parsons (1955) argues that the husband has the instrumental role, and so he is geared towards achieving success at work so that he can provide for the family financially. Whereas...
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...Assess the usefulness of the functionalist view for an understanding of the family today? Functionalism is a structural theory. In functionalism, social institutes like families are the key parts of the structure/system. These institutions are seen as working in an integrated way that keeps society in a state of consensus. Functionalists stress the positive role of a family for society and its members. They argue that the families’ role is universal and functional. A famous functionalist, called Murdock believed that the family is a social group characterised by common residence, economic co-operation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship. Murdock believes that the family has 4 important functions, sex, reproduction, economic and socialisation. The family however does not always execute all of these functions, but it makes an important contribution to all of them and no other institution has yet been devised to match its efficiency in this respect. Another key functionalist is Parsons, who accepted that modern families do have functions that they need to fulfil, however he believed that outside agencies had taken over some of the main functions of the family but that two irreducible functions remained. These functions are stabilisation of adult personality and primary socialisation of the young. He added that he believed children needed two clear, stereotypical role models. The man was the...
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...The functionalists have a very positive view of the family, as they see society as being based on a set of norms and values, a value consensus, into which society socialises its members. They see society as a system made up of different parts or sub-systems, and regard the family as a very important sub system, that works with other systems like education and the economy to meet the needs of society. The way in which all these systems collaborate is much similar to that of organs in an animal, as they all depend upon each other to function. The family is seen as the basic building block of society. Parsons believes that there are two kinds of family, and that the type of family found depends on the needs of the society at the time. The extended family of three generations was common during the pre-industrial stage, where the family relied upon each other for care in old age, care of children and economic survival. The nuclear family became prominent after the industrial revolution, with the needs of society changing, such as Britain needing a geographically mobile workforce that was capable of moving to get various jobs where they were available. Parsons argued that it is easier for the nuclear family to do so than it was for the 3 generation pre-industrial family. Another functionalist called Murdock largely agrees with Parsons, but says the nuclear family performs four essential functions to meet the needs of society and its members. Firstly, it provides stable satisfaction...
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...religion and family is affected by the functionalist perspective. The functionalist perspective, also called functionalism, is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology. It has its origins in the works of Emile Durkheim, who was especially interested in how social order is possible or how society remains relatively stable. The functionalist perspective emphasizes the interconnectedness of society by focusing on how each part influences and is influenced by other parts. Each of the social institutions contributes important functions for society: Family provides a context for reproducing, nurturing, and socializing children; education offers a way to transmit a society’s skills, knowledge, and culture to its youth; politics provides a means of governing members of society; economics provides for the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services and religion provides moral guidance and an outlet for worship of a higher power. Functionalism has received criticism for neglecting the negative functions of an event. Critics also claim that the perspective justifies the status quo and complacency on the part of society's members. Functionalism does not encourage people to take an active role in changing their social environment, even when such change may benefit them. Instead, functionalism sees active social change as undesirable because the various parts of society will compensate naturally for any problems that may arise. Religion from a Functionalist Perspective ...
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...the contribution of functionalism to our understanding of families and households. (29 marks) Functionalists believe that society is based on a value consensus into which society socialises its members. This enables them to cooperate harmoniously to meet society’s needs and achieve shared goals. However, other sociologists argue that contemporary society is not harmonious but is ridden with conflicts. Functionalists regard society as a system made up of different sub-systems that depend on each other, such as the family, education, religion, law and the mass media. Family and other sub-systems are often compared to the human body where if one of the body parts doesn’t function properly the others won’t either. Social structures work for you and society as a whole so if one doesn’t work correctly society will break up. Functionalists are interested in the positive functions of the family and how it contributes to a healthy society. Conversely, functionalists don’t look at society negatively or the negative effects family could have on you or society as whole. Also, Marxists see societies institutions as helping to maintain class inequality and capitalism therefore, the functions of the family are purely performed for the benefit of the capital system and do not help society function properly, they don’t work for you and society as a whole, they are only there for the bourgeoisie. Murdock (1949) argued that all families fulfil four vital functions and without this society wouldn’t...
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...contribution of functionalist sociologists to our understanding of the family. A function is a purpose and explains how this institution contributes to the maintenance and smooth running of society this approach to society is called functionalism. From a functionalists point of view a family is a heterosexual couple with dependent children, male is the breadwinner and woman is the housewife. Functionalists believe that the nuclear family supports society because it is geographically mobile and allows the family to move around with little trouble. Functionalists believe that society is based on a shared value consensus, this is a set of shared norms and values into which society socializes its members this enables society to work harmoniously and meet society's needs and goals. George Murdoch said that their are four main functions of the nuclear family these are; sexual, it strengthens relations in the family. Reproductive, family is the main unit of production. Educational, family is responsible for primary education. Economic, the family has to produce and consume something in order to satisfy its needs and wants. The nuclear family can be extended vertically, horizontally or by polygamy. Some may argue that Murdoch's definition is weak because at that time sex before marriage was not accepted as was single mothers and homo-sexual families. Talcott Parsons argued that although there are many functions that the family has lost with changes...
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...Functionalists see the family as an immensely important sub-system of society. Murdock acclaimed that one of the four essential functions that the family performs in order to meet the needs of society and its members is to 'stabilise satisfaction of the sex drive with the same partner'. As this prevents the ‘social disruption’ caused by promiscuity. However, Marxists would argue that this role serves more as an economic function, as it allows property ownership and wealth to be directly passed onto the legitimate heirs of the father. The second function that Murdock believed that the family performed was to 'reproduce the next generation' as without this function, society would not continue. The third purpose of the family is to socialise the young into society's shared norms and values. And lastly, the fourth function of the family is to meet its member’s economic needs and provide basic amenities such as shelter, clean water and food. According to Parson, there are two basic types of society, one of which is the traditional pre-industrial society, which he felt was more tailored to the extended family. In an extended family a vast number of people would be needed to successfully undertake tasks such as weaving and farming, in order for the family to make a profit and govern themselves. The other type of social group is the modern industrial society, which is more suited for the nuclear family, based on the theory of functional fit. Parson's Functional fit theory suggests...
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...Using material from item 2b and elsewhere, assess the contribution of functionalist sociologists to our understanding of the family Functionalists believe that everyone has a role to play in society in order for it to work effectively. Not only does the family have practical uses like reproduction and primary socialisation, but also things that personally benefit each member of family like economic provision. Each individual has a different belief on the importance of family and how it impacts our lives; however, I think functionalism only covers the basic understanding of family and how we are impacted by our own. One functionalist who has a theory regarding family is George Murdock, who published his research in 1949. Murdock believe there are four functions to a family: sexual, reproductive, economic and educational. The sexual function is for the married parents. In order to stay together and uphold the traditional happy family, they enjoy a healthy sex life to prevent affairs and unhappiness within the marriage. This is important as it ensures the children of the couple are raised by their biological parents. The economic function is the means of the man going off to work in order to provide food and shelter for the rest of the family. Education is the primary socialisation of the children, they will have the expected norms and values of moral people, helping them to fit into society as they grow older. This ‘education’ will also help them learn their place in society...
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...In this essay the contribution of functionalist sociologists to our understanding of the family will be discussed, sociologists such as Murdock (1949), Parsons (1979) and Young and Wilmott (1973) will be mentioned in this essay. Functionalists believe that society is based on a shared value consensus, this is a set of shared norms and values into which society socialises its members, this enables society to work harmoniously and meet society’s needs and goals. Functionalists believe that the family is regarded as a basic building block of society. Murdock (1949) argues that the family performs four essential functions to meet the needs of society and its members. These functions are; economic needs, reproduction, primary socialisation and sex. However, he believes that those needs can only be achieved within a nuclear family. But some sociologists would argue that these needs can be met in other ways than within the family such as in institutions other than the family such as education, health services and the government. Marxist and Feminist sociologists have criticised Murdock’s theory. They say that functionalism ignores conflict and exploitation within society. Feminists see the family as being patriarchal and serving the needs of men and Marxists see the family as meeting the needs of capitalism and not the needs of the family members. According to Parsons (1979) there are two types of basic functions that the family provides these are the primary socialisation of childhood...
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...Assess the contribution of functionalist sociologist to our understanding of the family Functionalists believe that society is based on a value consensus into which society socialises its members, which enables to cooperate harmoniously and meet society’s needs and goals. Functionalist’s sees that society is made up of a range of different sub-systems which depend on each other, and that society needs these functions or order for survival and is vital towards society. Functionalists see the family as a very important sub-system, as it raises and teaches children norms and values. According to Peter Murdock, he argues that the family performs four main functions to meet the needs of society and the members of society. One of the functions is the stable satisfaction of the sex drive, this is husbands and wives having sexual access to each other and that this maintains stability and limits sexual access of other members of society as you are with the same person. The second function is the reproduction of the next generation, this function is based on bearing and raising children and to provide the society with new members and take on the responsibility as parents to raise them and without this function society would not be able to continue. The third function is the socialisation of the young/educational function this is transmitting norms and values of the younger members, as without this function the norms would disrupt the stability of society. The last function is meeting...
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...Assess the functionalist views of the roles of the family (24 marks) Functionalists believe that society is based on value consensus; a set of shared norms and values. The value consensus helps to socialise member of society to create social order, by allowing the members to work with each other and meet the needs of society. The functionalist definition of a family is a group consisting of two parents and their children living together as one unit; the roles of the family are simply what the family actually provide for both the children and society as a whole. Murdock believes that the nuclear family has four essential functions within society; first key function is socialisation, which suggests that the family is needed to teach the norms and values to children to help integrate them into society, before they move onto secondary socialisation within education and later life. The second function is sexual; Murdock views this as an important part of the family because a healthy sex-drive is a key to reducing family disruption as the parents will be less likely to have affairs, and therefore helping to maintain a stable family structure. The third function is reproduction; this allows for the next generation of society to be born, which is essential as it helps the continuity of society. The last function is economical so the family can provide food, shelter, etc., for the children and the other members. Although Murdock’s theory is based on the nuclear family, he does see...
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...the functionalist view of the role of the family in society (33 marks). Murdock, a functionalist, describes the family as a universal institution based on the nuclear family model. The functionalist view of the role of the family in society is that it maintains social order. The family is a tool for socialisation and a key social institution in sustaining the value that society works by consensus. Murdock identified four main functions of the family: sexual, reproductive, economic and educational. These four functions cover the role of the family in society. The sexual and reproductive functions are what keep society populated. If they became dysfunctional then society would not have the people inhabiting it. The economic function is the parent’s responsibility to take care of their family financially, usually through the division of labour where the man will take on the instrumental role of financial provider for the family while the woman will adopt the expressive role and take care of the home and family members. Marxists would contest this viewpoint arguing that the division of labour is capitalist dogma used to control the labour force and stop them from developing consciousness. The final function identified by Murdock was the educational functional, this is function where the family learns how to be socialised. It is this function that maintains the value consensus which allows society to remain functional. This is a key role of the family to functionalists if this...
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...elsewhere, assess the contribution of functionalist sociologists to our understanding of the family. (24 marks) Functionalist sociologists believe that the family is the key institution of society and that it performs vital functions for the maintenance of society as a whole as well as for individual members. According to Murdock, it provides important sub-system that provides stable satisfaction for the sex drive and therefore avoids social disruption. As well as this, Murdock says the family reproduces the next generation and thus ensuring current society to continue. Parsons argued that the pre-industrial society was focused on the extended family. Roles in these families were always based on social class, not achievement. According to parsons, industrialisation had many effects on the family. This meant that the economy demanded a more geographically mobile workforce. Nuclear families were formed as people moved away their extended kin in order to take advantage of job opportunities. New nuclear family provided the husband and wife with clear social roles. Wives were expressive, Husbands were Instrumental. Parsons concluded that the nuclear family is the only family that can provide the achievement orientated and geographically mobile workforce needed by modern industrial economies. Functionalists believe the family has specific functions: Stabilisation of adult personality. Parsons spoke about the warm bath theory, where the family relieves stresses of modern-day living...
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...understanding of families and households. Functionalism is a macro approach to society. It is based on a consensus that society as whole is run by and for the benefit of all its members. Early Functionalists such as Durkheim believed that society is made up of many institutions which work together to function. Regarding families, Functionalists believe that the nuclear family is best for society. Functionalists look at what the functions the family performs and they therefore say that the nuclear family is best for society. For example functionalists believe that traditional domestic roles (for the male to play an instrumental role as the breadwinner and the female to do the dual-burden) are necessary to ensure that children are socialised correctly with both male and female role models. Functionalists believe that the nuclear family is perfect for bringing up a geographically mobile workforce which allows families to move about for work easily, for example Functionalists believe during the industrial revolution nuclear families became more common as it was easier for families to move to an urban area in search of work than if it was for example an extended family. Conflict theories such as Marxism and Feminism challenge the Functionalism and the consensus of society by taking a more critical view. Social historians such as Laslett and Anderson also criticize the functionalist view of a ‘Functional Fit’ in the family. The main supporters of Functionalism in the family are Murdock...
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...xamine Functionalists explanations of the family (24 marks) Functionalists believe that society is based on a set of shared values and norms; this is known as a value consensus. These norms and values socialize its members, which enables them to cooperate with each other so society’s needs are met, this creates social order. It offers a structural and macro view of the family which is top down. Functionalists see society as being similar to a biological organism for example the human body. This is called the organic analogy. The human body is made up of various different parts that function together, each part is necessary for the normal functioning of the whole body. Society is made up of various institutions (for example education or family), Functionalists believe that these institutions rely on each other each other which helps maintain social order. If one institution is quickly modified or fails to work with other institutions, society would be dysfunctional and would end up in anarchy. Functionalists compare this with the human body because if one component is unable to work, this often affects other components in the body, which could result in death. Functionalists believe that a family is a vital institution, which contributes to maintaining social order because it meets the needs of other institutions such as the education system, which enables society to function in a unified manner. Functionalists believes that the nuclear family fits society’s needs, however...
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