...Introduction We all have our own views on what we believe to be family, whether it be the traditional mother, father and children form or the contrasting; two parents of the same sex and adopted children, we all probably would agree that a family consists of people that love each other and adults that rear and prepare children ready for adult life within society. As members of society we have our own individual views as to what constitutes as family, so do sociologists. In this report I will assess the functionalist's sociological theories of the family and introduce other perspectives on the family and show how they differ from the Functionalist perspective, I will concentrate on the conflicting theories of Feminists, Marxists and Postmodernists. Functionalist Perspective Functionalism theory suggests that there is a specific pattern of family organisation corresponding to different types of society. Therefore suggesting there is a particular family form that best suits the conditions of industrial society. Functionalist's believe that the nuclear family replaced the extended families because of industrialisation. Parson claim's the nuclear family is crucial in relation to the socialisation of the young and stabilisation of adult personalities. G P Murdock says: “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...
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...Nuclear Family and Extended Family Family is the most basic social unit in any society. A family is a unit that consists of biologically related people that live together in a house. There are two types of family: Nuclear family and Extended family. It is necessary to understand difference between nuclear family and extended family to explain advantages or disadvantages of them. Nuclear family is a family unit consisting of a mother and father and their children. Extended family is a family group that consists of parents, children, and other close relatives, often living in close proximity. Because of this population difference, there are some advantages or disadvantages of extended family and nuclear family. Extended family is a natural concept that is still very popular in many cultures such as Turkey. This type of family includes men and his wife, their children, spouses of children and grandchildren. Each person in these families has different positions and responsibilities. For instance, women look after children, clean their house and cook food as housewives. On the other hand, men work to earn money to provide their life conditions. In addition, in this type of family, there is a hierarchy between the each family member. Therefore, each member has to respect the eldest person of those families and this person makes every critical decision. This hierarchy prepares each member of family to real life. Members of these families can adapt to business life easily. Moreover...
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...scenario of social structure is changing as a result, joint family structure demolishes by nuclear family structure. Most of the people adopted false and wrong notions regarding social prestige which put impact on students in negative direction experiencing a lack of right leadership and appropriate guidance, all these above changes become the cause of collapse of children's moral and mental basis. Children, nowadays, are deprived of the love and affection with their grandparents and teacher’s both. We can generally see in metropolitan areas parents do not have time to spend with their children mostly when they go to the office or on their works their wards are in bed and when they come back from their work at night their wards are in deep sleep. So the most of the parents feel that they are not able to...
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...Ava Moradi Sociology Is a nuclear family an ideal family form? ADVANTAGES Financial Stability A nuclear family is a term used to define a pair of adults and their children. In today's traditional nuclear families, it is common to have income coming from both parents, Both parents work to provide financial stability for the household, creating a larger cash flow to supply the basic family needs of housing, food and healthcare. Financial stability also allows the parents to provide additional extracurricular opportunities for their children, such as music or athletic lessons. These opportunities allow children to flourish socially and develop a higher level of confidence. Increased Consistency in Child Caring A family that consists of two parents living together are more likely to have a higher consistency with raising their children; certain agreements, discipline and arrangements are put in place, for example modeling appropriate behavior; parents act as a team to strengthen and reinforce appropriate behavior, and children are given consistent messages about what behavior is right and wrong, and certain expectations. Nuclear families are also said to have more daily routines, like eating dinner together (adding to consistency. Stronger Emotional Bonds and Support Systems Nuclear families tend to establish stronger bonds as they work together and rely on one another to overcome challenges. Children witness their parents' supportive and loving relationships...
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...Assess the view that the Nuclear family is no longer the norm. The definition of a nuclear family is a family unit that consists of a mother, father and their children, who all live together. It can be argued that the nuclear family is no longer the norm but some sociologists, like Murdock and Talcott Parsons, would argue that the nuclear family is the norm. The three different types of sociologists; functionalists, feminists and new right all have different views on the family and its importance. Functionalists believe the function of the family is to socialist children, which in turn benefits both society and children. Feminists believe the purpose of the family is to reinforce the dominant position of men without a patriarchal society. New Right believe the role of the family is to teach children the difference between right and wrong, and to provide a sense of morality more widely known as “family values.” Functionalists such as Murdock and Parsons would say that the nuclear family is the norm. Murdock felt that all families fulfil four functions. The first function being sexual which is where married adults enjoy a healthy sex life which prevents them having affairs and ensures children are raised by their natural parents. The second function is reproductive which involves making the next generation. The third function is economic, by this Murdoch means providing food and shelter. Ideally the man will go out to work and the woman will look after the house...
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...Sociology Essay… A family is a group of people that live together and are related to each other through kinship ties or marriage. Kinship means being related through blood or birth. On the other hand, a household is a group of people who live together but are not related to each other through kinship ties or marriage. It is believed that families make up the majority of households but there are others for example, students or friends sharing a flat/house. There are five main different types of families: * Nuclear Family: Two generations living together (mother, father and dependent children) * Traditional Extended Family: Three or more generations of the same family living together or close by, with frequent contact between grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, cousins etc. * Attenuated Extended Family: Nuclear families that live apart from their extended family, but keep in regular contact e.g. via email or phone. * Single Parent Family: A single parent and their dependent children. * Reconstituted Family: New stepfamilies created when parts of two previous families are brought together. George Murdock (1949) was a famous sociologist that argued that some form of the nuclear family existed in all of the 250 different societies he looked at. He argued the family performed four basic functions – sexual, reproductive, economic and educational (social). Murdock’s definition of a family is: A social group characterised by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction...
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...size of their family. Parents have to consider whether it is better for their children to grow up in a large family or to grow up in a small family. Still, I believe there is no best family size. A large family and a small family both have their own advantages and disadvantages in the aspects of family’s finance and child companionship. A family financial condition is tightly related to the size of the family. The living cost for a large is surely much higher than the living cost for a small family. As the result, children in a large family would have less financial supports from their parents. In contrast, in a small family, parents can give more resources to their children. For instance, their children can receive better education, or have more opportunities to develop some costly interests, such as piano. My friend, Dave, is the only child in their family. Their parents always support him to do whatever the things he wishes to do, such as traveling aboard and developing his interest in music. On the other hand, I, growing up in a large family, do not have as many chances to do things I want as Dave do. From this example, I believe children in a small family can receive more supports from their parents than children in a large family can receive. Although children in the large family might not receive much supports from their parents, they have more companies to talk to and to play with. That is definitely a great advantage for children in a large family. They will not...
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...Nuclear Family: Definition, Merits & Demerits Definition So, what does that mean? In simple terms, a nuclear family system is a family structure that consists of two parents living with their children, also known as an immediate family. For example, in The Simpsons, Homer and Marge are the parents and they live with their children, Bart, Lisa and Maggie. This system is different from an extended family system, in which the household may include non-immediate family members, such as grandparents, aunts and uncles. Many believe that a nuclear family is the best arrangement, yielding numerous advantages. However, with any system, there are also disadvantages. Advantages Financial Stability In today's traditional nuclear families, it is common to have dual incomes. Both parents work to providefinancial stability for the household, creating a larger cash flow to supply the basic family needs of housing, food and healthcare. Financial stability also allows the parents to provide additional extracurricular opportunities for their children, such as music or athletic lessons. These opportunities allow children to flourish socially and develop a higher level of confidence. Increased Consistency in Child Rearing A two-parent household is more likely to have higher consistency with raising their children. By reaching agreements on discipline and modeling appropriate behavior, parents act as a team to strengthen and reinforce child behavior. Children get consistent messages about behavioral...
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...The Nuclear family is seen as the traditional family and it is made up of a husband, a wife and one or more children, which can be either biological or adopted. In the family the husband is usually the breadwinner and is instrumental towards the children, where as the wife should be responsible for the housework and plays an expressive role towards the children. This is known as a 'cereal packet' family. Murdock a functionalist sociologist (1949) argued that nuclear family is a 'universal social grouping', which can be found in all societies, however according to postmodernists nuclear families are not necessarily the most effective family. One reason that the nuclear family isn’t necessarily considered the norm anymore would be an increase in same-sex couples because it has become more socially acceptable as homosexuality was legalised in the UK in 1967. This has meant that there are more same sex couples and they now have the chance to adopt. Technology as well as social acceptance has made major advances recently so gay and lesbian couples are able to use IVF treatment. Functionalist sociologists do not believe that same sex couples would educate a child to the same extent as single sex families however studies of same sex families could not see any significant effects un terms of gender identification or sexual orientation. Weeks (1999), a Postmodernist, states that increase social acceptance may explain a trend in recent years towards same sex cohabitation and stable relationships...
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...The Nuclear Family is a household consisting of two generations. It is the traditional ‘cereal packet family’ with a Husband and a Wife and children either adopted or biological. The New Right also believe that the Nuclear Family should also have traditional segregated roles within the family. This traditionally means that the women would be in charge of the household chores and looking after the children whilst the husband would be the main breadwinner and would go out to work. The New Right are a perspective who believes that government policies do not support the traditional Nuclear Family and the roles that should be upheld within that family. One of the main policies that are thought to undermine these traditional roles and values is that of the Divorce reform Law of 1969. This law made divorce, especially women, easier, less costly and less shameful for the women who were involved. It also introduced the concept of family courts which helped to protect the children who were almost, inevitably involved in the rare divorce of their parents. The reform of the law is something that the New Right doesn’t agree with. They feel that the law encourages divorce and in this way it does not support the Nuclear Family. They feel that because divorce is no easier for the majority of people then more people are going to get a divorce and become lone parents and because they believe that the Nuclear Family has to consist of two married parents and their children then this is a policy...
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...The nuclear family was commonly seen in many countries of the world due to its practicality and replaced the extended family in most societies. The nuclear family is defined by George Peter Murdock as a married male and female couple raising one or more children in one household. This structure became the norm in modern society as it fulfils Murdock’s 4 functions of the family: Sexual; helps maintain a healthy and stable relationship between the parents, Reproductive; to continue the population and produce workers for society, Economic; to support the family by working in society and sharing roles between the man and woman, Education; to serve as a source of primary socialisation for children so that they may function properly in society. Sociobiologists believe that our behaviour is due to biological instincts. The nuclear family proved that it worked so was continued to be used as it was seen crucial to the survival of our species and zoologist, Desmond Morris mentioned that ‘Most successful cultures use the nuclear family’. The ‘cereal packet family’ is a term given by Edmund Leech in 1967 when he recognised the power of the image of the nuclear family. It’s a socially constructed model laden with assumptions of how families ought to be. Such an image creates a normalised social construction of what a family should look like. However, many other family structures are being used which suggests that the nuclear family is not the norm. For example, the Kibbutz lived in an extended...
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...policies reflect and support the traditional nuclear family (24 marks) A social policy refers to the plans and actions of government agencies, such as health, welfare benefits, schools etc. These can often be used by politicians to promote certain family structures, which they believe to be ‘ideal’. There are many examples of policies which the government use to try and promote the traditional nuclear family which is commonly seen as the family ideology. One example is the 1930’s Nazi government who wanted to create an Aryan race and put policies in place to sterilize certain groups to prevent them from having children. Another more recent example is China’s two child policy which was out in place to reduce the population of China. This involves women having to ask before getting pregnant and fines for couples who exceed the two child limit. Government policies commonly support the traditional values of the nuclear family through many government institutions, which can happen directly or indirectly. One example of this is the way in which schools structure their hours and holidays. The school’s hours assume that a parent (usually the mother) is at home and is able to pick the children up, which reinforces the roles within the nuclear family of the mother being the housewife and child carer. The New Right governments in the 1980’s and 1990’s particularly stressed the importance of the nuclear family, as they saw all other family types as deviant. They introduced many policies...
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...the growth of family diversity has led to the decline of the traditional nuclear family.” (24 marks) Before 1970, cohabitation was illegal in certain countries. The law changed and now cohabitation is a common pattern among people around the world, as well as having sex before marriage and having a baby. At least 50% to 60% of couple’s cohabitate, starting from the late 1990’s. This results into the amount of traditional nuclear families decreasing as people want to live in companionship as nearly half the amount of marriages end in divorce. Also cohabiting is an easier way as it is much cheaper since there is no marriage expenses and doesn’t cause much hassle. The New Right see the decline of the traditional nuclear family and the growth of family diversity as negative trends in modern society. From the New Right perspective, these changes are the cause of many social problems in Britain today. In society now, there is easy access to contraception and married couples are not having children for various reasons which has led to the decline of the traditional nuclear family. There has been an increase in marriage of 9.2% between 2006 and 2011. Murdock argued on the basis of his studies that the nuclear family was a universal social institution and that it existed universally because it fulfilled four basic functions for society: the sexual, reproductive, economic and education functions. However, the numbers of nuclear families have fallen due to a rise in family diversity such...
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...Assess the view that the growth of family diversity has led to the decline of the traditional nuclear family. The traditional nuclear family consists of a spouse and a husband with children. Firstly, a reason for the decline in the nuclear family is because of divorce. As divorce has increased there has been a rise in cohabitations. Cohabitations involve an unmarried couple in a sexual relationships living together. Whilst the number of divorces increase the number of cohabitations has also, making it fastest growing family type in the UK. There are over two million cohabitaing couples in britian, and in addition about a quarter of all unmarried adults under 60 are now cohabiting – double the amount in 1986. There are many reasons for the increase of cohabitations. Firstly, it can be linked to the decline in stigma attached to sex outside of marriage. This is also relevant to the decline in stigma to divorce, so now people are less bothered about divorce, therefore the outcome after a divorce will be a reconstituted family or a singleton life style. Secondly the increased career opportunities for women now mean that they no longer need a husband to sustain a family or themselves. Also now women do not feel the need to pursue a family, but rather some prefer to pursue a career, which can lead to them never being married, or being married at a later age, which can reduce the chances of having children, reducing the traditional nuclear family which consisted of children and married...
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...Using material from Item A and elsewhere assess the extent to which social policies reflect and support the traditional nuclear family. (24 Marks) Social policies are the measures taken by the state bodies and based on laws introduced by the government that aim to deal with a problem or achieve a goal. They can have both direct (aimed specifically at family life) and indirect effects (aimed on other social or economic issues but also affects the family). The traditional nuclear family is the ‘cereal packet’ family comprised of two adults of opposing sex with segregated roles of male breadwinner and female nurturer, and two children. There are many examples of government policies which support the traditional family norm and therefore social policy may be seen as an aspect of family ideology. Ideology is a set of beliefs that serve the interests of a dominant social group, and so we are encouraged to view the traditional family as normal and desirable. Functionalists believe that the state acts in the interests of the whole society and that its policies help the family to perform its functions. There is a March of Progress view as they believe policies are gradually improving family life. Functionalists believe that the welfare state enables families to look after their members better through access to the NHS, child benefit etc. However Feminists argue that social policies only benefit men whereas New Right believes that the interference of the state creates a “perverse...
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