Booklet 1 - perspectives of the family

Question 1

Murdock: functions of the family

Answer 1

1. sexual - expressing sexuality in a socially approved context
2. reproduction - the family providing some stability for the reproduction and rearing of children
3. socialisation - family is an important part of primary socialisation which maintains a stable society
4. economic - the family provides food and shelter for family members

Question 2

What does Murdock believe the functions of the family are?

Answer 2

necessary for any society

Question 3

What does Murdock suggest about the nuclear family?

Answer 3

that it is found in every society

Question 4

Criticisms of Murdock

Answer 4

1. Some argue that Murdock’s functions could be performed equally well by other institutions or non-nuclear family structures
2. Marxists and Feminists reject the rose tinted harmonious consensus view that family meets the needs of wider society
3. Feminists see the family as serving the needs of men whilst oppressing women
4. Marxists - it meets the needs of capitalism not those of the family or society as a whole

Question 5

Parsons functions of the family

Answer 5

1. Primary socialisation of children
2. stabilisation of human personalities

Question 6

what does Parsons argue that would happen to society if the new generation were not socialised into accepting societies basic norms and values?

Answer 6

society would cease to exist

Question 7

how does Parson see socialisation in the family?

Answer 7

so powerful that people are moulded of the culture and act in certain ways without realising it

Question 8

what does Parsons say families are?

Answer 8

factories for producing human personalities - only family can provide emotional warmth and security to achieve this

Question 9

How do families stabilise personalities according to Parsons?

Answer 9

through the sexual division of labour - men = instrumental role - family breadwinner which leads to stress and anxiety and threatens to destabilise his personality - women = expressive role - warmth, security and emotional support which contributes to the stabilisation of human personalities (warm bath theory)

Question 10

What are the two family structures which Parsons distinguishes between?

Answer 10

1. the nuclear family - fits the needs of modern industrial society
2. the extended family - fitted the need of modern industrial society

Question 11

what does Parsons argue that the particular structure and functions of a type of family will do?

Answer 11

fit the needs of society which it in e.g. when Britain began to industrialise from the late 18th century the extended family began to give way to the nuclear family

Question 12

criticisms of Parsons

Answer 12

1. Young and Willmott - men now take a greater share of domestic tasks on as wives have become wage earners
2. Feminists argue that the division of labour is not natural and that it benefits men

Question 13

what have Young and Willmott and Fletcher suggested about the classic extended family?

Answer 13

that it has largely disappeared in modern society and the structurally isolated privatised nuclear family or some modified extended family has emerged as the main family form

Question 14

privatised nuclear family - young and willmott and fletcher

Answer 14

• self - contained, self-reliant/ mutually dependant home centred unit.
• free time = jobs around the house - leisure = with family

Question 15

What do Young and Willmott suggest about rising living standards?

Answer 15

rising living standards have made the home a more attractive place to spend time

Question 16

what does Parsons say about the privatised nuclear family?

Answer 16

that it is structurally isolated because it has lost many of its functions that link to other social institutions

Question 17

Modified extended family - Young and Willmott and Fletcher

Answer 17

related nuclear families although apart geographically maintain regular contact and mutual support through visiting, phone, letters, email and social networking

Question 18

what are the main reasons for the decline in the extended family?

Answer 18

1. need for geographical mobility - moving where skills are required for a job or education often means leaving family behind - isolated nuclear family is ideal for this because its small size = it is not tied to extended family who may have lived with them
2. social mobility = different people in the family have different jobs and education and lifestyle attitudes = kin have less in common
3. growth in wealth and the welfare state taking over family functions such as education which weakens the need for kin in times of distress.
4. growth of meritocracy - not what you know but who you know - extended kin have less to offer family members
5. different occupations, incomes and lifestyles of family who if living together may cause conflict and instability - adult children moving away generally means this problem is avoided
6. lack of support for kin in the isolated nuclear family which means people are increasingly mutually dependant which protects family stability

Question 19

Parsons structural differentiation

Answer 19

many functions once performed by the family have been removed and transferred to more specialised institutions e.g. NHS

Question 20

What do Young and Wilmott argue about the extended family?

Answer 20

it only went into decline in the late 1960s as a result of major social changes:
- changes in womens positions
- geographical mobility
- new technology
- higher standards of living

Question 21

In Young and Wilmott’s study of families in London who was the symmetrical family most common for?

Answer 21

young couples and those who are geographically and socially isolated and the more affluent

Question 22

How does Brenda Almond see social change?

Answer 22

as undermining the nuclear family

Question 23

what do the new right believe the nuclear family has been encouraged by?

Answer 23

perverse incentives

Question 24

what do the new right argue that changes udermine?

Answer 24

social stability

Question 25

what do the new right argue about working mothers?

Answer 25

they put their own careers above the needs of their children - lack of successful male role models for children in fatherless families with uncontrollable children - the fault of lone mothers unable to discipline youngsters

Question 26

what do Murray and Marsland say about the welfare state?

Answer 26

that it has undermined personal responsibility, self help and the importance support from families - particularly don’t like support for lone parents as it encourages single women to have children they can’t afford knowing they can get help from state benefits

Question 27

What does the new right suggest is a solution?

Answer 27

to return to traditional family values with government policies that reverse the decline in traditional family unit e.g.
- reduce divorce and births outside marriage
- reduction of welfare state benefits to non-coventional family units
- limit on child benefits in the UK cap of 2 children for those born after 6th April 2017 - reduces taxes and act as an incentive for fathers to find work

Question 28

criticisms of the new right

Answer 28

• assumes patriarchal model of the nuclear family is natural not socially constructed
• Pam Abbot and Claire Wallace - cutting benefits leads to more poverty
• rosy view of the family when there is a darker side

Question 29

Do Marxists see the nuclear family as a functioning necessary institution?

Answer 29

No - see the family as a framework of a capitalist society

Question 30

How do Marxists see all societies institutions?

Answer 30

as helping to maintain class inequality and capitalism