Booklet 1 - perspectives of the family Flashcards
Murdock: functions of the family
- sexual - expressing sexuality in a socially approved context
- reproduction - the family providing some stability for the reproduction and rearing of children
- socialisation - family is an important part of primary socialisation which maintains a stable society
- economic - the family provides food and shelter for family members
What does Murdock believe the functions of the family are?
necessary for any society
What does Murdock suggest about the nuclear family?
that it is found in every society
Criticisms of Murdock
- Some argue that Murdock’s functions could be performed equally well by other institutions or non-nuclear family structures
- Marxists and Feminists reject the rose tinted harmonious consensus view that family meets the needs of wider society
- Feminists see the family as serving the needs of men whilst oppressing women
- Marxists - it meets the needs of capitalism not those of the family or society as a whole
Parsons functions of the family
- Primary socialisation of children
- stabilisation of human personalities
what does Parsons argue that would happen to society if the new generation were not socialised into accepting societies basic norms and values?
society would cease to exist
how does Parson see socialisation in the family?
so powerful that people are moulded of the culture and act in certain ways without realising it
what does Parsons say families are?
factories for producing human personalities - only family can provide emotional warmth and security to achieve this
How do families stabilise personalities according to Parsons?
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)
What are the two family structures which Parsons distinguishes between?
- the nuclear family - fits the needs of modern industrial society
- the extended family - fitted the need of modern industrial society
what does Parsons argue that the particular structure and functions of a type of family will do?
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
criticisms of Parsons
- Young and Willmott - men now take a greater share of domestic tasks on as wives have become wage earners
- Feminists argue that the division of labour is not natural and that it benefits men
what have Young and Willmott and Fletcher suggested about the classic extended family?
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
privatised nuclear family - young and willmott and fletcher
- self - contained, self-reliant/ mutually dependant home centred unit.
- free time = jobs around the house - leisure = with family
What do Young and Willmott suggest about rising living standards?
rising living standards have made the home a more attractive place to spend time
what does Parsons say about the privatised nuclear family?
that it is structurally isolated because it has lost many of its functions that link to other social institutions
Modified extended family - Young and Willmott and Fletcher
related nuclear families although apart geographically maintain regular contact and mutual support e.g. visiting, phone, letters, email and social networking
what are the main reasons for the decline in the extended family?
- 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
- social mobility = different people in the family have different jobs and education and lifestyle attitudes = kin have less in common
- growth in wealth and the welfare state taking over family functions such as education which weakens the need for kin in times of distress.
- growth of meritocracy - not what you know but who you know - extended kin have less to offer family members
- 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
- lack of support for kin in the isolated nuclear family which means people are increasingly mutually dependant which protects family stability
Parsons structural differentiation
many functions once performed by the family have been removed and transferred to more specialised institutions e.g. NHS
What do Young and Wilmott argue about the extended family?
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
In Young and Wilmott’s study of families in London who was the symmetrical family most common for?
young couples and those who are geographically and socially isolated and the more affluent
How does Brenda Almond see social change?
as undermining the nuclear family
what do the new right believe the nuclear family has been encouraged by?
perverse incentives
what do the new right argue that changes udermine?
social stability
what do the new right argue about working mothers?
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
what do Murray and Marsland say about the welfare state?
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
What does the new right suggest is a solution?
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
criticisms of the new right
- 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
Do Marxists see the nuclear family as a functioning necessary institution?
No - see the family as a framework of a capitalist society
How do Marxists see all societies institutions?
as helping to maintain class inequality and capitalism
Marxism - the nuclear family
- Concerned with social control teaching members to submit to the capitalist class.
- The family reproduces unequal relationships of the workplace, accustoms children to them and helps dampen inevitable social conflict.
Marxism - Engles - nuclear family
Saw the monogamous nuclear family as a way of passing property to heirs as it provided proof of paternity.
Marxism - Engles - women’s position in the family
- Not much different from prostitutes - provides sex and heirs in return for economic security from her husband.
- The rise of the monogamous nuclear family as a ‘world historical defeat of the female sex.’
Marxism - Althusser - capitalism survival
- Depended on the working class submitting to the ruling class/ bourgeoisie.
- The family along with the education system and media are part of the ideological state apparatus - concerned with social control and passing on the ideology of the ruling class.
- Through socialisation into this family the ruling class tries to maintain false class consciousness by winning the hearts and minds of the working class.