Families Flashcards
Define nuclear family
A 2-generational family consisting of heterosexual parents that are married or cohabiting together with dependent children.
Define reconstituted family
a family structure where at least one parent has children from a previous relationship, and these children join together with the new partner and their children to form a blended family unit.
Define extended family
The group of relatives extending beyond the nuclear family
Define lone parent family
A family consisting of 1 parent raising 1 or more children.
Define single-sex family
A family where the parents are a gay/lesbian married/civilly partnered couple living together with children.
What is meant by the modern nuclear family?
Married or cohabiting heterosexual couples living together with OR without children.
What do the Rapoports say about cultural diversity in society?
Family structure is changing, society has diverged from the traditional nuclear family to possess more pluralistic cultural values and familiar structures.
This is true for 5 elements of the family;
1- Organisational
- The way families organise themselves is changing, eg more symmetrical and less traditional and patriarchal - link this to Young and Wilmott and symmetry and contrast with feminist/marxist view.
2 - Cultural diversity
- In society, families are becoming more culturally diverse due to things like immigration etc - so familiar values are changing and the dichotomy between them is widening; eg south asian vs white European cultural values in England.
Social class diversity
- The Raps. argue that much literature assumes that the ‘middle-class family life’ is the same for all classes, and this is not the case, in society the various classes means there are varies values and cultures within the home, eg WC parents have less means = work more = less attention to children so less disciplined, this is the opposite for MC.
Life course diversity; the life course of a family may change, someone may be born into a nuclear family which may change to a lone parent family - as familiar life course changes, family diversity in society increases.
Cohort diversity; families are becoming more diverse due to changing norms. As a social cohort, our values change over the years, eg having less children may be ideal nowadays but it wasn’t 100 years ago due to economic needs in factories in industrial society etc - this influences family structure. Another example is divorce; it is less stigmatised which is why there may be more lone parent families nowadays.
C.L.O.S.C
What research methods did the rapoports use when studying family structures?
Secondary research - Literature review.
What is a cross-cultural study?
Research that aims to compare and contrast different cultures or societies to understand similarities, differences, and patterns of behaviour across diverse groups of people.
What is meant by a commune?
A group of people living together who share the same principles, cultural values and political ideas.
-Eg a Kibbutz -
- which consist of a group of Jewish people living together in Israel who share the same religious beliefs.
Murdock’s perspective on the function of the family.
- Functionalist perspective; 4 functions of the nuclear family.
1- Sexual; society needs to regulate sexual activity to prevent crime. The nuclear family helps this as married couples in a nuclear family can regulate their sexual activity while also maintaining their rs.
2 - Reproductive; for society to continue, it needs new members, and the nuclear family provides these members.
3 - Economic; Society only survives if the economy does. The nuclear family aids the survival of society by aiding the economy through the adoption of division of labour (separated conjugal roles), mum does domestic expressive + dad does instrumental work, and pester power. Marxists may suggest this is an example of family being a unit of consumption.
4 - Educational; Society needs the new members to learn its culture and values, the nuclear family allows for this to happen via primary socialisation (instilling norms and values into children, preparing them for wider society).
CRITICISMS
- Families can still reproduce even if not nuclear eg via IVF
- Rose-tinted view + idealistic, not all married couples in nuclear families are sexually happy.
- He ignores dysfunctional families
- Marxists would argue that primary socialisation instils norms and values that benefit the bourgeoisie rather than society.
Parson’s perspective on the function of the family.
Functionalist; The two irreducible functions of the nuclear family.
- Primary socialisation; instilling norms and values of society into children.
- Stabilisation of adult personalities through ‘Warm Bath’ theory; nuclear family acts as a warm bath in an economically stressful global society. Father comes home from stressful work environment to a home looked after by wife - this is only possible due to segregated conjugal roles. This way, the family becomes a safe haven.
CRITICISMS
- Marxists would argue that PS benefits the B and not society.
- Parsons focuses his studies on American middle-class families, that makes his work unrepresentative, and research potentially fallible due to bias.
Zaretsky’s perspective on the function of the family.
Marxist; The nuclear family has an economic function.
- Argues that in reality the family is a unit of consumption, but modern capitalists have created the illusion that the family and the economy are two separate spheres; the private sphere and the public sphere.
- He argues that this illusion is false, and instead of the family providing psychological support in a tough economical society, it instead serves the capitalist needs of the B, thus facilitating class inequality.
- The family according to him, it does this by consuming products** (unit of consumption)** that enable the B to make profit at the expense of proletariat financial satisfaction.
- Another way is by acting as a ‘safety valve’; this refers to the idea that the family serves as a mechanism for coping with and alleviating the stresses and pressures of capitalist society, to continue the allusion that society isn’t capitalist and blind the P with the idea that all is well.
CRITICISMS
- People may argue that he doesn’t acknowledge the positive aspects of families.
(Summary, family and economy are one sphere not two, tho modern capitalists try to make it look like two. Nuclear family serves by acting as unit of consumption - contrast with Murdock - benefits B at expense of P and facilitates CI how? safety valve, it acts as one to cushion effects, but Parsons calls this warm bath rather than safety valve.)
Delphy and Leanoard’s perspective on the function of the family.
Radical feminists; families are patriarchal and women are oppressed.
- In families women are subordinate to men
- Believe that (nuclear) families facilitate the oppression on economic exploitation of women in society and only men benefit in families.
- This is because** men get to enjoy the reward from paid labour, while women have to carry out unpaid domestic labour,** thus becoming dependent on their husbands.
^^link to expressive and instrumental roles.
^^Link to Oakley; female dependency, familiar strain etc/ - Families reproduce patriarchal values in society by instilling these norms into their children through primary socialisation - eg through canalisation.
CRITICISM
- Don’t acknowledge that some women may prefer the lifestyle of simply carrying out the expressive role.
- They assume all families are patriarchal, they don’t consider egalitarian families where power is shared between genders.
Describe what is meant by ‘joint conjugal roles’.
The term used to describe roles household tasks that are not divided by gender.
In a household where this is prevalent, couples share roles and leisure time and have similar interests.
-Young and Wilmott - symmetrical families.
