Families

Question 1

What is Parsons’ essential function of primary socialisation of children?

Answer 1

Teaching and learning of the attitudes, values, behavioural norms and traditions that occur in childhood in order to prepare them to be an adult within a society or culture.

Personalities are ‘made not born’ - therefore parents (mainly mothers being nurturing) have to socialise their children in order to enable them to make positive involvement within society and be a good citizen

Question 2

What is Parsons’ essential function of stabilisation of adult’s personalities?

Answer 2

To relieve the stresses of the adults who work in hectic and competitive places in the modern-day.

Instead of extended kin being there for advice and guidance, Parsons thinks that in the nuclear family spouses and children can positively reinforce the relationships within the family. (Warm Bath theory suggests that the family is there to soothe and relieve the stresses of work)

Adults can be themselves in a ‘childish way’ when with their families by playing with their children for example - the emotional support acts as a safety valve/net

Question 3

What are critiques of the functionalist concept of primary socialisation?

Answer 3

The idea of downplaying conflict:

-Not all children are going to just obey and listen to the strict orders from their parents

-Functionalism ignores the fact that children are capable of creating and adapting their own personalities/identities outside of the values and norms learnt from their parents, especially within this modern society

Question 4

What are critiques of the functionalist concept of the family being a safe-haven or a safety valve/net?

Answer 4

There’s the Marxist view that the family reinforces and reproduces the capitalist society as it keeps the workers emotionally stable enough to keep on working - this maintains the bourgeoisie’s power and serves within their interest as there’s still the workforce that they need

Thus maintaining inequalities in society between the proletariat and bourgeoisie

Question 5

According to parsons, why has the family unit become smaller (Extended to nuclear) ?

Answer 5

Because of industrialisation and urbanisation, there was more need for a workforce that was geographically mobile

Question 6

What is a critique of functionalists favouring the nuclear family?

Answer 6

They ignore family diversity

Question 7

What is the functionalist fit theory from Parsons?

Answer 7

It explains how the nuclear family was created to fit into an industrialised society

Question 8

What is Parsons’ sex role theory ?

Answer 8

How children learned gender roles from their parents in order to contribute to wider society:

-Boys would learn from their fathers in order to take the instrumental role

-Girls would learn from their mothers in order to take the expressive role

Question 9

What is the instrumental role?

Answer 9

Being the ‘breadwinner’ of the family:

• providing economic support by going to work and being disciplined

Question 10

What is the expressive role?

Answer 10

Being the ‘homemaker’ of the family:

-Focusing on domestic labour, primary socialisation (nurturing), and being emotionally supportive

Question 11

What are criticisms of Parsons’ sex role theory?

Answer 11

-Parsons ignores the fact there are joint roles within post-modern society, where both parents share tasks (like childcare and housework) and also share leisure time together
(Opposite to segregated roles)

-Parsons ignores the exploitation of women with the enforcement of gender roles

Question 12

What is the March of progress view on the family?

Answer 12

The fact that there’s been progress in reducing gender inequalities:

-Most women are in paid employment
-Their authority and independence has increased within the family, meaning men do more housework and women do less

Question 13

What sociologists talked about how unemployed young men contributed to housework?

Answer 13

McKee and Bell talked about how young unemployed men contributed even less domestic work than when they were employed

Question 14

What sociologist in 1983 was talking about the contribution of husbands in childcare? And what argument can be made against this now?

Answer 14

Mary Boulton stated that fewer than 20% of fathers actually had a role in childcare

-However it can be argued that this outdated and therefore not relevant/accurate nowadays

Question 15

What are symmetrical families?

Answer 15

Where roles are shared across genders within the family (joint conjugal roles not separated conjugal roles - the two Bott stated)

‘Symmetry’ insinuates a sense of balance in the duties of the male and female, where:

-Men are more domestic
-Women become breadwinners
-Couples are become companionate by actually spending leisure time together

Question 16

Critiques of symmetrical families

Answer 16

-The woman in the couple may just be naturally better at being the homemaker than the husband
-And the husband may be more suited to being the breadwinner

Question 17

Why do new rights thinkers favour the nuclear family?

Answer 17

Because they emphasise the importance of traditional family values such as marriage, commitment and parental responsibility (bringing up to children to be civil/good citizens)

-Thus making the nuclear family the foundation of a stable society

Question 18

Who do the new rights criticise?

Answer 18

Single/lone parent families (lack of male figure in single mother families can lead to a lack of discipline and therefore an upbringing of delinquents)

Question 19

What are critiques about the new rights thinkers?

Answer 19

-Other family structures other than the nuclear family can provide adequate discipline to their children too

• Ann Oakley says TNR are reacting against feminist campaigns for equality (in wrongly assuming that husband/wive roles are biologically allocated)

Question 20

Why has there been a decline in marriages?

Answer 20

-Secularisation (less stigma of sex outside marriage)

-Cohabitation (a method of trialling to see how it’s like living with their partner before getting married) - Younger people are more likely to accept cohabitation

-Weddings are too expensive (financial reasons)

Question 21

How do feminists view the decline of marriages?

Answer 21

Generally good, because they see traditional marriage as a patriarchal institution (with the gender roles they have to conform to, and being restricted to a housewife)

Question 22

How has divorce become easier to access over time?

Answer 22

-Legal grounds have become equalised between the two genders

-Divorce has become cheaper

Question 23

How has globalisation led to family diversity?

Answer 23

-Exchange of diverse family structures through migration (intercultural marriages)

-Media has influenced campaigns in changing attitudes to gender roles, marriage and family dynamics

Question 24

How has changes in childbearing affected gender roles in the family?

Answer 24

-Women are having fewer children, they can have more joint conjugal roles where they’re sharing roles with their partner

-Women have more access in taking on the instrumental role as they’re more likely to employed in the workforce with them having less children

Question 25

Why has there been a decrease in birth rates?

Answer 25

-Children are too expensive (economic liabilities not assets, especially after the foster education act in 1870 that made education compulsory, removing child labour)

-Sarah Harper suggests that education has lead to women changing their mindsets in family planning, and have sought alternative lifestyles (like careers) rather than just conforming to the traditional role of being a housewife/mother

-Advancements in reproductive choices (by using contraception)

Question 26

2 ways in which postmodernist views have led to family diversity

Answer 26

-Challenged traditional family norms and roles, allowing for greater acceptance and recognition of other family types beyond the nuclear family

-It promotes individualism, thus encouraging self-expression and going for one’s desires (whether that be divorce or going for a same-sex relationship)