Families And Households Flashcards
What is the difference between family and households?
A household is a group of people who live together who may have kinship or family ties but some people may live with students friends of alone
What is a household?
A group of people who live together
What is a family?
A group of people who are related by birth or blood
What are the 5 different types of family?
Nuclear family Traditional extended family Attenuated Extended family Lone-parent families Reconstituted family
What is a nuclear family?
Two generations living together such as parents and dependent children
What is a traditional extended family?
Three or more generations of the same family living together or close by with frequent contact such as grandparents cousins aunts and uncles
What is an Attenuated family?
Nuclear families that live apart from their extended family but keep in contact via phone email..
What is a lone parent family?
A single parent and their dependent children
What is a reconstituted family?
New step families created when when two previous families are brought together to create a new family group
How does functionalists see the family?
Family is one of the institutions that are essential to keep society running smoothly
What did Murdock say?
Family is so useful to society it is inevitable and universal….you can’t avoid having family units in society
What was Murdock study?
He looked at 250 societies in different cultures
Who is Murdock?
Functionalist
What did Murdock find in his study?
Some form of nuclear family existed in all 250 societies.
The family performed four basic functions
What did Murdock find to be the four main functions of the family?
Sexual
Reproductive
Economic
Educational
What did Murdock mean by a sexual function?
It provides a stable sexual relationship for adults and controls the sexual relationships of its members
What did Murdock mean by the reproductive function?
Provides new babies/members of society
What did Murdock mean by the economic factor?
Family pools resources and provides for all its members, adults and children
What did Murdock mean by the educational function?
The family teaches children norms and values of society which keeps the values of society going
What were the two basic functions in a family did parsons think of?
To primary socialise their children
The standardisation of adult personalities
What does primary socialisation mean?
Process children learn to accept the values and norms of society
What does the stabilisation of adult personalities mean?
The family provides emotional support and security through relationships. This is needed to cope in wider society from the stress of everyday life
Why are functionalists criticised?
They ignore negative aspects of family life
How do functionalists ignore negative aspects of family life?
1) idealise family focusing on positive aspects and ignoring the bad
2) functionalists view on family dominated sociology Murdock and parsons failed to look st conflict class or violence in relation to family
3 feminists believed the ignored issues of exploitation
4) the fact they overlooked negative aspects of family life made their position look weak
What do Marxists believe about the role of family in society?
Marxists think the family benefits the bourgeoisie and the economy
Why did Morgan criticise Murdock?
Murdock made no reference to alternative families or problems in family relationships
Who is Engels?
Marxist
What did Engels say about the family?
Family had an economic function keeping wealth within he bourgeoisie passing it on to the next generation as inheritance
What did Zaretsky say?
The family helps the capitalist economy.
Family is the one place in society where the proletariat can have power and control.
This allows working class men to relieve some frustration that they feel due to their low status
What do Marxists believe a women’s role provides?
Women care for their children and husband making sure they are cared for an healthy so are able to work
What is Zaretsky?
Marxist
Why is the Marxist view criticised?
The Marxists see family as a tool of capitalism oppression which is seen as being too negative
Why is the Marxist view of the family seen as too negative?
It only focuses on benefits to the economy and the bourgeoisie and ignores benefits to individuals and society
Traditional Marxists assume men are the breadwinner and women are housewives
What is the similarities between functionalism and Marxism?
They both see family as having a key role in society in reproducing social structure and order
What’s the difference between functionalism and Marxism?
Is the role of the family positive or negative and who does it benefit
What do administer believe is the role of the family?
The family exploits and oppresses women by maintaining social order that is patriarchal
What is patriarchy?
It is the combination of systems, ideologies and cultural practices which make sure that mean have the power
How does the family exploit women?
It supports and reproduces inequalities between men and women as women are socialised to be dependent on men. Expectations are formed in the family and carry out into wider society
What are the three main types of feminist?
Marxist feminist
Radical feminist
Liberal feminist
What do Marxist feminist believe?
Exploitation of women is essential to the success of capitalism. The family produces and cares for the next generation of workers at almost no cost to the capitalist system as housework is unpaid.
Men are paid for work outside of the home but women aren’t paid for their work at home
What did Benston say?
If housework was paid at minimum wage it would damage capitalist profits hugely
What is Benston?
Liberal feminist
What do radical feminists believe?
Exploitation of women is down to the domination of men in society. Men will always oppress women
Who is Delphy and Leonard?
Radical feminist
What did Delphy and Leonard say?
Women do most of the work but men get most of the benefit
What did liberal feminists believe?
They look at he effects Cultural norms and values reinforced by the family and other institutions in society. The family is only sexist as it supports mainstream culture .
They think social change is possible by putting pressure on institutions such as the legal system to change laws that discriminate against women
Why has the feminist theory been criticised?
1) they all portray women as too passive making them look like they lack the ability to change and improve their situation
2) doesn’t acknowledge that power might be shared
3) they don’t consider lesbian gay relationships and lone parent households
4) black feminists pointed out that feminists theory doesn’t address the fact that women from different ethnic backgrounds and life experiences
What does new right believe that the family role is?
New right believe the nuclear family is the bedrock of society
What’s the theory?
The new rights theory is based around the idea that traditional nuclear family and its values is best for society.
Mum dad kids dad earning the money
What do new right think about social policies?
They think it undermines the family
Who is charles Murray?
New right
What did Charles Murray say?
Traditional family is under threat. Welfare benefits are too high and create a culture of dependency where people choose to go on benefits rather then working
What do new rights believe about single mothers?
They are concerned about giving lots of welfare benefits to single mothers as it is a bad idea to have children brought up in families where adults don’t work
What do new rights believe has causes an increase in problems such as crime?
Increase in low parent and reconstituted families made it easier to get divorced high led to a breakdown in traditional values causing social problems such as an increase in crime
Why have the new right been criticised?
They blame victims for their problems
What do postmodernist think about the diversity in family structure?
Having a wider range of living options is due to a social and cultural change which is a positive change
Who is Judith Stacey?
Postmodernist
What did Judith Stacey think?
There’s such a diversity in family types relationships and lifestyles that there will never be a dominant type of family in western culture this makes life more flexible as you can move from one family structure to another
What do postmodernist believe is the key idea of contemporary living?
Contemporary living is flexible so people can experience a lo of different typeset families in their lifetime and can chose an option that suits their individual needs
How did industrialisation change family structure?
Pre-industrial society was agriculture in home villages and farms extended family was more common
In industrial society the nuclear family became more dominant as individuals left home to find better pay
Why did parson think extended families changed to nuclear families?
Nuclear families was the best fit for industrial society
How did the roles of the family change after the industrialisation?
1) functions of the family were taken over by the state such as education healthcare and the police
2) nuclear family focuses on the function of socialising children into norms and values of industrial society
3) nuclear families are more geographically mobile with fewer ties with local ki ships and economic systems
Why do functionalist believe that the industrialisation has changed the roles and status within the family?
1) before it was ascribed now parsons thinks it’s achieved status
2) nuclear family is better at allowing individuals to achieve a high status without conflict
3) specialised roles for men and women develop within a family men are practical and women are emotional leaders which is most effective for society
Why are functionalists criticised about their view of the industrialisation ?
They see the modern nuclear family as superior they also ignore evidence suggesting a variety of family forms in the past