Families- T1- Family, Social Structure and Social Change Flashcards
How are families becoming more diverse?
- Nuclear
- Extended
- Single (lone) parent
- Reconstituted
- Same Sex
- Fostered/ Adopted
The diversification has caused sociologists issues in actually defining what counts as a family
What does George Murdock Think?
He made a definition of the family in 1949 based from a sample of 250 societies
- although he found evidence of a variety of family forms within this sample, Murdock claimed that each contained a basic nucleus
What was Murdock’s definition
He mainly focused on the nuclear family:
- made of 2 generations living in the same house
Many right wing sociologists believe this is the ideal type of family that people should aspire to and have the characteristics:
1. Kinship- related to each other by blood, marriage, etc
2. living together
3. heterosexual
4. Marriage
5. Shared responsibilities but ‘natural’ differences occur- sexual divisions of labour
What are extended families and their functions?
- Roles in family were based on ASCRIPTION (meaning they were born in a particular family trade)
- these roles would be passed down from generation to generation, and this is why extended families stayed closely knit
- Family members would not reject these roles- sense of duty and obligation to the family
What are the roles of the extended family?
- Skills and education- rarely included literacy and numeracy
- Health care- high infant mortality rates and low life expectancy indicates this was a struggle
- Welfare- e.g. grandparents who became too old to work would look after young children in the family
- Justice- deal with any wrongdoing in the family
What is industrialisation
Parsons argues that industrialisation brought around 4 fundamental changes to the family…
1. Mobility
2. Achievement
3. Changes to care for the family
4. Family role
And that only the nuclear family could effectively provide the workforce that was needed by the modern industrial society
What are the clear family roles of extended families?
The nuclear unit leads to clear roles between husband and wife
- Male- INSTRUMENTAL LEADER
Protection of family, financial responsibility
- Female- EXPRESSIVE LEADER
Socialisation of children, emotional care, support of family
- Parson’s-> ‘natural’
Why was there increases in nuclear families
Geographical Mobility- ability to move around quickly for available jobs- nuclear families increased as families moved from extended relatives for jobs
Ascription to Achievement- mass edu introduced and workers selected on education
Structural differentiation- specialised agencies took over family roles, so there was an increase as the family has fewer roles due to the state and industrial companies taking over- nuclear family left with 2 main functions: primary socialisation of children and stabilisation of adult personalities
