Family and Household structure

Question 1

Main reason for family changing post industrialisation?

Answer 1

Mainly due to people migrating to cities to work in factories.

Question 2

two basic types of family according to Parsons?

Answer 2

Nuclear and Extended.

Question 3

Two basic types of society according to Parsons?

Answer 3

Pre-industrial and Industrial.

Question 4

why did Parsons believe the extended family was most common in pre-industrial society?

Answer 4

Families needed all hands on deck to produce goods and crops to live from and to sell the surplus at the market(cottage industry).

Question 5

why did Parsons believe the nuclear family to be most common in industrial society?

Answer 5

Increase in individuals leaving home to go to work.

Question 6

What was the key social change according to Parsons?

Answer 6

Industrialisation separates home and work.

Question 7

General Functionalist view on the changed functions of the family?

Answer 7

1. Family functions taken over by the state e.g. policing, healthcare and education.
2. Nuclear family can focus on its function of socialisation.
3. Nuclear family is isolated, therefore it can freely move to where work is(geographical mobility).

Question 8

According to Functionalists how did industrialisation change roles in the family?

Answer 8

1. Status is no longer ascribed, an individuals status is now decided outside of the family.
2. Its ok for an individual to achieve higher or lower status than previous generations, allowing for greater social mobility through people bettering themselves.
3. Specialised roles develop for men and women within the family.

Question 9

Laslett and Andersons criticism of functionalist theory on extended familys in an industrial society?

Answer 9

According to the 1851 census the extended family thrived within industrial society due to people moving in with relatives upon moving to the city for work.

Question 10

Willmott and Young’s three stages in which the family has developed through?

Answer 10

1. Pre industrial- economic production unit.
2. Early industrial-Extended family broken up due to men leaving home to work.
3. privatised nuclear-Family based on consumption rather than production as well as the symmetrical family emerging.

Question 11

Young and willmott’s study on family structures in british society from 1950s-70s.

Answer 11

Studied different parts of London and essex testing the theory of the nuclear family being the dominant form in modern industrial society.

Question 12

Wilkinsons theory on increasing number of Women working?

Answer 12

• the economy has moved away from the historically male dominated industrial sector towards the traditionally female dominated social sector.
• Society has undergone a ‘genderquake’ seeing young women in the early 90s being more focused on work and education rather than having children.

Question 13

Sheerans argument on the changes to the family?

Answer 13

Female carer core- evidenced by the fact that 90% of lone parent families are headed by women.