Family Diversity Flashcards
What is the functionalist view?
Parsons: The nuclear family is best and all other family types are dysfunctional and less suited to perform the functions needed today
Which functionalist commented?
Parsons
What is the New Right view?
The nuclear family is best with traditional gender roles that are based on biological differences.
Lone parent families are harmful as they can’t provide for their children and don’t give them appropriate role models
How do the New Right see cohabitation compared to marriage?
Marriage is more stable as it requires deliberate commitment
Family diversity undermines the conventional family
Benson: The state needs to encourage couples to marry
What does Benson argue?
Family breakdown is highest before the baby is 3, less if the couple is married
The state needs to encourage couples to marry
What kind of sociologist is Benson?
New Right
How is the New Right comparision of cohabitation and marriage criticised?
Oakley: Roles not fixed by biology
Feminists: Nuclear family based on patriarchial opression
No evidence children in lone parent families are delinquant
Cohabitation depends on the meanings people give
Cohabitation breakdown higher in poor areas so poverty may cause it
How does Oakley criticise the New Right comparision of cohabitation and marriage?
The roles of spouses are not fixed by biology and are socially constructed. It is a negative reaction to feminism
How does feminists criticise the New Right comparision of cohabitation and marriage?
The nuclear family is based on patriarchial opression and keeps women financially dependant on men.
Which sociologist identifyed the neo-conventional family?
Chester
What is the neo-conventional family?
Due-earner married couple
What patterns does Chester identify that show the nuclear family is still ideal?
Statistics are misleading
Young people have yet to marry
Most people live in a family headed by a married couple
Most children reared by their natural parents
Most people who are divorced get remarried
Cohabitation is a temporary phase before marriage
Children are still jointly registered
What five types of diversity do the Rapoports identify?
Organisational Cultural Social class Life stage Generational
What is organisational diversity?
Diversity in the way family roles are organised such as joint or seperate conjugal roles
What is cultural diversity?
How different cultural and ethnic groups have different structures
What is social class diversity?
How different classes have different structures due to income
What is life stage diversity?
At different stages of life, family roles are organised differently. The nuclear family is less commn with older people as their spouse is dead
What is generational diversity?
Older and younger people have different attitudes towards the family
What is said about postmodernism and family diversity?
Chea says society is not orderly and predictable so there is no dominant family type. People have more freedom to plot their own life course but this also increases instability
What does Stacey say about postmodern families?
It has benifited women and let them free themselves from patriarchial opression. Women have been the main agents of change.
Rise of divorce-extended families shows families change shape depending on needs
Morgan: Can’t generalise
What does Morgan note about postmodern families?
It’s impossible to generalise
Which sociologists came up with individualisation thesis?
Gidddens and Beck
What is the individualisation thesis?
Giddens and Beck argue social structures have lost influance and there are fewer fixed rules for people to follow so they construct their own way.
What does Giddens say about choice and equality?
There is more equality and greater choice for women due to the rise in contraception so intamacy is the main reason why relationships excist.
Less external forces on a relationship so there are more pure relationships
