Family Theory Concepts

Question 1

Geographical mobility

Answer 1

This concept describes the movement of people to areas in which there are jobs or where particular skills are in demand. According to functionalists, geographical mobility was a crucial influence on the nuclear family breaking free of extended family networks in the period immediately following the Industrial Revolution.

Question 2

Social mobility

Answer 2

This concept describes the movement of individuals or groups up or down the class system as measured by movement within their lifetime (intragenerational mobility) or by contrast with their parents (intergenerational mobility). According to functionalist thinkers, the UK is a meritocratic state.

Question 3

Isolated nuclear family

Answer 3

An idea, associated with Parsons, which suggests that the nuclear family has little contact with extended kin because of geographical and social mobility and because of its home-centred and privatised character.

Question 4

Structural differentiation

Answer 4

The development of specialised agencies following industrialisation that took over many of the functions traditionally performed by the family in preindustrial society, e.g. schools are responsible for educating the young; NHS for healthcare etc.

Question 5

Loss of family functions

Answer 5

The view held by Parsons that suggests that the family in preindustrial society was a multi-functional extended family, responsible for production, education, health etc. but lost these functions at the onset of industrialisation to specialised agencies such as the factory system and the state.

Question 6

Fit thesis

Answer 6

Parsons’ view that nuclear families developed because they suited (i.e. fitted) the needs of industrial society where people had to be socially and geographically mobile to take advantage of the opportunities presented by capitalism.

Question 7

Stabilisation of adult personality

Answer 7

According to functionalist sociology a key function of the family, and specifically the female expressive role, is the stabilisation of the male adult personality. The male needs to be emotionally stabilised through play with children and through emotional and sexual supports offered by wife.

Question 8

Symmetrical family

Answer 8

A type of home-centred nuclear family identified by functionalist thinkers, Willmott and Young, in the early 1970s that was particularly characterised by joint conjugal roles, i.e. husbands and wives allegedly become more alike and equal.