Functionalism & The Family (Week15)

Question 1

Functionalist

Murdock (1949)

Answer 1

• Developed a definition of the family based on analysing the data from 250 different societies.
• He concluded that the family was universal
• No society had an adequate alternative to the family.

Question 2

Functionalist

Murdock (1949)

Family Definition: 4 Characteristics

Answer 2

1. Common residence (living in the same home)
2. Economic cooperation and reproduction
3. Adults of both sexes - who maintain a socially approved sexual relationship
4. 1 + children (own or adopted)

Question 3

Functionalist

Murdock - Nuclear Family

Answer 3

• Argued the nuclear family is universal
  Nuclear family=parents and children (2 generations)

Question 4

Functionalist

Murdock’s functional prerequisites

Answer 4

• Sexual control - exclusive sexual relationships between married couples
• Reproduction
• Socialisation of children
• Economic provision

Question 5

Functionalist

Parsons (1956)

Answer 5

• Believed that the functions of the family had changed due to the development of new institutions.
• The family had 2 ‘basic and irreducible’ functions:
  1. Primary socialisation
  2. The stabilisation of adult personalities

Question 6

The Stabilisation of adult personalities

Warm Bath Theory

Answer 6

• The Stabilisation of adult personalities emphasises the emotional security within marital relationships.
• The family is seen as a ‘warm bath’ where members can feel safe and loved.
• Acts to balance stresses of everyday life.
• Function of the family is to allow adults to be childish by playing with their children.
• SOAP is aided by sexual division of labour
• Within the isolated nuclear family members are allocated particular roles in order to function correctly.
• Identifying two distinct roles for husband and wife within the family this structure stabilises family members.

Question 7

Parsons

Instrumental & Expressive roles

Answer 7

Womens role=Expressive role > provide care,love, affection, emotional support.
Males role= Instrumental role > (bread winner) by providing for the family. Can be stressful and so women have to provide confort.

Question 8

Functionalist

Fletcher (1973)

Answer 8

• Drew from both Murdock and Parsons
• Argued that Contemporary families prefromed 2 types of function:
  1. Core functions cannot be performed by either individuals working alone or by any other institution.
• Families are needed for both childbearing and child-rearing
• Provides primary socialisation
• A child’s natural parents are best suited to this process because they have best personal investment in their child.
• Family also provides a physical home and emotional home (well-being)
  2. Peripheral functions are things that some families still perform but have been taken over by other institutions eg. education, health care

Question 9

Neo-functionalism

Answer 9

• Neo-functionalists focus on the processes involved in linking the individual to society.
  Horwitz(2005) - argues that the family functions as a bridge connecting the ‘micro world’ of the individual to the ‘macro world’ of wider economic society.

Question 10

Neo-functionalist

Horwitz (2005)

Answer 10

• Through the family children should learn to behave through examples and instruction.
• Family is best place to learn because:
  1. Rules are passed on and put in force by people who share a deep emotional commitment>more likely to be learn’t effectively.
  2. Emotional closeness>provides reasons to develop co-operative behaviour. eg. children want to please their parents.
  3. **Rule-learning **can be taught subconsciously by children observing and copying adult behaviour.

Question 11

The ‘loss of functions debate’

Answer 11

• Functionalists argue that the exact forms that families take will depend on the nature of the society.
• Extended families are common in traditional societies
• In modern industrial societies, there is less need for extended families because other institutions have taken over some functions.

Question 12

Industrialisation & Families

Answer 12

• Due to industrialisation in the 18th/19th century, the nature of work and economic production changed.
• Pre-industrial society: land-based, rural family centred.
• **Industrial society: **capital-intensive, urban, factory-centred.
• Led to a move from mainly extended family organisations to one dominated by nuclear families.

Question 13

Extended family vs Nuclear family

Answer 13

• Extended family structure suited the demands of family-based subsistence farming.
• Industrialisation changed this.
• Nuclear families were geographically mobile and had labour flexibility. They could move for new jobs in newly developed towns/cities.

Question 14

The ‘fit thesis’

Parsons and Goode

Answer 14

• They claimed that extended family structures were the norm in pre-industrial societies because families/households were:
  1. Multi-functional - responsible for the economic position working together, mainly as subsistence farmers or craft trades.
  2. Kinship-based - they had a common economic position working together, mainly subsistence farmers
  3. Economically productive - the extended family provided the only workable means for physical survival.

Question 15

The family as an economically productive group

Answer 15

The idea of the family group being economically productive is related to:
1. Labour intensive subsistence agriculture required as many workers as possible (men, women, children) especially during harvesting.
2. The ability to move away from the family group was limited by poor transportation systems (no railways, only basic road systems)
3. Elderly, infirm or sick family members relied on their kin for care in the absence of any well-developed, universal welfare system.

Question 16

The Nuclear family

Answer 16

• During industrialisation and urbanisation the nuclear family became the dominant family structure.
• People had to be mobile to move to cities to find jobs.
• Nepotism declined - new industries demanded specific skills/knowledge. People couldn’t be promoted just because of family connections > created new opportunities for social mobility.

Question 17

Arguments against Parsons

Answer 17

• Finch (1989) found little evidence to support the view that before industrialisation, family obligations and ties were much stronger.
• Historical studies have shown a range of household types in the pre-industrial period
• There is no evidence that extended families were the norm.
• Such studies have led sociologists to question the fit thesis.

Question 18

Alternative argument to the fit thesis

Answer 18

• Suggestion that industrialisation and urbanisation first occured in Western Europe because pre-industrial family structures were mainly nuclear rather than extended.
• So they could respond to new economic opportunities requiring family mobility and flexibility.
• Pre-industrial family structures were a contributing cause of industrial development.
• Extended families were not as common as ‘fit theorists’ suggested.
• A reason for this is that the life expectancy was low so majority wouldnt live to become grandparents.
• Industrialisation in the UK could have been helped by the main inheritance system of primogeniture.
• Money could then be invested in growing industries and younger siblings would move to cities and become factory workers.

Question 19

Anderson (1995) Against the fit thesis

Answer 19

• Argued that no single family or household was dominant during the industrial process.
• Single parent families existed due to high death rates of the poor
• During the industrialisation process the working class developed a extended family structure, mainly as a consequence of urbanisation.
• Towns developed around factories, pressure on living space resulted in extended families that satisfied a number of purposes.

Question 20

Extended families

Answer 20

• Lack of government help for working class families meant that they relied on strong kinship within the family for their care and survival.
• Most people were illiterate so kinship ties helped secure jobs for family members.
• If both parents worked, a relative was a vital part in childcare.
• Death rates were high but children would be cared for by wider family members
• Children worked from a young age so could add to family income

Question 21

Other institutions

Answer 21

• Education is now handled by a school system
• Health/social care is responsibility of doctors,nurses ect.
• Recreation and leisure has become more individualised or done outside the home.

Question 22

Argument against other institutions taking over

Answer 22

• Many parents are actively involved in their childrens education
• Family can play an important care role - looking after long-term ill and elderly
• Many families share leisure and recreation activities

Question 23

Evaluation of functionalist view of the family

Answer 23

• First to focus on the importance of family life
• Brought attention to how common the nuclear family is around the world.
• Nuclear family is still encouraged by many policies of governments
• Functionalists have made important contributions to the study of the family.

Question 24

Criticisms of the functionalist view #1

Answer 24

• Seen as out of date
• Does not apply to all societies
• Accounts of Parsons and others are based on white, middle class Americans at the time when nuclear families were seen as the best type and most common.
• Differences of social class and ethnicity are very absent from their view
• Fails to recognise other family types
• Assumes family is distict and can be separated from other institutions eg. primary socialisation is also shared with schools, the media and peer groups

Question 25

Criticisms of functionalist view #2

Answer 25

• Only sees the ways the nuclear family contributes in a positive way
• See socialisation as a one way process (parents influence children)
• Socialisation is more complex
• Idealise and exaggerate its positive aspects and downplay the negative;
• Blocking womens aspirations/careers by steering into housewife role.
• Limits men to being the expressive role and they are expected to be the provider
• Dominance of male power and decision-making through domestic violence
• Possibility the nuclear family structure contributes to mental heath problems

Question 26

Feminist criticism

Fran Ansley

Answer 26

Fran Ansley (Marxist feminist) offers a different perspective on Parson’s warm bath theory.
* She describes women as ‘takers of shit’
* Meaning that men come home from work may have their stress relieved by the family but only by dumping it on their wives.