Parsons - Key Facts Flashcards
What is Parson’s perspective?
Functionalist perspective.
What did Parsons believe about the domestic division of labour?
He believed that the roles the conjugal couple take on are due to their biological differences rather than by gender, as a social construct.
What are Parsons two functions of the family?
According to the functionalist Talcott Parsons, a family serves two functions:
Primary socialisation and the stabilisation of adult personalities.
Warm Bath Theory
Parsons’ Warm Bath theory suggests that when a man comes home from a busy day of work, his family provides him with stress relief and relaxation; just as a warm bath would. This ensures the emotional needs of the breadwinner are met.
What did Parsons believe about the family unit?
He believed that the family unit became smaller due to urbanisation and industrialisation.
What is Parsons expressive/instrumental theory?
Parsons argued that men were the instrumental leader while women were the expressive leader and that both were necessary. So men carried out discipline and earned money, while women cared and nurtured and raised children.
Primary Socialisation
Primary socialisation takes place in the family, where we learn the particular norms and values of our family and community.
The Stabilisation of Adult Personalities
Later, we learn universalistic values through school, the media and other agents of socialisation.
Parsons particularly described this in terms of a man coming home from a difficult day at work and relaxing into his family, like a warm bath.
Did Zaretsky agree with Parsons about the family?
Zaretsky agrees that the family can perform this psychological role of women taking on an expressive nurturing role (warm bath) but see it much less positively.
He sees it is as benefiting NOT society or the individual but the bosses: instead of going on strike, rebelling or having a revolution, discontented workers are restored to return to work by their loving wives.
Did feminists agree with Parsons about the family?
Similarly, feminists see this process differently, as men taking out their frustrations on their wives. Again it could also be seen as rather outdated, as it assumes men will be the breadwinners and women be in the home. It has also been suggested that Parsons was really describing middle-class families and ignored the different experiences of families from different social classes.
(S.O.A.P) Meaning
The stabilisation of adult personalities. Soap in a (warm) bath theory!
