Sociologists Flashcards
Murdock
Looked at 250 society’s in different cultures. Found some sort of nuclear family existed in all of them and argued they had four basic functions.
Murdocks 4 functions
Sexual-provide a stable sexual relationship for adults and controls sexual relationships of its members
Reproductive-provides new babies (members of society)
Economic-family pools resources and provides for all members
Educational-teaches children norms and values of society
Parsons argued the family has two main functions. What are they?
Primary socialisation-process children learn and accept norms and values of society
For adults it stabilises personalities through emotional relationships between parents.
Why does Morgan disagree with Murdock
He makes no reference to alternative households or disharmony and problems in family relationships in family.
Engles
Family has economic functions to keep wealth with bourgeoise by inheritance
Zaretsky
Focus on how family helped capitalist economy. It’s the one place where a proletariat has power. Working man is in charge of household so they don’t feel as frustrated about their low status at work and accept oppression.
Benton
If housework was paid at minus wage it would damage capitalist profits
Delphy and Leonard
Radical feminists who see family as a patriarchal institution where women do the most work but men get the most benefit.
Judith Stacey
Postmodernist-there is such a diversity in family types there won’t ever be one dominant type of family
O’Brien and Jones
found their was less variety in family types as Stacey reported and people only experience one or two family types in their life
Charles Murray
New Right-traditional families are under threat. Welfare benefits are to high and create a culture of dependency where it’s easier to rake benefits then work
Benton
If housework was paid at minus wage it would damage capitalist profits
Delphy and Leonard
Radical feminists who see family as a patriarchal institution where women do the most work but men get the most benefit.
Judith Stacey
Postmodernist-there is such a diversity in family types there won’t ever be one dominant type of family
O’Brien and Jones
found their was less variety in family types as Stacey reported and people only experience one or two family types in their life
Charles Murray
New Right-traditional families are under threat. Welfare benefits are to high and create a culture of dependency where it’s easier to rake benefits then work
Peter Laslett
Nuclear families has been he most common structure even before industrialisation. His evidence is from parish records
Laslett Anderson
Extended family was significant during industrialisation he used the 1851 census for evidence
Who did Willmott and young study
Two important studies looking at family between 1950s and 70s it tested the theory that nuclear family is the dominant form in modern society
What did Willmott and young find?
British families have developed through three stages.
- Pre-industrialisation Family works together as an economic production unit work and home are combined.
- Early Industrial Extended family is broken up as individuals men work while women have extended kinship networks at home
- Privatised NuclearFamily based on consumption not production nuclear family focuses on its personal relationships and lifestyles (Symetrical family husband and wife have joint roles)
Helen Wilkinson
Increasing numbers of women are working because economy has moved away from male dominated industrialisation sector
Why has Willmott and young been criticised with other Functionalists
Assuming family life has got better as structures adapts to modern society and they ignore the negatives such as domestic violence
Donzelot
Social policy can be used by the state to control families
Child support agency
1993 force absent parents to pay a fair amount for the upkeep of their children
Children act
1989 outlined for the first time the rights of the child
New Labour 1997
Middle ground between left and right wing politics they supported families and showed they preferred marriage was their preferred basis of family life.
2005 introduced civil partnership and allowed cohabiting couples to adopt
Coalition government
2010 promoted marriage as a stabilising force in marriage 2014 legalised same sex marriage however during financial crisis of 2008 they capped housing benefits to £500 a week 2015 capped child benefits
Oakley
Found it was unlikely for men to do much housework and women took on dual burden trading on paid jobs and looking after house and kids
Gillian Dunne
Lesbian households distributed jobs equally
Diane Bell
Economy of emotions within families that women own
Dunce be and Marsden
Women had a triple shift and they were happier when husband took some of the emotional work
Edgell
Interviewed middle class couples and found men had decision-making control over things both found important while women had control over minor decisions
Pahl
Researched money management by 100 dual-income couples is the most common form of financial management was husband controlled pooling which is money being shared but husband has the dominant role in how it’s spent
Weeks
Couples pool money in a joint account while they keep some in a personal account
Carol smart
Same sex couples don’t link control over money with inequality in the relationship they do what’s best as a couple
Rapoport and Rapoport
Identified five types of family diversity
What are the five types of family diversity
Organisational diversity Cultural diversity Class diversity Life-course diversity Cohort diversity
What’s organisational diversity?
Differences in the way family are structured eg nuclear extended reconstituted
What’s Cultural Diversity?
Differences from different norms and values of a different culture
What’s class diversity
Different views held by other parts of society concerning families eg rich parents are more likely to send their kids to private schools and will have a relationship with between parents and children
Life course diversity
Caused by different stages people have reached in their lives eg family’s are different to newly weds and people with kids
Cohort diversity
Differences created by historical periods the family has lived through
Giddens
Individual choice decides family relationships
How many marriages in England and Wales end in divorce?
40%
