Sociology-Families and Households-Theories

Question 1

What do functionalists believe about society?

Answer 1

It is based on a value consensus (shared norms/values) that people are socialised into so they cooperate harmoniously to meet society’s needs and achieve shared goals. Society is made of many sub systems that depend on each other (biological analogy)

Question 2

What do functionalists see as a particularly important sub-system?

Answer 2

The family-it is a basic building block of society

Question 3

What does Murdock argue about the family?

Answer 3

It performs four essential functions to meet needs of society and it’s members: 1) stable satisfaction of the sex drive with the same partner, preventing social disruption 2) reproduction of the next generation, so society can continue 3) socialisation of the young into society’s shared norms and values 4) meeting its members economic needs such as food and shelter

Question 4

How is Murdock criticised?

Answer 4

He accepts that other institutions could performs these functions but argues the sheer practicality of nuclear family explains why it is universal, some sociologists argue that other institutions and non-nuclear families can perform these functions equally well. ‘Rose tinted glasses’ Feminists see the family as serving needs of men and oppressing women. Marxists argue it meets needs of capitalism, not those of family members

Question 5

What other functions can the family perform?

Answer 5

Welfare, military, political or religious functions

Question 6

What does Parsons argue that family’s functions depend on?

Answer 6

Depend on the kind of society in which it is found, and the functions that it has to perform will affect ts shape or structure

Question 7

What two kinds of family does Parsons distinguish between?

Answer 7

The nuclear family of just parents and their dependant children. Also the extended family of three generations living under one roof

Question 8

What theory did Parsons create?

Answer 8

The functional fit theory-the particular structure and functions of a given type of family will ‘fit’ the needs of the society in which it is found

Question 9

According to Parsons, what are two basic types of society?

Answer 9

Modern industrial society and traditional pre-industrial society. He argues the nuclear family fits the needs of industrial society and is the dominant family type in that society, while the extended family fits the needs of pre-industrial society

Question 10

In Parsons view, how did the nuclear family emerge?

Answer 10

When Britain began to industrialise, from the 18th century onwards, the extended family began to give way to the nuclear family. This was because the emerging industrial society had different needs from pre-industrial society, and the family had to adapt to meet these needs

Question 11

What two essential needs does Parsons see industrial society as having?

Answer 11

A geographically mobile workforce and a socially mobile workforce

Question 12

What is a geographically mobile workforce?

Answer 12

In traditional pre-industrial society, people often spent their whole lives living in the same village, working on the same farm. By contrast, in modern society, industries constantly spring up and decline in different parts of the country, even different parts of the world, and this requires people to move to where the jobs are

Question 13

Why does Parsons argue that the nuclear family is better suited to a geographically mobile workforce?

Answer 13

It is easier for the compact two generation nuclear family to move, than for the three generation extended family. The nuclear family is better fitted to the need that modern industry has for a geographically mobile workforce

Question 14

What is a socially mobile workforce?

Answer 14

Modern industrial society is based on constantly evolving science and technology and so it requires a skilled, technically competent workforce. It is therefore essential that talented people are able to win promotion and take on the most important jobs, even if they come from very humble backgrounds

Question 15

Why does Parsons argue that the nuclear family is better suited to a socially mobile workforce?

Answer 15

In modern society an individual’s status is achieved by their own efforts and ability (not ascribed by social/family background) making social mobility possible. The nuclear family is better equipped to meet the needs of industrial society. In the extended family adult sons live at home with their fathers who have a higher ascribed status but at work the son may have a higher achieved status which can give rise to tension/conflict. The solution is to move out and form nuclear families

Question 16

What is the result of the geographically and socially mobile workforce?

Answer 16

The mobile nuclear family, which is ‘structurally isolated’ from its extended kin. Though it may keep in touch with them, it has no binding obligations towards them-unlike the pre-industrial extended family, where relatives had an overriding duty to help one another eg at harvest or in times of hardship/crisis

Question 17

How did the functions change from pre industrial family to modern industrial society?

Answer 17

Pre-industrial family was multi functional as it was both a unit of production and a unit of consumption (self-sufficient). According to Parsons, when society industrialises, the family changes it’s structure and lost many functions eg it is now just a unit of consumption and loses other functions to other institutions eg schools

Question 18

In Parson’s view, what is a result of this loss of functions?

Answer 18

The modern nuclear family comes to specialise in performing just two essential or ‘irreducible’ functions. The primary socialisation of children to equip them with basic skills and society’s value to enable them to cooperate with others and begin to integrate them into society, and the stabilisation of adult personalities (the family is a place where adults can relax and release tensions, enabling them to return to the workplace refreshed and ready to meet its demands. This is functional for the efficiency of the economy)

Question 19

What do marxists believe that all society’s institutions are for?

Answer 19

To help maintain class inequality and capitalism (the family is an institution that performs functions purely to benefit the capitalist system)

Question 20

What specific functions does the family perform to fulfil capitalism, according to marxists?

Answer 20

Inheritance of property, ideological functions and a unit of consumption

Question 21

What do marxists say about inheritance of property?

Answer 21

The mode of production (and who owns it) determines the shape of all social institutions. In modern society, the capitalist class owns and controls means of production, and as it evolves, so does the family. Eg in the earliest, classless society (‘primitive communism’-Marx) there was no private property, everyone owned the means of production. At this stage, there was no family, Engles called it a ‘promiscuous horde’ as there was no restrictions on relationships

Question 22

How did private property affect the family?

Answer 22

Forces of production developed, society wealth increased, emergence of private property. Men controlled the means of production which eventually brought the patriarchal monogamous nuclear family. Monogamy became essential due to inheritance of private property (Engels-men had to know the paternity of their children in order to ensure their legitimate heirs inherited from them)

Question 23

What does Engels see about women and the new type of family that emerged?

Answer 23

The rise of the monogamous nuclear family represented a “world historical defeat of the female sex” because it brought the women’s sexuality under male control, turning them into “a mere instrument for the production of children”

Question 24

What do marxists argue about the liberation of women?

Answer 24

Only with the overthrow of capitalism and private ownership of the means of production will women achieve liberation from patriarchal control. A classless society will be established in which the means of production are owned collectively, and there will no longer be any need for the patriarchal family, as private property will no longer be inherited

Question 25

How do marxists believe the family performs ideological functions?

Answer 25

Socialising children into idea that hierarchy/inequality are inevitable. Parental (especially paternal) power over children accustoms them to idea that someone will always be in charge of them (prep for working life taking orders from capitalist employers)

Question 26

What does Zaretsky say about the family?

Answer 26

Also performs an ideological function by offering an apparent ‘haven’ from harsh and exploitative world of capitalism, in which workers can ‘be themselves’ and have a private life. However this is largely an illusion-the family cannot meet its members’ needs eg it is based on the domestic servitude of women

Question 27

How does the family perform functions needed for capitalism by being a unit of consumption?

Answer 27

Advertisers urge families to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ by consuming all latest products. Media targets children who use ‘pester power’ to persuade parents to spend more. Children who lack latest clothes or ‘must have’ gadgets are bullied/stigmatised. These maintain capitalist society but do not benefit the members of the family

Question 28

What are the criticisms of the marxist perspective?

Answer 28

Tend to assume nuclear family is dominant in capitalist society and ignores wide variety of family structures, feminists argue the emphasis on class and capitalism underestimates importance of gender inequalities in the family which are more fundamental than class inequalities (family serves interests of men primarily, not capitalism), functionalists argue that marxists ignore the very real benefits of the family for the members

Question 29

What is the basic feminist view of the family?

Answer 29

Critical view, it oppresses women eg unequal division of labour and domestic violence. Gender inequality is not natural or inevitable, but created by society

Question 30

What are the four main types of feminism?

Answer 30

Liberal feminism, marxist feminism, radical feminism and difference feminism

Question 31

What are liberal feminists concerned with?

Answer 31

Campaigning against sex discrimination and for equal rights/opportunities for women

Question 32

What do liberal feminists argue about the position of women?

Answer 32

Women’s oppression is being gradually overcome through changing attitudes and changes in law eg Sex Discrimination Act 1975 that outlaws discriminations in employment. They believe we are moving towards greater equality, but full equality will depend on further reforms and changes in attitudes and socialisation patterns

Question 33

What do liberal feminists believe about the family?

Answer 33

Similar view to ‘march of progress’ theorists such as Young and Willmott. Though don’t believe full gender equality has yet been achieved in the family, they see there has been gradual progress eg studies suggest men now do more domestic labour and parents socialise sons and daughters more equal in the past and have similar aspirations for them

Question 34

Why do other feminists criticise liberal feminists?

Answer 34

Fail to challenge the underlying causes of women’s oppression and for believing that changes in the law or in people’s attitudes will be enough to bring equality. Marxist and radical feminists believe instead that far-reaching changes to deep-rooted social structures are needed

Question 35

What do marxist feminists argue about the family?

Answer 35

The main cause of oppression for women in the family is capitalism, not men. Women’s oppression performs several functions for capitalism

Question 36

What functions for capitalism do women perform?

Answer 36

Reproduce labour force through unpaid domestic labour by socialising next generation of workers and maintaining current one, by absorbing anger (Ansley-‘takers of shit’ eg domestic violence against women due to exploitation frustration), reserve army of cheap labour that can be taken on when needed and let go when no longer needed

Question 37

For marxist feminists, when will gender equality exist?

Answer 37

When the exploitation of the working class also ends. They argue that the family must be abolished at the same time as a socialist revolution replaces capitalism with a classless society

Question 38

What do radical feminists argue?

Answer 38

All societies have been founded on patriarchy and the key division in society is between men and women (men are the enemy/source of women’s oppression and the family and marriage are the key institutions in patriarchal society as men benefit from women’s unpaid domestic labour)

Question 39

What do radical feminists believe needs to happen to the family?

Answer 39

The patriarchal system needs to be overturned, in particular the family which is the root of women’s oppression and must be abolished. The only way they see they can achieve this is through separatism-women must organise themselves to live independently of men (some also argue for ‘political lesbianism’, and Greer argues for matrilocal households)

Question 40

What do liberal feminists argue against radical feminism?

Answer 40

Somerville says they fail to recognise that women’s position has improved considerably (better access to divorce/jobs etc) but she does recognise that women have yet to achieve full equality. She also argues that heterosexual attraction makes it unlikely that separatism would work

Question 41

What do difference feminists argue?

Answer 41

We cannot generalise about women’s experiences-they argue that lesbian and heterosexual, white and black, middle class and working class women have very different experiences of the family from one another eg white feminists can’t regard the family as purely negative as it neglects black feminists experience

Question 42

What do other feminists argue about difference feminists?

Answer 42

They argue that difference feminism neglects the fact that all women share many of the same experiences eg all face a risk of domestic violence and sexual assault, low pay and so on

Question 43

According to the personal life perspective, what two weaknesses do the feminist, marxist and functionalist perspectives on the family suffer from?

Answer 43

They tend to assume that the traditional nuclear family is the dominant family type (ignoring diversity in families today), and they are all structural theories (assume that families and their members are simply passive puppets manipulated by the structure of society to perform certain functions)

Question 44

Who disagrees with structural theories?

Answer 44

Sociologists influenced by interactionist and postmodernist perspectives, as they argue that hey ignore the fact that we have some choice in creating our family relationships

Question 45

How do the personal life perspective say we can understand the family?

Answer 45

By focusing on the meanings its members give to their relationships and situations, rather than on the family’s supposed functions

Question 46

What is the sociology of personal life?

Answer 46

It’s a new perspective on families strongly influenced by interactionist ideas and argues that to understand families, we must start from the point of view of the individuals concerned and the meanings they give to their relationships

Question 47

How do functionalists, marxists and feminists contrast with the personal life perspective?

Answer 47

Functionalists, marxists and feminists take a ‘top down’ structural approach, whereas personal life perspective takes a ‘bottom up’ approach

Question 48

How do the personal life perspective define family?

Answer 48

It can be beyond the ties of blood and marriage as other relationships may be more important to an individual, such as relationships with friends, fictive kin, gay and lesbian ‘chosen families’, relationships with dead relatives, and relationships with pets

Question 49

What does Nordquvist and Smart explore?

Answer 49

Donor conceived children and issues surrounding that. Some parents emphasised the importance of social relationships over genetic ones in forming family bonds, though difficult situations can arise eg when there are remarks that children don’t look like parents. Questions also on who counts as family (eg the donors parents?)

Question 50

What problems arise in families where the parents are lesbians?

Answer 50

Concerns about equality between genetic and non-genetic mothers, and that the donor may be treated as the ‘real’ second parents

Question 51

What is the evaluation for personal life perspective?

Answer 51

Nordqvist/Smarts study illustrates importance of this perspective compared to structural approaches in how families can be constructed. However is can be accused of taking a too broad view (ignores what is special about blood/marriage family members). Although it sees intimate relationships as performing important functions such as sense of belonging, unlike functionalism it recognises that relatedness isn’t always positive