Theories: Functionalism

Question 1

What did George Murdock study?

Answer 1

• He studied 250 societies and found a type of nuclear family that existed in all of them.
• Because of this, he argued that nuclear families are important and that they performed four key functions.

Question 2

What are the 4 key functions he discovered?

Answer 2

• Education: primary education of socialisation of the young into society’s shared norms and values.
• Sexual: stable satisfaction of the sex drive with the same partner, prevents social distribution caused by a ‘sexual-for-all’.
• Economic: meets its members’ economic needs such as food and shelter.
• Reproduction: it reproduces the next generation without which society could not continue.

Question 3

What were those 4 key functions?

Answer 3

• Education.
• Sexual.
• Economic.
• Reproduction.

Question 4

What are criticisms of Murdock by Nayar tribes of India, Marxists and Feminists?

Answer 4

• Nayar tribes of India practised polyandry (multiple husbands).
• Marxists and feminists reject the ‘rose tinted’ consensus view that the family meets the needs of both the individuals in the family and the needs of wider society.
• Feminists: the family serves the needs of men and not women.
• Marxism: meets the needs of capitalism.

Question 5

Why do people have to relocate to live closer to their jobs?

Answer 5

Industries spring up and decline all over the world.

Question 6

In a traditional pre-industrial society, how did people live?

Answer 6

People often lived in the same village and worked on the same farm for their whole life.

Question 7

What family type does Parsons state being easier for modern society?

Answer 7

• Parsons states that it is easier for the compact two-generation nuclear family to move, than for the three-generation extended family.
• The nuclear family fits the needs that the modern industry has for a geographically mobile workforce.

Question 7

How do people live in modern society?

Answer 7

Industries are always rising and declining all over the world. A large number of people have to move nearer to their job.

Question 8

What type of workforce does modern society need?

Answer 8

Society requires a skilled, successful and technical workforce. Modern industrial society is based on science and technology, which is constantly evolving. It requires a skilled, technically competent workforce.

Question 9

What is a result of this for the people taking the jobs?

Answer 9

As a result, it is essential that talented people win promotions and take higher ranked jobs, even if they come from humble backgrounds.

Question 10

What is the reason for only the talented people taking promotions and higher ranked jobs? Why does this make mobility possible?

Answer 10

Individual status is earned by their own ability and efforts, not ascribed (fixed at birth) by their family and social background. This makes social mobility possible.

Question 11

Therefore, what does Parsons argue about the nuclear family?

Answer 11

Parsons argues that the nuclear family is better equipped to meet the needs of industrial society.

Question 12

Why might conflicts arise in extended families between sons and fathers?

Answer 12

• In the extended family, sons who are adults live at home in their fathers house where the father has a higher ascribed status as head of the household.
• At work, the son may have earned a higher achieved status than his father which can cause tension and conflict under one roof. The solution is for all adult sons to move out of home when they marry and build their own nuclear family.

Question 13

Therefore, what is the best family type for modern society?

Answer 13

• The nuclear family encourages social mobility as well as geographical mobility.
• The result is a mobile nuclear family which is ‘structurally isolated’ from its extended relatives.

Question 14

Why are extended families not needed anymore?

Answer 14

There is not a need in modern industrial society for an extended family in comparison to before when extended relatives had an important duty to help each other in harvests or in difficult times.

Question 15

How was pre-industrial society self sufficient?

Answer 15

• Pre-industrial society was a multi-functional unit.
• They all provided for their members’ health and welfare which met most individual and social needs.

Question 16

What does Parsons say that happens when society industrialises?

Answer 16

The family changes its structure from extended to nuclear and loses many functions. For example, institutions such as schools and health services. Family is a unit of production: work moves into factories and the family becomes a unit of consumption (only).

Question 17

Therefore, what does Parsons argue as a loss of functions?

Answer 17

The modern nuclear family specialises in providing two essential functions: the primary socialisation of children and the stabilisation of adult personalities.

Question 18

What does the primary socialisation of children do?

Answer 18

• The primary socialisation of children equips them with basic skills and society’s values to enable them to cooperate with others.
• This helps to integrate them into society.

Question 19

What does the stabilisation of adult personalities do?

Answer 19

• The stabilisation of adult personalities is the fact that the family is a place where adults can relax and release tensions, allowing them to return to the workplace refreshed and ready.
• This is beneficial for the efficiency of the economy.

Question 20

What did Parsons argue about the Sex Role Theory?

Answer 20

• For Parsons, this includes learning gender roles.
• Parsons argued that men were the instrumental leader whilst women were the expressive leader and that both are necessary.

Question 21

What was the role of the father as an instrumental leader?

Answer 21

• Men carried out discipline and worked for money.
• Fathers were examples to their sons.

Question 22

What was the role of the mother as an expressive leader?

Answer 22

• Women cared and nurtured children.
• Mothers were examples to their daughters.

Question 23

How were fathers and mothers examples to their sons and daughters?

Answer 23

They learnt to behave in the same way and give the same example to the next generation, which is part of their primary socialisation.

Question 24

What is primary socialisation?

Answer 24

• Learning how to behave in social situations, core values of society and pro social behaviours.
• Parents reinforce which are positive and sanction negative behaviour so that children will fit into wider society.

Question 25

Where does primary socialisation take place?

Answer 25

Takes place in the family, learning our family and community’s particular norms and values.

Question 26

What is the stabilisation of adult personalities?

Answer 26

• ‘warm bath theory’
• Family life provides emotional security for adults.
• Actions stabilise personalities and provide a sense of fulfilment.

Question 27

Criticisms of Parsons: What did Young and Willmot (1973) state?

Answer 27

• Pre-industrial families were nuclear.
• They looked into a ‘mum-centred’ working class extended family which relied on each other for financial, practical and emotional support.

Question 28

Criticisms of Parsons: What did Laslett (1972) study and what was found?

Answer 28

Laslett (1972) studied families from 1564-1821. Families were almost always nuclear.
It was unlikely for grandparents to be alive after their first born grandchild due to life expectancy being low.

Question 29

Criticisms of Parsons: What is Anderson’s theory? (W.C. extended family)

Answer 29

Exchange theory to explain popularity of the working class extended family.

Question 30

How does Young and Willmot (1973) and Laslett’s (1972) study criticise Parsons?

Answer 30

• Young and Willmot state pre-industrial families were nuclear.
• Laslett (1972) studied families from 1564-1821.
• Families were almost always nuclear.
• It was unlikely for grandparents to be alive after their first born grandchild due to life expectancy being low.

Question 31

What is criticised about Parsons saying that the extended family has disappeared?

Answer 31

The nuclear family may have become dominant but the extended family hasn’t disappeared; it still continues to carry out important functions, for example, financial help, emotional support and childcare.

Question 32

Evaluation of Functionalism: What are criticised about set gender roles and children?

Answer 32

• Gender roles are socially constructed and usually involve the oppression of women.
• Functionalism is too deterministic: it ignores the fact that children create their own personalities.
• Downplaying conflict: many children rebel against parental control. Children create their own personalities.

Question 33

What are further criticisms of functionalism?
(being out of date, feminists, ignoring the harmful effects of family life)

Answer 33

• Being out of date: ignores family diversity.
• Feminists: ignores the exploitation of women (feminism). Gender roles are socially constructed and usually involve the oppression of women.
• Ignoring the harmful effects of family life: parents aren’t always loving and supportive, for example, abuse and neglect.