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Families and households - Theories (Functionalism (When everyone shares…
Families and households - Theories
Functionalism
Structural:
Society influences individuals
Consensus:
Society benefits all members equally
Each part of society has a function, which helps to maintain a stable society - e.g. mass media, religion, family, education, the work place, CJS etc.
When everyone
shares the same norms and values
it creates a
value consensus
and this then creates
social solidarity
where everyone has a sense of belonging and community
Parsons:
Proposed
Functional fit theory
, which suggests that the family and its functions will adapt to fit needs society.
Parsons believed in
pre-industrial society
the
classic extended family
was dominant, as most of the family would live in the same village and work on the same farm and would produce and consume its own resources.
Whereas when the
industrial society
was created in the 18th century the
nuclear family
became the norm, as the family was geographically mobile so could urbanise and became a unit of consumption.
Parsons
claimed the family has two major functions:
1. Primary socialisation
(shared norms and values must be internalised)
and
2. The stabilisation of adult personalities
(family life provides adults with release from strains and stresses of everyday life, provides them with emotional security and support. It also allows them to release their inner child)
Parsons
also created
the warm bath theory
, which suggests the family is like a warm bath as it helps to relax you and relieve you of daily stresses
Merton
-Manifest and Latent functions:
Manifest- recognised and intentional functions- e.g. media provides knowledge and information
Latent functions- unintended and unrecognised functions- e.g. media also stereotypes people and can create cyber bullying
Parsons
- instrumental role (man) and expressive role (women)
Positive aspects of functionalism:
-Functional fit theory has been influential for other sociologists,
-Murdock and Parsons were some of the first sociologists to look at the family
-It is useful for looking at the positive aspects of family life
-It was dominant and influential for a long time (1950's/60's)
-Explains why people conform
Negative aspects of functionalism:
-
Laslett
claimed that industrialisation didn't create the nuclear family, it was around before this point.
-
Anderson
stated that the extended family still existed through industrialisation
-Ethnocentric
-Outdated
-Paints a 'rose tinted' view of the family- not always good
-
Leach
- family doesn't always provide emotional support
-There is evidence to suggest the family has lost many of its functions,
+
however
Fletcher
argues that the family has even more functions than before which are strengthened by other institutions
-Social actions theorists would criticise- too
deterministic
-
May
-much more important to study personal lives than the family
Parsons -
Society
is like a
human body
: Government=brain, every part has a function, it grows and develops, all parts work together but are also independent, has mechanisms to deal with problems, etc.
Murdock
found the nuclear family was universal (looked at 250 societies -but all in USA)
Murdock's four essential functions of the family:
-
Sexual:
There are rules forbidding and restricting sexual relationships outside marriage. This helps keep a stable society as without rules conflict may arise.
-
Economic:
In many societies the family is a unit of production. In the west today the family acts as a unit of consumption. These economic functions make an important contribution to the wider society.
-
Reproduction:
The family is the main unit for reproduction of children, without it society would cease to exist.
-
Educational:
The family is largely responcible or primary socialisation, without it there would be no culture, and without a shared culture there would be no consensus about norms and values.
The New Right
The New Right is a
political perspective
mainly associated with the
conservative
government.
It is very similar to the
functionalist
perspective as they both favour the
nuclear family
and see other family types as inadequate.
Murray
claimed that an increase in
lone-parent families
results in people being
work-shy
. The New Right believe a
lack of the traditional family
will result in
social problems
The New Right suggests that the
family is in decline
due to a
breakdown in traditional values
,
overgenerous benefits
to
single mothers
, an increase in
feminism
and acceptance of
homosexuality
.
They suggest that the consequence of family decline is a failure to provide adequate socialisation, resulting in
anti-social behaviour
in children
Dennis & Erdos
found in the 'Fatherless Families' study that on average children without fathers have
poorer health
and
lower educational
achievement. They also suggested it can result in
immature
,
anti-social
young men due to a
lack of role-models
.
Evaluation:
Strengths
Dominated politics
1979-1997
introduced
beneficial policies
View on nuclear family is
supported by functionalists
Evaluation:
Weaknesses
Outdated
Fails to
appreciate diversity
and sees other families as inferior
Feminists
accuse them of supporting the
oppression of women
Blames the victims
for their poverty
They suggest to halt the deline of family life society must:
return to
traditional family values
e.g. life-long marriages
redirecting welfare benefits and social service provision to support
two-parent
families
provide
marriage tax
credits to encourage marriage
Marxism
Based on the ideas of
Karl Marx
, they believe the capitalist system is unequal and exploits the working class
Structural theory:
Society influences individuals
Conflict theory:
Society benefits some social groups at the expense of others
Bourgeoisie:
Upper/ruling class
Proletariat:
working class
Society is a
league table
due to the competition between social classes, bourgeoisie benefit in every way as they make money through the
surplus value
, which is the where workers produce more than they are paid for, while the proletariat miss out
Everyone is socialised into a
ruling class ideology
and follows capitalist norms and values, the working class then fail to realise they are being exploited, this is call
false consciousness
Believe the functions of the family benefit capitalism, e.g.
Engels
- believed that the family arose as capitalism developed and people
started to value property.
Monogamy became essential as men had to be certain that their legitimate heir inherited from them and women went along with this for economic security.
The family also benefits capitalism as it
; reproduces the furture workforce, consumes the products of capitalism,
Zaretisky
- provides emotional support for workers with their oppression at work, which helps to maintain false consciousness, socialises children into the ruling class ideology
Strengths:
+First theory to link the family to capitalism and the economy
+Explores a conflict approach to the family
Weaknesses:
-Many argue that
the family was not shaped by capitalism
, it arose in hunter-gatherer times, before capitalism existed
-Functionalists argue this approach places
too much emphasis on conflict
-Men can marry for love, not just to gain an heir
-
Outdated
-places too much focus on the nuclear family-many different family types now
Feminism
Structural:
Society influences individuals
Conflict:
Society benefits certain social groups at the expense of others
Radical feminists:
Greer
-
'Patriarchal explanation is built into all social institutions (in particular the family)'
Believe all men benefit from inequalities and exploit women -
Millet:
we need separatism
Delphy and Leonard:
Women do most of the work and men get most of the benefit
Oakley:
we are socialised into gender roles during primaryn socialisation through 4 ways:
Manpulation
- boys and girls are handled differently
Canalisation
- boys and girls have different toys and games
Verbal appellations
- boys and girls are praised and punished for different things
Differential activity exposure
- girls imitate the activities of their mothers while boys imitate activities of their fathers
Oakley
- housework and child care are unpaid and mainly performed by women
Average pay
of a woman is
85%
of that of men
-
Marxist feminists:
-Capitalist system is patriarchal -women are doubly exploited as workers and women
-women are cheap labour and unpaid domestic labour
-
Benson:
Women reproduce and rear the future workforce at no cost
-
Ansley:
women benefit the capitalist system as women are 'takers of shit' and absorb male frustration of the work place-which can lead to domestic violence
Strengths:
+First theory to focus on gender equality in society and the family
+Improved the position of women
Weaknesses:
-Many women are working and have incomes
-Women's roles are not the same in all families e.g. dual-earning couples
-2/3 divorces are initiated by women
-
Hakim
- women can make choices-some chose to be housewives
-Radical and liberal ignore the inequalities of men
-Ethnocentric
-
Liberal feminists:
-Want equality of the sexes
-optimistic that equality can be achieved
-there has been a steady improvement already (equal pay act-1970, sex discrimination act-1975)
-
Somerville:
there have been improvements, e.g. the symmetrical family, but equality is not fully achieved
Family diversity
Chester - The Neo-Conventional Family:
Chester noticed there had been an increase in family diversity but suggested there was only a
minor shift
from the
conventional
family to the
Neo-conventional
family. The only difference was that the
Neo-conventional
family is a
dual earner family
.
However, Chester did argue that people still aspire towards the nuclear family and that it is still the dominant family type. He claimed that through out peoples life course they spend most of there life in a nuclear family.
The Rapoports: Five Types of Family Diversity:
Organisation Diversity:
There are differences in the roles of the family members in different families (e.g. stay at home dads)
Cultural Diversity:
Cultural, religious and ethnic groups have different family structures and practices (e.g. arranged marriages)
Social Class Diversity:
Different social classes have differences in family structures and child-rearing. (e.g. different education)
Life-Stage Diversity:
There are differences in family structure based on the life circle (e.g. cohabiting before marriage)
Generational Diversity:
Different generations have different attitudes and experiences. (e.g. views on homosexuality)
Postmodernist and Personal Lives Perspective
Social Action:
Individuals influence and socially construct society
Symbolic Interactionism:
Mead & Blumer
suggested that most human interaction is symbolic
Cooley
developed the concept of
the looking glass self
, which is the idea that our perception of ourselves is effected by how others perceive us
Goffman
believed that
society is like a stage
as people act out performances and engage in managing the impressions they give to other people
(Impression management)
Postmodernism:
We have experienced a rapid social change and people are now
no longer controlled by social structures
such as the Family, but can
make their own choices
and don't have to be influenced by society.
Cheal
supports this as he claimed we no longer live in a predictable modern society but a new, chaotic, postmodern stage where
family structures are fragmented
and therefore we
cannot generalise
about families.
Ethnomethodology:
Garfinckel
refers to the methods used to show that social order is an illusion.
Verstehen:
Understanding
- Putting yourself in others shoes to gain an understanding of their point of view
Giddens
(Postmodernist) supports the individualisation thesis with his concept of
The Pure Relationship
.
This is the idea that people now aim for pure relationships based on
confluent love
(love based on trust, emotion and intimacy) and if their needs are not being, met they can leave.
Stacey:
argued that greater freedom of choice has
benefited women
as they can now
shape the family
to
meet their needs.
Personal Lives Perspective:
In order to understand the family we need to look at it through the individuals point of view.
Smart
noted how the importance of
social relationships
(fictive kin) may
override genetic
relationships in forming family bonds. This supports
May
who stated it is
more important
to study
personal lives
rather than the family
Personal Lives Perspective
criticises Postmodernism
as:
It
exaggerates the amount of choice
that some people have
It is
self-centred
and assumes people only think about themselves
Its
ethnocentric
The Connectedness Thesis:
Personal Lives Perspective
Smart
agrees that we do make our own choices but our choices cannot be solely based on our individual needs. We always make choices
in a web of connectedness
as our relationships influence our options and choices.
Beck
supports the individualisation thesis through his idea of
The Negotiated Family
. This is a family where partners enter on an equal basis and make
negotiations
to make sure the family works.
If negotiations
fails to run smoothly
, people are likely to
leave the relationship
.
The Individualisation Thesis:
Postmodernism
This is where
traditional structures have lost influence
and we now have the freedom to live our lives to meet our own needs.
This leads to an increase in
'mix & match
relationships, as people shop around for partners and only stay when they are fully satisfied.
This has increased
family instability
as people are more likely to leave relationships, however has supposedly created
happier relationships