Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Functionalist
perspective on family
- Murdoch
- Four functions of the family
- Stable satisfaction of the sex drive
- Reproduction of
the next generation
- Socialisation
of the young
- Economic provision
for members
- Criticisms
- Argue that other institutions
could meet these needs
- Feminists: see the
family as serving men
and oppressing women
- Marxists: meets the needs of
capitalism, not members or wider
society
- Society based on a
value consensus
- Consists of sub-systems that
depend on each other
- Body analogy
- Parsons 'functional
fit' theory
- Identifies two
different types of
family structure
- Nuclear family
- 'Structurally
isolated' from
extended kin
- Extended
family
- Family structure
willchange to 'fit'
society
- Two basic
types of
society
- Pre-industrial society
- Extended family
best suited
- Modern industrial society
- Nuclear family
best suited
- Has two
essential
needs
- A geographically
mobile workforce
- Requires people
to move to where
their job is
- Easier in the nuclear family
- A socially mobile workforce
- Status no longer ascribed as
birth - people can achieve
based on how hard they work
- Easier in nuclear
family as there will
not be tension
between the two
males of the
household
- Criticisms
- Y&W argue pre-industrial
family was nuclear, not
extended
- Laslett's study
of households
in 1821
supported this
- Late child
bearing and
short life
expectancy
- Exchange theory - breaking
off/maintaining family ties because of
the benefits/costs involved
- Y&W: nuclear
family no longer
dominant
- Loss of
functions
- Parsons says that family
lost many of it's functions
to other institutions
- Modern nuclear
family performs two
essential functions
- Primary
socialisation of
children
- Stabilisation
of adult
personalities
- Family is a place to
release tensions to
enable them to return to
the workplace refreshed