Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Functionalist
Perspective on the family
- believe that society is based on a value consensus - a set of shared norms
and values - into which society socialises its members
- Regard society as a system made up of different parts or sub-cultures
that depend on each other, such as family, education system and the
economy
- Peter Murdock argues that the family performs four essential functions to
meet the needs of society and its members:
- Stable satisfaction of the sex drive - with the same partner, preventing the
social disruption caused by a sexual 'free-for-all'
- Reproduction of the next generation - without which society could not
continue
- Socialisation of the young - into society's shared norms and
values
- Meeting it's members economic needs - such as food and shelter
- Marxists and Feminists reject his 'rose-tinted' harmonious consensus view that the family meets the
needs of both wider society and all members of the family, they argue that functionalism neglects
conflict and exploitation
- Parsons' 'functional fit' theory
- Parsons distinguishes between two kinds of family
structure:
- The Nuclear family: of just parents
and dependent children
- The Extended family: of three
generations living under one roof
- Parsons argues that the particular structure and functions of a given type of family will 'fit' the
needs of society in which its found
- Geographically mobile workforce
- Parsons argues that 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
- Socially mobile workforce
- The nuclear family is better equipped than the extended family
to meet the needs of industrial society
- Loss of Functions
- Pre-industrial family was a multi-functional unit
- More self-sufficient unit than the modern nuclear family
- According to Parsons, when society industrialises, the
family changes its structure and looses many of its
functions
- Nuclear family specialises in performing just two
essential functions:
- Primary Socialisation of Children - to equip them with
basic skills & society's values
- Stabilisation of Adult Personalities - where adults can relax and release tensions