To sum up, Murdock feels strongly that the family is certainly universal as neither the individual or the society could survive without it. On the other hand, Felicity Edholm disagrees with Murdock and states the nuclear family is not universal. This statement comes from her work, ‘The Unnatural Family’, written in 1982. In ‘The Unnatural Family’, Edholm describes ways in which the functions mentioned by Murdock are carried out in different societies. For example, Murdock believes that the nuclear family supports both the individual and the society.
In this essay I will examine the different functions performed by the family for individuals and society by exploring ideas expressed by the different sociologist groups including functionalism and Marxism. Functionalists had a strong belief that the family is a positive foundation. There view on the family is one that works well with the needs of an industrial society for a workforce that is not just geographically mobile but also socially mobile. This idea they believe benefits all aspects of society is that all families should be a nuclear family and by this they mean the husband is the bread winner this is a role to support the family his wife and children, functionalists call this the instrumental role. The expectation in a nuclear family is that the wife stays at home and looks after the children, she would clean and cook and provide the emotion in the family and they call this the expressive role.
The nuclear family is ideal for both individual’s and society, discuss: (24 marks) The nuclear family is one in which the family consists of two generations; a married or cohabiting couple with immature offspring, living under the same roof. There are many different views and opinions as to whether the nuclear family is ideal for both individuals and society and there are three main perspectives, these are Marxism, functionalism and feminism. There are both arguments supporting and arguments against this statement: The nuclear family is ideal for both individuals and society. The nuclear family is ideal for an individual for many reasons. The nuclear family tends to provide a more stable household for an individual than a lone parent family would.
Assess the functionalist contributions to our understanding of the family Functionalists believe that parts of society exist for a function and are all part of the organic analogy. If these parts work together to pass on norms and values it creates a collective conscience, hereby creating social order. From the item we can see that Murdock saw the family as fulfilling the function of reproducing the next generation and socialising them into the shared culture. They believe the nuclear family is the most effective family for its function and is the most able to pass on the norms and values to create a collective conscience for the next generation. Murdock, a functionalist sociologist, says that the nuclear family is universal.
Secondly, feminism is another reason that some people believe that nuclear families are no longer the norm. Within the 1940’s women were seen simple as housewives and mother, and education within their life wasn’t even thought about. Essentially they were expected to conform to the nuclear family model. Now women are just as likely to be in paid employment like men and therefore this gives them much more status and independence, which makes the nuclear family less likely. Yet others would argue that even the media still supports nuclear families and is socializing the next generation into thinking that it is right for example ‘The Simpsons’, so despite the increase in divorce and feminism the nuclear family will remain popular in British society.
Murdock argues that the nuclear family is the most practical institution in performing all four functions as well as it being wholly universal. However, criticisms of Murdock’s functionalist theory include the fact other institutions are able to perform these functions adequately. For example, the socialisation of the young could be achieved through school and education. Furthermore, Murdock is criticized for his ‘rose-tinted’, overly optimistic, harmonious consensus view that the nuclear family meets the needs of both wider society and members of the family. Feminists and Marxists recognise the conflict and exploitation in a family and wider society.
Access the views that the nuclear family functions to benefit all the members and society as a whole There are a great variety of views on the nuclear family to how and if it benefits all the members as well as how it helps society. Functionalist have a really positive view of the family as they believe we live in a utopian society where everything is perfect with in, whereas groups such as Marxists and feminists see the nuclear family as a negative structure which is uneven in how it benefits people with in it and society. Functionalists believe that the nuclear family is a positive institution that is beneficial to society - they look at the functions that the nuclear family performs for the good of society as a whole. These functions include:Reproduction - the family has children which means the human race keeps going; Primary socialisation - the family teaches children norms (acceptable behaviour) and values (right and wrong) ;Economic support – The family gives financial support, it feeds and provides shelter for it’s membersStabilisation of adult personalities- parsons argued that the second role of the family is to relieve the stresses of modern day life it is referred to as the “warm bath” theory Social status- is taught to a child as to where in society they stand it is affected by gender, age , ethnicity, social class, birth order and religion Functionalists believe that the nuclear family benefits all of its members from these functions but it is criticised as being ignorant of the fact that society is not perfect as they would believe for there is crime and not everything is perfect in family’s. Feminists believe the family is bad for women.
Murdock believed that the nuclear family was a universal institution that was vital to the well being of all societies and stated that the family's primary purpose is for sexual, reproductive, economic, and educational. Many people say murdocks analyse suffers from a failure to consider how other instructions can or could take over the functions of the family for example welfare state providing shelter. Parsons said even though the family had lost some functions it retained two basic and irreducible functions, they were primary socialization and stabilisation of adult personalities, parsons argues that society cannot exist without shared values norms and roles which are passed on from generation to generation and claims family's are needed for this purpose. The functionalists view of the family has been heavily criticised for being outdated and for presenting an overly optimistic view of the family. Many people criticise functionalists because they ignore the fact that not all families are perfect, another weakness of functionalists is that not all families can carry out all four of the functions for example gay families can't carry out the reproductive function.
I believe these are the main points because they let the author speak his mind about his homeland. The first main idea is that any parent who can find use of their children should be recognized as high members of the community (Swift 249): “Whoever could find out a fair, cheep, and easy method of making these children sound and useful members of the commonwealth would deserve so well of the public as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation” (Swift 249). This is basically saying that if children are not a use to their parents they should try to make them useful. This also means that children can be forced to be useful. The next main idea is that children will provide an excellent meat source (Swift 250).
Functionalism is about the structure of the nuclear family a self contained unit fulfils important functions to keep society running smoothly which Murcock (1949) claimed it is universal. Functionalism states that the family is an institution, which gives the individual members stability in society at large. Functionalists feel that society would not exist without the family. Murdoch argued that the family has evolved around sex, emotional stability, education and economic provision. Durkheim and Parsons were concerned with research that institutions have on society.