Assess the contribution of functionalism to our understanding of families and households Functionalist theory’s contributed massively to our understanding of the family and the household. Functionalists ask: what are the essential functions which the family must perform to meet the basic needs of society and its members. But functionalist views have also been criticised. Functionalists argue that the family has essential functions which it must perform to meet the basic needs of society and its members. Murdock argues that this makes the family a greatly important institution.
Throughout the life long process of developing a sense of self the there are two factors that shape an individual. Who we are internally and who we present ours self to others and have conformed to social norms through the context of socialization. Within the process of socialisation, social structure and social interaction are both essential ingredients in an individual’s day-to-day life. This is because humans have the need to interact with each other for survival needs and furthermore maintain existence. According to the Macionis and Plummer, socialisation is defined as; “The lifelong social experiences by which individuals develop their human potential and learn patterns of their culture (Cited in Macionis & Plummer, 2012, p. 695).” Socialisation establishes the importance of an individual’s social identity through both aspects of social structure and social interaction.
Education is currently one of the most important parts of our lives. It teaches skills needed for work, but also socialises students and passes on values. Education also develops a shared culture by socialising students together. Functionalists agree with the view that education integrates individuals into society’s shared culture, it passes core value onto students. Education functions as a key mechanism which glues children together and helps them by giving them a value consensus through the “hidden curriculum”.
Starting to teach kids early about responsibilities, create structure and routine that is consistently reinforced, will help children to grow the habits of becoming more responsible. A primary concept in family systems theory is that the family includes interconnected members, and each member influences the others in predictable and recurring ways (Van Velsor & Cox, 2000). Having open communication within family members and not being isolated is a key tool to maintaining a functional family. Sculpting is a good tool to identify a family’s system dynamics by asking family members to physically position themselves and other family members into a formation that metaphorically represents the family
This is so that these barriers do not put a strain on the partnership and relationship parents and practitioners have. Barriers can lead to the parents becoming more emotional such as anger or show distress about it. Leading onto more prejudice attitudes and having different expectations on rules. It can all spiral out of control if not stopped, which not the help the child would reach their full potential as the child is the main focus, as their wellbeing is one of the most crucial part (paramount) while in the setting. Barriers come in many forms, such as when key persons are doing observations and planning.
They like to inform the parents of things going on at the center, and in the government that concern the center. Having relationships with the families is important and they have very close ties with them. The philosophy the center runs by is the idea that a child’s education is one of the most important, if not the most important, aspects of his or her life. With this in mind, teachers are very influential characters. Therefore it is essential that teachers develop their educational philosophy and their educational goals before making the big step from being a student to being a teacher.
According to Durkheim, one of the main functions of education is to develop these similarities to bind members of society together. Durkheim sees a common history as vital for uniting members of society. With a shared history, people feel part of a wider social group – it is their country, made up of people like themselves. In this way, education contributes to the development of social solidarity. Industrial society has a specialised division of labour – people have specialised jobs with specific skill and knowledge requirements.
For example, children are taught to conform by the family and education, which allows them to conform to the rules of wider society and become aware of what, is socially acceptable. Education also trains by teaching the skills needed for later life, for example punctuality, and interview skills. Unlike conflict structuralism, functionalists believe that society is based on merit, and those who work the hardest will be the ones to make it to the top, ensuring jobs are filled by those most capable, with the required skills. Those who don’t work, will stay at the bottom of the hierarchy, and carry out the more menial, but equally essential jobs. However not all functionalists see society exactly the same, as they have similar but different views towards it also functionalists are also externally criticised of their views of society as a functional unit.
If we are to have a society that looks for the well being of all people, we must learn to recognize that as people we are diverse and must learn to embrace one another with love, respect, and honor each others’ uniqueness. For example, in “Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology” by Margaret L. Anderson, and Patricia H. Collins (2010), provided a wealth of information in the narratives they produced from the different scholars and teachers they worked with and interviewed to make this book inspiring and an eye opener to understand our world better. Transformation is not easy and we must be willing to change the way we think on many different issues that deal with gender, race, discrimination, and acceptance of each other despite our differences. The narrative that really touched me the most was “From A Native Daughter”, by Haunani-Kay Trask. I have not appreciated history as much as I should have, not proud to say; however, after reading this narrative it opened my eyes and mind that not everything we read or hear about history is the truth.
Conformity Essay From the moment we are born we enter a society where it is the norm to conform and obey. From a very young age we learn that if we do not obey then we will suffer the consequences for these actions. People within society have a desire to be accepted and to belong; whether to a group or a family this social influence can change our thoughts, feeling and even our behaviour. So can we truly be an individual or are we pre-defined by a set of social boundaries? As much as we like to think of ourselves as individuals, the fact is that we're determined to fit in, and that frequently means going with the flow.