How Functional Is the Modern Family

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Mature access course How functional is the modern family? Many sociologists deem the family as a major social institution, setting the foundations of society. The family is often described as ‘A group of people living with or near each other, who are closely related by marriage or blood’ (Moore.s.1996:117). The actual structure of the family varies from society to society, but these differences have been seen as variations or extensions of the basic family unit. For example in some societies polygyny is seen as the ideal.. First develop din Europe in the nineteenth century functionalism is a sociological approach which examines social structures and social institutions. These theories have been developed further in the twentieth century by sociologists such as Talcott Parsons and George Peter Murdoch in the 1940’s and 1950’s. in analysing the family functionalists as ‘What are the functions of the family? What are the functional relationships between the family and other parts of the social system? And what are the functions of the family for its individual members (Haralambus, M. 1995:321). More recent sociological approaches have questioned the conclusions the functionalists have made on the family as an institution. Murdoch defined the family as being ‘a social group characterised by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes with a t least two of the adults having a socially approved sexual relationship and one or more children which are own or adopted of the cohabiting adults’ (Haralambus, M. 1995:317) taking samples in two hundred and fifty wide ranging societies his study entitled “social structre” found that although the family’s structure varied from society to society, these differences were variants or extensions of the nuclear family, the smallest family unit. For example the extended family is
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