Essentially, the father will obtain the resources needed to survive for the family and the mother will support the father’s ability to do so (Morimoto, 2013). Integration explains how the family coordinates relationships with in the family unit. The father is seen as the breadwinner and the mother is the caretaker of the home and children. Latent pattern maintenance shows that the family needs to have shared values and motives once they have been integrated. Parsons explains that if any of these fails then the family will not be equilibrium with other social systems in the United States (Morimoto, 2013).
Similarly the operation of any society is dependent on its social institutions as they provide vital functions which maintain harmony, stability and solidarity within a society. G P Murdock and Talcott Parsons are the main Functionalists of family. According to Talcott Parsons the family has lost many of its functions, but still has two important functions. The primary socialisation of children: children learn norms and values in their society from their parents, who teach them what is right and what is wrong. Murdock argued that the nuclear family was a universal social institution and has four important parts to play in keeping society functioning: reproductive, economic, sexual and education function.
A Marxist writer, Engels, has two main points to his argument. Firstly, that the family serves the requirements of the capitalist economy and secondly that the family prevents women from achieving equality both inside and outside the home. Engels felt that women were oppressed by the family. Women were dependant on their husbands economically and were expected to keep faithful to their husband. However it was regarded as
Within Sociology the family is defined as a primary social group that consists of parents and their offspring all living together to form a very close social group. This present essay will compare and contrast the difference between four perspectives, these being, the Functionalist, Interactionist, Feminist and the Marxist perspective. The functionalist approach believes that society is a structure of connected parts that work together to maintain a social balance for society. For example they believe that each social institute adds individual functions that are all important to the society. The family for example contributes a lot toward society as it is the main route of reproducing the population and teaching them the important lesson of socialization as they grow.
Body Paragraph # 2 Topic Sentence: There are differences in the three sociological theories of the family institution. Supporting Evidence: The conflict theory for the family does not believe in the myth that families are always harmonious but instead, believe that the family can deal with differences, change and conflict (Plunket, 2011). The functionalism theory for the family believes that the basic function for the nuclear family is that it fulfills four basic functions for society: the sexual, reproductive, economic and education functions ( Unknown, 2010). The interactionism looks at the ways that a family creates and re-creates themselves every day. This view looks at how the family unit is built through their interactions (Jacobsen,etc.
Murdock saw the family, the nuclear family in particular, an absolute need for society and he considered the four basic functions of the family to be the sexual, the reproductive, the socialisation and the economic. He carried out a study all over the world and said that the family is a universal thing and these are universal functions that everyone else follows too. Without the family, we wouldn't have food and shelter otherwise life itself would cease. Parsons believes that without the family we would have primary socialisation and stabilisation of the adult personality, furthermore, without culture and the shared values passed on from generations to generations- society wouldn’t exist
Secondly, Reproduction of the next generation – without this essential function, society would seize to exist. Thirdly, Socialisation of the young – this is where the young are socialised into society’s shared norms and values. Lastly, Meeting its members economic needs – for example the society provides food and shelter. On the other hand, other sociologists have criticised his functionalist approach. Feminists and Marxists both have
SOCIOLOGY THEORIES SOCIOLOGY THEORIES _____________________________________________________________________ Functionalism According to the functionalist perspective each aspect of society is interdependent and contributes to society’s functioning as a whole. The government, or state, provides education for the children of the family, which in turn pays taxes on which the state depends on to keep itself running. That is, the family is dependent on the school to help children grow up to have good jobs so that they can raise and support their own families. In this process, the children become law-abiding, taxpaying citizens, who in turn support the state. Functionalists believe that society is held together by social consensus or cohesion, in which members of the society agree upon, and work together to achieve what is best for the community as a whole.
However, Murdock’s view of the nuclear family eliminate any other family structures, which too are able to supply these functions, and also neglects the conflict and exploitation of family. Parsons evaluated how the family provides solutions to the needs of modern industrial society and pre-industry society. Geographical Mobility is a need of modern industrial society as jobs now require people to move nationally or internationally for jobs. In today’s society, they’re are less extended families, making it easier for families to
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.