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.
It’s beneficial as there are male and female role models available for the children, and it gives the parents more control of how their children are brought up. Another strength is that there’s less interference from wider family members however this can also be seen as a negative aspect, as other people are unaware of what’s happening and if there was any problems within the family and therefore it’s difficult to identify neglect. This also makes it difficult to seek professional help outside of the family. Another disadvantage of this privatised nuclear family is that children are only exposed to one set of values and so are influenced to become like their parents in the future as they have no exposure to other behaviours of different families. A criticism of this
Weber believed it was linked to the type of job people could get, Weber thought differently to Marx about this, as marx believed it was due to owning factories or other resources, and weber thought it was due to skills and qualifications. Weber’s idea of class influenced the ideas of other sociologists, such as goldthorpe (1980). Goldthorpe derived a stratification scale which includes the Weberian concept of market position. This was felt by sociologists to be a more accurate technique of studying stratification, as a pose to just studying peoples jobs. Weber was skeptical about the possibility of the working class bonding together for revolutionary purposes, for example becoming class-conscious because of differences in status would always undermine any common cause.
Babies have social releaser which unlocks the innate tendency for adults to care for them; these are both physical and behavioural social releasers. Bowlby adopted the idea of a critical period from ethologists like Lorenz, and applied this to his explanation of how human infants form their attachments. Bowlby has several claims. The first being that we have evolved a biological need to attach to our main caregiver, this being the monotropy attachment. Forming this attachment has survival values, as staying close to the mother ensure food and protection.
Functionalist Murdock suggested as children we are socialised into societies shared norms and values and he believed that males provide the economic roles and females provided the expressive role. Therefore it is natural for women to play the expressive role in the household looking after the family’s emotional needs. However, radical feminist Ann Oakley argues that the role of the housewife is a social construction and isn’t linked to the female role. The housewife role makes sure that women stay inferior to men making it difficult for them have careers. Women carry out the triple burden in the household; the domestic labour, emotional labour, and paid labour.
Power and wealth should not be distributed equally in a society, this is why capitalism is a more effective system. It is against human nature for everyone to be equal, and people who worked harder than others should be rewarded accordingly. A classless society is not a realistic society. This would only work in a perfect society, and such society has never existed. In theory, communism may sound as an appealing form of government.
Marxist and feminist sociologists have criticised Murdock's view. They argue that functionalism ignores conflict and exploitation within the society. For example, Marxists view the family as meeting the needs of capitalism and not the needs of its members. Feminists view the family as being patriarchal and oppressing women. According to Parsons, the family has two basic functions which are primary socialisation, and stabilisation of adult personalities.
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.
George Peter Murdock found that nuclear families are universal. He also believed in 4 function of the family. These included of the nuclear family supplying a sexual function, as being a couple stabilises satisfaction of the sex drive with a constant partner and prevents social disruption, too supplies a reproductive function as being a family ensures new members of society to keep society going and an educational function as parents socialise their young into the norms and values of society. Also, he believes that the family have an economic function as they meet the economic needs of food and shelter. 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.
Furthermore functionalists believe that families offer material and emotional security and provide care and support. It was in the words of G.P. Murdock where he defined the meaning of the family: "The family is a social group characterized by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction. It contains adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults." ~ (George Peter Murdock, 2004) Murdock (1949) went on to describe four main functions of the family which included; sexual relationships, economic cooperation among