Changes in the Institution of Family over the Past 50 Years.

1043 Words5 Pages
Changes in the Institution of Family over the past 50 years. If there is one thing that I have learned in my twenty- two years of living it is that change is inevitable. Be it the weather, the climate, the economy, your hair color, even your spouse, change is consistently happening all around us. While our society strives to influence and manipulate these changes so that they are positive and better our culture and society, this is not always the case. The cause of social change is rooted deep within the major institutions that are the make up of our culture and society. The family is an institution that has forgone many changes over the past fifty years. To best understand the causes of social change it is important to have an understanding of what an institution is, and even more importantly the roles that they play with our culture and society. By dissecting and analyzing the institution of family, this paper will look into the changes in the roles and statuses, values and norms within the institution of family over the past 50 years. Before we can begin to discuss and analyze the causes of social change it is essential to have an understanding of what an institution is. The use of the basic functionalist theory or perspective will better help define the concept of institution. Most fundamentally, functionalism sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. Further, functionalism takes a broad macro-level orientation to the social structures that shape society as a whole (Townley and Middleton 1978). From this functionalist perspective, the concept of institution can be recognized as one of these “complex systems” that work together to promote solidarity and stability. It is easy to connect the lines between the concept of institution and organization, however it is important to understand the institution
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