This paper aims to clarify the strengths of Parsons’ arguments, such as the functionality and effectiveness of certain systems within our culture, while contrasting the outdated viewpoints which he presents that might not be as applicable in today’s modern times considering the amount of social changes and open opportunities that are now available to both sexes. Parsons introduces his ideas on the “kinship system” by discussing the family structure, focusing in on the various life stages that a child goes through to emancipate themselves from the ties they have gained from their parents and other family members. The familiarity and comfort of such ties eventually become a burden and must be cut off in order for an individual to become a fully functional member of our society. The article goes on to state that one of the most difficult stages of growing older would be adolescence, where a “youth culture” is practiced, allowing for a passageway meant to ease “the difficult process of adjustment from childhood emotional dependency to full ‘maturity’” (Parsons 1943: 301). This serves to provide one
Power relationships are about who controls the family and who has the power to make the decisions. The domestic division of labour is the changing nature of housework and home-related activities related to changing roles of men and women and the idea of masculinity and femininity, both in and beyond the home. In this essay I will be talking about a Patriarchal society, In 1955, Parsons a functionalist sociologist suggested that the husband and wife have different roles within the family and that there is a clear division of labour and clear expectations from each spouse. The man’s role was called instrumental, this is where he is expected to have a successful job to financially support the family. Whereas the wife’s role was called expressive, this is when the wife is expected to look after the house and to raise the children emotionally and cook.
Using material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the contribution of feminist sociologists to an understanding of family roles and relationships (24 marks) Feminists have helped change the tradition view of the family. There are two types of feminists; liberal and radical. As shown in the item they take a ‘critical view’ of the family arguing that it is patriarchal and focus on the ‘gender inequalities’ in housework and violence against women. They believe gender inequality is created by society and is not natural. 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.
This just means that the act is correct as long as it brings happiness to the greatest amount of people. Sidgwick and Bentham believed in similar views and are seen as act utilitarians. Act utilitarianism is when you have to decide what action would bring about the greatest good so it depends on the consequences of the action so the rightness or wrongness of something can be changed. Rule utilitarianism believes that rules should be created by using utilitarian principles
Functional theory seemed to support the idea of a ‘status quo’, or an assumption that social functions are either fine as they are or are evolving toward something better. Rigid functionalism thus fell into disfavor as Neo-Marxist conflict theories gained more widespread acceptance and publication. Many of functionalism’s concepts are borrowed from organic biology. Societies are said to undergo ‘selection pressure’ and to respond in Darwinian ways. Again thinking of the social function of marriage a functionalist might theorize that age limits serve society
He reiterates, however, that his reasons are based on merit. He feels Sonya’s high level of enthusiasm may be a detriment to her work performance because customers may be turned off by it. He also suggests that Jacqueline would be better choice because she is married. Paul disagrees but, in the end, Robert states that they will go with Jacqueline and see how it works out. The two generate an interesting debate; however they might lose their credibility because Robert brought the fact that Jacqueline was married which is not job related and could be discriminatory to unmarried applicant while Paul he continually refer about Sonya’s enthusiasm and could be the selling point but this is not also offer any substantial reasons for her preference.
Examine the different functions performed by the family for individuals and society. There are many different groups of sociologists that have devoted their time in studying, analysing and evaluating the family. Marxist’s see the family beneficial purely for capitalism and feel as if family is not important for any other aspects of life. They believe family is a bad thing and will strongly disagree with Functionalists who view the family as a major institution in the body of society and cannot live without. Another group is the Feminists who have different groups within them, some with very optimistic views, some with views that will agree with Marxists or some who will have their own ideologies and ways to demolish the generic nuclear family.
The biosocial theory. The term ‘culture’ encompasses the knowledge, beliefs and values shared by a society that are passed down the generations through imitation and communication. By looking at research through a variation of different cultures we can distinguish between universal features, which suggest an innate basis for gender therefore supporting the nurture side of the argument, and culturally specific features, which suggest gender is learned and so support the nurture side of the argument. A famous piece of cross cultural research on gender was the Six Cultures Study by Whiting and Whiting (1975) studied child rearing processes in North America, the Philippines, India, Mexico, Kenya and Japan. Researchers integrated themselves into the societies and conducted systematic 5 minute observations of the children’s daily lives.
In this essay I intend to analyse and discuss the changes that have occurred in gender role over the past 50 years. The functionalist sociologist Parsons argues that there is a clear division of labour between spouses based on biological differences. He claims that these divisions are beneficial to men, women, children and wider society. He believes that there are roles that are natural to each gender; women have the expressive role geared towards homemaking and childcare whereas men hold the instrumental role geared towards work and being the breadwinner. It can be said that these roles are not natural but have evolved to become gender specific and are having changed in the last 50 years and will also change in the near future.
However, I believe this misconception distorts the truth because an introverted personality actually qualifies for leadership in our current society. From this reason, I think introverted people are good enough to become a good leader. First of all, what is introverted personality and why introverted people are blamed by other people? As we know introverted person is more consideration for other party than extroverted. But it is not a problem who wants to become a leader.