final work to be referring to is that of Michael Anderson in which he studied `the town of Preston in 1851s census data`, and argues that the extended family was mostly found between poor families. According to Talcott Parsons industrial societies need nuclear families because they provide a more geographically mobile work force. According to him the `isolated nuclear family`, is the typical family form in present modern industrial societies, besides it is isolated in the sense that the relationships between the nuclear family and the wider kin are a matter of choice rather than obligation. The key reasons
Functionalists claim that society is a system with each part making-up the whole through a system of interdependence. The harmony and cooperation that is paramount to this view is maintained through value consensus. That is, for society to be successful, ordered and integrated, everyone must agree on what is important and good, achieved by teaching and promoting shared values which create a common identity (ibid). Murdock (1949) states that families perform four essential functions; regulating and stabilising sexual relationships; reproduction through procreation; economic provision and primary socialisation (ibid). Parsons (1955) argues that nuclear families in post-industrialised societies, are more ‘specialised’ and isolated, particularly as independent units of consumption, due to factors such as increased geographical mobility and the breakdown of the extended family.
Nuclear families consist of both adult male and female with mutually conceived dependants and is always made up of two generations. Extended families, where more prevalent during the first half of the 20th Century include the nuclear family plus vertical lineage, where one or more older generations are included. Occasionally aunts, uncles and cousins are part of the extended family, this type is generally classed as horizontally extended. The reconstituted family, is one where either one or both of the household adults have had children through previous relationships and have brought them into a new family environment meaning there is a presence of step parents and children. This type is becoming more common due to the change in society where divorce is more common and accepted.
In this essay i will be discussing what is meant by power relationships and the division of labour, i will also examine and discus the factors affecting these two areas. It is easier to discuss division between genders first because it takes us into power relationships and helps us understand more about them, the division between genders is simple i stye amount of work distributed between males and females. In the household, the division of labour can be such things as the housework or childcare, it can sometimes be very unequal or sometimes relatively fair. The division of labour in our society is mainly unequal and most of the housework and childcare falls to the woman to complete, this is because of societies view of what is a males job and what is a females job, this is a major problem because it limits women to what jobs they can and cannot do. Many people believe that the family should be nuclear and the male should be the main economic provider with the woman spending most time at home and taking care of the children, this is a functionalist point of view, who believe that the nuclear family is the best type of family and childcare is less important than financial income.
27/10/2011 Evaluate the view that human behaviour is largely cultural Society is not so much established by conquest as by collusion (Berger.P.1967) Munford khan defines the concept of self as ‘denoting the core of the personality system organised around its awareness of itself and its conscious and unconscious towards its most virtual interests and values, involving identity, status, commitment and desire. Society today is so different to sometime ago. It was more or less written in stone that women were the child bearing home carers, and the men were the bread winners. Some of the early sociologists believed that our gender was inherited through our genes. Feminists argued that these findings were all down to men carrying out experiments on men.
Examine the factors affecting the domestic division of labour and power relations. (24) Domestic labour consists mainly of childcare, housework and emotional maintenance for the family. Parsons, 1995, drew the conclusion that men and women have different roles within the family, with men expected to be the bread earners, and go out too work, whereas women, in most cases, had to stay at home and perform the various domestic labour tasks required of them. This included all the above mentioned tasks, and parsons stated that this was the "expressive" role, and that this system made things "nice and functional", stating that the respective genders were uniquely suited biologically for these roles. Power relations within a household refer to the control of decisions, finance and the families direction, and whom they are controlled by.
In sociological terms, the traditional definition of a ‘Family’ is; a fundamental social group in society typically consisting of two married parents and their children. Although in modern times, there are many accepted variations of families and social groups within the household. I shall be focusing on two traditional families well-known within society: the currently reigning, British royal family and the Simpson’s; a televised, fictional cartoon family. By means of comparison, I will analyse both family groups through a sociologist’s perspective and evaluate my findings accordingly. The British royals are a government-funded extended family.
Introduction To what extent do sociologists argue that the family is beneficial to society? Families are crucially important to society without doubt. Most British people are born into families and then raised by a family. Most of these very same people grow up to form families of their own and take the responsibility of being a parent. Many people see the family as the normal way of life and watch television programs which revolve around family life.
A Cross Cultural Examination of Sexuality: Modern vs Underdeveloped Societies Psychologists have highlighted a number of divisions regarding sexuality across a variety of cultures. The word ‘sex’ has different meanings. Sex refers to the biological and physiological differences between men and women, the most obvious being differences in their reproductive systems. Every culture controls the sexuality of its members to a certain extent, by embedding it in the institutions of family, religion and law. According to Potts & Short (1999) the core social arrangement within the institution of the family is the marital relationship.
How Far Would Sociologists Agree That Conjugal Roles Are Equal? The term conjugal roles refer to the relationship between men and women within a household and how the tasks are divided between them. A group of sociologists called feminists believe that men and women should have equal roles and be treated equally within society. Wilmott and Young are two sociologists which share the functionalist perspective. This is the belief that roles in the family are becoming more equal as time progresses.