Theories of the Family

• What is the functionalist perspective on the family?


  -Society is based of a valued consensus.

  -Compare society as a human organism like the human body.
• What are Murdock‘s 4 functions of the family?


  -Stable satisfaction of the sex drive,

  -Reproduction of the next generation,

  -Socialisation of the young,

  -Meeting economic needs.
• What are the criticisms of Murdock?


  -Only argues that this is done through the nuclear family yet it can be displayed through other types of families.

  -‘Rose-tinted’: too positive and doesn’t look at the neglected conflict.

  -Eg:

  Feminism > only serving the needs of men,

  Marxism > only serving the needs of capitalism.
• What is parsons’ ’functional Fit‘ theory?

  -Parsons' functional fit theory is the idea that social institutions and structures must fit together in order to maintain social stability.

  -Nuclear family: parents and their dependent children.

  -Extended family: 3 generations living under on roof.
• What are industrial society’s essential needs?


  -Geographical mobile workforce: Traditional pre-industrial society, people often sent heir whole lives in the same village but in contrast the modern society would move to where their jobs were.

  -Socially mobile workforce: modern industrial is based on constantly evolving science and technology which requires a skilled workforce. There role is based off of an individuals effort, not ascribed.
• Due to the loss of functions, what ones d the family specialise in?


  -Primary socialisation of children: Equip them with basic skis and society’s values which enables them o cooperate with others.

  -Stablilisation of adult personalities: Adults can relax and release tensions which enables them to go back to the workplace feeling refreshed.
• What do Marxists mean by the inheritance of property?

  -Mode of production which is who owns society’s productive forces, which is the capitalist class.

  -Primitive communism: earliest part where everyone would ow the means of production.

  -Engles: Promiscuous border which is where there was no limit on sexual relationships.

  -Monogamy became essential due to the inheritance of private property.
• What do Marxists mean by ideological functions?


  -Set or ideas or beliefs that justify inequality and maintain the capitalist system by persuading the W/C.

  -Socialising children into believing that the heir by and class are inevitable.

  -Zaretsky: offering a haven from the harsh and exploitive workplace, but he sees this as an illusion as family cannot meet its members needs.
• What do marxists mean by a Unit of Consumption?


  -Capitalists exploit the labour for the labour of the workers making a profit by selling the products of their labour.

  -‘keeping up with the joneses’ by consuming all they latest products.

  -Media who target children by using pester power.

  -Children who lack latest items are stigmatised by their peers.
• What are the criticisms of the marxist perspective?


  -Tend to assume that the nuclear family is dominant in capitalist society.

  -Underestimates the importance of gender inequalities within the family which serve the interest of men.

  -Functionalists believe they ignore the benefits from families.
• What is the liberal feminist perspective on the family?


  -Women’s oppression is being gradually overcome through changing the law and people attitudes such as the sex discrimination act.

  -Hold a similar view to the March of progress view that there has been gradual progress.

  -Yet people criticise the for failing to challenge the underlying causes of women’s oppression.
• What is the Marxist feminist perspective on the family?


  -Main cause of women’s oppression in the family is not men but capitalism.

  -Reproduce the labour force through unpaid domestic labour.

  -Women absorb anger; Ansley saying women are ’takers of shit.’

  -Women are a reserve arms of cheap labour that can be taken on if they are needed.
• What is the radical feminist perspective of the family?


  -Societies have even founded on patriarchy.

  -Men are the enemy: source of women’s exploitation.

  -Family and marriage are the key institutions as men benefit from their sexual services and dominate women through domestic violence.
• What do radical feminists mean by Political Lesbianism?


  -Heterosexual relationships are inevitably oppressive because they involve with sleeping with the enemy.

  -Greer: creation of the female households as an alternative t the heterosexual family.

  -But someville argues that they fail to recognise women’s position which has better access for divorce with better access to divorce.
• What is the difference feminist perspective of families?


  -We cannot generalise about women’s experiences as they are al difference from one another.

  -Eg: Lesbian, white, black, w/c women may all have different experiences.
• What is the personal life perspective on families?


  -They tend to assume that the traditional nuclear family is the dominant family type.

  -They are all structural theories which assume that embers of the family are puppets that manipulate the structure.
• What does it mean by a bottom up approach?


  -PLP have a bottom up approach of interactionism which emphasises the meaning that individual family members hold and how it shapes their relationships.
• What does the PLP mean by beyond ties and marriage?


  -Relationships with friends, fictive kin, gay and lesbian families, dead relatives, pets.

  -Relationships or memories with these that are different from nuclear but still hold significance that it is seen as family.
• What does Smart and Nordqvist mean by donor-conceived children?


  -Importance of social relationships over genetic ones.
• What is the criticism of the PLP?


  -Taking too broad of view; as they ignore the uniqueness of blood-related families.

  -PLP recognises the bad things that happen in a relationship eg: abuse.