The functionalist perspective on the family

• Believe society is based on a value consensus into which society socialises its members. This enables them to cooperate harmoniously to meet society's needs and achieve shared goals. Regard society as a system made up of different parts or sub-systems that depend on each other.
• Murdock:

  Argues the family performs 4 essential functions to meet the needs of society and its members

  1. Stable satisfaction of the sex drive with the same partner preventing the social disruption caused by a sexual 'free-for-all'
  2. Reproduction of the next generation
  3. Socialisation of the young
  4. Meeting its members economic needs
• Criticisms of Murdock:

  He argues that the sheer practicality of the nuclear family as a way of meeting these 4 needs explains why it is universal

  Other sociologists argue the important functions can be performed by other institutions.
• Criticisms - Feminists and Marxists:

  Reject his 'rose-tinted' harmonious consensus view that the family meets the needs of both wider society and all the different members of the family. Argue it neglects conflict and exploitation:

  • Feminists: see the family as serving the needs of men and oppressing women
  • Marxists: it meets the needs of capitalism, not those of the family or society
• Parsons' - 'functional fit' theory:

  The functions the family perform will depend on the kind of society in which it is found. The functions the family have to perform will affect its 'shape' or structure.

  • the nuclear family: parents and their dependent children
  • the extended family: 3 generations living under one roof
• Parsons' - the 'functional fit' theory:

  The particular structure and functions of a given type of family will 'fit' the needs of the society in which it is founded. 2 basic types of society - modern industrial society and traditional pre-industrial society. The nuclear family fits the need of industrial society and is the dominant family type, and the extended family meets the needs of the pre-industrial family.
• Parsons' - 'functional fit' theory:

  When Britain began to industrialise, the extended family began to give way to the nuclear. The emerging industrial society had different needs from pre-industrial society, and the family had to adapt to meet these needs
• Parsons' - 'functional fit' theory - 1) A geographically mobile workforce:

  In traditional pre-industrial society, people often spent their whole lives living in the same village, working on the same farm. In modern society, industries constantly spring up and decline in different parts of the country, and this requires people to move to where the jobs are. It is easier for the compact two-generation nuclear family to move, than for the three-generation extended family. Nuclear family is better fitted to the need that modern industry has for a geographically mobile workforce.
• Parsons' - 'functional fit' theory - 2) A socially mobile workforce:


  Modern industrial society is based on constantly evolving science and technology and so it requires a skilled, technically competent workforce. It is therefore essential that talented people are able to win promotion and take on the most important roles, even if they come from humble backgrounds.
• Parsons' - 'functional fit' theory - 2) A socially mobile workforce:


  In modern society, an individual's status is achieved by their own efforts and ability, not ascribed by their social and family background, as this makes social mobility possible. This means the nuclear family is better equipped to meet the needs of industrial society. In the extended family, adult sons live at home in their fathers house - where the father has a higher ascribed status.
• Parsons' - 'functional fit' theory - 2) A socially mobile workforce:

  At work, the son may have a higher achieve status than his father. This would give rise to tensions and conflict if they both live under the same roof. The solution is for adult sons to leave home when they marry and form their own nuclear family. This encourages social mobility as well as geographical mobility.
• Parsons' - 'functional fit' theory - 2) A socially mobile workforce:



  Result is the mobile nuclear family, which is 'structurally isolated' from its extended kin. It may keep in touch with them, it has no binding obligations towards them.
• Loss of functions:

  Pre-industrial family was a multi-functional unit. It was a more self-sufficient unit than the modern nuclear family, providing for its members' health and welfare and meeting most individual and social needs.
• Loss of functions:

  According to Parsons, when society industrialises, the family not only changes its structures from extended to nuclear, it also loses many of its functions.
• Loss of functions:

  In Parsons view, as a result of this loss of functions, the modern nuclear family comes to specialise in performing 2 essential functions:

  1. The primary socialisation of children: equip them basic skills and society's values, to enable them to cooperate with others, and integrate them into society
  2. Stabilisation of adult personalities: family is the place where adults can relax, enabling them to return to the workforce refreshed and ready to meet its demands. Functional for the efficiency of the economy.