Theories of families

• George Murdock believes the nuclear family performs four main functions

  • Stable satisfaction of the sex drive
  • Reproduction of the next generation
  • Socialisation of the young
  • Meeting it’s member’s economic needs
• Warm Bath Theory - Parsons believes that the wife helps To remove stressors her husband experiences, stabilises her personality and encourages him for sex
• Family types other than the nuclear family are seen as abnormal or deviant as they cannot perform the functions required of the family (Parsons)
• Primary socialisation is the process of learning the norms and values of society from family and peers
• Nuclear family helps perform primary socialisation (Parsons)
• Feminists reject the functionalist view as it doesn’t meet everyone’s needs, only men’s. The theory rejects the “dark side” such as domestic violence and sexual abuse
• Marxists disagree with the functionalist view and argue that the family meets the needs of capitalism and not society as a whole
• Others argue that other non nuclear families structures can perform the four main functions proposed by George Murdock equally as well
• Marxists argue that society is based on an unequal conflict between the capitalist class and the working class
• Families help socialise children into the idea that the hierarchy and Imequality and unavoidable. Prepares them for a working life to take orders from capitalist employers
• Zaretsky says that families provide comfort to alienated workers
• Feminists argue that Marxists do not pay attention to gender inequalities in the family
• The Marxist view is old fashioned, and ignore other reasons for getting married or forming families
• The Marxist view is praised for highlighting the importance of economic influences on family life
• Radical feminists argue that relationships are highly patriarchal, women are sleeping with the enemy and men benefit from women’s unpaid domestic labour and sexual services
• Feminists believe that family should be abolished through separatism and political lesbianism (extremist view)
• A criticism for radical feminism is that they fail to realise heterosexual families will not disappear and that women’s position has improved in society
• Functionalists believe the norms and values of society shape family life. It’s based on marriage and children
• Marxists believe capitalists shape family life. The ideology of family is based on capitalist views that the nuclear family are the key family
• Feminists believe that patriarchy shapes family life as the man dominates the household
• New right believes norms and values of society and the government shape family life
• Giddens believes that there is more freedom and options in relationships, relationships are based on individual choice
• A criticism to Giddens is that he believes that we have complete freedom of choice over relationships. In reality, traditional norms still play a part in everyday society
• Giddens theory can explain the increasing rates of divorce and other relationships breakdowns