Sociology- Families

• Functionalism


  A consensus theory based on agreement
• George Murdock


  • Claimed there was a universal nuclear family across the whole world
  • Identified 4 main functions of the family: sexual, economic, reproduction, socialization
• Murdock's claim of a universal nuclear family can be criticized as there are many different family types
• Talcott Parsons


  • Saw the role of the family as secondary socialization
  • Identified the stabilization of adult personalities and the sexual division of labor as key functions
• Parsons' view of the family has been criticized as out of date and for downplaying conflict and exploitation
• Marxism/Marxist theory


  A conflict theory that sees the family as an ideological state apparatus that ensures obedience to capitalist norms and values
• Louis Althusser


  • Developed the concept of the ideological state apparatus
• Friedrich Engels


  • Argued the family evolved with the development of private property to ensure patrilineal inheritance and monogamous relationships
• Sergei Bubskiy


  • Argued the family gives the proletariat men a space to be the 'boss' and a way to cope with the frustrations of work
• Marxist theories have been criticized for ignoring positive aspects of the family and lacking evidence for their claims
• Types of feminist theory

  • Liberal feminism
  • Radical feminism
  • Marxist feminism
  • Difference feminism
• Liberal feminism


  Focuses on achieving legal equality between genders
• Radical feminism


  Believes legal equality is not enough and more needs to be done to end the oppression of women
• Marxist feminism


  Argues the family helps preserve both capitalism and patriarchy by benefiting from unpaid female domestic labor
• Difference feminism


  Recognizes that women face different issues based on culture and individual circumstances
• Feminist theories have been criticized for generalizing the experiences of all women and ignoring greater equality in contemporary society
• Societal changes affecting families

  • Changing social attitudes and roles of women
  • Secularization
  • Reduced function of the family
  • Better access to contraception
• Marriage changes


  • More marriages at later ages
  • Fewer church weddings
  • Increase in same-sex marriages
  • Increase in serial monogamy
• Family types


  • Cohabiting couples
  • Solo living
  • Living apart together
  • Boomerang generation
  • Lone parent families
  • Step families
  • Chosen families
• Cohabiting couples


  Fastest growing family type in the UK, couples living together without being married
• Solo living


  People living alone, can provide independence but may not be suitable for those with mental health issues
• Living apart together


  Couples who live separately but maintain a relationship, more common among older divorcees
• Boomerang generation


  Young people who have to stay living at home longer due to high cost of living, can lead to lower self-esteem and feelings of being a burden
• Lone parent families


  Families with one parent raising a child, often due to increased divorce rates and economic independence of women
• Step families


  Families formed when two people with children from previous relationships marry or cohabit, can face higher risk of poverty and conflict
• Chosen families


  Families formed by gay and lesbian couples based on friendship and support networks rather than traditional norms
• New Right view


  A political philosophy emphasizing traditional institutions, individual self-reliance, and reduced government spending
• The New Right view sees the decline of the traditional nuclear family as a social problem, blaming lone parent families for issues like crime and education
• Criticisms of the New Right view include its idealization of the traditional family and ignoring potential harms to women
• Post-modernism


  A left-wing perspective that sees modern society as characterized by change, uncertainty, and individual choice rather than traditional social structures
• lame them for everything for the general breakdown they were wronged in society and this could include abuse crime or education area we could criticize the new map view a with some studies said we've got the home office who said there was no difference in crime rates between young people and lone parent family or a two-parent family households
• the social justice party group in 2007 said youth crime is linked to a variety of factors such as poverty horribly or abuse
• the new Rec view are they idealized the traditional family farm which is the nuclear family on a cereal packet family and they ignore potential harm to women any harm or expec exploitation chima have perspectives
• we have post-modernism from the left say basically that we live in times now of change and certainty and individual choice and there's tradition and social structures are weakest state than they are in the past and they argued that there's have been an increase in family diversity there are a lot more family types nowadays and this is due to greater freedom to make her own choices about family life
• Individualization


  A process whereby individuals are increasingly expected to make their own life decisions for themselves, due to the weakening of traditional rules and an increase in the fluidity of rules
• the individualization thesis ignores the role of gender class and ethnicity
• Personal life view


  Family has been expands beyond blood or adoptive relatives, and we need to look at relationships outside the family as they are to give individuals a sense of identity and belonging
• Fictive kin


  Where your friends could be similar to put could be like a prophet or a sister
• the personal life view focuses on the macro / macro meaning that they focus on the small scale so just the individual not those on a big scale, it's too broad of a view, it ignores specificities of marriage and blood relationships, and they criticize back and Gibbons and say people are not entirely free to decide how to shape their families and their family relationships
• Cereal packet family


  The nuclear family, seen as the ideal family type