theories of the family

• Functionalist:

  MURDOCKS FOUR ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

  ~explain

  ~criticism/evaluations


  -meeting its members economic needs

  -stable satisfaction of the sex drive

  -reproduction of the next generation -socialisation of the young

  AO3

  -other institutions and family types can carry out these functions

  -Marxist: the family serves the needs of capitalism not the needs of it’s members or society as a whole

  -Feminist: the family serves the needs of men and oppresses women
• Functionalist:

  PARSONS ORGANIC ANALOGY


  society works like the body it is made up of different institution (organs) that carry out different functions but help it work as one
• Parsons Functional Fit Theory


  Explains how the functions and structure required for a given family type changes depending on the needs that fit society
• Criticisms/Evaluation of Parsons Functional Fit Theory

  • We have become a unit of consumption rather than a unit of production
  • Preindustrial society= extended family —industrial society=nuclear family
  • The industrial nuclear family has two irreducible functions: stabilisation of adult personalities, primary socialisation of the young
• There is evidence that supports the claim that the nuclear family is the dominant family type but the extended family has not disappeared
• Young & Wilmott and Laslett found that the pre industrial family was nuclear not extended