Download Access lesson 1 - What is the family and functionalismhot!

Introduction
to the Family
Lesson 1
Three perspectives
• Functionalism – Durkheim and Parsons
• Marxism - Engels
• Feminism – Liberal, Radical, Marxist
Three aspects
• Changing family patterns
• Marital breakdown
• Conjugal roles
Today
• What is the family?
• The relationship between
the family and society
• Changes in the UK family
• The Functionalist perspective
Families are important to us!
We all share
common
understanding of
what we mean by
the notion of
‘family’.
Key features often associated with
the notion of a ‘family’
• Kinship
• Marriage
• Household
Task – what is a Family?
• How many people are needed
to be a family?
• What relationship must they
have to each other?
• Do people have to be married
to be a family?
• Do people have to live in the
same household to be a family?
One of many possible
definitions...
‘a social group consisting of at
least one adult and a child, usually
cohabiting, related by blood,
marriage or adoption.’
Types of family structure
•
•
•
•
•
Nuclear
Extended
Reconstituted
Single-parent
Same-sex families
Clip
Family diversity
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lea
2sY9-xX4
Relationship between the
family and society
• What is perceived to be
a family has important
political implications for
state policy
• For a long time the nuclear family has
been given precedence over other types
Relationship between family
and society
• Many political leaders, have made
promoting marriage their key political
aim
• ‘Families matter because almost every
social problem that we face comes
down to family stability’
• Many sociologists have argued that there
is nothing normal and natural about the
nuclear family
• but that family and kinship relationships
are socially constructed
Kinship – ‘blood’ ties
• Felicity Edholm (1982)
• The Lakker of Burma see no blood
relationship between mother and child
i.e. the mother is simply a container in
which the child grows
Kinship and residence
• In some societies, many children do not
live with their biological parents
• In Tahiti, in the Pacific Ocean, young
women often have one or two children
before they are considered ready to
settle down in a stable relationship with
a man.
Marriage and residence
• Kathleen Gough’s (1959) analysis of the
Nayer society of India, before the British
rule in 1792 showed that
– Nayar girls marry a man before puberty and
later take as many lovers as they like
– Children are raised in their mothers’ social group
– Husbands and fathers do not share the same
residence
Matrifocal families
• A large number of black families in the
West Indies, Central America and the
USA are female headed
• The Ashanti
– Father has no legal authority over his children
– Responsibility rests with the mother’s brother
– Only about a third of married women live with
their husband
Types of marriage structure
• Monogamy – one husband and one wife
• Polygamy – multiple partners
– Polygyny – one man and more than one wife
– Polyandry – one woman and more than one
husband
Clip
• Polygyny - Maasai tribe – BBC documentary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq_cptHu
fTQ
• Polyandry – fraternal polyandry in the
Himalayas (National Geographic)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4yjrDSvz
e0
• Compare that with…..Friends
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnYTl6qr
e3k
What is a ‘typical’ family in the UK?
Changes in family
• Decline in marriage
• Rise in divorce
• Decrease in family size
Task
• Why do you think there’s been a
decline in marriage?
Reasons for the decline
in marriage
• Part of the fall in marriage is because
people are marrying at a later age
• However, the main reason is due to
people choosing NOT to marry, instead
they remain single or cohabit.
Cohabitation and singleparent families
• Cohabitation has risen by 64% in the
last decade, with almost half of children
now born outside ‘wedlock’.
• The proportion of children living in loneparent families in the UK more than
tripled (24% in 2006)
Reasons for rejecting
marriage
• Marriage limits personal freedom and
independence
• There is no advantage to marriage
• Fear of divorce
Rise in Divorce
• Steady rise of divorce
rates throughout the
20th century
• For every three weddings there are now
two divorces - the highest rate in
Europe.
Rise in Divorce
Marital breakdown
• Separation
– Couple remains legally married but live in
separate residences
• Empty-shell marriages
– The couple live together, remain legally
married, but their marriage exists in name
only
Changing society
• A shift in social attitudes and values
led to acceptance of diverse family
structures
• Expectations of love and marriage
became higher and intensified
Changes in the law
• In the past the grounds for divorce
included adultery, cruelty and desertion.
• The Divorce Reform Act came to
force in 1971, which allowed separation
on simple basis of the ‘irretrievable
breakdown of the marriage’
The economic position
of women
• Increasing number of women have entered
the labour market, which contributed
significantly to their independence
• Also divorce settlements, welfare benefits
have taken more account of the financial
needs of women with dependant children
Changing society
• Better contraception
• Demographic changes
Decrease in family size
• The average family size in the UK has
decreased during the last 30 years,
declining from 3.1 people in 1961 to 2.4
people in 2006
• Related factors are: women’s
employment, the cost of childcare, and
lifestyle choice
Households spend £471 a week (2009)
Conjugal roles
• This refers to the roles and
responsibilities between men and
women
• These can be shared or segregated, the
same or different
The role of men and women
Changing role of men and women
Summary
• Key features of the family
– The family is seen by many sociologists as
the cornerstone of society.
– Some form of family can be found in all
societies.
– Socio-biology saw the family as an
inevitable outcome of biological evolutionary
process (Murdock, 1949).
Mindmap outcome 1
Definitions
Organisation
What is the family?
Changes
Changing society
The
Functionalist
perspective
The Functionalist theory
• Functionalists
believe every
institution in society
contributes to the
smooth running of
society.
• To functionalists the
family is at the heart
of society.
Functionalism and the Family
Functionalists ask three main questions:
1. What are the functions of the family?
2. What are the functional relationships
between the family and other parts of the
social system?
3. What are the functions of the family for
its individual members?
Functions of the Family
It has been suggested that the family
(nuclear) must be universal and, as such,
must be necessary. Murdock(1949) argued
that the family is to be found in every society
and has four main functions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Sexual
Reproductive
Economic
Educational
Talcott Parsons (1959)
• Industrialisation means a shift from extended
to “isolated nuclear family”.
• The family serves two “basic and irreducible”
functions
1) Primary socialisation of children
2) Stabilisation of adult personalities
Talcott Parsons
NUCLEAR FAMILY
1. Primary
socialisation
of children:
1a.
1b.
Internalisation
Structuring
Of Society’s
Personality
Culture
2. Stabilisation
of adult
personalities
Warm Bath Theory
1. Primary socialisation…
early years
family
Primary Socialisation
Internalisation
of society’s culture
- which means…
2 basic
processes:
Structuring Personality…
2. Stabilisation of adult
personalities
• Once produced, the personality must be kept
stable
• Emphasis is on marriage relationships and the
emotional security the couple provide for
each other
• This acts as a counterweight to the stresses
and strains of everyday life, which tends to
make the personality unstable.
Parsons
• For the family to
operate efficiently as
a social system,
there has to be a
clear-cut sexual
division of labour
Can’t have competition!
 Differentiated sex roles prevent
competition within the family
Husband/Father
Wife/Mother
Market work
Domestic work
Instrumental
leadership
Expressive
leadership
For Parsons
The family provides a context in which
husband/wife can:
• express their childish whims,
• give and receive emotional support
• recharge their batteries ,
• and so stabilise their personalities
Expressive Leader
• The provider of warmth,
security and emotional
support.
• She should apply these
expressive qualities not
only to her children but to
her husband also – that is
to stabilise (his) adult
personalities.
Instrumental Leader
• Spends his day working
leading to stress and
anxiety.
• The expressive female
relieves this tension by
providing the weary
breadwinner with love,
consideration and
understanding.
Clips
• I got you fired honey…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgGFz
US4tkg
• Harry Enfield - Old fashioned family
values
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQz
f8lHuYPo
The isolated ‘private’ nuclear family
• The functionalist view suggests that the
nuclear family has become
– Socially isolated from extended kin
– More reliant on the Welfare State
– Geographically separated from wider kin
• The family is self-contained, inward looking
with little contact with neighbours and
community.
• Home leisure via TV, Video, Internet etc.
have made the family more home-centred.
Task
Get into groups of around 4. Discuss:
• Are families today more private?
• Add examples to illustrate the private nature
of the home.
• What are (a) the positives and (b) the
negative aspects of the “privatized” family?
Clip
• Functions of the Family
http://youtu.be/nOng7C5rRhU
Strengths
• Functionalism is good in highlighting
the positive aspects of the family,
• and stresses the importance of the
family, as some form of family structure
is to be found in almost every human
society.
Weaknesses
1. They are preoccupied with the positive
aspects of the family, in an idealised way –
are families always harmonious and
integrated?
2. It fails to give any consideration to things
like domestic violence, child abuse etc
Weaknesses (cont)
3. They justify the domestic division of labour
between men and women as something
natural and unproblematic.
4. They neglect the role that other social
institutions, other than the family, such as
government, media and schools, play in
socialising children.
Summary
• Functionalists see the family as a central
institution in society.
• It performs essential social functions such
as raising children.
• The family is seen as an important source
of security and satisfaction for its members.
Task
• Put this information on a mind map so
you remember it
Functionalist
theory on the
Family
Next week
• We will look at the Marxist and
Feminist perspectives on the family.
• Homework for next week
– Describe the key features and changes in
the family = 6 marks
– Describe and evaluate the functionalist
theory of the family = 5 marks (10 marks).
Clip if there’s time…
Journey of pregnant man – Thomas
Beatie
• http://youtu.be/jho1UCPDqXg