Theories of the family (1-4)

Question 1

Functionalist view - Lasletts study of English households 1564-1821

Answer 1

• found families are almost always nuclear
• combination of late childbearing and short life expectancy meant grandparents were less likely to be alive for long after birth of grandchild.
• critique of Parsons

Question 2

Functionalist view - Criticisms of Murdock 4 family functions
⭐️ stable satisfaction of the sex drive
⭐️ reproduction
⭐️ socialise the youth
⭐️ meeting members economic needs

Answer 2

-Accepts other institutions could perform the functions, however argues the sheer practicality of the nuclear family as a way of meeting the needs of the family explains universality, found in all human societies.
- other sociologists argue they could be equally performed by other institutions, or by non nuclear family structures.
Marxist/feminists reject his ‘rose tinted’ harmonious consensus view that family meets the needs of wider society, functionalists neglect conflict/exploitation

Question 3

Functionalist - parsons socially mobile workforce

Answer 3

-nuclear family is more equipped to meets needs of industrial society
- extended family, adult sons live at home in fathers house, higher ascribed status as head of household.
- however, son may have higher status, resulting in conflict

Question 4

Functionalist - parsons functions fit theory

Answer 4

• argues function of families performance depends on types/kinds of societies its found
• functions family have to perform affect its ‘shape’ or structure
• differentiates between 2 family structures
  - nuclear family parents/depending children
  - extended family, 3 generations under same roof

Question 5

Functionalist - Andersons study of mid 19th century Preston

Answer 5

• uses exchange theory (explains social behaviours as a process of cost benefit analysis between individual/groups) to explain popularity of w/c extended family
• shows harsh conditions of time (poverty/sickness/early death/absence of welfare state) meant benefits of maintaining extended family ties greatly outweighed the costs
• benefits included using older kin for childcare when parents worked
• critique of parsons

Question 6

Functionalist - young/wilmott pre-industrial family/society

Answer 6

• argue pre-industrial family was nuclear, not extended like parsons claims
• children/parents working together .g. In cottage industries like weaving
• found from 1900, nuclear family was result of social change that made extended family les important for source of support

Question 7

Functionalist - Murdock

Answer 7

• family is group of people living together, share resources and care for children
• believes nuclear family universal and some family types are extensions of nuclear family
  Argues family performs 4 essential functions:
  ⭐️ stable satisfaction of the sex drive
  ⭐️ reproduction
  ⭐️ socialise the youth
  ⭐️ meet members wants/needs

Question 8

Functionalist - parsons industrialisation and nuclear family
⭐️ geographically mobile workforce

Answer 8

• with industrialisation comes nuclear family:
  - industrialisation is shift from agricultural to factory society
  - geographically Mobile workforce , argues easier for compact nuclear family to move as more suited to need of modern industry, becoming unit of consumption
• as result of loss of functions, modern nuclear family comes to specialise in 2 irreducible functions:
  
  • primary socialisation of children
  • stable adult personalities, relax

Question 9

functionalist - criticisms of functionalist view

Answer 9

• idealised view
• ignore inequalities/dysfunctions
• not all families functional
• neglect dysfunctions
• ethnocentric, view from own culture
• neglect conflict/exploitation

Question 10

marxist- private property

Answer 10

• argue with overthrow of capitalism and private ownership of means of production will women achieve liberation from patriarchal control

Question 11

Marxist - unit of consumption

Answer 11

• advertisers urge families to keep up with the Jones’s by consuming the latest products
• media targets children by using pester power o persuade parents to spend more
• children lacking the latest clothes/must haves are mocked/stigmatised by peers

Question 12

Marxist - Zaretsky and ideological functions

Answer 12

• socialising children into a hierarchy and inequality are inevitable
• Zaretsky found family also performs ideological function by offering apparent ‘haven’ from harsh exploitative world of capitalism where workers can ‘be themselves’. However argues largely illusion, family cannot meet family needs.

Question 13

Marxist - Engels

Answer 13

• related to primitive communism, ‘promiscuous horde’, no restrictions on sexual relationships
• monogamy became essential because of inheritance of private property, had to be certain of paternity.
• rise of monogamous nuclear families represented ‘world historical defeat of the female sex’, brought women’s sexuality under men’s control

Question 14

Marxist - primitive communism
⭐️ Engels

Answer 14

• earliest classless society
• no private property, instead all members of society owned means of production communally
• at this stage of development, no family as such
• instead Engels called it promiscuous horde or tribe, no restrictions on sexual relationships.

Question 15

Criticisms of Marxist view

Answer 15

• Marxist tend to assume the nuclear family is dominant in capitalist society, ignoring wide variety of family structures in society today.
• feminists argue Marxist emphasis on class and capitalist underestimates the importance of gender inequalities in the family.
• functionalists argue Marxists ignore very real benefits family provides for its members

Question 16

Personal life perspective

Answer 16

• new perspective on the family
• comes form interactionalist/postmodern perspective
• argues other theories ignored family diversity and assume nuclear families are the norm
• other theories assume individuals have free will/choice in family relationships
• also argue to understand families, must look at view of individuals and the meaning they give their relationship

Question 17

Personal life perspective - fictive kin

Answer 17

close friends you treat as family

Question 18

Personal life perspective - features M, F perspectives can be said to share

Answer 18

• suffer 2 weaknesses
• tend to assume traditional nuclear family is dominant type, ignoring creased diversity of family today
• all structural theories, assuming family’s and members simply passive puppets manipulated by structure of society to perform certain functions

Question 19

Main emphasis of personal life perspective

Answer 19

• influenced by interactonalists ideas and argues to understand families we must start from the POV of the individuals concerned and the meanings they give to their relationships
• by contrast, PLP shares the bottom up approach of interactionalism, emphasising meanings individual family members hod and how these shape their actions and relationships

Question 20

PLP - examples of relationships that I’ve sense of belonging

Answer 20

• friends
• fictive kin
• dead relatives
• gay/lesbian chosen family
• pets, Tippers study of children’s POV, frequently see pets as a part of the family

Question 21

PLP - Nordqvist and Smarts research on donor-received children

Answer 21

• explores what counts as family when your child shares a genetic link with a relative stranger but not with your partner?
• found issue of blood/genesraised range of feelings. Some parents emphasised importance of social relationships over emetic ones.

Question 22

Feminist

Answer 22

• like Marxists, take critical view of the family, arguing oppression of women, such as unequal division of domestic labour.

Question 23

Feminist- liberal

Answer 23

• believe neither male/females benefit from gender inequality
• advocate through legislation
• believe march of progress, young/willmott
  ❗️Marxists/radicals say far reaching changes to deep rooted structures are needed
  ❗️failing to challenge underlying causes of women oppression/attitudes will be enough
  ❗️Oakley argues family reinforces gender inequality, housework not natural for women, family socialised children into gender roles

Question 24

Marxist feminism

Answer 24

• argue main cause of women’s oppression in family is not men but capitalism
• women perform several functions for capitalism:
  
  • reproduce labour force
  • women absorb anger, Ansley describes wives as takers of shit, soaking up husbands frustration from work, for Marxists explains male domestic violence to women
• see oppression of women in family linked to exploitation of w/c. Argue family must be abolished at same time as socialist revolution replaces capitalism with classless society

Question 25

Radical feminism

Answer 25

- argue all societies found on patriarchy - key division in societies: - men are enemy, source of oppression - family/marriage key institutions, men benefit - patriarchal system needs overturning, deffinately family which see as root of problems, must be abolished - argue this through separatism and political lesbianism ❗️Somerville (L) argue they fail to recognise women’s position has improved considerably, access to divorce

Question 26

Difference feminism

Answer 26

- argue can’t generalise women’s experiences - les/hetero, black/white, mc/wc women all have different experiences for each other ❗️other feminists argue they neglect the fact al women share many of the same experiences