Conflicting Perspectives of the Ideal Family

1186 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The impact of socialization in family

Task 1: ‘Functionalist accounts of the family underestimate the extent of conflict within families’. Discuss with reference to relevant sociological theories and examples.

The Functionalist sociologist, Murdock (1949) defined the ‘family as a social group characterised by common residence, economic co-operation and reproduction’ (Sociology In Focus p62). He claimed it must include adults of both sexes of whom maintain a socially accepted sexual relationship, and own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults. Murdock's definition is focuses on the Nuclear family stereotypically made up of a ‘two-generation family heterosexual couples with offspring’ (Moore, Chapman and Aiken p136). This definition of the family is popular among right wing sociologists who believe it is the ideal type of family unit that people should aspire to have. They argue this because they believe the nuclear family is the best type of family for the individual and for society. This is why they encourage it and regard it as the most beneficial family structure. They believe that it is the nuclear family unit by which the process of socialisation is transmitted at its strongest with the most benefit for society. However, functionalists tend to see the family as harmonious but this is simply not the case in society today. For example, a farming family produces food while here in the west, the family is a unit of consumption, families buy goods and services for the rest of their family members, therefore contribute to the economy and to the wider society. Murdock believes that, 'no society has succeeded in finding an adequate substitute for the nuclear family' (Sociology In Focus p62) however, the American Parsons argues that, the nuclear family ...

... middle of paper ...

...broadly favour an education system. However, unlike functionalists, New Right does not believe that the current education system is achieving these goals. According to New Right, the reason for their failure is that it’s run by state.

Overall, the families today has changed since the time of Functionalism, Marxism and Feminism, however, they are relevant issues to some part of family life for example; roles of men and women are different because of anatomy. Men cannot physically be pregnant so they can go to work without any ties on the other hand women are biologically designed to have children. Marxism and Functionalism would agree with this statement. However feminists say this should allow women's right to work, it could be agreed with what feminists say that women can have children and work but should balance looking after their children with employment.

Show More
Related

  • Betty G. Farrell's Family: Idea Institution, And Controversy?

    1393 Words  | 3 Pages

    One definition is “a significant social group in society typically consisting of one or two parents and their children.” While such definition is a good starting point, some modern family structures are excluded by such definition. In her essay, “Family: Idea, Institution, and Controversy,” Betty Farrell apparently assumes that the traditional family has dramatically changed, and the dynamics of change—altered the definition of a “family.” A family is no longer a picture of a particular image of the mythic past, referring to the golden days of the “1950s.” It is no longer a father, mother and their biological children living together under one roof (and certainly not with the a breadwinner father and a stay-at-home mother). In today 's modern society, it is now common to see women raising their children by themselves without their husbands’ help; unmarried couples living together; and gay and lesbian couples—while far from being universally accepted—adopting and raising children to complete their families. Therefore, despite the children living in one-parent households, or they do not live with their “married-heterosexual-biological-parents” under the same roof—does not necessarily mean they are not families. Farrell states that “a family is defined not so much by a particular set of people as by the quality of relationships that bind them together.” In other words, Farrell believes that a “family” is more than just a collection

    Read More

  • Changing Family Structure in America from a Functionalist Perspective

    901 Words  | 2 Pages

    In chronicling how the family structure has changed in America, it is important to understanding how family was actually defined. When referencing Leave it to Beaver (further referred to as LITB) times, family took on a substantive definition, or the idea that family was equivalent to relative, or related by blood or law. While this definition of family served the time period, it failed to evolve with society. For that reason, sociologists set out to determine a “more inclusive functionalist definition,” that focuses on what families do. “A functionalist definition of families focuses on how families provide for the physical, social, and emotional needs of individuals and of society as a whole” (Witt). With that, the functionalist perspective identifies six primary functions, which include reproduction, socialization, protection, regulation of sexual behavior, affection and companionship, and...

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In The American Kinship System By Talcott Parsons

    329 Words  | 1 Pages

    In his 1943 work, “Sex Roles in the American Kinship System,” Talcott Parsons addresses his beliefs that the individual gendered roles in the nuclear family are essential to creating a functioning family dynamic. During this time period, the United States was in between wars and working to recover from the Great Depression. These significant events greatly shaped society not only at the time, but for future generations as well. It is almost impossible for a theorist of this time, such as Parsons, not to be influenced by such drastic social conditions and changes.

    Read More

  • Shameless Family: Destructive And Dysfunctional Family

    1377 Words  | 3 Pages

    It contains adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults” (p.1). Parents are the main influence in a child’s life and have the responsibility to be affectionate and nurturing towards their children. Conversely, dysfunctional parents with destructive influences tend to have troubled kids. Depending on the child’s social environment, there are some children in this world whom are not as fortunate enough to have a loving mother and father. The functionalist perspective focuses on keeping the family functioning regardless of the dysfunctions that can occur. (Bereska 10) A dysfunctional family is a threat to the stability of the greater society. However, from this functionalist perspective other structures come in by filling in the gaps that are missing in order to restore normality/ the

    Read More

  • Traditional American Family Essay

    1282 Words  | 3 Pages

    The American family can be defined in as many ways as there are families. For a single person, he or she may define his or her family as his or her pet. Others may define family as his or her friends, but for most people, family is traditionally defined as including his or her biological parents, siblings and immediate blood relations. The traditional American family, despite being depicted in television shows, such as Leave It To Beaver or buzzwords for marked political agendas, is a falsehood that truly never existed for the vast majority of Americans. The birth of the women’s liberation movement of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s is often held responsible for the breakdown of the “traditional” family consisting of the working father, stay-at-home

    Read More

  • Society Must Redefine the Meaning of Family

    1195 Words  | 3 Pages

    Society seems to have many different opinions when it comes to relationships and families and what is ideal. The ideal family may not exist anymore. We now have in our society families that are complete that do not necessarily contain the traditional material. The traditional family, as society would see it; usually consist of a married, mother and father and usually children. Moms are supposed to stay at home while dads work the forty-hour a week job. However, in our 2003 world, families exist in a lot of non-traditional ways. A lot of families now consist of single parent families, or same sex parents and their children, or even couples that are unmarried but live together. And even now, if a family contains what society sees as traditional as far as having a mom, dad, and kids, other aspects are not traditional anymore. Women now have more opportunity in the workplace than they have ever had, therefore, many moms are career moms and dads are sometimes staying at home. Years ago, these types of families were given labels for being dysfunctional or abnormal, however, this label is not holding up as well as it did years ago. There are many non-traditional families that are raising children in a loving, nurturing home with a substantial amount of quality love. Quality is the key in any relationship between anyone. Society is finding out that it is not the traditional image that makes a loving family, but the quality of a relationship that people give to each other is what really makes a family. In the essay "The Myth of the "Normal" Family", written by Lousie B. Silverstein and Carl F. Auerbach, they make references to the cultural idea of what a "normal" family should be and what i...

    Read More

  • Gender And Gender Inequality

    1924 Words  | 4 Pages

    By the 1980s, Marxism, the economics forces define the political and cultural realities in society, mixed with feminism claimed “that gender is not class but a driving force of history.” This created the notion that “when women are subordinate men benefit” and that women had a disadvantage to men in the workforce (Conley 2013). Marxist feminist would called this gender conflict. The nuclear family has gender roles which are “set of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one’s status as a male or female.Gender roles is more general term,but Parson’s sex roles is more of an ambiguous term. Sex roles theory states that men are work oriented, while women are domestic oriented to form the ideal nuclear family. “Sex roles created by society was formed for structuralism functionalism, which is the theoretical tradition claiming that every society has certain structures that exist in order to fulfill some set of necessary functions(2013). Even though functionalist supported this theory in the 1960s, it was flawed. Sex role theory only provided one way of how a family could function. Essentialist would describe Parson’s theory as the social phenomena of the nuclear family based on the biological factor of sex. R.W. Connell described the condition in which men are dominant and privileged and that it is invisible, which is Hegemonic masculinity. Even though hegemonic masculinity is what some theorist impose, it clarifies

    Read More

  • The Myth Of The Family

    570 Words  | 2 Pages

    THOSE OF US WHO grew up in the 1950s got an image of the American family that was not, shall we say, accurate. We were told, Father Knows Best, Leave It to Beaver, and Ozzie and Harriet were not just the way things were supposed to be—but the way things were

    Read More

  • Ideal Family: Defining the Ideal Family Throughout American History

    1446 Words  | 3 Pages

    The ideal American family was transformed in the 19th century in large part due to the great changes taking place in the American society. Many family groups fit this changing mold while some did not. In this essay I will show how this concept of the ideal American family changed. I will also try to explain which groups of Americans followed this concept and why.

    Read More

  • Sociology of Family

    1149 Words  | 3 Pages

    "A family is a small social group of people related by ancestry or affection, who share common values and goals, who may live together in the same dwelling, and who may participate in the bearing and raising of children. They have a physical or emotional connection with each other that is ongoing" (Vissing, 2011) and is the foundation of all societies. They can be formed by a grouping of father-mother-children or even more complicated combination of relatives. In the primary stage of family life in the United States, everyone from every generation lived together in one house. Subsequently, the idea of traditional family evolved and a married couple with children is at present, often called the traditional family. There are many types of families; however, this paper will focus on the traditional family. It will describe how the functionalist perspective, conflict perspective, and the interactionism theory apply to the sociological institution known as a family. It will explain some of the similarities and differences between the sociological theories in regards to families and how they affect the family members.

    Read More

  • Sociological Perspective On Gender Roles

    959 Words  | 2 Pages

    A functionalist perspective suggests that our society is made up of interdependent parts and that gender roles support its social stability, balance and equilibrium. According to “The Sociology of Gender: Theoretical Perspectives and Feminist Frameworks” by Linda L Lindsey, “In preindustrial societies social equilibrium was maintained by assigning different tasks to men and women. Given the hunting and gathering and subsistence farming activities of most preindustrial societies, role specialization according to gender was considered a functional necessity.” During this time survival was a more difficult task and so men and women had to rely on each other to live. In today’s society, these roles have begun to shift and it is more common to find females providing while males stay at home, but for the majority, our original gender roles are still intact. The functionalist theory even in a contemporary society finds that the survival of the family unit relies on conservative gender roles. This theory is not realistic in today’s society because women are more motivated to be educated and career based, instead of devoting their life to motherhood. Lindsey claims, “ Such a divide is artificial and dysfunctional when families need to cope with the growing

    Read More

  • The Family As A Social Institution

    3202 Words  | 7 Pages

    Sociologists look at society from either a macro or micro view and the theories that define their work are based on those perspectives. There are several family theories that we learned about this semester. Briefly, Structural-Functionalism and Conflict Theory are “macro” theories in sociology. Structural-Functionalism sees society as a living machine made up of different parts which work together for the good of society. Individuals, as well as Institutions work together, and the family is the key to the well-functioning machine. Emile Durkheim, considered the Father of Sociology argues social solidarity, where people do the right thing, create harmony and have shared values. According to Durkheim the nuclear family is the only type of institution that can achieve that. Conflict Theory sees society as a pyramid with those at the top having more power and influence than those at the bottom. Males in society have more power than females. There is a power imbalance, which could lead to oppression o...

    Read More

  • Critiques of Functionalism

    302 Words  | 1 Pages

    Ø Feminists also criticise functionalists for ignoring male dominance that often is present in society. Furthermore, the sexual division of labour it describes is not universal, with the relative roles of women and men in modern families can be seen to be gradually changing. Ø Many functionalists concentrate primarily on the universal nuclear family in modern societies, with the growing diversity of family types is not considered. Ø Functionalists have a problem explaining social change.

    Read More

  • The Function of the Nuclear Family

    1571 Words  | 4 Pages

    Functionalists emphasise the harmonious nature of the nuclear family, believing it provides a more stable environment for the family and its individual members but also for society as a whole. It draws attention to the positive aspects of family life, fitting in with many people’s experience and expectation of the family as somewhere they are safe and cared for. Functionalists see the father taking an instrumental role, supporting the family by earning a wage with the mother taking the expressive role, caring, nurturing and taking main responsibility for the home and childcare. New Right agrees segregated conjugal roles are human nature and are reinforced by society’s norms and values.

    Read More

  • Social Institution

    2229 Words  | 5 Pages

    “A family can be defined as a set of people related by blood, marriage or in some other agreed upon relationship, or adoption, who share primary responsibility for reproduction and caring for member of society". (Schaefer, 2009, p. 288) This leads to a wide open range of interpretation on the exact definition of how a family is truly made up. Depending on your culture, religion, or geographical location a family may represent and be comprised of many different ideals and social norms. There are many theoretical perspectives that have their own interpretations on the subject of what a family is and how it is perceived. I will attempt to expound on three of these perspectives; Functionalism, Conflict, and Interactionalism.

    Read More

More about Conflicting Perspectives of the Ideal Family

Open Document