Family Functionalism Flashcards

Flashcards reviewing the functionalist perspective on family, including key concepts, theorists, and criticisms.

Value consensus

A set of shared norms and values into which society socializes its members, enabling cooperation and shared goals.

Society as a system

The idea that society is a system of interdependent parts like the family, education system, and economy.

George Peter Murdock

Sociologist who argued that the family performs four essential functions: stable satisfaction of the sex drive, reproduction, socialization, and meeting economic needs.

Murdock's four essential functions of the family

Stable satisfaction of the sex drive with the same partner, reproduction of the next generation, socialization of the young into society's shared norms and values, meeting its members' economic needs, such as food and shelter.

Criticisms of Murdock's approach

Criticism from Marxists and feminists who argue that functionalism neglects conflict and exploitation within the family.

Talcott Parsons

Argues family functions depend on the type of society.

Nuclear family

The nuclear family consists of parents and their dependent children.

Extended family

The extended family consists of three generations living under one roof.

Functional fit theory

Argues that the structure and functions of a family will 'fit' the needs of the society in which it is found.

Modern industrial society and traditional pre-industrial society

Two basic types of society according to Parsons

geographically mobile workforce

Society that requires people to move to where the jobs are.

socially mobile workforce

Society based on evolving science and technology that requires a skilled and technically competent workforce.

Achieved status

An individual's status is achieved by their own efforts and ability

Ascribed status

An individual's status fixed at birth

Exchange theory

The idea that individuals break off or maintain family ties because of the costs or benefits involved

Young and Willmott

Argued that from about 1900, the nuclear family emerged as a result of social changes that made the extended family less important as a source of support

Parsons' view of the pre-industrial family

The pre-industrial family was a multi-functional unit

The pre-industrial family

The pre-industrial family was both a unit of production and and unit of consumption.

Functions of the modern Nuclear Family

The modern nuclear family comes to specialize in performing just two essential or 'irreducible' functions: primary socialization of children and stabilization of adult personalities

Primary socialization

Equipping children with basic skills and society's values.

Stabilization of adult personalities

The family's role in providing emotional support and relaxation for adults, enabling them to cope with work demands.