Sociology: Families and Households - Family Diversity

What did George P. Murdock (1949) was the main type of family?

He argued that the Nuclear Family is the basic unit in every society.

What did Dr Edmund Leach (1967) refer to the nuclear family as?

He referred to it as the 'cereal packet', because it featured prominently in advertising and TV shows.

What did Feminist Barrie Thorne (1992) view the traditional family narrative as?

He attacked the image for being 'monolithic', as it ignores this diversity in family structures.

What distinct elements of family diversity did Rapoport and Rapoport (1982) identify?

- Cultural Diversity

- Life-stage Diversity

- Organisational Diversity

- Generational (Cohort) Diversity

- Social Class Diversity

How do the New Right and Functionalists view the nuclear family?

It is the only one correct or normal family type. It is the cornerstone of society; a place of refuge, contentment and harmony.

What do the New Right and Functionalists see the decline of nuclear family.

It is a cause of many social problems. In particular, the New Right are concerned about the growth of lone-parent families, which they see as resulting from the breakdown of couple relationships.

What does the New Right see the lone-parent families as harmful to children?

It is because:

- Lone mothers cannot discipline their children properly.

- Lone-parent families leaves boys without an adult male role model, resulting in educational failure, delinquency and social instability.

- Such families are also likely to be poorer and thus a burden on the welfare state and taxpayer.

How do Post-modernists, namely Judith Stacey (1998) view family diversity?

Family diversity has benefitted women, as the greater freedom and choice has enabled them to free themselves from patriarchal oppression and to shape their family arrangements to meet their needs.

It is healthy for people to have a choice of family types and no one should feel under pressure to conform to an ideal family type.

What does Individualisation Thesis (Giddens) means?

Giddens (1992) holds relationships are nowadays based on individual choice and freedom. Giddens describes tis as the 'pure relationship', one that is likely to survive to satisfy each partner's needs. But this, creates a kind of 'rolling contrast' that can be ended more or less at will by either partner, rather than a permanent commitment. This produces greater family diversity, by creating more lone-parent families, one persons households, reconstituted families.

What do Beck & Beck-Gernsheim (1995) refer as new type of family?

They refer to the 'negotiated family', which is one where partners do not conform to traditional role (such as in the past: men as breadwinners and disciplinarians; women taking care of children, the elderly, housework etc), but negotiate their wishes and expectations. Although, it is more equal than the patriarchal family, it is les stable, because individuals are free to leave if their needs are not met.

What does Connectedness Thesis (Carol Smart) mean?

Smart (2007) agues that we are fundamentally social beings, where choices are always made 'within a web of relationships' - it is impossible for relationships to simply end. Smart therefore emphasises the importance of putting individuals in the context of their past and the web of relationships that shape thier choice and family patterns.

What is May (2013)'s contribution to connectedness thesis?

She believes we don't have as much freedom as the Individualisation Thesis would suggest, as types of families that we choose are governed by wider structural influences e.g. patriarchy and class inequalities.

What did Chester (1985) argue about the family diversity?

Chester argues that there has been a move away from the traditional family to what he describes as the neo-conventional family i.e. a dual-earner family in which both families go out to work. He argues that most people are not choosing to live in alternatives to the nuclear family on a long-term basis and the nuclear family still remains the ideal to which most people aspire.

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