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Sexual regulation takes place in the family too, which helps create family stability and thus wider social order and stability.
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Families are still necessary and responsible for child-bearing and child-rearing.His "march of progress" acknowledges the welfare state and argues that it allows the family to consternate on the more "essential functions" as listed below: He argued in "The family and marriage in Britain (revised in 1966)" that families had not lost their functions to the extent suggested by Parsons. In addition, Parson’s theory was set up in the 1950s focusing primarily on American middle class families, resulting in a lack of representativeness.Īlso, he assumes that the isolated nuclear family is still prevalent this is no longer the situation in the modern society with family diversity.įletcher was a functionalist from the UK who had a more optimistic view of the family and its functions. Parson's views on the family has been criticised by Cheal, who argued that Parson’s generalizations aboutįamily life were often seriously parochial, reflecting narrow experiences of The women, on the other hand, are the expressive, charismatic leaders who take care of the family.The men, he argues, are the breadwinners who are more instrumental with the power to make practical decisions.Parsons also acknowledged and suggested that the roles of men and women in the family are different due to their biology. Family relationships also help provide motivation for work. Stabilisation of Adult personalities: Adults are able to express (with limits) "childish" elements of their own personalities and able to receive emotional support from their partners.This helps create social order and stability in the system. Socialisation of children: To teach children values and norms of their culture so they can truly integrate into society.To Parsons, the two vital functions of the family are: He concluded that this process of differentiation has left the family highly specialised. He acknowledged that other institutions now took over tasks traditionally performed by the family, such as growing food and making clothes. Parsons focused on functions of the "modern isolated" nuclear family in the United States during his time. Economic: The family is an economic unit with a division of labor where the men work and the women take care of the family as "All known human societies have developed specialisation and cooperation between the sexes roughly along this biologically determined line of cleavage.".Also, "The father must particulate as fully as the mother.older siblings too, play an important role." Education/Socialisation: The family is where primary socialisation takes place and therefore where norms and values are taught to children to prepare them for society.In a family with couples residing together, the chances of producing regular offspring are higher and babies are more likelier of surviving with the economic support provided by fathers. Reproduction: Children should be present in the family as procreation is essential to human survival.
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Sexual Regulation: The family consists of adults of both sexes and is a place where sexual desires are satisfied, particularly for the men (breadwinner) who comes back to home from a long day of work."įrom this definition, it can be concluded that Murdock saw the family as having four essential functions: It includes 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. "a social group characterised by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction.After studying some "250 representative human societies," ranging from small hunting-gathering communities to large industrial societies, in "Social Structure (1949)", Murdock defined the family as 5 The nuclear family and industrializationĪs a functionalist, Murdock saw society as a whole divided into various parts which each had a different role to play and contribute for the organism to operate effectively.