Functionalism
- Created by: abulltc
- Created on: 17-12-18 14:26
View mindmap
- functionalism
- A theory which views society as a system of connected parts and they compare society to the human body.
- Believes the most important institution is the family.
- Maintains social order
- Plays a major role in the construction and maintenance of an effective economy.
- Benefits individuals
- Adults and children benefit from emotional well-being and satisfaction associated with marriage and family life.
- Consequently family members are happy to take their place in society as responsible and well behaved citizens.
- George Peter Murdock (1949)
- Studied 250 different societies and argued that some form of the nuclear family was universal.
- Four essential functions of the family
- Sexual - provides a sexual relationship for adults.
- Economic - pools resources and provides for all its members.
- Reproductive - provides new members of society.
- Educational - teaches children the values and norms of society.
- Criticisms of Murdock
- Feminist sociologists – Murdock argues that the family is ideological because traditional family structures typically disadvantage women.
- Feasible that other institutions could perform these functions too.
- Research has shown that some cultures don’t appear to have ‘families’ – e.g. the Nayar in India.
- Murdock’s definition of the nuclear family is very ethnocentric and reflective of a particular time and place – based on his own experience of the American family in the 1940s.
- Dated – fails to take into account modern trends: reproduction, sexual, socialisation.
- Murdock’s emphasis on two parents and heterosexual marriage is politically conservative: he is saying there is a ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ way to organise family life.
- Strengths of Murdock
- Gave basic functions of the family.
- Able to see the change in trends.
Comments
No comments have yet been made