Families and Households: Example Essay - Functionalist View

Assess the Functionalist View of the Family

The functionalist perspective is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology. It is considers each part of society in terms of how it contributes to the stability of society as a whole. In functionalism, each institution works together and plays a necessary part in society, like organs working together towards one main aim - to create a stable society through value consensus. One of these institution is the family.

In 1949 Murdock studied 250 different societies and concluded that the monogamous, heterosexual nuclear family was universal. He argued this and said it was due to the fact that it performed four essential functions for society: the stabilization of the sex drive; reproduction of the next generation; socialization of the next generation and meeting members’ economic needs. Monogamous heterosexual relationships prevented jealousy and everyone’s sexual needs could be satisfied as a sexual free for all would cause havoc and conflict. It also allows new children to be born so that life can continue. The family are a child’s first experience of the world and so they learn the norms and values from their parents and it is the parent’s responsibility to be able to provide for their family - the family is an economic unit and it is cheaper for parents to live together with children. The nuclear family is the most obvious family type to satisfy these four essential functions however the extended family also play an important role in fulfilling these functions. Additionally the nuclear family is not universal - the Nayar people of India practise polyandry where women have up to 12 husbands at any one given time and there is no jealousy and they own private property, not their husbands.

Parsons Functional Fit Theory is a historical perspective on the evolution of the nuclear family and suggests that as society changes so does the type of family and the functions it needs to perform. Over the past 200 years we have seen society change from preindustrial to industrial and the nuclear family has emerged from the extended family…