families and households version 2
- Created by: loupardoe
- Created on: 05-08-18 11:03
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the nature and role of family in society
the difference between families and households
- household- a group of people who live together who may or may not have family or kinship ties
- 2001 UK census- 24.4 million households in the UK
- families make up the majority of households
- there are other types
- social trends 33 (2003)- recent social trend- increase in the number of people living alone
- family- type of households where the people living together are related
- most commonly a family is also a kinship grou
- kinship- related by birth or blood; parents, children, grandparents, cousins
- non kinship- foster children, guardians, step parents, step children, mother in law
- nuclear family- two generations living together
- traditional extended family- 3 or more generations of the same family living together or close by with frequent contact between relatives
- attenuated extended family- nuclear families that live apart from their extended family but keep in regular contact
- single parent families- a single parent and their dependent children
- reconstituted families- new stepfamilies created when parts of 2 previous families are brought together
functionalism
- see every institution in society as essential to the smooth running of society
murdock 1949
- the family is so useful to society that it is inevitable and universal
- argued that some form of the nuclear family existed in all of the 250 different societies he looked at
- argued the family performed 4 basic functions
- sexual- provides a stable sexual relationship for adults, and controls the sexual relationships of its members
- reproductive- provides new babies
- economic- pools resources and provides for all its members, adults and children
- educational- teaches children the norms and values of society; keeps the values of society going
- the family is a social group characterised by common residence, economic cooperation, reproduction, adults of both sexes, two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, one or more children of these adults
evaluation
- many children have been raised in households that do not contain adults of both sexes
- gough 1959- analysed the Nahar society in India before British rule was established; women had several husbands who took no responsibility for the care of their offspring
- a significant proportion of black families in the West Indies, Central America and the USA are matrifocal families and do not include adult males
- sheeran 1993- the female carer core is the most basic family unit; this primary carer is not always the biological mother
- gay and lesbian households may contain children
- callahan 1997- gay and lesbian households should be seen as families; if marriage were available, many gay and lesbian couples would marry and their relationships are not significantly different from those in heterosexual households
- murdock does not consider whether the functions could be performed by other social institutions
- morgan 1975- presents the nuclear family as a totally harmonious situation; too optimistic and blinkered?
parsons 1950s
- argued that the family always had 2 basic and irreducible functions
- primary socialisation of children- children learn and accept the values and norms of society; described families as…
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