FAMILY

Murdock’s definition of family (based on data from 250 societies) concluded that
family is universal, existing in all societies

4 characteristics of family
- Common residence (live in the same home)
- Economic co-operation and reproduction
- Adults of both sexes, at least 2 whom maintain a socially sexual relationship
- One or more children (owned/ adopted)

> The functionalist definition is exclusive, based on the idea that families’ characteristics are
different from other social groups.

> The definition is flexible enough to accommodate different types of relationships and
organisations (ex: monogamy, polygamy, polygyny, polyandry)

> Murdock’s definition excludes many possible living arrangements such as single parents and
homosexual households (only considered as families in modern societies)

Giddens’s definition suggests an inclusive definition, focusing on kinship (blood relation)

that make families different from other social groups, families are linked by kin connections.
- Advantage: inclusivity means it covers a variety of possible family forms,
- however, it is too broad that it may include relationships not normally considered family)

Murdock further argues that nuclear families (consisting of parents and their children; 2
generations) is a universal social unit, the heart of extended families.

Since contact of wider kin (grandparents) may be infrequent and remote in modern industrial
societies, The nuclear family is a self- contained economic unit where members support each
other socially and psychologically. (sometimes called isolated nuclear family, emphasising its
physical separation from wider kin and economic separation from rest of society.

4 functional prerequisites of family

1. Sexual control: idea that adult married couple do not have sexual relations with anyone
other than current partner to provide ‘stability through exclusivity’
2. Reproduction - creating new members to replace those who die
3. Socialisation - teaching children values and norms to become members of society
4. Economic provision - organizing themselves to ensure survival; developing division of
labour involving paid employment and unpaid domestic work, looking after members that
cannot support themselves
Parsons and Bales argued that in the past that family was multi-functional (performed
different functions), but now it was specialised.

Due to ‘new’ social institutions like education systems, families have gradually lost their
functions. This left families to focus on 2 essential functions (irreducible)
1. Primary socialisation - families are socialisation 'factories whose product is the
development of human personalities’. Functions as social order and system stability,
learning values and norms needed to successfully play adult roles
2. Stability of adult personalities provides physical and emotional support. Family
relationships provides motivation for paid work, emotional/ secual comforts that comes
from development of relationships

Fletcher argues that contemporary families performed 2 types of functions

1. Core functions cannot be performed by either individuals or other institutions. Families
needed for
- Giving birth to children (childbearing) - personal investment in child’s survival
- Bring up children (child-rearing) - Insuring child’s physical/ psychological survival
and social development into adulthood
- Providing physical and emotional home (nurture and shelter and child’s well-
being, feeling wanted and loved)
2. Peripheral functions performed by families at some times, have largely taken over by
other institutions, education, health care, recreation.

NEO-FUNCTIONALISM
Focuses on linking individual to society
Horwitz (2005) argues that family functions as a bridge connecting the ‘micro world’ of the
individual with the ‘macro world’ of wider economic society.

Family is the best site for learning in this way because

- Rules passed on and put in force by people who share emotional commitment -
effectively taught and learnt.
- Emotional closeness provides reason to develop cooperative behaviour
- Rule-learning taught subconsciously by children observing and copying adult behaviour.

The ‘loss of functions’ debate

Functionalists argue: although nuclear family is found in all societies, exact forms that families
take will depend on the nature of the society.
Ex: extended families are common in traditional societies, carrying out a wide range of
functions; less needed in modern industrial societies since functions are taken over by other
social institutions.

“FIT” THESIS - process of industrialisation and urbanisation led to change in families

and households.
> put forward by functionalists: Parsons and Goode

The switch of extended > nuclear family

- Developed between the 18th - 19th century.

Pre-industrial society (nature of work and economic production)

- land based
- Rural
- family-centered organisation (family-based subsistence farming)
Why extended family structure were the norm in pre-industrial society
⇨ Multi-functional -wide family network performs functions related to economic and social
well being of family members
⇨ Kinship-based - common economic position, working together as farmers, craft trades
⇨ Economically productive - provided only workable means of physical survival
- Labour-intensive agriculture required as many people as possible
(men,women,children) working
- Limited ability to move away from family due to poor communications (no roads,
cars), physically unable to move away
- Elderly, infirm and sick member relied on kin for care in the absence of well-
developed, universal welfare system

TO

Industrial society
- capital-intensive
- urban
- factor centered
- Nuclear family (replaced two crucial economic requirements: geographic mobility and
labour flexibility - allowed people to move to jobs in growing towns and cities)
Why nuclear family structure gradually became the dominant family structure
⇨ Mobility - people had to move away from rural areas to growing towns and cities to find
and work in new industrial processes
⇨ Decline of favouring friends and relatives over others (nepotism). New industries
demanded specific skills and knowledge. No longer promoted simply because of kin >
created new opportunities for social mobility.
Arguments against Parsons
Finch - Historical studies show no evidence that extended families were the norm in pre-
industrial periods.

Creates alternative suggestion: - industrialisation and urbanisation first occurred in Wester

Europe because of pre-industrial family structure already nuclear rather than extended. As
result, they could respond to new economic opportunities that require family mobility/ flexibility.

^ basically - pre-industrial family structures, without unbreakable ties to extended kin, were the
contributing cause of industrial development.

Although extended family existed, they were not dominant.

Reason being - average life expectancy was low so majority of adults did not live long enough to
become grandparents (reducing number of vertically extended families)

Industrialisation in the UK also helped by the inheritance system of primogeniture (first born
sons inherit family wealth. This put wealth in fewer hands, money invested in growing industries.

Anderson argued that no family structure was dominant in the industrialisation process. Lone-
parent families existed in pre-industrial societies because of high death rates among the poor.
He suggested that the working class developed an extended family structure as a consequence
of urbanisation. Towns developed around factories to satisfy purpose of
- Lack of government - working class families relied on strong kinship network for care
and survival
- Most people were illiterate, kinship networks helped secure jobs for family members by
recommending them to employers
- If both parents worked, relatives played vital part in childcare
- Death rates high > children without parents be absorbed into extended family structure
- Children worked from young age, added to family income

Then function were taken over by institutions

- Education -> school system
- Health/ social care -> doctors, nurses, social workers
- Recreation and leisure -> become more individualised, done outside home

Functions have also been modified

- Parents (middle class) are actively involved in children’s education
- Family play care role for non-critical illness, and carry out long-term care of elderly
- Many families share leisure and recreation, although may be consumed largely outside
the home

Evaluation of functionalist account

 - first to focus on the importance of family life and recognise two generation
nuclear families (adult of both sexes and dependent children) were common in the
world.
- Drew attention to positive ways families provided support for individuals and
stabilise society.
- Nuclear family type is encouraged by government policies

Criticise
- Out of date, not applying to all societies
- Parsons’ account only based on experience of white middle class, believing
privatised nuclear families were the common and best type of family.
- Different social class and ethnicity are absent from functionalist account
- Believes that family tends to only contribute in a positive way of lives of
individuals and of society.
- Fail to recognize viability of alternative types of family. Assuming that the family is
distinct, able to separate from other institutions (in fact: families play an important
role in society, but in conjunction with other parts of society)
- Sees socialisation as a one way process. (children absorb norms and values from
family, this shows how values survive over time). However, many see
socialisation as 2 way process of interaction (children influencing parents,
parents influencing children). This is viewed as ‘empty vessels’ (functionalist
approach) rather than individuals with their own personalities already.

Functionalists exaggerate positive aspects of one type of family while downplaying

negative aspects like
- Blocking of women’s aspirations and career, being steered into housewife role
- Limitation of men’s involvement in expressive and nurturing aspects of family life,
fit into breadwinner role
- Dominance of men in decision-making, abuse of male power through domestic
violence
- Lack of support for famil members in privatised nuclear family from wider kin
- Possibilities of nuclear family contributing to mental problems