Functionalist Views on Family (AQA GCSE Sociology)

Murdock's four functions of the family

• The functionalist approach to families focuses on the positive and important functions that the nuclear family performs for individuals and society

• Murdock (1949) identified four essential functions of the family:

  • The sexual function

    • Society needs to regulate sexual behaviour

    • The nuclear family fulfils this need by controlling the married couple's sexual behaviour, which helps preserve their relationship

  • The reproductive function

    • Society needs new members if it is to endure over time

    • The nuclear family is crucial for procreating and childbearing so that the next generation of workers in society is produced

  • The economic function

    • Society needs a way of providing people with economic support, e.g. for shelter, food and clothes

    • The nuclear family fulfils this need as economic cooperation is based on a division of labour between the husband and wife

  • The educational function

    • Society needs to ensure that new members learn its culture

    • The nuclear family fulfils this need through socialisation as parents teach their children the norms and values of society

Parsons' functions of the family

• According to Parsons (1956), society relies on the nuclear family to carry out essential functions linked to personality formation

  • He contends that other institutions in society have progressively taken over some of the roles that the family once played

  • Nowadays, organisations outside the family (like food banks and charities) provide for many needs, including clothing and food

• Parsons identifies two basic and vital functions that all families perform in all societies:

  • Primary socialisation of children

    • The nuclear family is an agent of socialisation

    • Children acquire their society's culture and embrace its shared values and roles through primary socialisation, preserving social order

  • Stabilisation of adult personalities

    • The nuclear family is an agency of personality stabilisation

    • To ease the strain and stress of everyday life outside the family, the husband and wife offer each other emotional support

      • This is the 'warm bath' theory: when a man returns from work, he could relax into his family, like a warm bath, relieving his stress

    • Parents can display their childish side by living with children

    • The family is viewed as a safe haven since it is essential to preserving adults' emotional stability

• Parsons also links sex roles within the family to its functions

Criticisms of Parsons, Murdock and the functionalist perspective

• Critics argue that:

  • Murdock's ideas are outdated, unrealistic and sexist

  • Parsons focuses on American middle-class families and ignores social class, religious and ethnic diversity

  • Parsons ignores alternatives to the nuclear family (such as lone-parent or same-sex families) that are just as functional and effective in performing essential functions for society (Rapoport and Rapoport, 1982)

  • Parsons is accused of idealisation as he ignores family dysfunction in which child abuse and domestic abuse occur; the picture he paints does not match reality

  • The nuclear family can increase stress between spouses and between parents and children, which leads to conflict

• Marxists are critical of the nuclear family, as they see it as functional for capitalist society

  • Socialising children into accepting the values of capitalism serves capitalism

• Feminists are also critical of the nuclear family as they see it as a major source of female oppression

  • Nuclear families imprison women in their own homes, tied to children and housework

  • The apparent increase in domestic violence in the home shows that families are not a safe haven and that family life doesn't always contribute to members' wellbeing

• Other agencies of socialisation are more significant, such as the media and schools as:

  • many schools perform essential functions for society, like feeding and clothing children

  • social media and celebrity culture is becoming more influential on children's norms and values, particularly as many children have their own devices and can access 'up-to-date' information

• However, the New Right perspective suggests that the nuclear family is the best way for children to develop into stable, functioning adult members of society (Charles Murray, 1998)

  • Other types of family forms would not be desirable since the lack of a father figure as a role model could be damaging