Functionalism Of The Nuclear Family

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Functionalism is the theory that all aspects of a society serve a function and are necessary for the survival of that society, some use the Human Body analogy to describe functionalism. This is because the image of the human body represents society and the body parts all rely on each other in order to function properly, just like society because it relies on social institutions all working together to keep society alive. Functionalists, believe that the nuclear family can offer the most stability and is seen as the norm of society though others believe that the nuclear family is outdated as there are many other family structures which have developed within the last 40 years, which is evidence that the nuclear family is not the norm and may…show more content…
The two main purposes according to Parsons were: • Primary socialisation ( learn socially accepted behaviour/ culture, build shared ideas and beliefs to maintain a stable society ) • Stabilisation of human personalities ( sexual division of labour helps to rid of stress, families allow for ‘infantile regressions’ to take place which destresses adults ) Marxism is based on Capitalism, and the idea suggests that in order for a country to become communist, the working class must take over the ruling class. Karl Marx, a Marxist and the founder of Marxism, believe that both parsons and Murdock are ignoring other key factors that we see in families and that they have a very idealised view on the family, which paints a very rosy, old fashioned family image which doesn’t look at the dark side of a family or any type of family diversity. Friedrich Engels, another Marxist, argued that the nuclear family was set up so that any wealth would be passed on to children, therefore money would stay within the family. He also argued that monogamous relationships were favoured so that men knew they were the biological dad of their children, women would be dependent on them and that the women would not stay to other men this
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