Perspectives

In todays society the stereotypical family includes a mother, father and children, this is known as a nuclear family, it is seen as most common as this is what we are all brought up to believe that this is the right sort of family, this is not always the case as in the 21st century there is a rise in single parent families and same sex families, and people also live in extended families with grandparents aunties and uncles. Different sociologists have varied ideas on what the family should include, for example, a functionalists will look at how the family can benefit society by maintaining order and stability. Whereas a feminist may believe that being in a family leads to the woman being used for cheap labour, for example the child care of their children is unpaid and they maintain a household for their husbands at no cost to them. There are many other sociologists with other views and perspectives which I intend to look at in detail.

Functionalists see the family as a way of maintaining order and stability in society. They feel that the family is important as the family teaches individuals the norms and values of their society, through a process called primary socialisation.

Talcott Parsons (1902-1979) was an American sociologist. As a functionalist he was concerned with how the different parts of society worked together to work and a whole. Parsons found that even though society lost some functions they kept two basic functions, which primary socialisation, where children learn the norms and values of their society for example: manners, and the stabilisation of adults personalities, the stress of work for the husband can be cancelled out by the security and warmth that comes from being part of a nuclear family, Parsons used the idea of a ‘warm bath’ to represent the the home and the family. An example of this would be the husband would go to work where he worries about his work and money issues, he then takes these issues home with him. The husbands home...