Using Material from Item a and Elsewhere Assess the Contribution of Functionalism to Our Understanding of Families and Households

Using material From Item A and elsewhere assess the contribution of functionalism to our understanding of families and households.

Functionalists have contributed to our understanding of families and households in many ways. They believe that the ideal family is the nuclear family in our society.

It has been difficult for functionalists to agree on the definition for families. Murdock’s definition for family is, “a social group characterised by common residence, economic co-operation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved relationship, and one or more child, own or adopted, of the sexually cohabitated”. The definition of households is, “a group of people who live together and share things such as meals, bills, facilities, or one person who lives alone.” The definition of family has become a contested issue. One of the issues with defining it is that some are outdated like Murdock’s definition.

A major contribution of functionalism to our understanding of families and households is though Murdock and Parsons theories. Parsons contributed to our understanding with his functional fit theory, and Murdock did this with his view that the family had 4 functions which he called SEER. These 4 functions are Sexual, Education, Economy and Reproduction.

Parson’s functional fit theory is where the type of society affects and determines which type of family is the dominant type. This means that family type which is dominant meets the needs of the type of society which it is in. In our modern society the best fit is the nuclear family and not the extended family. He states that the nuclear family is the dominant family type as our society means that families need to be geographically mobile and consume more in comparison to extended families. Geographically mobile families are families which are able to move around to where the jobs are available. Another reason the nuclear family is the dominant type is that...