...Sociology Essay… A family is a group of people that live together and are related to each other through kinship ties or marriage. Kinship means being related through blood or birth. On the other hand, a household is a group of people who live together but are not related to each other through kinship ties or marriage. It is believed that families make up the majority of households but there are others for example, students or friends sharing a flat/house. There are five main different types of families: * Nuclear Family: Two generations living together (mother, father and dependent children) * Traditional Extended Family: Three or more generations of the same family living together or close by, with frequent contact between grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, cousins etc. * Attenuated Extended Family: Nuclear families that live apart from their extended family, but keep in regular contact e.g. via email or phone. * Single Parent Family: A single parent and their dependent children. * Reconstituted Family: New stepfamilies created when parts of two previous families are brought together. George Murdock (1949) was a famous sociologist that argued that some form of the nuclear family existed in all of the 250 different societies he looked at. He argued the family performed four basic functions – sexual, reproductive, economic and educational (social). Murdock’s definition of a family is: A social group characterised by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction...
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...‘Assess’ Essay Planning Sheet Name: Essay Title: Assess the view that, in today’s society, the family is losing its functions (24 marks) | Underline or highlight the key concepts, terms and instructions, by identifying these key elements it will allow you to focus on answering the question. It is important to use relevant sociological terminology within the context of you essay. List the key sociological terms that will be appropriate for this essay. Industrial family, pre-industrial family, unit of production, unit of consumption, nuclear family, lone parent family, social policies, state intervention, symmetrical family, privatised, joint and segregated conjugal roles, commercialisation of housework | IntroductionSignpost to the question and clearly explain the key concepts /terms of the question | Functionalists such as Murdock and Parsons say that the family is losing its functions; they, and other functionalists, see the family as a particularly important, basic building block within society. Murdock argues that the family only performs four essential functions to meet the needs of society, whereas Parsons states that the functions that a family performs depends upon the kind of society in which it is found. | Paragraph 1PointThe point must be appropriate in answering the question. | The traditional pre-industrial family is seen to be the extended family, where there are three generations of the family all...
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...functions of the family (a) Consensus is a general agreement for example the functionalists sociologists see society as based on value consensus; that is, harmony and agreement among its members about basic values. (b) Two essential functions that Parsons sees the nuclear family performing is a geographically mobile workforce which is when people often spent their whole lives living in the same village and a socially mobile workforce which is constantly evolving science and technology. (c) Three functions that the family might perform are promoting social mobility to meet the needs of industrial society, promoting geographical mobility as they are better fitted to the need that modern industry has and also providing a reserve of army of female labour that can be taken on when extra workers are needed. Essay : Using material from item A and elsewhere, assess the contribution of functionalism to our understanding of families and households. In this essay, i will be focusing on the functionalist perspective of families and households. Functionalist believe that society is based on a value consensus which are a set of shared norms and values into which society socialises its members. I will look at both the strengths and limitations as well as the different perspectives such as Parsons and Murdock to examine the essay. Murdock argues that the sheer practicality of the nuclear family is a way of meeting four needs whereas Parsons says the family may meet more needs...
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...Kipnis’ essay she only focuses on romantic relationships and believes that adultery is the key to initiating new modes of thinking. In order to create social change, I do not believe committing adultery is the right solution because adultery is an excuse to run away from problems. Taking a closer look at the author’s argument, one can see that the author is not against love. Nowhere in the text does she protest against a mother’s love for her child or the love we have for our friends. Instead, the author challenges ideals about romantic love and the glorification of romantic love within American capitalism. I noticed that Kipnis limits her analysis of...
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...------------------------------------------------- Scly1 Summer 2013 Using material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess the contribution of functionalist sociologists to our understanding of the family. INSTRUCTIONS to candidates AS ESSAY – Scly1 Family/Households - 24marks – 24 minutes i.e. 2-2.5 pages average sized handwriting (2 pages typed) (AO1-10 & AO2-14) * ADD your Name/Option Group to the header * Size 12 font/calibri * Email a copy to MY. * Print /submit hard copy to your sociology teacher [print off the whole document] Essay Cover sheet MTG (circle): | A | B | C | Grade (circle): | A | B | C | D | E | Teacher Name: MARK YELLAND | Raw Mark: | | Unit (circle): | Scly | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Section (circle): | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Green Pen (when you ‘green pen’ add your comments/extra points in the box below) | Student self-evaluation (circle the numbers successfully completed) i.e. I have: 1. Used largely accurate spelling, grammar and punctuation. 2. Written 3/4/5 sentences for every paragraph, in continuous prose ( & No bullets & No hyphens & No forward slash) 3. Written 1 page every 10mins (e.g. 30mins=3 pages). 4. Written the first paragraph outlining the ‘big picture’ including key specialist vocabulary. 5. Referenced the key terms from the question in every paragraph (& underlined them in the question). 6. Used the majority of the key concepts/ideas from the MS (& ER). 7. Used at least 5 sources...
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...In this essay the contribution of functionalist sociologists to our understanding of the family will be discussed, sociologists such as Murdock (1949), Parsons (1979) and Young and Wilmott (1973) will be mentioned in this essay. Functionalists believe that society is based on a shared value consensus, this is a set of shared norms and values into which society socialises its members, this enables society to work harmoniously and meet society’s needs and goals. Functionalists believe that the family is regarded as a basic building block of society. Murdock (1949) argues that the family performs four essential functions to meet the needs of society and its members. These functions are; economic needs, reproduction, primary socialisation and sex. However, he believes that those needs can only be achieved within a nuclear family. But some sociologists would argue that these needs can be met in other ways than within the family such as in institutions other than the family such as education, health services and the government. Marxist and Feminist sociologists have criticised Murdock’s theory. They say that functionalism ignores conflict and exploitation within society. Feminists see the family as being patriarchal and serving the needs of men and Marxists see the family as meeting the needs of capitalism and not the needs of the family members. According to Parsons (1979) there are two types of basic functions that the family provides these are the primary socialisation of childhood...
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... Families and Households This Answers book provides some possible answers that might be given for the questions asked in the workbook. They are not exhaustive and other answers may well be acceptable, but they are intended as a guide to give teachers and students feedback. The responses for the longer essay-style questions are intended to give some idea about how the exam questions might be answered. Again, these are not the only ways to answer such questions but they can be treated as one way of approaching questions of these types. Topic 1 Functionalist and New Right views of the family How have functionalist and New Right thinkers explained family life and the relationship between families and social change? 1 The organic analogy refers to the extended comparison made by functionalists between the human or other living body and society, with the organs of the body equivalent to institutions and structures in society. 2 Primary socialisation refers to the first and most important stage of the socialisation process by which young children absorb the norms and values of their culture, mainly from their parents. Note: make sure your answer explains both ‘primary’ and ‘socialisation’. 3 One way in which the nuclear family is more suited than other types of family to modern industrial society is that it allows for geographical mobility; it is easier to move a nuclear family to a new area for, say, a new job than to move an extended family. A second...
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...Using the Material from Item 2b and Elsewhere, Assess the View That the Growth of Family Diversity Has Led to the Decline of the Traditional Nuclear Family Using the material from item 2B and elsewhere, assess the view that the growth of family diversity has led to the decline of the traditional nuclear family In the past, traditionally families have mostly been the ‘traditional nuclear family’ made up of a married man and woman and at least one child. However there has recently been a decline in the amount of traditional nuclear families and an increase in the amount of diverse families. There are now less people following the traditional view that the nuclear family is the ‘normal’ way to live. The diverse families now include families such as, lone parent families, reconstituted family, extended family, lone person households, cohabiting couples and same sex couples. In this essay I will discuss the view that the traditional nuclear family has decline as a result of the growth of family diversity and the reasons why people are no longer following past tradition. New right believe that the incline in family diversity is a cause of many social problems. They believe that the increase in family diversity is the reason for economic problems. Charles Murray believes that there is now a ‘perverse incentive’ for young girls to get pregnant. He believes that there are young girls purposely getting pregnant with the knowledge that the government are going to give them a house...
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...Using the material from item 2B and elsewhere, assess the view that the growth of family diversity has led to the decline of the traditional nuclear family In the past, traditionally families have mostly been the ‘traditional nuclear family’ made up of a married man and woman and at least one child. However there has recently been a decline in the amount of traditional nuclear families and an increase in the amount of diverse families. There are now less people following the traditional view that the nuclear family is the ‘normal’ way to live. The diverse families now include families such as, lone parent families, reconstituted family, extended family, lone person households, cohabiting couples and same sex couples. In this essay I will discuss the view that the traditional nuclear family has decline as a result of the growth of family diversity and the reasons why people are no longer following past tradition. New right believe that the incline in family diversity is a cause of many social problems. They believe that the increase in family diversity is the reason for economic problems. Charles Murray believes that there is now a ‘perverse incentive’ for young girls to get pregnant. He believes that there are young girls purposely getting pregnant with the knowledge that the government are going to give them a house and benefits for them to live in with their babies. An increase in the amount of young girls becoming pregnant has led to an increase in the amount of single...
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...Sociology Essay Assess the view that the nuclear family is no longer the norm (24 Marks) In today’s society, the family is not as big as it used to be earlier though the decades, the nuclear family at least. Many sociologists have criticised the family e.g. feminists and the way in which it is run. The Nuclear Family is known as the traditional family. The nuclear family was mainly dominant in the 1960s when most of the UK was working in factories and looking for jobs, this family type allowed families to move around the country easily enough, this aspect is called geographical mobility. Another aspect of the family in terms of Functionalist ideals, is the gender-role socialization in which the children are brought up in a way that gender stereotypes are made, for example boys are brought up to be tough and play with cars and play sports, while girls are brought up to be sensitive and play with dolls and gossip with each other. The final function of the nuclear family is the socialization of children which teaches them the norms and values of society. Functionalists have many studies of this, like Murdock who studied 250 societies and therefore decided that the nuclear family was Universal and that the nuclear family had 4 main functions: sexual, reproductive, educational and economic. However Parsons view along with this were both proven wrong as it was said their studies were too simplistic. However many perspectives disagree by saying that the nuclear family is used for...
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...Rosie Edwards, Sociology essay: Many different sociologists have different interpretations and opinions upon the family, the family is a very sensitive issue to many of the general public, so it’s a subject matter in which needs to be dealt with carefully. Sociologists have different opinions on when and how families developed into the popular family structures that we have today, the dominant roles within those families etc. Here are just a few examples of this: Functionalists believe that the family is the heart of society, it is essential in the world because the family set you up for your future. For example, without the family primary socialisation would not exist, and therefore we would not gain the acquired skills needed to survive in the future. Murdock, a famous Functionalist, claimed that the nuclear family is so useful to society that it is inevitable and universal, appearing everywhere all over the world. Also, Functionalists believe that there are four essential functions to a nuclear family. These being: sexual, this provides stability for the adults of the family. Reproductive, provides the new generation of the family and society. Economic, providing for the family, in nuclear families this is generally done by the male as he is the breadwinner. And finally, educational, the secondary socialisation needed to teach young adults and provide them the skills needed for the working world and the future. But, people have criticised the Functionalist perspective upon...
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...functionalist approaches to our understanding of families and households (20) This essay will evaluating the usefulness of functionalist approaches such as the families four functions, the distribution of conjugal roles and the symmetrical family, and how these ideas contribute to our understanding of families and households today. The argument of which the family is an essential building block that reflects the wider needs of society is that of the functionalist approach. Murdoch (1949) argues that the family should feature four main functions, which include; stable satisfaction of the sex drive, reproduction, socialisation and economic needs. Murdoch also argues that the nuclear family is the best able to do this so the father can provide for the economic needs, as the breadwinner, and the mother provides socialisation. On the other hand, the feminist and Marxist perspectives identify that this is a ‘rose tinted’ view of the family unit, and a family rarely meets these expectations. Instead, single parents can just as easily serve the needs of their families and society without being a part of a traditional, nuclear family. Within these traditional nuclear families, the roles of husbands and wives are segregated into instrumental and expressive roles. The functionalist view of Parsons (1955) argues that the husband has the instrumental role, and so he is geared towards achieving success at work so that he can provide for the family financially. Whereas, the wife has an expressive...
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...the impact of Government policies and laws on family life in Britain (20 marks) Social policies are the measures taken by state, or Government, bodies such as schools and welfare agencies. They are usually based on laws introduced by Government. Laws and policies can have both direct and indirect effects on the family. There are many Government policies that can either benefit of have a negative impact on the family. These come from many different movements in Government, such as: New Right, New Labour and Coalition - these can be criticised by different types of sociologists such as Marxists and Feminists, which I will be expressing throughout this essay. The New Right have a Functionalist view on the family. They believe strongly in the advocation of the nuclear family and the other family criteria that they present, such as - as presented by the sociologist George Murdock - A heterosexual couple as part of a nuclear who engage in a socially acceptable sexual relationship, economic cooperation (or being self-sufficient) and provides basic functions such as socialisation, discipline and morality. The “Child Support Agency” was enforced in 1993, and forced natural fathers to provide for their own children financially in the event of a parental split. The Government fund this agency to ensure that the child is financially supplied to ensure good health and quality of life as they grow up. The impact that this had on the family is that the biological fathers are forced into...
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...Anthropology is the study of different ways of life, both past and present. It is comparative and cross-cultural, combining elements form biology, sociology, psychology, and history into a grand synthesizing endeavor (Heider, 2007). The focus of this essay is to take a holistic approach to the culture of Bali. Bali is an island located in Indonesia. Bali is full of traditional culture, belief, arts and performance. There are five main topics I would like to cover in this essay. The first is Social organization, what kinds of structure to the Balinese have? The second two topics are family and religion, we will find out that the two go hand in hand. The fourth topic is food, or rice cultivation, which is an important staple in the country. Finally we will cover the topic of Art. Art is important not only to the culture, but also to its economy. Social organization: The way in which Balinese culture is subdivided into smaller groups whose membership is determined by kinship, age, location. Most of Balinese social organization starts with its religious community. Hinduism is the most common religion in Bali. Villages in Bali have many different kinds of temples, but they all have a pemangku (priest): the more important ones also have a klian (secretary) and a beddesa (calendrical expert). The klian and bedesa are elected; the pemangku may be designated by patrilineal succession, elected by the congregation or chosen by God through a possessed temple medium (Barth, 1993). There...
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...unable to come to a mutual agreement relating to property interests, the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) aims to provide the means by which to reach a ‘just and equitable’ financial outcome. Despite this clearly identified aim set out by the legislation, the Family Law Act has to a certain extent been unsuccessful in achieving this objective, because of its failure to acknowledge the consequences of the sexual division of labour in contemporary society. By reference to the works of various socio-legal scholars and the relevant provisions of the Family Law Act/Marriage Act, this essay will explore the aforementioned failure of the family law in Australia...
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