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Assess the Contribution of Functionalist Sociologist to Our Understanding of the Family

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Assess the contribution of functionalist sociologist to our understanding of the family
Functionalists believe that society is based on a value consensus into which society socialises its members, which enables to cooperate harmoniously and meet society’s needs and goals.
Functionalist’s sees that society is made up of a range of different sub-systems which depend on each other, and that society needs these functions or order for survival and is vital towards society. Functionalists see the family as a very important sub-system, as it raises and teaches children norms and values. According to Peter Murdock, he argues that the family performs four main functions to meet the needs of society and the members of society. One of the functions is the stable satisfaction of the sex drive, this is husbands and wives having sexual access to each other and that this maintains stability and limits sexual access of other members of society as you are with the same person. The second function is the reproduction of the next generation, this function is based on bearing and raising children and to provide the society with new members and take on the responsibility as parents to raise them and without this function society would not be able to continue. The third function is the socialisation of the young/educational function this is transmitting norms and values of the younger members, as without this function the norms would disrupt the stability of society. The last function is meeting its members’ economic needs, this are factors such as food and shelter, which is important to all members of society. However, this view is criticised as he mainly focuses on the nuclear family and why it is universal and doesn’t look at family diversity and he mainly focuses on the positives rather than looking at the negative aspects that happen in the family, e.g. abuse. Feminists argue that

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