Functionalist Views on Family (WJEC Eduqas GCSE Sociology): Revision Note

Functions of the family

• The functionalist approach views the family as a positive institution that performs important roles for individuals and society

• According to functionalists, the family is a vital ‘cornerstone of society' responsible for teaching shared values, supporting its members, and maintaining social stability

Murdock's (1949) four essential functions of the family

• The sexual function

  • Society needs to regulate sexual behaviour to maintain stability

  • The nuclear family does this by controlling sexual relationships within marriage, which helps preserve commitment between partners

• The reproductive function

  • Society must produce new members to survive over time

  • The family fulfils this function through childbearing, ensuring the next generation of workers and citizens

• The economic function

  • Families provide economic support such as food, shelter, and clothing

  • Murdock argued that this depends on a division of labour — traditionally, the husband as breadwinner and the wife managing the home

• The educational function

  • Society needs new members to learn its culture, norms, and values

  • Parents act as agents of primary socialisation, teaching children the rules and expectations of society

Parsons' functions of the family

• Sociologist Talcott Parsons (1956) studied American families and argued that the family has lost some of its earlier functions

  • Many roles once performed by the family are now carried out by other institutions — for example, schools, charities, and the welfare state

• However, Parsons believed the family still performs two vital and unique functions

Primary socialisation of children

• The nuclear family acts as an important agent of socialisation

• Through interaction with parents, children learn the culture, values, and roles of their society

• This process helps maintain social order and prepares children to fit into wider society

Stabilisation of adult personalities

• The nuclear family is an agency of personality stabilisation

• To ease the strain and stress of everyday life outside the family, the husband and wife offer each other emotional support

  • This is the 'warm bath' theory: when a man returns from work, he can relax with his family, like a warm bath, relieving his stress

• The family acts as a haven, allowing adults to relax, express emotions, and maintain emotional stability

Division of labour within the family

• Men perform the instrumental role — providing financial support through paid work

• Women perform the expressive role — caring for children and managing domestic life

• Parsons believed this specialisation was functional for family stability and the wider society

Evaluation of Parsons, Murdock and the functionalist perspective

Strengths

• New Right support

  • The New Right perspective suggests that the nuclear family is the best environment for raising children

  • Charles Murray (1998) argued that families without a father figure can harm children’s development by depriving them of a male role model

  • The New Right believes that traditional family values (marriage, responsibility, and self-reliance) are key to maintaining social stability

Criticisms

• General criticisms

  • Murdock's ideas are outdated, unrealistic and sexist, assuming traditional gender roles

  • Parsons' work focuses mainly on American middle-class nuclear families, ignoring differences of class, culture, religion and ethnicity

  • Both ignore the diversity of modern family forms, such as lone-parent, reconstituted, and same-sex families, which can also perform vital functions (Rapoport and Rapoport, 1982)

  • Parsons' 'warm bath' idea is accused of idealisation, as he ignores family dysfunction such as child abuse, domestic violence, and stress between family members

• Marxist criticisms

  • Marxists argue that the family benefits capitalism, not society as a whole

  • Families socialise children into accepting capitalist values like obedience and hard work

  • The family maintains the class system by reproducing labour and passing on wealth through inheritance

• Feminist criticisms

  • Feminists see the nuclear family as a source of female oppression

  • It confines women to domestic and childcare roles, making them dependent on men

  • Rising levels of domestic violence show that families are not always safe or harmonious

• Other criticisms

  • Other agents of socialisation — such as schools, media, and peer groups — now play a greater role than the family in shaping values and behaviour

    • E.g., schools feed, clothe, and educate children

    • Social media strongly influences children’s values and identity