Sociology Questions on the Modern Family

2. Evaluate the view that in modern industrial societies, the family has lost some of its functions. (16 marks)
   Ans) Functionalists such as Fletcher state that the functions of the family are procreation and child-bearing, the regulation of sexual behavior and the provision of a home. Fletcher also says that the family performs various non-essential functions which include, being a government of its own affairs, the economic consumption of goods, education, physical and mental health care, the first introduction of religious ideas and recreation.
   In the absence of a well-developed, organized State structure of any kind, the pre-industrial family was forced to take on numerous functions such as economic, social, for example – looking after the welfare of relatives, educational, etc.
   Functionalists say that social institutions such as family develop out of the need to satisfy, fulfill and organize various human social needs. In small-scale societies these social needs are relatively few for example, in the case of family, they may involve the need to raise and socialize children, organize the provision of food, shelter and so forth, while as societies become larger and more complex these social needs become greater and involves such things as forms of industrial production, the organization of an education system, the development of political systems of government, law and the like which is what happened as a result of industrialization. As social needs increased, so did the number and variety of institutions organized to fulfill these social needs.

Parsons and Goode argue that the process of industrialization and the increase in institutional differentiation has resulted in an increase in institutional specialization. For example, where the family was once a unit of economic production, after industrialization, this function has been taken over by the factory. The process of industrialization began a process whereby some of the functions performed by the pre-industrial family were now performed by other, specialized agencies. Parsons called this the calls this a process of "institutional differentiation and specialization", which means that as societies grow ever more complex in terms of the relationships involved, social institutions have to adapt to changing needs and, by so doing, become more specialized in their functions.
Economic functions were taken over by factories. The Educational function was taken over by schools that began developing to carry out the task of raising the levels of literacy and numeracy required for factory work. The State took over the provision of many of the Welfare functions formerly performed by the family. For example, health care benefits, pensions, etc. are now provided by the State.
Talcott Parsons says that the modern industrial family has transcended most of its pre-industrial functions and has now evolved to develop two basic functions – to reproduce and socialize children and to maintain and stabilize adult personalities.
Functionalists have examined the family-State relationship in terms of whether or not increasing State intervention has led to the loss of some of the functions for the family.
MacIver claims that the state has taken over the non-essential functions that the family used to perform. In contrast, Fletcher says that the State works together with the family to satisfy the individual and societal needs more effectively.
In conclusion, the process of industrialization produced changes in the way work is organized and as people were forced to adapt to these changes, the family as both, an institution and a group also changed. The family as an institution lost some of its general functions to other social institutions and evolved to perform vital specific functions.