The rules limiting sexual relationships outside of marriage help to secure the social system. If these rules ceased to exist, disagreement may arise.
In a majority of societies the family are involved within production. Society then benefits from the family’s economic contributions.
Finally, the family is responsible for reproduction. This of course crucial for society, without reproduction it would be impossible for society to exist.
Of course the above functions are naïve when considered in contemporary society. They do not in anyway reflect an understanding of reality. The functionalist view that the family is responsible for primary socialisation is declining; the media, peers and schooling now play an important role. The family being the main unit for reproduction is also under threat, a quarter of children are now born outside of marriage. Post modernism gives people the choice to remain childless whereas functionalism believes children are the ideal. Monogamy is no longer valued as it was and Marxists see reproduction as a family way to maintain patriarchy.
More recently Talcott Parsons concentrates on the nuclear family, yet in a more modern industrial society. Parsons saw the family as having only two main functions instead of Murdock’s four. Primary Socialisation of children was one, as described earlier by Murdock; Parsons states that children’s personalities are shaped by society’s culture. The second of the two functions was the stabilisation of adult personalities. Unstable personalities can affect the efficient running of society. Families are there to provide emotional support and also enable the adult to partake in childish activities; this is meant to relieve them of the stresses of adult life.
The problem with Parsons second function is that this is focused very much on the men. The home is often regarded as a refuge and family as support, but for many women this is not the case. Feminists disagree with this functionalist view and believe that more attention is required for abuse within the family home.
In 1966 Fletcher publicised a more modern functionalist view. Similarly to Murdock and Parsons, Fletcher even now believes that the family plays an extremely important role in primary socialisation. Furthermore, Fletcher agrees with the view of Murdock that the family regulates sexual behaviour. The notion that the family should care for dependants has not as yet been put forward by Murdock or Parsons, yet is a view of Fletcher.
Due to the unspoiled view of functionalism by the above sociologists, other theories are bound to criticise certain aspects. There are four main criticisms of functionalism they are as follows:
The happiness of the nuclear family seems to overlook greatly the depressing aspect of family life. There is insufficient thought about goings on such as child abuse or husband and wife conflict. These of course take place a lot more than people want to acknowledge and are taking their toll on society. The disturbing facts now show that 1 in 4 women will be abused during their lifetime and 2 women are killed every week. These figures show that functionalism is a naïve theory whereas radical feminists recognise such troubles within the family. The dark side of family life is the main contribution for the radical feminism theory.
The functionalist view is basically extremely positive and a harmonious picture is painted. This is of course completely unrealistic which shows that inadequate socialisation is taking place today. The family is now considered to be at the centre for the domination of women. This surely demonstrates that the functionalist theory is out dated and does not reflect reality.
Once again the theory overlooks diversity. Functionalists do not welcome change with open arms and pay little attention to the growing amount of diverse families, e.g. lone-parent. Only 25% of families are now nuclear which shows a great decline. This agrees with the post modernism theory which provides people with the choice about families.
Within the functionalist theory there remains no voice for women’s choices. Women are not considered to be able to cope with independence which is the main problem with functionalism. The radical feminists are passionate about women’s independence and believe the stereotypical view is holding women back.
As illustrated previously, the functionalist theory is out dated in contemporary society. The views of Murdock, Parsons & Fletcher on functionalism stand against too much criticism in modern times. This may be because they were publicised up to 60 years ago and had no chance to witness the changing era. As for Murdock’s four functions, contemporary evidence and other theories simply highlight their naivety and poor reflection of reality. Functionalism does not appreciate the advances in the family, they are perceived as bad changes which isn’t necessarily true. Functionalist’s views now simply appear ignorant, as they are not willing to accept that families are changing with the times. I agree very much with the post modernism theory that the choice is up to you, after all, happiness is the key element when maintaining a family. The Nuclear family is simply not suitable for today’s society.
