Outline and evaluate functionalist views of the role of the family in society. (33 Marks) Functionalists stress the positive aspect of family. In particular‚ they force on the positive role of one particular family type: the nuclear family. Murdoch (1949) claimed the family was a universal institution. He studied 250 societies and found the family‚ in some form‚ was present in all of them. This suggests that families are necessary in some way‚ whether it be for societies to survive‚ for individual
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The functionalist theory is based on trust in both our political and legal systems. The theory is also known as the consensus theory‚ and thus explains that there is a middle ground that must be met in order for our society to remain stable. Vago (2009) explained the biological analogy of the functionalist theory. He stated that this theory can be seen as the body of an organism‚ in the organism there are different relationships with different functions that must be processed right in order for
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Functionalist vs. Symbolic Interactionist Functionalists believe that each aspect of society is interdependent and contributes to society’s functioning as a whole to create stability or work toward the same common goal. The government‚ or state‚ provides education for the children of the family‚ which in turn pays taxes on which the state depends to keep itself running. The family is dependent upon the school to help children grow up to have good jobs so that they can raise and support their own
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SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES Sociology is known to be a very debatable subject without an agreeable consensus. Different perspectives exist and each one tries to explain the society in a different way. A perspective can be defined as a set of principles‚ an approach or a school of thought which helps to understand and explain social life. A perspective helps us to understand how the society is organised‚ how social life is arranged and how it functions. Sociological perspectives can be categorised
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Due to this‚ it is also important to consider other potential decision making influences. The Social Functionalist Approach is used in order to analyse the decision making structure (Leinhardt‚ 1977). This approach was introduced by Tetlock in 2002‚ In order to identify the importance of social factors during the decision making process. (Michael W. Eysenck
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Evaluate the functionalist theory of the family In this essay‚ I intend to analyse some of the theories behind the functionalist perspective of the family‚ it is my intention to look at two main theorists in this field‚ Murdock and Parsons. I to analyse their theories and give objective argument for the pros and cons of the functionalist family. I intend to break this down by looking at the theorists separately and then looking at arguments against the functionalist family. Sociology‚ second edition
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on suicide rates‚ compared to Interpretivists who believe that they should look for meaning behind occurrences and certain individuals experiences before the suicide. Other perspectives also put in their views on what they believe to explain suicide for example‚ Realists. Item A references to Durkheim’s Structural Functionalist view on suicide‚ as stated Durkheim believes that due to sociology being a science with the topic of suicide it is very easy to make causal laws or as said in Item A ‘social
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Approaches to Illness The structural-functionalist and the conflict perspective approaches to illness differ in many of the following ways. “The structural-functionalist perspective is concerned with how illness‚ health‚ and health care affect and are affected by other aspects of social life (Mooney‚ Knox‚ Schacht 36).” To show how illness and health are affected by other aspects of life‚ one who supports the structural functionalist view will look for social patterns that give explanation for
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than of a society as a whole. Criticisms of Durkheim: -Assumes societies have a shared culture which can be transmitted through the education. In fact Britain is now multicultural‚ and therefore can we base school curriculums on one single culture. -New Right and New Labour perspectives on education have tended to emphasize the economic importance of education and have downplayed the significance of transmitting a shared culture. -Some researchers question whether in practice schools do act in
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‘Assess the functionalist view of the family?’ Functionalist looks at society on a macro level. It is a consensus theory and structuralists prefer to use functionalism as it agrees with their ideals and models and they prefer to look at society as a whole. Functionalists are interested in studying what family is most functional. This essay will assess how functionalists view point of the family by exploring Murdock‚ Comte‚ Parsons and Durkheim‚ the founder of functionalism‚ ideas and evaluating
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