Negative Aspects of Family Life

Radical Psychiatrists
Laign
Ideas
Claimed to reveal the reality behind normal family life.
Concluded the family is damaging and can cause schizophrenia.
Behaviour disorders as a response to intolerable family situatiobns such as the conflicts of parents.
'Mad' people come from 'mad' families.
Behaviour that may appear bizarre has meaning for the individual.
Criticisms
Untypical families studied.
No normal control families for comparison.
Laign retracted many of his controversial ideas before he died.

Cooper
Ideas
Adds a Marxist perspective to Laing's ideas.
Family seen as an ideological conditioning device reinforcing the power of the ruling class and crushing individual identity.
Tensions and guilt in the family and caused by capitalism and it is these chains that have to be broken to produce a creative and indepndent individual.
Criticisms
Impossible to validate.
Assumes the child is powerless.
Focuses exclusively on the negative aspects of family life.

Anthropologist
Leach
Ideas
Studied pre-industrial societies where extended kin provide emotional and practicle help.
This led him to believe isolated nuclear family is emotionally overloaded, it internalises problems and expects too much of members.
Claimed the 'family with its narrow and tawdry secrets is the source of all discontents'.

The Dark Side of the Family

Many sociologists have highlighted that all is not well within the family since there is a well documented and well published set of statistics that would seem to indicate that domestic violence is on the increase.

Sociologists have suggested that as the family becomes increasingly privatised (or shut away from larger society) there is more scope for negative experiences associated with family life. This has created a situation in which domestic violence can happen behind closed doors and this has led to an increase in this aspect of family life.

Domestic violence in all about power and control in the family. It is not just physical abuse it is also mental, psychological, emotional and also the implied threat of violence. Also this means that domestic violence is a complex part of life, which for many people can be an uncomfortable reality for them, especially if they believe that the family is a positive place to be.

A Functionalist Approach - would not really be able to explain domestic violence because it views the family as a positive centre of socialisation. Therefore in sociology, Radical Psychiatry goes a lond way towards helping us to understand domestic violence and why and how it happens within the family.

R.D Laing saw the nuclear family as being dislocated from other family members and this led to emotional overload which was a result of family expectation. This led itself off from the rest of society and it became isolated and removed from the bigger picture of society. This goes some way towards expleining how abuse can happen within the family without other people picking up on vital clues or signs.

There is a significant under-representation of domestic violence statistics reported for a number of reasons. This is particularly true for men who are victims. One sociologist (Ken Pease) believes that domestic violence figures are 140% higher than those reported in the British Crime Survey (BCS) and this is worrying and implies that there is a dark figure of domestic violence hidden within the statistics because it is happening a lot more than the figures show.

1 in 4 women will be the victims of domestic violence in their lifetime.

1 in 6 men will be the victims of domestic violence in their lifetime.

The Good Wife's Guide and The New Improved Good Wife's Guide

There are definite changes in gender roles especially with the wife's roles. In May 13, 1955 The good wife's guide was present in Housekeeping Monthly. It stated the following.

• Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready on time for his return. This is a way of letting him know that you have be thinking about him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home and the prospect of a good meal (especially his favourite dish) is part of the warm welcome needed.
• Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you'll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people.
• Be a little gay and a little more interesting for him. His boring day may need a lift and one of your duties is to provide it.
• Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives. Run a dustcloth over the tables.
• Over the cooler months of the year you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift too. After all, catering for his comfort will provide you with immense personal satisfaction.
• Minimize all noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer or vacuum. Encourage the children to be quiet.
• Be happy to see him.
• Greet him with a warm smile and show sincerity in your desire to please him.
• Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first - remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.
• Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at home and relax.
• Your goal: To try and make sure your home is a place of peace, order, and tranquillity where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit.
• Don't greet him with complaints and problems.
• Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or have him lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.
• Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice.
• Don't ask him questions about his actions or question his judgment or integrity. Remember, he is the master of the house and as such will always exercise his will with fairness and truthfulness. You have no right to question him.
• A good wife always knows her place.

The New and Improved Good Wife's Guide

• Plan dinner for yourself and family. Even if the food has a "Mc" in front or a "King" behind, it still counts as a dinner you planned. Making reservations is also considered planning as is asking your husband to pick something up on the way home from work.
• Take a nap if possible, after all, you deserve it. Feeding, cleaning, dressing and running after children all day is hard work. Plus, if you are rested, you are less likely to take off to Vegas like you've threatened to do on more than one stressful occasion. Also to make yourself "fresh-looking", have the hubby watch the kids for you so you can take a nice relaxing bath and maybe have time to shave. He'll love that.
• Do whatever makes you happy. If you enjoy dancing around the house in your underwear then do it. And do it for yourself not for your spouse because being "gay" for his benefit is just plain gay.
• If you're lucky enough to have a "play room" then you can only hope that the majority of the toys will remain in there. If not, have the kids clean them up at the end of the day before bedtime. There's no point in putting them away while they are still playing. Randomly throwing toys into said playroom counts as cleaning up, as does piling laundry in the corner of a room. If you don't get the opportunity to clean up clutter, it's a sure fire sign that you had something better to do.
• As long as there is nothing living or breathing in the inch high dust that covers the TV, cabinets or shelves, it can wait. And if your washer, dryer or dishwasher are running when your husband comes home, well it's a sign that you've obviously been busy that day.
• Building a fire is fun if you have a fireplace. And if you do, try not to "accidentally" knock your husband into it when he picks a fight even though that might bring you "immense personal satisfaction."
• Children get dirty. If there is even a spec of mud in the backyard, they will find it. As long as their hands are clean before they eat and as long as they aren't smearing dirt on your new carpet or couch then they're clean enough for the time being. If their loud voices drive you crazy, send them outside where they can drive the neighbors crazy. And to fix any hair issues, make them wear a hat. Also, if they want to jump all over their father the minute he walks in the door, let them. After all, they've most likely been jumping all over you all day.
• Be happy to see your husband, assuming he's on time and in a good mood. Be even happier if he brought home a paycheck.
• Give him a hug when he walks in the door, if he doesn't smell of another woman's perfume, give him a kiss too. If you missed him, tell him. If you actually want to know how his day went, ask him. And if you love him, remind him.
• Make a list of all of the things you need or want to tell your husband when he comes home. In the midst of football, ballet, tuba and soccer practice you'll most likely forget. And this way you can hit every topic over dinner. Giving pop quizzes afterwards always helps to drive your points across, although it might make him mad and then he "might" have a fireplace accident.
• If you had a stressful day, you retain the right to complain about it. As your husband he has the obligation to listen and vice versa. If he goes out after work and stays out late, you also have the right to be upset. And you retain the right to turn off your cell phone the next time you're out with the girls.
• If you can make one room tranquil and peaceful then do it. You need somewhere to escape and regroup yourself. This is why men have sheds and garages.
• If he wants to go out for a few drinks after work then compromise. You should be able to go out one night also, it's only fair.
• If you've both had a rough day then having drinks prepared is not a bad idea, especially if there is alcohol included.
• Arranging your husband's pillow is a nice gesture, just try not to "arrange" it over his face. Of course if you're speaking in low, pleasant tones while you're doing it, it could still be considered a nice gesture.
• If something doesn't seem right to you, ask questions. Just because your husband is a man doesn't mean he can do whatever he wants. Remember, where there is a King of the castle, there is also a Queen......
• A good wife always knows her place, on top of her throne where she shall be worshipped by all.

The Family and Post-Modernism

Post-Modernism; the belief that there is no absolute or total truth that can be known in the world today. Only the truths that we find ourselves to explain the meanings of our own lives.

As a result of this post-modernist sociologists suggest the collapse in ultimate truth and meaning in our lives means that we cannot say that one type of family is better than another because there is no absolute truth anymore. Therefore we are free to choose the lifestyle that we want and this is the only way that we can find meaning in our meaningless lives because society is so fragmented and broken up and claims of what is 'normal' and 'natural' are no longer relevant.
According to a post-modernist sociologist it is difficult to even say what makes up a 'family today.
This is almost like a super-market of life-choices.

Decision Making and Power in Households

The concept of power is central to a sociological analysis of the family and power is the ability of a 'social actor' to carry their will, despite resistance. It is the ability to get what you want even though others may not want it.

The family is a key part where power is exercised and exerted and sociologists will see inequalities within the family differently based upon their theoretical perspective on how power is distributed.

The functionalists will take a very traditional approach to the family and they will suggest that there is a natural division of labour based upon biological differences. Talcott Parsons believed that women are suited better for caring because of their expressive roles as carers and they naturally care for children and also provide emotional support for the family.

Marxist Feminists; they believe that men are the main cause of the inequalities by reproducing the workforce and the inequalities within the family. The family then acts like a filter by which the anger of oppression felt by men in the workplace comes out within the family and this creates inequalities in the distribution.

Radical Feminists; they believe that the family and the female role is created by men to enable them to go to work without the burden of childcare or domestic work, which is completed by their partners i.e the women.

Patriarchy; this is male power and dominance and this is why many women accept male power without question because they have been socialised into accepting male authority and into not questioning it. This means that women will accept responsibility for things like care, housework and childcare without question and this is also why some women are made to feel guilty for working outside of the home because they are made to believe that their absence somehow damages their children. Finally it could also be said that the state in many ways encourages women to be econominally dependent upon men and this also reinforces some of the inequalities in power distribution within the family. For example, in the case of maternity leave.

Gender Roles within The Family

Conjugal Roles; the roles by a man and a wife within a marriage and this applies specifically to who does what when it comes to domestic labour.

Separate Conjugal Roles; when men and women's roles within the home are clearly defined and separated. The women are expected to be homemakers and the men are the 'breadwinners'.

Joint Conjugal Roles; when the roles within the household are shared equally between men and women. This is also referred to as the symmetrical family or 50:50 family.

Double Burden; both the wife and man work and the wife is expected to come home to care for the children and to also cook the food.

Triple Burden; the woman works, cooks and cares for the children and also looks after the emotional well-being of all the family members.

Domestic Labour and Gender Roles in the Family

Decision making and power in households
‘Power is the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his will despite resistance, regardless of the basis on which this probability tests’

Stephen Edgell (1980) researched this and found the following.
There are many ways that decision making and power are exercised in the family:

• How financial power is exercised – meaning that decisions such as where to live, which car to buy or where to go on holiday are usually made by the man (the major wage earner).


• Women only make minor decisions such as food purchases and children’s clothes.

Later John Pahl (1993) examined who controlled the money within the household. He separated the couples that were being interviewed into two groups:

1. Those that had joint named accounts


2. Those that had separate bank accounts

He made another split between those where the husband made the important financial decisions and those where the wife performed this function. Pahl found the following from the 102 couples who were interviewed:

• Husband Controlled Pooling (most likely relationship) 39 out of 102 couples were using this method to control their money. This method means that the couple have a joint bank account and the husband controls the most important financial decisions.


• Wife Controlled Pooling (second most common)
  27 out of 102 couples were using this method.
  The couple have a joint bank account but the wife has the control over major expenditure. This tended to be the case in middle-class couples, particularly when the woman had a higher income than the man.


• Husband Control
  22 out of 102 couples were using this method.
  This methods sees the husband to have his own account and took control of the major financial issues in the family.However, this method was only found when the male had a high income, it was also the case in lower-class families where the wife doesn’t need an account as most of her income is spent in cash.

Christine Delphy (1992) also noted that when men buy products for themselves, the often spend more than their wives. Delphy calls this ‘differential consumption’

• Wife Control (least likely arrangement)
  14 out of 102 couples were using this method.
  This was commonly found in low-income couples where neither of them had a bank account and the woman controlled the earnings to pay the bills.
  

This study reveals the complexities of financial arrangements within different families. It also shows that most of the major decisions are made by the men but women do have some control, particularly in managing accounts on a daily rather than monthly basis. Pahl found that the most equal type of control is wife controlled pooling. He also found that in ¼ of all families the couple had similar incomes which meant decisions tended to be made jointly and equally, suggesting that, in domestic financial arrangements. Just like many other areas of life, women do not have equality in the family.

In addition, further evidence of lack of equality is provided by the Fawcett Society’s report, Home Truths (Geethika et al., 2002), which found that some women resorted to stockpiling their own savings without the knowledge of their husbands to provide a nest egg for their own financial security, with some women being afraid that their husbands might spend their money if they had found out about it. The report commented that despite a perception that many couples were now sharing financial decision making, men still made the decisions, particularly in low-income families.

Men also appear to have control when it comes to the importance of their job. In A tale of two nations? Juggling work and home in the new economy (2003), Irene Hardill wrote that women would often result in following their husband to a new part of the country, leaving their jobs and friends to further his career. Also in the past men often expected their wives to further enhance their careers by offering support and attending to their husband’s functions to help them appear more powerful.

Family Diversity - Changing Family Patterns

Social Trends indicate more variety of Families and Households
Official Social Trends statistics clearly show that the variety of family types has increased in Britain since the mid 20th century.
1. There were 24.4 million households in the UK in 2002 - up by a third since 1971.
2. The average size household is getting smaller. The number of households made up of 5 or more people has fallen from 14% in 1971 to 7% in 2002.
3. You might think that more small households means more nuclear families. However, the percentage of households which are nuclear families has fallen from 33% in 1971 to 25% in 2002.
4. Two of the biggest increases have been in single person households and lone parent family households. This explains why the average size of households has got smaller.
5. There's been an increase in the proportion of families which are reconstituted families. There are more reconstituted families now that there is more divorce. In 2001-2, 8% of all households were reconstituted families.

The two overall patterns are:
1. There's been an increase in the diversity of families in the UK. There are more different kinds of family.
2. Nuclear family is still the most common type of family, even though the proportion of nuclear families is going down. In 2002, 78% of children lived in nuclear families.

Class, Ethnicity and Sexuality Affect Which Types of Family You Experience
Eversley and Bonnerjea (1892) found middle class areas in the UK have a higher than average proportion of nuclear families. Inner-city working class areas are more likely to have higher proportion of lone-parent households.

Lesbian and gay families have been hidden from the statistics. The official definition of a couple has only included same-sex couples siince 1998.

The study of ethnic minorities by Modood et al (1997) found that:
1. Whites and Afro-Caribbeans were most likely to be divorced. Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and African Asians were most likely to be married.
2. Caribbean households were the most likely to be lone-parent families.
3. South Asian families are traditionally extended families, but there are no more nuclear family households than in the past. Extended kinship links stay strong and often reach back to India, Pakistan or Bangladesh.
4. There's diversity within each ethnic group though.

Fewer People Marry and More People Live Together Instead
In 2001 the lowest number of marriages took place in the UK since records began.
1. Over the same period of time there's been an increase in the number of adults cohabitating. In 2001-2 a quater of all non-married adults aged 16-59 were cohabitating.
2. Social trends statistics show that living with a partner doesn't mean you won't get married - it's often just a delay in 'tying the knot'. A third of people who cohabitated with a partner went on to marry them.
3. The majority of people in the UK do marry but the proportion who are married at any one time has fallen.

These trends have developed because...
1. Men tend to die before women. Elderly widows make up a lot of single person households. There are more old people these days, so this helps explain why there are so many single person households.
2. New Right theorists believe that the decline in marriage means a decline in traditional family values. However, evidence suggests cohabiting families actually have similar norms and values to married ones.
3. Postmodern theorists say the role of intimate relationships has changed - the emphasis is less on having kids and more on self-expression and emotional fulfilment. Giddens (1992) says that people are getting more likely to have a series of cohabitations rather than a lifelong marriage, this is known as serial monogomy.

The UK has one of the Highest Divorce Rates in Europe
1. There's been a steady rise in divorce rate in most modern industrial societies.
2. The divorce rate is defined as the number of people per 1000 of the population who are divorced. In 2000, Britain's divorce rate was 2.6 compared to European average of 1.9.
3. Actual divorces in the UK rose from 25,000 in 1961 to 146,000 in 1997.
4. For every two marriages in Britain in 1991, there was one divorce.
5. The proportion of population who were divorces at any time was 1% in 1971 and 9% in 2000.
6. The average length of a marriage before it ends in divorce remained about the same - 12 years in 1963, 11 years in 2000.
7. Although the divorce rate is increasing, divorced people are marrying again. In 2001, 40% of all marriages were re-marriages.

There are several social, cultural and political factors needed to take into account when explaining why divorce is increasing in the UK.
1. Divorce has become easier to obtain.
2. Divorce is more socially acceptable.
3. Women may have higher expectations of marriage, and better employment opportunities may make them less financially dependent on their husbands.
4. Marriages are increasingly focused on individual emotional fulfilment.
5. The New Right believe that marriage is less supported by the state these days.

People are Having Fewer Children and Having them Later In Life
One very clear change in British family life is the decrease in the average number of children people have.
1. People are having fewer children. The average number of children per family was 2.4 in 1971 compared to 1.63 in 2001 (the lowest ever recorded).
2. Women are having children later. The average age of women at the birth of their first child was 24 in 1971 compared to 27 in 2001.
3. More people are not having children at all - 9% of women born in 1945 were childless at age 45 compared to 15% of women born in 1955.

Social changes have influenced these trends. Contraception is more readily available and women's roles are changing. The emphasis on the individual in post-idustrial society is a key factor. Children are expensive and time consuming, and couples may choose to spend their time and money in other ways. The conflict between wanting a successful working life and being a mum has made many women put off having children until later.

The Feminist Approach

The feminist approach is dedicated to bringing greater equality for women. Primarily in the choices they make about their bodies and lives.

This has had massive implications on sociology and on the way society is perceived and investigated. The reasons for this are because for many years sociology only studied men and male experience.

Most Feminists believe the Family Exploits and Oppresses Women
1. From a feminist perspective, the family helps to maintain the existing social order.
2. Feminists call the existing social order patriarchy. Patriarchy is the combination of systems, ideologies and cultural practices which make sure that men have power.
3. Feminist theory argues that the family supports and reproduces inequalities between men an women.
4. The idea is that women are oppressed because they're socialised to be dependent on men - and to put themselves in second place to men. The family has a central role in this socialisation - male and female roles and expectations are formed in the family and then carried on into wider society.
5. Feminist sociologists say that there's an ideology about men's roles and women's roles in the family.

ideology - is a set of ideas about the way things are and the way things ought to be.

Social Policies

Social policies in the UK
In the UK there are many social policies that include being able to marry only on person at a time, only someone of the opposite sex however civil partnership now exist.
Social policies that affect divorce include whether or not divorce is legal, the amount of time you have to stay married before divorce is possible and who gains custody of the children. This affects children by having to go to school between the ages of 5 and 16, not being able to work part time until they are 13 and full time until they are 16. A whole range laws to do with smoking, drinking, sexual behaviour and even going to the cinema.
Social policies that affect of welfare includes child benefits that all primary cares of children receive, benefits available to single parents, and unemployment, housing benefits and pensions.
Social policies that affect on domestic violence and child abuse includes the laws that protect all members of the family against violence and give the police and courts the power to intervene within the family, remove violent members and place children in care.

Social polices in other countries
In all countries have very different laws that affect the family and these laws are constantly changing to fit in with different circumstances and the political ambitions of the countries' leaders.
In Nazi Germany in the 1930s for example the government decided that only the 'racially pure' should be able to have children. Many of those who were not see as fit to breed, such as the mentally and physically handicapped, were compulsorily sterilised.
In Romania in the 1980s, the government tried to increase the birth rate by restricting contraception and abortion. They made marriage more financially attractive and restricted divorce.
In China they have a one child policy and couples that comply get higher tax allowances and other benefits.

Theoretical Views
Theoretical views on social policies are held by functionalists, the New Right and feminists.

Functionalist Views on social policy
Functionalists have generally taken a positive view on social policy. The welfare state takes a lot of pressure off the family with regard to education and health care, and allows the family to concentrate on socialisation and nurturing. Murdock argues that the modern family has four key functions an Parson argues it has two functions. The existence of the welfare state allows the family to concentrate on these key functions.

New Right Views on social policy
The New Right takes a negative view on many social policies as they see them as undermining the traditional nuclear family. they are particularly critical of welfare benefits that are given to single-parent families as they believe they encourage young women especially to become pregnant, knowing the state will look after then and their child. Single-parent family should be discouraged and the nuclear family encouraged. One way this would be to reduce or eliminate the benefits given to single parents whilst making nuclear family and marriage more financially attractive. The New Right are also critical of divorce laws as they believe divorce is too easy, and people need to be encouraged to work at their marriage and not take the 'easy option' of divorce.

Feminist Views on social policy
Feminist support benefits for single parents because most single parents are women. Most women do not want to be single parents but may have left abusive or empty shell marriages and should be supported by the state as feminists argue. If benefits for single parents are reduce then the children will suffer. Feminist are also in favour of the divorce laws because they enable women to free themselves from patriarchal control, and would welcome the recent civil partnership law which enables gay couples to gain similar legal rights to heterosexuals. They would obviously welcome the laws against domestic violence, but often question how useful they are if the police are sometimes reluctant to become involved. Feminist also argue the many social policies are sexist and stereotypical.

Marxist Views on social policy
Marxist focus on the inequalities that exist in society between the bourgeoisie or capitalists (owner of factories and business) and they proletariat or working class (everyone else). The relationship between these two groups is not equal as the working class are forced to sell their labour to the capitalists in return for money. The capitalist make profit as they pay the workers less than the value of what they produce. The role of social polices in all this complex and not all Marxists agree with each other. Marxist social polices such as free education, health care and the welfare state are the result of class struggle. In other words the working class have 'won' these benefits from the capitalist class who were afraid of the consequences if they did not give the working class a better quality life. For other Marxists social polices are just 'smokescreens' to make life appear better. Education and health care are free. Health care is also only provided free to enable the workers to get better as quickly as possible so they can get back to work ready to be exploited all over again! Welfare benefits are kept as low as possible to force people back to work, and only exist to prevent conflict and possible to revolution. State pensions in particular are very poor as elderly people are no longer of any benefit to capitalism and no longer have a purpose.

The Marxist Approach

The Marxist approach to the family is that the family is the place of conflict where its the most vulnerable and weakest members (i.e children) are indoctrinated in accepting their place in an unequal and unjust society. The culture that is learnt here is the culture of the elites and the dominant classes.

Marxist Views
Sex, marriage and reproduction - they believe that monogamy is a way of ensuring men transmit ownership of private property to their offspring.

Socialisation and social control - they believe that this suppresses individuality to produce a compliant workforce that is passive, subservient and uncritical of the inequalities which rise capitalism.

Stabilisation - they believe that private life of the family provides the opportunities for satisfactions unavailable in work, thus cushioning the effects of capitalism.

Economic and welfare - they believe that the unit of consumption is essential to capitalist production. They also believe that the family responsibilities constrain men not to withdraw their labour.

Evaluation
There are many negatives with the Marxist view because it only concentrates on the effects of capitalism to the exclusion of other factors and they do not explain the similarities in capitalist with non-capitalist societies.

Karl Marx is the creator of the Marxist approach

New Right Approach

The New Right theory was developed in sociology in the 1980s. It's based on the idea that the traditional nuclear family and its values (mum, dad and kids, parents are married, dad in paid employment) are best for society. The Simpsons is a nuclear family.

New Right theorists believe that social policies on the family, children, divorce and welfar have undermined the family.

Charles Murray is a New Right socologist who says the traditional family is under threat. Murray says that welfare benefits are too high and creaye a 'culture of dependency' where an individual finds it easy and acceptable to take benefits rather than work. He also created 'underclass' which is the idea of people who live or benefits and do not work.

New Right theorists are particularly concerned about giving lots of welfare benefits to single mothers. They also think that it's a very bad idea to have children brought up in families where adults aren't working and in lone parent families or fatherless families. Moral panic and fear of breakdown in social fabric due to lone parent families.

New Right sociologists believe that the increase in lone-parent and reconstitued families and the easier access to divorce have led to a breakdown in traditional values. They say that this causes social problems such as crime increase.

Some politicians have made use of the new right theory. It's had an influence on social policy - making it harder for people to get benefits.

New Right theory has been criticised for 'blaming the victim' for their problems.

Pink - Family Portrait shows the views of New Right theory strongly.

The Functionalist Approach

The Functionalist approach to the family is like 'an organic system' just like the human body, where every part plays a role to keeping the body working and therefore in general keeping society harmoniously. They see every institution in society as essential to the smooth running of society.

Functionalist Views
Sex, marriage and reproduction - they believe that it provides satisfaction of sexual needs and then benefits both partners. They also believe that it produces the next genenerations and the new members of society.

Socialisation and social control - they believe this passes on the shared culture without which society wouldn't exist. They also believe that this prepares children for adult roles.

Stabilisation - they believe a loving relationship in marriage provides warmth, security, emotional support and fulfilment for adults.

Economic and welfare - they believe that both genders have different capabilities so the division of labour is an efficent way of organising the family.

Evaluation
There are negatives with the Functionalist family because they only look at the positive aspects and are oblivious to the other factors. However, the positives are that they understand how important the family is to society.

Functionalists



This is Talcott Parsons and he introduced the 'warm bath' theory.