Sociology of the family
Sociology of the family.
In this essay the sociology of the family will be discussed. In 1949 George Peter Murdock who was a functionalist studies a social structure. While looking at range of societies, almost 250 of them, ranging from hunting family’s to families of a larger scale. He believed that there was some form of family that appeared in every society and with the evidence that he gathered concluded that the family is universal. Murdock defined the family as follows, the family is a social group characterized by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults. Murdock, G (1949). This view on the family was viewed as the ideal family for many of years. The structure of the family will vary depending on the society, the most common family is the smaller family known as the nuclear family which consists of a husband and wife and their immature offspring. This is the type of family Murdock explained in his theory. Murdock, G (1949) argued that the family performs 4 basic functions in all societies, which he termed the sexual, reproductive, economic and educational. Which is in some way is true because without the sexual and reproductive functions there would be no more people in society although a radical feminist would argue that she could financially look after herself but what a radical feminist could not do is the reproduce spouse.
Throughout this section of the essay the structural and functional changes that have occurred during the last century will be analysed. A theme that has a major effect on sociological studies of the family is the relationship between the structure of the family and the related process of industrialisation and modernisation. For example the type of family that would be common in pre-industrialisation would be the extended family, which
In this essay the sociology of the family will be discussed. In 1949 George Peter Murdock who was a functionalist studies a social structure. While looking at range of societies, almost 250 of them, ranging from hunting family’s to families of a larger scale. He believed that there was some form of family that appeared in every society and with the evidence that he gathered concluded that the family is universal. Murdock defined the family as follows, the family is a social group characterized by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults. Murdock, G (1949). This view on the family was viewed as the ideal family for many of years. The structure of the family will vary depending on the society, the most common family is the smaller family known as the nuclear family which consists of a husband and wife and their immature offspring. This is the type of family Murdock explained in his theory. Murdock, G (1949) argued that the family performs 4 basic functions in all societies, which he termed the sexual, reproductive, economic and educational. Which is in some way is true because without the sexual and reproductive functions there would be no more people in society although a radical feminist would argue that she could financially look after herself but what a radical feminist could not do is the reproduce spouse.
Throughout this section of the essay the structural and functional changes that have occurred during the last century will be analysed. A theme that has a major effect on sociological studies of the family is the relationship between the structure of the family and the related process of industrialisation and modernisation. For example the type of family that would be common in pre-industrialisation would be the extended family, which