Sociology assessment (family Essay

Submitted By harryaston
Words: 491
Pages: 2

Sociology Assessment

Assess the view that the family benefits all members of society.
The view of "Family benefits all members of society" is a Functionalists view on family. Functionalists believe that every family and every part of it should have its importance to the society. Functionalists like Murdock believe that for this to be true, there are four things every family must do or have. One of these things is primary socialisation, which is the thought that parents must teach their children basic behavioural skills and teach them how to act throughout their life. This, they believe, is a benefit to society.
Another Functionalist, Parsons, believes that the parents of a family needs to have Instrumental and Expressive roles. This means that for example the mother should be caring and should noticeably show emotions around the children. Parsons thinks that the "perfect family" should do this, as he thinks that every family should be able to "stabilize the human personality".

In contrast, the Marxist theory completely conflicts with the Functionalist theory. Marxists believe that the family is a hindrance to society and that it creates Capitalism amongst the society. Marxists like Karl Marx present the theory that when a family has a business, or a lot of money, everything the society does benefits them, and not the rest of society, therefore the other way round. They think that it's unfair because of the "Inheritance of property" theory, which is that after the male father figure in a family has lead a business for example, earned a lot of money and property, it is inherited by the eldest boy in the family, leaving no opportunities for the rest of society. This means that the boy who inherits everything doesn't have to work like the rest of the working class people.
Marxists would critique this idea of "Family benefitting members of society" because they