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Summary Families + Households notes (Sociology A-level)
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Sociology notes made from several textbooks, several websites, and youtube videos.
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F+H:Family types
Nuclear - married couple living together with kids
Extended - extra family members living together with nuclear eg grandparents
Beanpole - nuclear that maintain regular contact with grandparents
Singleton - single/no kids/living alone
Single parent - single with kids
Same sex - same sex couple living together with kids
Cohabiting - unmarried living together
Reconstituted family - blended family eg stepparents
Why are single parent families increasing?
• Unemployment
• Divorce
• Abuse
• No love
• Changing attitudes towards marriage
Why are we having less children?
• Infant mortality rate declined
• Availability of contraception
• Increased expense of children
• Impact of feminism
1870s = avg 6 children
1960s = avg 2.7 children
Today = 1.6 children
Robert Chester - neo conventional family - family type where both parents go out to work
The rapports - argued traditional nuclear family isn't dominant family type, more diversity which
reflects greater freedom of choice - positive view towards family types unlike new right
NR view of family:
NR argue decline of nuclear family/growth of family diversity caused problems eg higher crime
rates - kids from broken homes 9x more likely to be young offenders, NR believe welfare state
led to people depending on benefits encourages sp, NR encouraged conservative government
, to launch campaign encouraging traditional family views - criticised because MPs had
affairs/divorced
Evaluation = exaggerated decline of nuclear family (people still marry/have kids), divorce
increased but most divorces remarry, feminists - gender roles restrictive/oppressive to women,
divorce helps women trapped in abusive marriages, most single parents not welfare diggers -
most want to work but cant find flexible jobs
Functionalist view of family:
Family - essential building block for stable society - Murdock argued universal nuclear family
benefits society as it reduces chaos and anomie
Murdock 4 vital functions
Healthy sex life - prevents affairs
Reproduction - creating next gen
Economic - providing food/shelter
Education - socialism
Parsons 2 functions
Primary socialisation - boys learn instrumental behaviour/breadwinner role, girls learn
expressive role
Stabilisation of adult personality - men can return home and destress by family (warm bath
theory)
Evaluation = ignores changed society as mass migration, more women working, turned UK into
multicultural society, both Murdock/Parson paint rosy pic of fam life/downplay dark side of family
eg DV/CA, Marxist-Feminist Ansley says women are takers of shit, men come home and dump
stress on wives, outdated theories - different family types now
Marxism view of family - functions of fam:
Inheritance of wealth (Engels) - family stays wealthy
Cushioning effect (Zaretsky) - provides haven to comfort those who are oppressed at
work/relieve frustration by having power in home
Althusser = ISA - fam hierarchy teaches kids to accept there will always be someone in
authority who they must obey - mirroring hierarchy of boss/workers
Contemporary Marxism - fam as a unit of consumption
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