Sociological Perspective On Marriage

Objective – Explain basic sociological concepts of the family, marriage, and intimate relationships. (Pg. 365)

As stated in our text, various factors can bind married couples together, such as economic interdependencies, legal, social and moral constraints, relationship, and amongst other things. In the recent years some of these factors have diminished their strengths. The modern generation sees marriage in a different perspective altogether. Individuals today feel they are stable independently, they do not need to rely on their spouse for emotional or financial support. Many are career driven and soar to conquer their dreams over settling down with a family. Such untraditional views have increased divorce rates.

In the article “What if Marriage is Bad for Us?” Laurie Essig and Lynn Owens summarize the things that

In the theory of Structural Functionalism, one believes that society is made up of many parts which depend on each other to work and if one fails, all will fail. Imagine the body; each organ has a set function. If the heart stopped doing what it was supposed to be doing and tried to digest your food, what would happen? Functionalists consider family as an essential building block of society. This is an analogy to decide that if one part of society actually starts failing, the society dies. George Peter Murdock believes nuclear families carry out 4 essential functions. These functions are Sexual, Reproductive, Socialization, and Economic. Under the sexual function we have the same partner to reduce social disruption by of a free for

Stephanie Coontz is a sociologist who is interested in marriage and the change in its structure over the time-span as love became a main proponent of the relationship involved in marriages. In her article, “What 's Love Got to Do With It,” Coontz argues that the more love becomes a part of the equation the less stable the institution of marriage becomes. Marriage at one point was a social contract that bound two families together to increase their property and wealth as well as ally connections. Each party entered into the contract knowing their roles and if one partner failed to meet the expectations, they were still contractually obligated to one another and were not allowed to divorce. As love became part of the equation, each partner was less sure of their obligations and often chose to end their marriages if at all possible.

The Structural Functionalist view marriage as essential to society and its wellbeing. According to the Functionalists marriage is universal in its fulfillment of six needs of society: Economic production, Socialization of children, Care of the sick and aged, Recreation, Sexual control, and Reproduction.

The functionalistic perspective is based on the idea of society being made of parts, that together make a whole. Functionalist try to identify these different parts and figure out what their function is exactly, in terms of the contribution they make to form equilibrium in society. This perspective also states that if there is ever a disruption in society, it can be restored if its social control is operated effectively and efficiently (Lindsey, 2015). Lindsey (2015) stated, “values surrounding gender roles, marriage, and the family are central to functionalist assertions regarding social equilibrium” (p. 6). Specifically, because gender roles have a prominent place in marriage and families (Keirns et al., 2015).

The simplest and most basic foundation of a sociological civilization or group begins at the core center of sociology; which is marriage and the inner-fabric creation of a family. It is said that matches are made in heaven, however finding and defining your “soul mate” differs from one social group to the next. The social institution of marriage changes and adapts consistently through time, religious practice, and national beliefs. Many people believe they lead happy and satisfying lives without a marital partner, as others highly value and desire a life-long marital partner as the pinnacle achievement of their life.

It is evident that in today’s society, the divorce rate is up, and it is higher than ever. Today in America, approximately 40 to 50 percent of married couples divorce. If you only look around, you will see that almost everyone has someone in their family that is divorced. In the earlier years, divorce was greatly looked down on by society; marriage vows were taken very seriously. In fact, many people would stay unhappily in marriages solely to avoid the harsh ridicule of others. In today’s day and age this is not the case. Almost everyone and their mother is in the midst of a divorce or knows someone who has previously gotten a divorce. Many question why divorce rates are at its peak. I believe the reason lies within the functionalism theory.

Every one of the major sociological standpoints views family in a different manner. However, from analyzing this broad perspective, functionalist view family essential because it meets a number of significant needs in society. This includes the reproduction of children to replace members that have passed away, furthermore, socializing those children so that they act within the norms of expectations in society as a whole (Mackie, 2002). According to functionalists, marriage is an equally beneficial interchange between members of two genders.

Marriage is known to be a serious commitment by both the husband and wife in the past and to present day. Therefore, it is believed that it comes with many responsibilities and expectations. They also feel that to be married there are certain eligibilities. Before current society the husband expected for the wife to be a stay at home mother and have all the house duties complete when he arrived home from work. The expectations from the wife was that her husband would provide the income. Now, the expectations are entirely different. They both are expected to provide for the family as well as help with duties around the house. These modern expectations are concluded from many different reasons and a main one recently is from viewing of social media or from seeing family relationships such as parents or grandparents. The couple in the marriage then set their expectations so high that the outcome is usually negative. Why are there so many expectations for marriage that people feel obliged to have some sort of qualifications? While social media and impact from relative relationships can be an influence to the expectations for a marriage the outcome may not appear to come out like desired and much conflict between the couple can be expected.

According to Mary Ann Lamanna, Agnes Riedmann, & Susan Stewart (2018), American society, has “shifted from institutional to companionate to individualized marriage”. Institutional marriages generally do not required love, but required the wife to obey her husband. Women started to find their a voice within companionate marriage, where a woman can expect her husband to support her in her pursuit of self actualization. However, the men are still the breadwinner and the women are still the homemaker. The most common form of marriage today is individualized marriage, where the roles between man and woman, breadwinner and homemaker, a state of are in flux. Their roles within the marriage changes depending on their current situation (Lamanna et al., 2018). With these types of marriages familiar to American culture, we often forget that other types of marriages such as forced or arranged marriages exist, too.

Marriage is a word that has evolved into something else in today’s society. It is an “old” term that applies to “old” beliefs. Today marriage is a word used to describe the coming together of two people under a consenting agreement that they will care for each other under any circumstances. Timothy Keller, a marriage expert, describes marriage as, “to be loved but not know is comforting but superficial. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.” Is that what really happens in a marriage or is all just a façade to meet the high standards of the American people? Marriage is often a word used to hide the truth of people’s problems with commitment, expectations, and reality.

1993:135;Klein and White 1996). Structural functionalism and conflict theory can help inform the proposed trend by examining the structures that are emphasized in a marital union (structures such as monogamy, finance, employment), and the trend between ones age and their status within these structures. Symbolic interactionism and social exchange fit this proposal, as they aid one in understanding an individual’s perspective of marriage and how/if it changes with age. This micro perspective involves deeply questions one might ask themselves including ‘what will I get out of marriage?’ or ‘how can one tell if they are emotionally/financially ready for marriage?’

Today, the idea of marriage conjures images of bashful brides beautifully draped in all white, of grandiose flower arrangements climbing towards the ceiling, of romance personified. As an institution in this modern world, marriage represents the apex of romantic love, with an entire industry of magazines, movies, and television shows devoted to perpetuating marriage as an idealized symbol of the ultimate love between two people. Contrarily, as a sociological institution, marriage comes from much more clinical and impersonal origins, contrasting with the passion surrounding modern understandings of the institution. Notably, french anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss theorizes that the institution of marriage emerged from a need to form alliances between groups, with women functioning as the property exchanged so that such alliances could be solidified (Levi-Strauss).