Sociological Views Of Government Policies And Laws On Family Life

The other part of item 2B talks about the New Right’s view on social policy. The new right argue that social policies interfere with the family too much, they stop it from being self-reliant. As they argue that the nuclear family is the natural family, supported by the idea of the biological gender division of labour, if the roles of this family type are carried out accordingly, then the family is able to be self-reliant and not need the government to support it. This idea was mainly highlighted by Murray who created to proposals about social policy. The first one is the ‘dependency culture’. This is the idea that social policies are making people assume the state will provide for them, in forms such as providing houses for pregnant teenagers or assuming that the state will look after children. Therefore,

Outline and evaluate Functionalist views of the role of the family in society. [33 marks]

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

The textbook defines and explains the sociological perspective on family. Society has changed the family dynamic, and has created a different definition than in previous years. I was surprised to learn that not everyone in society believes they should support their children, and the parents are not responsible for providing support. This concept is a hard one to understand because I was raised to accept help from the man of the family, and to let the man provide for all the needs for the family. The chapter also discusses mate selection, authority, and inheritance. I was also surprised to learn that there is not a historical record of women dominating men in society. Roles in the family are an important part in society because they provide basic guidelines for how members in the family function and their roles. One of the most interesting topics was the section on courtship. Some people in society do not believe that love will exist until after a marriage occurs. This concept is shocking, and is confusing because in western society, people idolize love and the ideas behind being in love with someone, and sharing a life with someone. Many people believe that love happens at the right place and right time, but people in other parts of the world do not see marriage in the same light. Another interesting fact stated in the textbook is interracial marriages. Some changes in society are harmful, but others do not affect society as much as people think. Also, the dynamic of family is changing according to how many children are born to each family. People now are wanting smaller families, and before things changed it was important for men to breed bigger families to carry on the last name. I think this chapter has opened my eyes to how much society has changed from the time I was in high school until now. Living in a small town makes me feel oblivious to the

Functionalist’s sees that society is made up of a range of different sub-systems which depend on each other, and that society needs these functions or order for survival and is vital towards society. Functionalists see the family as a very important sub-system, as it raises and teaches children norms and values. According to Peter Murdock, he argues that the family performs four main functions to meet the needs of society and the members of society. One of the

‘The family performs important tasks that contribute to society’s basic needs and helps perpetuate social order.’ (Anthony Giddens 2006 - Page 238) Functionalists believe a family’s paramount purpose is to raise and support their children within society.

However, there are also policies which have been introduced that support family diversity. An example of a policy is the Civil Partnership Act which was introduced to allow couples of the same sex to have a legal relationship, similar to that of married couples. This promotes same sex relationships and also makes their rights more equal to those of heterosexual couples, which supports and encourages family diversity. Another key example of a policy which supports family diversity is the change made to adoption laws in 2002, which allowed gay couples to now adopt children, again making the rights of gay couples and heterosexual couples more equal. The New Labour approach recognises that due to social change, social policies cannot be introduced to support nuclear families because the reality is that most households in the UK are not nuclear. They recognise that nowadays, both parents tend to act as dual earners in the family and it is now less common for women to be the long-term housewife and child carer.

Family is a very vital social group for any individual as well as society. It is the focal point around which life of every individual revolves. The day usually starts with family and also ends with family but in between we used to discharge our professional, social commitment. The desire to be with the family reflects the strong emotional bond individual share with family. Family is the basic unit of society and in its most simplest form it may consist of a husband, wife and children .In a broader sense it may refers to all relatives of several generations may be connected to each other by blood, marriage or adoption .The married couple not only lives under one roof but also stay connected physically, mentally, emotionally, socially moreover financially. They are supposed to complement each other by meeting need and aspirations of each other. A family basically based on the institution of marriage. So it is very much significant on the part of both husband and wife primarily about the need to have a healthy functional behavior for a life time to meet the commitment they are extending to each other.

As the father of modern family studies, Whittaker, J. K. and J. Garbarino. (1983) observed, 'We know too much about the family to be able to study it both objectively and easily 'Some family needs could be considered as being met through a combination of expressive and instrumental functions, such as child care, and health-related supports. This applies on both Case Studies.

n the upcoming page’s I will answer the following questions. Why is family the most important agent of socialization? What caused the dramatic changes to the American family? What are the changes? I will discuss the differences in marriage and family, I will discuss how they are linked to class, race, gender, and personal choices. The purpose of this study is to explore the many different family functions and the paths that people are now choosing. I will give my opinion on whether these changes have had a positive or negative affect. I will finally discuss the trend of the modern family, back to pre-World War II family structure, how would that effect the strides that have been made in the progression of women rights.

This essay will assess how functionalists view point of the family by exploring Murdock, Comte, Parsons and Durkheim, the founder of functionalism, ideas and evaluating them.

There are many remedies/solutions that could be designed to help single-parent families and older adults at the local level. According to Chapin (2014), some policy and program changes, include but are not limited to, restoring the federal entitlement status, reflecting strengths-based principles, reconsidering the five year limit, etc. (Chapin, 2014). The most important policy and program changes needed for single-parent families and older adults (e.g., grandparents) to provide an adequate standard of living are the following: The first policy or program change needed to provide an adequate standard of living includes increasing the maximum limit for the TANF program. Currently, TANF is temporary and it is limited to a lifetime total of 48

Where functionalism believes the nuclear family is positive, marxism argues from a negative viewpoint seeing an extended and reproduced conflict between classes. Marxist dispute the belief of family having equal benefit for all and argue the capitalist economy depends on the family to buy and work, to produce goods which benefits the capitalist. Although the nuclear family is responsible for socialisation, it must be considered that not all norms and values are positive. They oppose the functionalists who paint a rosy view, who forget to account for issues that arise possibly leading to divorce or separation, as not all families are the same (Taylor and Richardson et al,. 2002). The increase of economic pressure from unemployment and people living longer seen to impose pressure on relationships leading to breakdown. The socialisation process seen to result in the spreading of the ruling class philosophy, individuals being deceived into accepting a capitalist system of leadership and dominance. Those Bourgeois benefitting from  a created labour force with the proletariat exploited. Engels (1972) saw the bourgeois form of nuclear family as oppressing women, who were dependent financially on their spouse and expected child bearers. Family being designed to control women, protect property and for men to know their

Indeed, they help to explain why family structure is such an explosive issue for Americans. The debate about it is not simply about the social-scientific evidence, although that is surely an important part of the discussion. It is also a debate over deeply held and often conflicting values. How do we begin to reconcile our long-standing belief in equality and diversity with an impressive body of evidence that suggests that not all family structures produce equal outcomes for children? How can we square traditional notions of public support for dependent women and children with a belief in women's right to pursue autonomy and independence in childbearing and child-rearing? How do we uphold the freedom of adults to pursue individual happiness in their private relationships and at the same time respond to the needs of children for stability, security, and permanence in their family lives? What do we do when the interests of adults and children conflict? These are the difficult issues at stake in the debate over family structure.

According to the theory of Structural Functionalism (Strong, 2014), Caroline Payne’s family unit (Shipler, 2004), functions in society in many ways. Caroline benefits society by getting married and producing four children in those marriages, positive because she socializes her children to integrate into society. Her son and daughter- in- law are a support system for her because they take in Amber, Caroline’s youngest, disabled daughter, for better quality of education than in New Hampshire, helping to socialize this child.