💞 Sexual
The family gives adults a stable and approved sexual relationship. This keeps relationships orderly and reduces conflict between members of society.
The Role of the Family » Functionalist Views of the Family
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Cambridge spec: 4.2.1
- How functionalists say the family benefits its members and society
- Murdock's four functions and Parsons' two irreducible functions
- The loss of functions debate and how family functions have changed
- Warm bath theory and why functionalists value the nuclear family
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Unlock This CourseThe family through functionalist eyes
You have already met functionalism: it sees society as a system in which each institution does a job that helps everyone to live together. Remember, the family is one of those institutions. Functionalists ask a simple question about it: what does the family do, and who gains from it?
Their answer is that the family benefits both its members and society. Members receive care, food, shelter, love and guidance. Society receives new, well-behaved citizens and workers, and stable adults who can play their part. A society without families would struggle to carry on at all.
Key terms:
- Functions of the family: the jobs the family does that benefit its members and society.
- Irreducible functions: functions so basic that the family always keeps them, even when other institutions take over its other jobs.
Murdock's four functions
George Murdock studied family life in 250 societies. He argued that every society he studied had a family that carried out four basic functions.
👶 Reproductive
The family produces the next generation. Without new babies, a society would die out.
🍲 Economic
The family provides for its members, for example food, shelter and money for the children and for those who cannot work.
🎓 Educational
The family teaches children the norms and values of their society, so they can fit in as they grow up.
Murdock concluded that the family is universal, meaning it is found everywhere, because these jobs are so important.
Parsons' two irreducible functions
Primary socialisation in action: Parsons said the family is where children first learn society's norms and values
Talcott Parsons agreed that families once did many jobs. He argued that in modern industrial societies the family has two functions that are irreducible, meaning they are so basic that the family always keeps them.
- Primary socialisation of children. The family teaches young children the language, norms and values of society. This is the first and most important stage of learning to be a member of society.
- Stabilisation of adult personalities. The family gives adults emotional support, so they stay calm, secure and well balanced, and can keep up their roles as partners and parents.
Warm bath theory
Warm bath theory: Parsons said family life lets stressed working adults relax and unwind at home
The second function is often called warm bath theory. Parsons said modern working life is stressful and competitive. When adults come home, the family acts like a warm bath: they can relax, be themselves and let the tension of the day wash away. They can then go back to work refreshed.
Worked example
A bus driver finishes a long, tense day in heavy traffic and returns to a home where a meal is ready and the children want to hear about their day. According to warm bath theory, this relaxing, caring time restores the driver, so they are ready to go back to work. Society gains a calmer, more reliable worker, and the driver gains comfort.
The loss of functions debate
Parsons noticed that the family used to do far more than it does today. In the past, many families worked together as a team to produce food or goods, taught their own children, looked after the sick and cared for the old.
🏫 Taken by other institutions
Specialised institutions have taken over many jobs. Schools teach children, hospitals treat illness, workplaces produce goods and the welfare state supports people who are out of work or old.
🏡 What the family kept
Parsons said the family did not become unimportant. It lost some functions but became specialised in the two irreducible ones, primary socialisation and stabilisation of adult personalities.
This is the loss of functions debate: has the family lost its importance as it lost jobs, or has it simply become more focused? Functionalists take the second view. Critics argue that families still do many things, for example they still provide economic support, care for older relatives and help children with school work, so the family has not lost so much after all.
Why the change happened is covered in the lesson on Demographic Change, Industrialisation and the Family. Here, just remember the result: functions have moved from the family to specialised institutions over time.
The importance of the nuclear family
Functionalists see the nuclear family (two parents and their children) as the best type of family for modern society. Parsons argued that industrial societies need workers who can move to where the jobs are. A small nuclear family is easier to move than a large extended family. Murdock also found the nuclear family in every society he studied, which supported the idea that it is basic and necessary.
Functionalists therefore see the nuclear family as the family type that fits modern society and carries out the family's functions most effectively.
Evaluating the functionalist view
- Strengths: it explains clearly why families matter to individuals and to society, and it shows how the family links to the rest of society.
- Limitations: it presents family life as harmonious and ignores the dark side, such as conflict and violence in some families. It assumes the nuclear family is the best, even though there are many other family structures. Marxists and feminists argue the family mainly benefits capitalism or men, not everyone equally.
Common mistakes
Saying that the family "has lost all its functions". Functionalists say it kept two key ones. Mixing up Murdock (four functions) with Parsons (two functions). Describing warm bath theory as washing babies: it is about relieving adults' stress.
Exam-style question
(a) Define the term warm bath theory. [2 marks]
(b) Give two of Murdock's four functions of the family. [2 marks]
(c) Explain three ways in which functionalists say the family benefits society. [6 marks]
Model answer
(a) The idea that the family acts as a place where adults can relax and escape the stress of work (1), so their personalities are stabilised and they are ready to return to work (1).
(b) Any two of: sexual (1); reproductive (1); economic (1); educational (1).
(c) First, the family carries out primary socialisation, teaching children the norms and values of society, so they grow up able to fit in (2). Second, it is reproductive, producing new members so that society continues (2). Third, it stabilises adult personalities by giving emotional support, so adults are calm and able to work and play their roles (2).
Exam tip
In part (c), the question asks how the family benefits society, so end every point by saying what society gains, not just what the family does.