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Explore different perspectives of the role of the family in society, with opportunities to reflect on the key concepts of Power, control and resistance, and Socialisation, culture and identity. Examine the effects of social change on the diversity of family and household forms, linking to the key concept of Social change and development.
Understand functionalist accounts of how the family benefits its members and society and how the functions of families have changed over time, including the 'loss of functions' debate.
Examine Marxist accounts of how the family benefits capitalism, including ideological control, reproduction of labour, and consumption.
Analyze feminist responses to functionalist and Marxist accounts of the role of the family.
Family: A major social institution involving patterns of shared, stable behaviour that continue over time, from one generation to the next.
Households: Ways that people share their lives in which the people are not necessarily related to each other by family ties.
Nuclear families: Consist of parents and their children (two generations).
Monogamy: The marriage of one man to one woman.
Polygamy: Where one person may have more than one marriage partner.
Polygyny: One man married to a number of women.
Polyandry: One woman married to a number of men.
George Peter Murdock (1949) analyzed 250 societies and concluded that the family is a universal social institution. His definition includes four key characteristics:
📌 Murdock's definition is exclusive but flexible enough to accommodate both monogamy and polygamy.
Murdock argued that the nuclear family is the universal social unit, often forming the core of extended families. In modern societies, the 'isolated nuclear family' is physically and economically separated from wider kin networks.
Murdock identified four essential functions that families perform in all societies:
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