1. Question
Identify Murdock’s four functions of the family

2. Answer
Sexual
Reproductive
Economic
Educational

3. Question
What conclusion about the family did Murdock come to in 1940s?

4. Answer
The family is inevitable and universal and is found in all societies

5. Question
Identify one aspect of family life functionalists ignore

6. Answer Alternative households Problems with families Too idealistic
Exploitation of women
Violence within the home

7. Question
How do Marxists view the family?

8. Answer
The family is a tool of capitalism which allows the ruling-class to exploit the working class

9. Question
How did Engels view the family?

10. Answer
It had an economic function allowing the ruling-class to pass their wealth from one generation to the next.

11. Question
How did Althusser view the function of the family?

12. Answer
that in order for capitalism to survive people must be taught how to think and behave, and the family (as well as schools and the mass media) was the best mechanism for doing this

13. Question
What are the two main functions of the family for Parsons?

14. Answer primary socialisation of children
stabilisation of adult personalities

15. Question
What is Parson’s sexual division of labour?

16. Answer
Within the isolated nuclear family members are allocated particular roles (role allocation) in order for it function correctly:
Men have instrumental role
Women have expressive role

17. Question
Identify and explain Parsons’ ‘isolated nuclear family’

18. Answer
Parson’s identified the families in modern industrial society as being isolated because it’s not connected to wider kinship relations.
The isolated nuclear family is freed from the obligations of wider kin and therefore is better able to adapt to the requirements of modern industrial society – such as moving around the country looking for work