Functionalist Perspective On Family And The Socialization Of The Family

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Background and Literature Review Functionalist Perspective According to Functionalist Theory (Parsons & Bales, 1955), family is the most important social institution. Through this institution children establish emotional ties and begin to internalize such things as cultural norms and values. The family provides permanency, individuals being related by ancestry, marriage or adoption. At its core concepts functionalism provides an understanding of the family’s role in helping children to develop and be productive in society. The family provides universal components for its members. The family has two central functions the socialization of children and stabilization of adult personality (Parsons & Bales, 1955). Socialization of children occurs in the …show more content…

Parsons and Bales (1955) describe the ideal family structure as the nuclear family, a marriage between a man and a woman with children (p.11). Every culture has its own rules about roles and own way of socializing children. The goal is that the adults will teach the next generation the rules and roles that are expected in their culture. The family stabilizes the adult personality by supporting them emotionally. Every culture has their own view of what that might look like. Pre-slavery Billingsley (1968) specify, First, family life was not primarily—or even essentially–the affair of two people who happened to be married to each other. It united not simply two people, but two families with a network of extended kin who had considerable influence on the family, and considerable responsibility for its development and well-being. Marriage could neither be entered into nor abandoned without substantial community support. Secondly, marriage and family life in pre-European Africa, as among most tribal people, was enmeshed in centuries of tradition, ritual, custom, and law (p.

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