SOC 211 Lecture 3

Theoretical Perspectives of the Family

A theory is a set of interrelated concepts used to describe, explain, and predict how society and
its parts are related to each other. It provides us with a perspective from which we view a
phenomenon Sociological theories help us to explain and predict the social world in which we
live. Theories in sociology provide us with different perspectives with which to view our social
world. A perspective is simply a way of looking at the world. There are three major theoretical
perspectives from which the family is viewed in Sociology and these are the functionalist
perspective, the conflict perspective, and the symbolic interactionist perspective (sometimes
called the interactionist perspective, or simply the micro view). Each perspective offers a variety
of explanations about the family and human relations within the family in terms of functions.
The Functionalist Perspective
The functionalist perspective is based largely on the works of Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim,
Talcott Parsons, and Robert Merton. According to functionalism, society is a system of
interconnected parts that work together in harmony to maintain a state of balance and social
equilibrium for the whole. The functionalist theory always stress that for a society to survive and
operate with some major of effectiveness, there are certain essential tasks that must be
performed. For example, each of the social institutions contributes important functions for
society: Family provides a context for reproducing, nurturing, and socializing children; education
offers a way to transmit a society’s skills, knowledge, and culture to its youth; politics provides a
means of governing members of society; economics provides for the production, distribution,
and consumption of goods and services; and religion provides moral guidance and an outlet for
worship of a higher power.
These tasks otherwise known as functions must be performed. Arising from the above premise,
the family performs some certain tasks which are essential for the maintenance of the institution
of the family as well as its survival. These tasks are discussed below:
Reproduction: Every given society must perpetuate itself. New members have to be created.
Sexual drives do not necessarily lead to procreation. This is because the use of pills, condom and
intra-uterine device (IUD), abortion and other countless techniques allow couples to separate
enjoyment from reproduction. Consequently, society motivates people to have children. For
instance, among the peasant, children are often defined as an economic asset. Also in the

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religious arena, especially in societies where ancestral worship provides the foundation of a
religious life, individuals comfort in the hereafter is only guaranteed by having numerous sons.
Even in the United States, many Americans still define marriage without children as a
misfortune.
Socialization: At birth, children are nurtured into the way of their culture and thus each new
generation makes sure that children born into the family are made to become a right kind of adult
in the future. It is the family that plays this role of primary socialization. It is through this process
of primary socialization that children become inducted into society way. The function of primary
socialization is what Talcott Parsons refer s to as the basic and irreducible function of the family.
The family serves as the chief culture transmitting agency. This function is very vital because if
culture is not internalized, society would seize to exist. This is also because without shared
norms and values, social life will not be possible.
Protection and Emotional Support: Unlike the children of lower animals that can exist and
grow independently ot their parents within a matter of days or weeks, human children require
prolong dependency. This means they are to be fed, clothed and provided with shelter till and
after puberty. This is more compounded considering the slow growth rate of children. In every
society, the family is assigned with the responsibility for shielding, protecting, sustaining, and
otherwise maintaining children. In addition to this, since children are social beings, they have a
variety of emotional and interpersonal needs that can be met only through interaction with other
human beings. The family provides an important setting for intimate face to face contact with
others. If the family relationship is healthy, it gives rise to companionship, love, security, a sense
of worth and a general feeling of well being.
Assignment of Status: The family in every society produces raw materials in the form of new
infants who must be placed within the social structure of the family and society. This function
can be accomplished by assigning statuses to an individual on the basis of family membership.
These statuses are usually ascribed in nature. The family offer statuses that merits an individual
in a variety of interpersonal relationship including those involving parents, child, brother and
sister and kin, uncles, aunts, cousins, and grandparents. Secondly, it orients an individual to basic
group membership including ethnic, religious. class, community,
Regulation of Sexual Behaviour: In virtually all societies, there are norms that regulate sexual
behaviour. Such social norms specify who may engage in sexual behavoiur, with whom and

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under what circumstances. There is hardly any society where people are given total freedom on
sexual expression. Although about 70% of the world society permits some form of sexual
license, they do not approve child birth out of wedlock. All in all, the functionalist perspective
draw out attention to the requirement of group in which the family draws a boundary and defines
what constitutes an incestuous sexual relationship.
The Conflict Perspective
In contrast to the functionalist perspective that sees the family as serving the interest of society as
a whole, the conflict theorists see the family as a social arrangement that benefits some people
more than others. The proponents of the perspective are Karl Marx and his associate Frederick
Engels, Randall Collins, Christine Delphy and a host of others. Karl Marx and his family view
the family as a class society in small miniature with one class,(men) oppressing the other
(women). They see marriage as the first form of class antagonism in which the wellbeing of the
male group is derived from the misery and oppression of the female group. The motivation of
sexual domination was the economic exploitation of a woman’s labour. The amount of unpaid
labour performed by the woman is very large and very profitable to her husband. According to
Collins (1988), historically men have been the sexual oppressors and women the sexual price of
men. Across societies, women are seen as sexual properties taken as booty in wars used by their
father in economic bargaining and considered the property of their husband.
After paying a particular price, men appropriate women primarily for their bed. Men have
ordered society in such a way that women are their sexual property. They claim exclusive sexual
right to a woman much in the same manner that determines access to economic property like a
land and building. This is why in the western world a marriage is not legal until it is sexually
consummated. Sexual assault was not legally regarded as rape. One of the grounds and of course
the only one regarded by the Bible for divorce is sexual infidelity and this applies for only the
woman. In other words, women hardly initiate divorce and if they do, if is not on the ground of
infidelity. In other to legitimate this exclusive ownership to women by their husband upon
completion of the economic consideration, the woman is compelled to answer the name of the
man and drop her father’s name. In trying to claim the intimacy, men reduce the wife to mere
property and this arrangement is deeply rooted in patriarchy.
Another dimension of the conflict perspective is that family and marriage are put in place to
benefit the capitalist. The fact that the husband must retain his job in order to cater for his family,

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he cannot easily challenge a working condition that the employer offers him. The fear of losing
his job and at the same time losing the respect at the home front, will make him to work at any
condition not matter how detrimental to the benefit of the capitalist. Another area where the
capitalist benefit from the family is in the area of socialization. Unlike the functionalists who see
socialization as a process of producing well meaning individuals that can represent society, the
conflict theorists see socialization as n ideological conditioning device that produces submissive,
honest and disciplined individuals for future labour force. The kind of people that the capitalist
feel cannot rock the boat. The family will produce individuals that will continue to work
effectively and efficiently while their employer (ie, capitalist) go to bed with their two eyes
closed.
Symbolic Interactionist Perspective
Symbolic interactionism is a theory that analyzes patterns of communication, interpretation, and
adjustment between individuals in society. The theory is a framework for understanding how
individuals interact with each other and within society through the meanings of symbols. Role-
taking is a key mechanism that permits an individual to appreciate another person’s perspective
and to understand what an action might mean to that person. Role-taking emerges at an early age
through activities such as playing house. Symbolic interactionists explore the changing meanings
attached to the family. Symbolic interactionists argue that shared activities help to build
emotional bonds and that marriage and family relationships are based on negotiated meanings.
The interactionist perspective emphasizes that families reinforce and rejuvenate bonds through
symbolic rituals such as family meals and holidays.
Symbolic interactionism has been an important theoretical perspective in family studies since
their early stage of development and numerous inquiries have addressed its relationship with
parenting style. For example, the theory focuses on family patterns of behaviour, as well as
personality adjustments and transformation. This also holds true for analyses of processes of
socialization, adjustment, identity formation, role creation, and the development of self-concept.
The meaning attached to identity an individual holds, role s they play form the basis of social
relations and interactions in the society as it helps to make the social world meaningful and help
to understand the social context within which we relate.
Many contemporary family studies that proceed from a symbolic interactionist perspective
employ some type of role analysis. These discuss how the roles of husband and wife are defined

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during the various stages of family life; how conceptions of gender roles affect the definitions of
spousal roles; how having children and the transition to parental roles change role constellations
and interaction patterns; how both external events (parental employment, natural disasters,
migration) and internal events (births, deaths, divorces) impact role definitions, performance,
stress, and conflict; and how these role-specific variables affect the attitudes, dispositions, and
self-conceptions of family members. Symbolic interactionism perspective emphasizes the
processes of role-making, role definition, role negotiation, and role identity within the family
The symbolic interactionist approach investigate the processes of socialization through which
personalities and self-concepts are formed, the culture of one generation is passed to the next,
and values and attitudes are transmitted from parents to children. The socialization of children is
one of the few remaining— and most critical—functions of the family in modern societies. The
symbolic interactionist perspective concerning child socialization encompasses a broad range of
processes and outcomes involved in integrating the child into its family and society. The
symbolic interactionist maintain that retrospective positive appraisals of one’s parents, coupled
with the use of inductive control and parental support of their own children, lead to positive
outcomes regarding a child’s self-conception in terms of socialization. This is becuase
socialization process itself is highly reciprocal insofar as parents and children affect each other’s
self-concepts. High levels of reciprocity are in fact an important characteristic of socialization
processes within the family, as well as a hallmark of symbolic interactionism.