All people are created in the image of God and thus, all human life, from conception to natural

death, is
sacred. Through the mystery of Christ, we become children of the Father and temples of the Holy Spirit.
Gods love for all is the foundation of human dignity. The basic dignity that each person possesses comes
from God; therefore all forms of discrimination are always wrong. People take precedence over things
and structures. Systems are meant to serve people. And people are meant to serve and care for one
another. Scripture tells us repeatedly of Gods love for us. We are called to see every person through the
eyes of God and to love them because God loved them (and us) first.
Genesis 1:26-31 God created man and woman in his image.
Deuteronomy 10:17-19 God loves the orphan, the widow, and the stranger. You should too.
Proverbs 22:2 The Lord is the maker of both rich and poor.
Luke 10:25-37 The good Samaritan recognized the dignity in the other and cared for his life.
John 4:1-42 Jesus broke with societal and religious customs to honor the dignity of the Samaritan woman.
Romans 12: 9-18 Love one another, contribute to the needs of others, live peaceably with all.
1 Corinthians 3:16 You are holy, for you are Gods temple and God dwells in you.
Galatians 3:27-28 All Christians are one in Christ Jesus. James 2:1-8 Honor the poor.
1 John 3: 1-2 See what love the Father has for us, that we should be called Children of God.
1 John 4:7-12 Let us love one another because love is from God. Page 5 L
The Family & Social Structure
Quick revise
After studying this section, you should be able to understand:
key concepts such as nuclear families, extended families and households
how social change, especially economic change, has impacted upon the family
the functions of the family from a functionalist, Marxist and feminist perspective

Defining key terms of family structures

Some of the common terms used by sociologists to describe family structures include:
Kinship a concept that refers to family connections between people based on blood, marriage

or adoption. It refers to relatives, both in the past and in the present, whether close or distant
and whether contact is frequent, infrequent or even nonexistent.

 Household any person, or persons, who live under the same roof. These may be family

members, but they may also be unrelated, e.g. a group of students sharing a house are a
household.
Nuclear family the most basic family type which is experienced by the majority of people in

Britain. This contains just two generations, i.e. an adult heterosexual couple (usually husband
and wife) and their dependent children who live in the same household.
Extended families those family types in which the basic nuclear structure has been enlarged to

include grandparents, uncles, cousins, etc. and who either live in the same household or in
close proximity, e.g. in the same neighbourhood, or keep in close frequent contact, e.g. contact
may be on a daily basis.
The functionalist view of the family
The functionalist approach argues that all social institutions (such as families and the education system)
are functional or beneficial because they perform key functions for individuals and for society.
Murdock (1949) studied over 250 societies around the world and argued that the nuclear family was
universal throughout the world. He claimed that it had the following features:
It is small and compact in structure, composed of a mother, father and usually two or three

children who are biologically related.

It is a type of household in that its members normally share common residence.
It is based on heterosexual romantic love reinforced by marriage and fidelity.
Marriage is based on a natural, or biological, sexual division of labour in that women are mainly

responsible for nurturing children, whilst men are responsible for the economic maintenance of
the household by performing the role of breadwinner.
The immediate family comes first and all other obligations and relationships come second.

Kinship, therefore, is all important.

It is assumed, almost without question, that the family is a positive and beneficial institution in

which family members receive nurturing, unconditional love and care.

KEY POINT
The influence of these traditional beliefs about family life has been immense. They constitute a powerful
conservative ideology (i.e. dominant set of ideas) about what families should look like and how family
members should behave, e.g. the following beliefs are very influential today in Britain.
That women have maternal instincts and that the main responsibility for parenting lies with the

mother.
That cohabitation does not have the same value as marriage.
That lone parents are not as effective as two parents.
That homosexuals should not have the same fertility or parenting rights as heterosexuals.

Murdock claimed that this nuclear family performs four basic functions in all societies, which benefit
both society and the individual.
Reproductive or procreative this is essential for the survival of society. Without reproduction,

society would cease to exist.

Sexual marital sex creates a powerful emotional bond between a couple, encourages fidelity

and therefore commits the individual to family life. Sex within marriage contributes to social
order and stability, because marital fidelity sets the moral rules for general sexual behaviour.
Economic parents provide the economic things that are vital for sustaining life in children, such

as shelter, food and protection, e.g. they take economic responsibility for the welfare of their
children by becoming productive workers and bringing home an income.
Educational learning social values and norms via primary socialisation is necessary in order

that culture be handed down from one generation to another. The family links to the key themes
of socialisation and culture.
Criticism of Murdock
The main criticism of Murdock is that his definition of family life is very much a product of time and
place (1940s USA) and consequently is ethnocentric, i.e. it is based on the view that Western, and
especially American, culture produces the best cultural institutions and that other cultural family types
are somehow inferior.
Interpretivist sociologists argue that Murdock fails to acknowledge that families are the product of
culture rather than biology, and that, consequently, family relationships and roles will take different forms
even within the same society.
Murdocks model is value-laden and not objective, because it is clearly saying there are right and
wrong ways to organise family life. It is also very dated and fails to take account of modern social
processes such as the increased availability of career choices for women, the decline in male employment
opportunities, the importance of the contraceptive pill, the relaxation in social and religious attitudes and
the increasing recognition, from the 1970s onwards, that family life does not always benefit all family
members.
However, despite his tendency to make moral judgements about heterosexuality and marriage, Murdock is
largely correct in his view that the family is the fundamental building block of societies. Most members of
society see kinship ties as the most important aspect of their obligations to others, whilst socialisation into
the values, norms and morals of society, which is responsible for producing the next generation of
citizens, mainly occurs within family contexts.
The family and industrialisation
Functionalists such as Parsons (1956) suggest that the modern nuclear family has evolved to meet the
changing economic needs of industrial society. Parsons argued that the most common family type in preindustrial society was the extended family and that this extended unit was multifunctional. It was
responsible for a number of functions, such as the economic function of production, which involved
producing its own food, clothing, housing, education, health care and welfare.
Parsons argued that the Industrial Revolution brought about three fundamental changes in family structure
and functions.
Early industrys demand for a geographically mobile workforce to work in the factories, opening

in urban areas, saw the nuclear unit breaking away from the extended unit.

 Structural differentiation was also brought about by industrialisation.

Specialised agencies developed, which gradually took over many of the familys functions. In

particular, factories took over the economic, or production function, and family members
became wage earners as work and home became separate places for the first time. The State
eventually took over the functions of education, health and welfare.

TONI GONZAGA LYRICS

Play "I Love You So"
"I Love You So"
Oh boy, I love you so
And I will never let you go
'Cause you mean everything to me
I just wanna let you to hold me in your arms
Forever I love you so
And I will never let you go
'Cause you know
You're everything I want
Everything I need
Everything to me
I remember the first day
When love just came to me
It was the time when I met you
It was love at first sight
When I got to know you better
I know for sure it's more than that I'm singing
Oh boy I love you so
And I will never let you go
'Cause you mean everything to me
I just wanna let you to hold me in your arms
Forever I love you so
And I will never let you go
'Cause you know
You're everything I want
Everything I need
Everything to me
I can't wait for the time when
We'll walk the aisle together
Can't wait to say the words
"I do", "I do"
I love you more than you'd ever imagine
And I feel that you love me as much as I do
I'm singing
Oh boy, I love you so

And I will never let you go

'Cause you mean everything to me
I just wanna let you to hold me in your arms
Forever I love you so
And I will never let you go
'Cause you know
You're everything I want
Everything I need
Everything to me
Cause you know
You're everything I want
Everything I need
Everything to me
Cause you know
You're everything I want
Everything I need
Everything to me