Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Although present since the nineteenth century, particularly in Marxist thinking (more specifically in Engels's work), interest in family conflict within the sociology of the family only really developed as a theme during the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1950s the dominant functionalist perspective tended to analyze the family in terms of internal equilibrium and its complementarity to the global society. Parsons's point of view (notably, Parsons & Bales 1955 ) is that the values of competition, achievement, and rationality in relation to the workings of the economic, educational, and political systems find a necessary counterweight in the family. This privileges affective expression, emphasizing “being” over “having,” and the totality of the person over his or her division into functions. In addition, the division of work between the man and the woman ensures good management of the expressive group dimension (by the woman) and the instrumental group dimension (by the man), and assures adequate socialization of the children. Through this process of socialization on the one hand, and the stabilization of the adult personality on the other, the family was seen to provide society with motivated and well-oriented “normal” people, and at the same time procure the resources and abilities necessary for the family to function. Important socio-demographic changes started intervening in the ... log in or subscribe to read full text