Functionalist Perspective Of The Nuclear Family

In my opinion, the nuclear family is the “ideal” family. The nuclear family is a household consisting of a husband, wife, and children. I personally grew up with both of my parents in the same household that is why I see my future household and other households as being nuclear. A functionalist would see a family as a means of ensuring that people are able to function in society. Functionalists believe that families exist to provide companionship, affection, and reaction. In a family, children are taught which types of behavior are acceptable and which types of behavior are unacceptable. This helps the children to develop skills related to tolerance and cooperation. The skills that the children pick up from their family indirectly leads to them being able to make friends, maintain a job, and interact with others daily.
Conflict theorists believe that uneven distribution of responsibilities can lead to conflict in families, which is families deal with the issue of competition over limited resources. At home men’s and women’s responsibilities are not equal. Women tend to do way more chores than men. Most women are cooking, cleaning, taking care of the children, as well as working the normal nine to five job. …show more content…
They believe that a successful marriage is the result of two people who share similar definitions of marriage. Research suggests that love is still the main reason why people get married today. In the past extended families were very common. An extended family is a household consisting of a nuclear family and additional relatives. At the time divorce and unmarried couples living together were rare. The definition of a family would have reflected the social norm of that time period. Today the definition of family has grown to include nuclear family, extended families, and blended families. Blended families are families composed of children and some combination of biological parents and