SY103 Study Guide - Final Guide: Eurocentrism, Talcott Parsons, Nuclear Family
Document Summary
Know for popularizing the functionalist perspective in america. Wrote many books and essays, main was a book on the social systems. He believed that strong social values & norms are the concrete that hold society together. Argued in his family book that traditional nuclear family served as an important role in the industrial. Traditional nuclear family: a father, mother and at least one child living in the same household. During the industrial era the family changed as younger unmarried adults had to leave the home and start their own smaller family unit = key function for society. Ideal model for raising children bc strict division of labour bw husbands & wives. Bc they are interdependent this creates stability in household, ensures marriages will last long. 5 main functions of the traditional nuclear family: sexual regulation. Family parsons looked at was an economic unit: reproduction. Important for industrial societies to increase the population, these societies require growth.
