Sociology homework. Topic 1.

ok, lets start with my blog topics (I have 11 of them)

Explanation of Talcott Parsons' (1955) functionalist model of the family.

Talcott Parsons is a famous American sociologist and functionalist, as he has produced a general system for analysis of society, the so called structural functionalism.

He also wanted to create the so called 'grand theory' of society. He started examinating people and their actions and behaviour. Not surprising that when invistigating those, he created a functualist model of the family.

According to Parsons, people tend to get along with each other and cooperate because they want to contribute to the functions of the society. As a family is one of the society's most important institutions, people create families to feel more secure and make sure that socium functionalises well. The functionalist model of the family by Talcott Parsons presents a family as a part of a big system, society, where every part must perform well otherwise a failure appears. To perform well, any part os the system should come to a consensus, that explains why people DO actually cooperate and create new families, cultures etc.

However, some critics say that there is nothing perfect in the world, so the ideal functionality of society according to Parsons cannot be achieved as well as a consensus. To me, not achieving a full consensus in a functionalist model of the family means divorce (late stage) or a break up (early stage).