Family Influencing Theories

Every single day we are each influenced to do something or believe a certain thing due to someone we believe to be an important figure in our lives. The people that have a key role in influencing a person as they grow up usually turn out to be that persons’ very own family. Each family has its own “personal” way of running things, but what we think is custom for our families was actually influenced upon us by our society. The first of the three family influencing theories is the Functionalist Theory developed by Durkheim. The main foundation behind this theory is that society must fulfill basic functions to survive and that the meaning of family is universal. Durkheim believed that to survive, a family needed to fulfill six needs: Economic production,

This theory is solely based on tradition, and we are shown the shift between men and women and their traditional gender jobs. Women are trading in their traditional housework for “manly” paid work, while the men are trading in their paid work to stay home with the kids. An example of a family incorporating this theory would be The Kardashian family. Kris Jenner proves to be the hard working mother and wife for her family while her husband Bruce stays home and enjoys the luxuries around him. The Kardashian daughters, Kourtney, Kim, and Khloe, also prove to be empowering women in their households just like their mother. Every family develops its own family foundation on one of three theories: the functionalist theory, the conflict theory, or the symbolic theory. Each of these three theories sets its own ground rules on what a family should be, and how it should be ran. According to Charles Nam, the family is generally regarded as a major social institution in a person’s social activity. And so depending on the type of environment a person grows up in, it will result in the type of environment they create for the next generation to