Family Functions: Social-Conflict Analysis

This article focuses on social-conflict analysis of family functions. The article explores the sociology of family functions in four parts: an overview of social-conflict analysis; a description of the history of social-conflict studies; a discussion of family sociology; and an exploration of the ways in which social-conflict analysis is applied to understand family conflicts and dynamics. Understanding how social-conflict analysis is used to understand family behaviors is vital for all those interested in the sociology of family and relationships.

Keywords Dyad; Family Functions; Family Studies; Marx, Karl; Roles; Social Conflict; Social-Conflict Analysis; Social-Conflict Theory; Socialization; Society

Family Functions: Social-Conflict Analysis

Overview

Sociologists study the functions that family behaviors, such as conflict, socialization, nurturance, care-giving, feeding, protection, emotional support, resource sharing, and violence, serve for individuals and society as a whole. Sociologists, and social scientists in general, analyze family behaviors with and through different theoretical lenses or perspectives. For instance, sociologists use the theory of social-conflict analysis to understand how conflict within families influences individuals and society. Social conflict refers to situations in which two or more individuals oppose the actions or beliefs of one another.

Social conflict, with a multitude of manifestations, functions, and outcomes, is not always associated with anger or negative outcomes. For instance, sociologists have found that sibling conflict strengthens adolescent identity building process (Raffaellie, 1992); consumer or purchasing conflict within families provides families with opportunities to practice conflict resolution strategies and family decision-making (Lee & Collins, 2000); and interpersonal family conflict can function as a forum for social rule-making (Piotrowski, 1997).

Understanding how social-conflict analysis is used to examine and understand family behaviors is vital for all those interested in the sociology of family and relationships. This article explores the sociology of family conflict in four parts:

• An overview of social-conflict analysis;

• A description of the history of social conflict studies;

• A discussion of family sociology, and;

• An exploration of the ways in which social-conflict analysis is applied to understand family conflicts.

Social-Conflict Analysis

Sociologists study conflict as a means of understanding interpersonal relations and social change. Social-conflict analysis refers to the analytical perspective used to understand the role and function of social conflict and resolution. There are many different types of conflict and resolution techniques. Conflict occurs at the interpersonal, intergroup, communal, and international levels. There are numerous theories explaining the origins and purpose of conflict. Social-conflict theory, the theory upon which social-conflict analysis is based, argues that social systems operate to support the interests of the most powerful. According to social-conflict theory:

• Conflict is natural and important.

• Conflict is considered to be an inherent part of human behavior and social systems.

• Conflict is a fundamental impetus for personal, interpersonal, and social change.

When sociologists study conflict, they examine the onset, process, and aftermath of the conflict.

• Onset refers to the precipitating issue and the social context in which conflict occurs.

• Process refers to the level of involvement, emotional reactions, negotiation strategies, and resolution techniques.

• Aftermath refers to the relationship repair and emotional reactions of those involved (Raffaellie, 1992).

Levels of Conflict

Conflict occurs at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels.

• Conflict at the micro level happens within interpersonal relationships such as families. Diverse fields, including sociology, psychology, anthropology, and conflict resolution, study micro level conflict. Social-conflict analysts examine family characteristics and structural variables, such as sibling birth-order, family violence, size, education, and income, to assess sources of conflict, functions, and possible outcomes or resolutions.

• Conflict at the mezzo level occurs within communities, groups, and organizations. Diverse fields, including sociology, social psychology, community psychology, organizational psychology, administration of justice, philosophy, and conflict resolution, study mezzo level conflict.

• Conflict at the macro level occurs within international settings. Examples of macro level conflict include global violence and world war. Diverse fields, including international relations, political science, and intercultural communication, study macro level conflict.

Social-conflict analysis studies how exchanges, of resources and power, are managed and mediated in relationships. It asserts that conflict is a natural, inevitable outcome of all human interactions and is considered an important part of all interactions including marriages and parent-child relationships. Once recognized and managed, conflict can strengthen social relationships. Family, like all social institutions, has inherent conflict within its organization, boundaries, and roles. In families, unequal relationships may exist between parents and children or older and younger siblings which may breed conflict or resentments. Individuals and groups use conflict resolution strategies to resolve social conflict. Conflict resolution requires three main components: Communication, assessment of type and degree of conflict, and genuine efforts at resolution. Conflict often leads to the reorganization of social exchange relationships.

Traditionally, sociologists have studied conflict on a large scale. For instance, social movements theorists study the ways in which social movements engage in social conflict as a means of achieving social change (Lentin, 1999). Large scale or small, conflict analysis, assessment, and resolution require specialized training in facilitation skills, improving communication, and skill building. Conflict analysis and resolution techniques and strategies aim to improve the social relations between individuals, groups, organizations and nations.

History

Social-conflict theory, developed by Karl Marx (1818–1883), W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963), and C. Wright Mills (1916–1962), developed in response to social inequalities, such as racial and gender inequality. Conflict theory is strongly related to applied sociology and social justice. Conflict theory asserts that social institutions reinforce social inequalities caused by social stratifications of race, class, gender, and education. Conflict theorists seek to understand the root cause of the conflict and often work to eradicate the conflict and its social effects.

Karl Marx & Class Conflict

Sociology's concern for conflict theory began with Marx's study of class conflict. Marx, a German philosopher and economist, was one of the first scholars to identify society as a system of social relationships. Marx studied processes of worker alienation and objectification. His theory of worker alienation argued that workers experience a lack of control and self-realization in the labor process. Marx believed economics, capitalism, and production were the major forces of society. He argued that the system of capitalism that emerged in the industrial era created societies in which the increasing value of the material world devalues people and society. Marx believed the history of human society was primarily shaped by economic conflict between owners and laborers. Marx worked to find how the disenfranchised could create social change to improve their social and financial situations. Social change, according to Marx, could only occur through challenges to the power of the dominant classes (Yuill, 2005).

Marx's theories of social conflict were influenced by social revolutions, challenges to the established social order initiated from lower classes. Marx's analysis of specific political events and rebellions in France illustrates the way in which 19th century sociology developed in response to the events and happenings of the day. For example, Marx analyzed the class dimensions of the revolution of February 1848, the coup of 1851, and the fall of the Paris Commune in 1871. Based on Marx's analysis of these events, his social class theory developed in two particular ways:

• First, Marx analyzed the petty bourgeoisie and the peasantry;

• Second, Marx developed his idea of degenerate and unproductive classes (Hayes, 1993).

C. Wright Mills was responsible for bringing Marx's conflict theory into contemporary sociological thought.

Lewis Coser & Ralf Dahrendorf

Contemporary sociologists concerned with conflict theory and analysis include Lewis Coser (1913–2003) and Ralf Dahrendorf (1929–2009). Coser and Dahrendorf worked to combine conflict theory and functionalism. Coser worked to discover the functions of social conflict for individuals and societies. Coser's research demonstrated that social conflict functioned to:

• Strengthen and unite small groups by providing a shared purpose;

• Activate passive individuals;

• Clarify shared goals and rules.

Coser's best known work on social conflict is "The Functions of Social Conflict" (1956). Dahrendorf believed that Marx's concept of conflict and class were specific to Marx's historical and political context and were not applicable to modern circumstances and contexts. Dahrendorf argued that power rather than class system was the source of social conflict. Dahrendorf's most famous work on conflict is "Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society" (1959).

Family Sociology

Social-conflict analysis, while traditionally applied to large-scale conflicts of power, is also applied to micro conflicts such as those that exist within families. Social-conflict analysis of family relationships and functions is part of the larger field of family studies. The field of family sociology, also referred to as family science or family studies, was established in the early twentieth century by prominent sociologists such as Ernest Burgess, Talcott Parsons, Florian Znaniecki, William Thomas, Willard Waller, and Reuben Hill. Ernest W. Burgess (1886–1966), the 24th president of the American Sociological Association, was interested in the process of social prediction. Burgess developed schemes to predict marriage success and outcome. Burgess's work on the study of marriage and family remains influential. The family, as an object of study for sociology, became extremely popular and important in the early twentieth-century (Spanier & Stump, 1978). By the 1950s, sociologist Talcott Parsons (1902–1979) advanced the idea that the family is a social institution whose functions are determined by a functionally organized society. Sociologists believed that a family's function, purpose and performance would be determined by factors such as society's gendered division of labor. Mid-century sociology furthered the belief that a nuclear family was the ideal family form or construct.

Collectivity

Parsons's concept of the collectivity, a term which refers to distinct human groups united by shared social structures, identity, and customs, influenced sociological conception and understanding of the family unit. Parsons's work on the collectivity concept was a precursor to his work on the nuclear family unit. Parsons described collectivities in his book "The Social System" (1951). He defined the parameters and characteristics necessary to create collectivities. For example, Parsons believed that a group must have loyalty toward the members and the group. Examples of loyalty include attachments, rights to relational rewards, and a commitment to act based on a system of shared standards and symbols. Parsons considers attachment to refer to a generalized system of expectations with regards to the gratifications to be received from a category of persons and generally favorable attitudes toward the qualities and performances associated with them. Members must accept the preservation of the collectivity as a moral obligation. Parsons argued that members of a collective must develop a system of sanctions to direct behavior. The system should stress certain actions as desirable in the collective and identify other actions as hostile to and ultimately incompatible with the collective (Treudley, 1953).

Sociology & the Evolving Family Unit

During the 1960s and 1970s, family sociology researchers developed conceptual schemes or perspectives to explain family life, behaviors, and functions. In the 1960s, family sociology, lead by Harold Christensen and Ira Reiss, became increasingly liberal. For instance, researchers studied the function and effects of premarital sex and cohabitation. In the 1970s, family sociology recognized and studied the changing trends in families such as premarital sex, cohabitation, divorce, extramarital sex, homosexual relationships, childlessness, single mothers, step-families, open marriages, and group marriages. Sociologists developed the idea of an alternative lifestyle or family. Family sociology began to recognize the importance of applying integrated models, theories, and perspectives to understand complex family relationships in society. In the 1980s, family sociology continued to focus on alternative families, individuation, and hedonism. Multiple competing family models emerged to account for the diversity of modern families. In the 1990s, family sociology recognized the existence of a post-modern family that defies categorization with diffuse boundaries and evolving composition.

Family sociology's changing subjects reflect the social and economic changes occurring in society at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. Families changed throughout the twentieth century as a result of immigration, modernization, world wars, and the women's rights movement. Sociologists have analyzed and reported on the evolution of the traditional or functional family, liberal family, alternative family, and the postmodern family. Contemporary family sociologists study areas of family relations such as marriage across life span, mate selection, sexual behavior, parenthood, family planning, retirement, sex roles, divorce, premarital sexual relations, contraception, cohabitation, extramarital sexual relations, homosexual relationships, group marriage, open marriage, adoption, voluntary childlessness, communal living, single parent households, and step families (Jallinoja, 1994).

Contemporary family sociologists interested in family conflict also work to understand many sources of family conflict. While structural variables, such as divorce, step relationships, unemployment, or long-distance marriage, are common sources of conflict, sociological research has also demonstrated that individuals who have experienced childhood family disruptions are more likely to experience perceived family conflict in their adult lives (Lang, 2001).

Applications

Family Functions & Conflict Behaviors

Micro-level interpersonal or social conflict, such as occurs within families, is a relatively new sociological area of inquiry. Social conflict refers to situations in which two or more individuals oppose the actions or beliefs of one another. In the 1930s, developmental psychologists, such as Jean Piaget, began to note that interpersonal and social conflict may result in psychological and cognitive development. In the 1970s, sociologists, such as Ralph LaRossa and Jetse Sprey, began to apply social-conflict theory to interpersonal relationships such as those that occur within the family. Sociologists applied conflict theory perspective to family behaviors and expanded the insight and methods of family sociology.

Sociologists apply the theory of social-conflict analysis to understand how conflict within families influences individuals and society. Sociologists have found that sibling conflict strengthens adolescent identity building process (Raffaellie, 1992); consumer or purchasing conflict within families provides families with opportunities to practice conflict resolution strategies in family decision-making (Lee & Collins, 2000); and interpersonal family conflict can function as a forum for social rule making (Piotrowski, 1997). This section describes how social scientists apply social-conflict analysis to family functions and conflict behaviors.

Sibling Conflict

Sociologists have studied couple conflict, parent-child conflict, step-family conflict, and sibling conflict to understand how conflict maintains or changes social bonds. Sociologists have found sibling conflict to be common during childhood and adolescence. The following variables influence sibling conflict: divorce, family size, and family violence. Sociologists have studied sibling conflict to discover its family functions. Sociologists ask if sibling conflict is born exclusively of rivalry or if it has a developmental purpose and examine the structures, processes, and functions of sibling conflict and how gender, age, and family relations affect it. Research has demonstrated that same-sex and close in age siblings to do engage in more conflict or fighting than sibling groups with different genders and ages.

Sociologist Marcela Raffaellie studied sibling conflict. Her work demonstrates how social-conflict analysis can be applied to understand family functions. Raffaellie's research explored the relationship between frequency of sibling conflict and family structure variables. In addition, Raffaellie worked to record specific details of sibling conflict or squabbles as a means of discovering the functions and meanings of sibling conflict during adolescence. Raffaellie's research differed from prior sibling conflict research in that the participants described actual and specific rather than hypothetical or summarized sibling conflict incidents. The study took two years and involved 104 sibling participants. Raffaellie gathered demographic, relationship, and conflict data through questionnaires and interviews. Areas of inquiry included fight frequency, voluntary associations, shared time, emotional closeness, sibling importance, relationship satisfaction, family cohesion, and family conflict. Raffaellie found that power issues and personal property disputes were the most common source of conflict. Raffaellie also found that siblings most often chose to end conflict without invoking overt resolution strategies. Parental presence was not shown to affect sibling conflict. Based on the data collected during the study, researchers concluded that sibling conflict serves an important function in adolescent development. In particular, sibling conflict may influence and strengthen adolescence identity-building. Through the experience of conflict, siblings work to define their priorities, goals, belongings, identity, and beliefs (Raffaellie, 1992).

Dyadic Relationships

Sociologists study the dyadic nature of interpersonal conflicts. Sociologists consider conflict to be an extended series of dyadic events. The sibling pair is a dyad, a dyadic relationship within the larger family. The dyad is the simplest group form that may exist between individuals or groups themselves. Georg Simmel (1858–1918), a German sociologist, developed the concept of the dyad. The sibling dyad is characterized by its level of intimacy. Intimacy is based on the notion that participants are giving or sharing exclusive content with one another. Sibling dyads are significantly affected by the addition of new elements. For example, sibling dyadic relationships with superordinate and subordinate members will be altered with the addition of a third member (Levine 1972). A sibling dyad is dependent upon the health, reciprocity, and participation of both members. The two members of a sibling dyad cannot shift responsibility, blame, or work to the larger family group as dyad members are directly responsible for their actions (Coser, 1977).

In addition to scholarly research, consumer researchers, most often applied social scientists, have studied how conflict and conflict resolution in family decision making influenced purchasing decisions—in some instances, different purchasing motives and goals between family members. Common conflict resolution strategies include problem solving, persuasion, coalition-building, bargaining, and politics. Researchers found that consumer conflict within families provides them with opportunities to practice conflict resolution strategies in family decision-making (Lee & Collins, 2000).

Sociologist Caroline Piotrowski studied mother-child and sibling relationships to determine the social rules that apply within them. Piotrowski began her year-long study, which involved 47 families, by recording and analyzing the social rules inherent in mother-child and sibling relationships. Piotrowski found that interpersonal family conflict, including mother-child and sibling conflict, functioned as a forum for social rule making. Mother-child relationships had more conflict over and discussion of moral rules than sibling relationships (Piotrowski, 1997).

Conclusion

In the final analysis, social-conflict analysis is a useful conceptual perspective, tool, and framework for exploring what functions are performed or served by family conflict. Sociologists seek out the sources of interpersonal conflict in families. This article explored the sociology of family conflict in four parts:

• An overview of social-conflict analysis;

• A description of the history of social conflict studies;

• A discussion of family sociology, and;

• An exploration of the ways in which social-conflict analysis is applied to understand family behaviors and conflicts.

Social conflict, with a multitude of manifestations, functions, and outcomes, is not always associated with anger or negative outcomes. Understanding how social-conflict analysis is used to understand family behaviors is vital for all those interested in the sociology of family and relationships.

Terms & Concepts

Dyad: Sociologist Georg Simmel's term for a group of two.

Family Functions: The behaviors, rules, and habits that operate to maintain the family unit.

Family Studies: A social science field, also referred to as family science or family sociology, concerned with the function and dynamics of families.

Marx, Karl: A German philosopher and economist who was one of the first scholars to identify society as a system of social relationships.

Roles: Pre-scripted identity performances.

Social Conflict: Situations in which two or more individuals oppose the actions or beliefs of one another.

Social-Conflict Analysis: An analytical perspective used to understand the role and function of social conflict and resolution.

Social-Conflict Theory: A social theory based in the idea that conflict is a natural and inevitable outcome of all human interactions.

Socialization: The process of conveying norms and values to the young in a society.

Society: A group of individuals united by values, norms, culture, or organizational affiliation.

Sociology: The study of human social groups for patterns of behavior, association, and social activities.

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Suggested Reading

Beck, S. J., & Ledbetter, A. M. (2013). The influence of parent conflict style on children. Personal Relationships, 20, 495–510. Retrieved November 1, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=90055345

Hunter, A. (2006). Teaching the classics in family studies: E. Franklin Frazier's the negro family in the United States. Family Relations, 55 , 80–92. Retrieved September 5, 2008, from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=19398389&site=ehost-live

Leighton, K. (2003). A social conflict analysis of collective mental health care: Past, present and future. Journal of Mental Health, 12 , 475. Retrieved September 3, 2008, from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=10665388&site=ehost-live

Rank, M., & LeCroy, C. (1983). Toward a multiple perspective in family theory and practice: The case of social exchange theory, symbolic interactionism, and conflict theory. Family Relations, 32 , 441–448. Retrieved August 28, 2008, from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Premier. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=4699452&site=ehost-live

Tranc?, L., & Runcan, P. (2013). Communication and conflict in workaholic families. Social Work Review / Revista De Asistenta Sociala, , 113–123. Retrieved November 1, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=90392631