HNC Social Care
Sociology for social Care Practice
Learning outcomes 1 & 3
Rhiannon Sneddon
Word Count:
Section 1
The McNulty Family is made up of father Tam (36), absent mother jean (33), Kids Thomas Junior (14), Maria (9), James (7), Martin (4) & Janice 14months. The structure of this family is a single parent family, this is a family in which only one parent is raising the children, how this family differs is that they also have the benefit of extended family helping to raise the children this is in this case tams parents Thomas & Georgina. Since moving back to Longtown Tams mum & dad have taken a lot of the parental rights on to help Tam recover from his alcohol misuse. Another type of family structure is the nuclear family this is also known as a traditional family, this is when both the mother & father live at home & bring the children up. This was the case for the McNulty family until recently when the mother left the family home. In today’s society we have a variety of different family structures there is no normal or proper family structure, what is important is that we know the individual family structure of the families & of the clients families we work with in social care & not make presumptions.
Tam 36 – Admits that although being a heavy drinker most of his life he now describes himself as a recovering alcoholic, he has a lot of mixed emotions in recent times, firstly the loss of his job, break down of his marriage & then losing his family home & moving back home near his parents but there has also been some positive changes in tams life, this being that for the first time, he feels he has a bond with his father who’s has been attending his AA meetings with him & that he is treating him like an adult. Tam has recently lost his house due to his drinking, this was the family home for 16 years. This has lead him back to longtown where he has managed to get a house as his parents have lived there for over 30 years. This has caused a massive change in in his all family’s life but mostly his 5 children, as they have been uprooted from everything they have ever known including their enstranged mother. The biggest change for the family is to see the dad sober, where he can now stand up to the role of the parents although he is only just learning to be the father figure. Tam has had a lot of changes to deal with, the has faced his daemons of the alcohol, has accepted that the way he treated Jean wasn’t right, only now that he is sober does he realise this.
Tam has worked all of his adult life until recently he lost his job as a farm labourer, he is keen to get back into employment now that he isn’t drinking. Being unemployed for the first time, can cause a lot of problems especially having a big family to feed, water & cloth. Tam is keen to set up is own business as a Landscape Gardener & his mother is will to look at the kids to help him get his business of the ground
Tam believes that most of his adult life spent drinking is a result of his father’s behaviours growing up this is called primary socialisation, this experience as Tam explains it was not the best of upbringings, for the first few years of Tam’s life his father was in prison, on his release he was very stern towards Tam beating him & calling him names to toughen him up as he was told, tam grew up to be ashamed of his father & his reputation as the “local Hardman” & scared of him because of his beatings & name calling. Thomas Senior was also a heavy drinker so for Tam drinking was seen as the norm. As he grew up Tam slowly began to following in his dads footsteps & drinking became a way of life for Tam as well. Although Tams relationship with his father wasn’t great he feels now he finally has that relationship with his father. Tams mother Georgina on the other hand has always been a positive influence on Tam, he respects his mother for the way she has always been a working mum and held their family together, he believes his choice of job leads him back to his mother’s roots & stories she used to tell of the croft she was brought up in. He also believe this influenced his relationship & choice of wife in jean he seen a lot of his mother the fact that she was career focus & training to become a nurse as is Georgina. Although Tam admires his mother & is grateful for the help she has given them since moving back to longtown, he feels that she is starting to take over his role as the parent. He does not want to hurt his mother by taking away her enjoyment & he still feels dependant on her at this stage in his life.
The family structure has an influence of each family member’s behaviour, experiences and life choices, there are four sociological perspectives that are used to understand these influences these are: Conflict or Marxist, Functionalist, Feminist & interpretive Theory.
The conflict theory is the theory based on analysis from Karl Marx, he believes that the family is seen as a unit which produces one of the basic commodities of capitalism – labour (the family produces & rears cheap labour). Things like divorce, step families & lone parent families can cause conflict. & stresses on the family from external factors can affect family values.
The conflict theory has an influence on Tams oldest son Thomas junior, he had been quite a high achiever in his academic life until recently due to all the changes he has become truant from school. This is due to him becoming withdrawn due to his family troubles being public knowledge. When Thomas was younger he admired his dad & loved when his father was sober as he used to take him on trips out & he enjoyed spending time with him. Thomas still see his dad as a hero & so much so he wants to follow in this career footsteps to get his own farm. Thomas is torn between a lot in his life, this parents splitting up, moving from his home to a new town. There is conflict in his life as he want to leave school, find somewhere to live & work on a farm but he also wants his parents to get back together so he can move back home & go back to his old life. He is also doesn’t take well to discipline which maybe he hasn’t had much of within the family home, this is causing an effect on his schooling.
The functionalists regarded the family as an important organ in the body of society. It is what family does or the functions of the family that interest them most. George Murdock an early functionalist, stated that there is 4 basic function of the family this is sexual, reproductive, educational or socialising & economic.
The functionalist theory also has an influence on Thomas as this states that on order to function properly within society you much know how to socialise this is something that Thomas find very difficult to do as he feels that people are picking on him due to his family circumstances. This includes feeling like an outcast that no one is interested in him, again this leads to the fact that he wants to leave school & find somewhere to live & work. This is him wanting to function better within life as he feels he will fit in more in a familiar setting, of the farm work in Argyll.
Section 2
Poverty is hard to describe because everyone can experience poverty through there life in different ways & it can affect people differently. In terms of poverty we can describe it in to ways firstly there is Absolute Poverty this is where an individual lacks the basic items to survive for example, food shelter & clothing this relates to countries all over the world who do not access to these needs due to lack of income for access to services that provides these needs, this means being on the “poverty line”. The poverty line doesn’t actually exist & is based on the needs for survival. Although absolute poverty is focused on third world countries it does have some relevance in the UK, for example people you live on state benefits & government classifications can be se to be on the informal poverty line. Relative poverty is when someone lacks the things they need to be part of society & and are not able to have a good quality of life. You could say that Thomas is experiencing poverty as he has moved from a country home to a poorer housing estate, in living in poor housing could lead to health issues if the housing conditions are not up to standard i.e. dampness or poor heating. Thomas could end up in poverty as his parents have separated this could affect him more as he gets older as he doesn’t have a mother figure in this live to set him the right track, meaning he could following in this father & grandfather footsteps to drink. This would lead him to live an even poorer lifestyle as he wouldn’t have the things he needs to support himself as he would be spending it on alcohol.
The poverty in inequality measured in Scotland in 2013/14 before housing costs has actually decreased, Rates for children are the lowest since this series started in 1994/95. This is in reflect of people moving into employment, and increases in working hours. In particular people shifting the working patterns from part-time to full-time working hours. However after housing costs are accounted for the poverty level actually hasn’t decreased to the same extent. Rent values have increased faster than income changes & changes in housing benefit eligibility means there has been little improvement in the standard of living.
Inequality means being treated unfairly in society. This can be due to wealth, gender, status, power, class or disability. Inequality focus mainly on social class, the power that comes with that & the status of different classes in society. Gender inequality is being unfairly treated due to your gender one of the well-known statues of this is women being paid less than men for doing the same job. Social inequality is being unfairly treated due to being in a higher/ lower class, this can be the case whether you are from a wealthy background or a poorer background. Disability inequality is being treated unfairly due to your disability this could be unable to access a building or not being employed to due being unable to carry out certain tasks within that role. Power inequality is unfair treatment due to not having as much power as others. Thomas junior is experiencing inequality as due to him being truant from school his grades are suffering, this may affect him later in live when trying to get a job as he won’t be able to get as a high paid job if he doesn’t have any/or good qualifications from school. This could lead to him then living in poor housing in the future if he in unable to work & support him or maybe save to buy or live in a better housing environment or area. This could also lead to lowering Thomas’ confidence, is has already suffered due to being taunted & bullied as school as subject to his family’s problems being in the public eye.
The conflict theory can be used to understand poverty & inequality Karl Marx is known for his conflict view on society. He argues that in a capitalist society there is a conflict between classes, these are the class that own & control the production of factories & land & the class which supplies the labour & is exploited by the ruling class. For Marx, the ultimate divisions in society are the economic class & ownerships of the means of production in society are the source of conflict of interest. This means that the upper class controls the wealth & jobs & working class reliy on these jobs & money to support there families. Only when these two divisions are communally owned will the classes & conflict disappear.
The functionalist theory can be used to also understand poverty & inequality as functionalism is based on the theory that the society is like the human body, the heart is a vital organ to make the body work, this could also be seen as some jobs in society being like the heart i.e. more important than other organs toes or jobs an example of this could be a doctor being more important to society than a lollipop woman. So in order for society to keep functioning the right way they offer a better reward for doing the more important jobs, by rewarding money or status for these jobs. So the more you are paid for a job the more important you are seen to be within society so you are given a higher status thus. Better money to spend on things like housing, clothing & basic needs.
References
Bingham et al Hnc in Social Care pages 106 – 137 2nd nov 2015
http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/06/7453 3rd nov 2015