Social Perspective for Family Functions in Society

Abstract

Family is a basic functional element and core of social organization and social institutionalization. Like many other social institutions, the family has undergone important alterations throughout the history of humanity, and has changed in its functions due to rapid evolution, but has not lost its place, importance and value in any society. The aim of this article is to analyse the functions of the family as a social institution from a sociological perspective and to highlight its importance in society. Thus, the functions of the family in Turkish society were tried to be determined with the information obtained from the sociological literature review. After the research four main functions were analysed: educational, social, cultural and economic function. In this study, descriptive analysis was used a research method. The results provided detailed documentation on the qualities and alterations in families. The findings showed that family’s basic functions are still considered as like the previous terms, however, there have been evolutions from a social perspective compared to the previous terms. The family profiles that were compared both at the attribute level and overall showed changes in social, educational, cultural and economical functions.