Functionalism In Sociology

In my final report of my introduction to sociology class, I chose the topic of marriage to dissect and explore. Some main points I would like to hit in my essay are the history of the concept, various subtopics such as dating, mail order brides, fraudulent marriage, arranged marriage, types of polygamy, the rise of same-sex marriage, and divorce. Within the paper, I will bring functionalist theory into every idea that is brought up. Functionalism is all about how a small part of society contributes to the stability and well-being of the entire community. I focus on the functionalist thoughts of Herbert Spencer. Marriage can be shown in different ways to every individual society, but in order for there to be a society in the first place, marriage
In ancient societies, people were focused on survival. Darwin explained the theory of survival of the fittest and this theory is a primal instinct for developing groups. The mate selection process was based solely on how able the man or woman was. An able woman was young but not too young, with good hips, submissive, caring, and good with household chores. On the other hand, an able man was older, capable, smart, macho, and able to provide for his family. This careful selection of partners led to an increase in the desired traits within each generation. The uniting of couples also functioned as a decrease in competition for single halves. However, those who did not get married and procreate saw a decrease in their genetic traits. As society continued to grow from hunter-gatherer to industrial, people start to see a drastic shift in marriages due to, industrialization, religion, family institutions, and love (Staub,
Because of the distance, however, some people question the validity of the relationship. Can people really be in a romantic relationship when thousands of miles separate them? Gretchen Kelmer, Galena Rhoades, Scott Stanley, and Howard Markman conducted a study that compares the quality of relationships between long distance relationships and close proximity relationships. What they found was that people in long distance relationships have a skewed representation of their relationship. This results in instability and poorly made long term decisions regarding the relationship itself. Also, people will raise their standards that help with choose a partner because of the riskiness of a long distance relationship. The higher standards help the person idealize their partner and this starts the destabilization of the relationship as a whole. Couples who are together and close to begin with would rather try a long distance relationship than break up because of the new distance between them (Kelmer, Rhoades, Stanley, & Markman, (2013). The advantage of a long distance relationship from a functionalist perspective is the sharing of cultures. These types of relationships are quite different and therefore hard to compare. Although, we can agree that having hope in a long distance is better than not having a relationship at