Notes:The functionalist perspective of the family is a macro-level perspective that focuses on the role of the family as an institution in the larger society. According to this theory, the family plays an important role in maintaining balance in the larger society by socializing and regulating its members. When enough families experience dysfunction, society creates other institutions to help correct the problem. Child Protective Services (CPS). The weakness of functionalist theory is that it fails to account for the impact of inequality on the family. This inequality is systemic in society and manifests in the areas of sex, gender, race, and social class. Conflict theory (macro) contends that family systems help perpetuate inequality in society because scarce resources, such as power, wealth, and status, are concentrated in the hands of a few. As a micro-level theory, symbolic interactionism offers us a view of how society is the product of interactions between people. As it relates to family, this theory focuses on the symbols and behaviors that permeate our everyday lives. Symbolic interactionists also consider the relationships that family members have with one another. The roles family members play are dynamic in that they vary depending on the interaction. While symbolic interactionism is effective at analyzing the family on the micro level, it fails to account for the influence that macro-level forces have on the behaviors and choices of family members. Social exchange theory operates on the principle of costs and benefits with family members weighing how much they put into a relationship against how much they get back from the relationship. This occurs around perceived resources, such as love, money, and status. The challenge with this theory is that people don’t often leave relationships when the costs outweigh the benefits
