1 10 2013 Chapter 1 How Do We Define Family Legal vs social science Definitions Family A relationship by blood marriage or affection in which member may cooperate economically may care for children and may consider their identity to be intimately connected to the larger group o Blood mom dad and siblings o Marriage husband wife o Affection best friends co workers pets Youngest children tend to stay close to family Other definitions of family 1 The family as a system moving through time A Carter Betty and MsGoldrick Monica describes family as people who have a shared history and a shared future They encompass 3 5 generations held together by blood legal and or historical ties p 1 2 Pauline Boss 2002 defined family as a continuing system of interacting persons bound together by processes of shared rituals and rules even more than by shared biology The Function of Families The family you were born into The family you make through marriage partnering Nonrelatives whose bond are strong and intimate Family of Orientation Family of Procreation and or parenthood Fictive Kin o Co workers o Pets Marriage recognize social and intimate bonds An institutional arrangement between persons to publically o Anthropologist William Stephens definition Socially legitimate sexual union Public announcement Undertaken with some idea of permanence Assumed with a more or less explicit marriage contract Regulation of Sexual Behavior Reproducing and Socializing children Property and Inheritance Economic Cooperation Social Placement Status and Roles Care Warmth Protection and Intimacy Linking Micro and Macro perspective on families a stable framework of social relationships that gives out Social Structure Mircro level interactions with other don t need to know for exam setting know Macro relationships wit the rest of society know level focus on interconnectedness of marriage families and intimate Focus on the individual and his or her interactions in a specific Families are Always Changing Marriage Patterns gender unspecified o Monogamy o Polygamy Marriage between one man and one woman a system that allows for more than one spouse at a time Patterns of Authority have a natural right to be in positions of authority over women A form of social organization in which the norm is that men o Patriarchy Men have authority Woman have to cook clean do laundry etc o Matriarchy power and authority in society would be vested in women A form of social organizations in which the norm is that the The expectation that power and authority are equally vested in Women have authority o Egalitarian men and woman Used today What most of class will use Patterns of Descent o Bilateral the family o Patrilineal family line o Matrilineal family line descent that can be traced through both male and female sides of A descent pattern where lineage is traces through the man s A descent pattern where linage is traced through the woman s The expectation that a newly married couple establishes a Residence Patterns don t need to know o Neolocal residence and lives there independently Families in Transition lives with men s family lives with women s family o Patrilocal o Matrilocal o Families in china o History of Family Life in the U S Family life in colonial America European Colonists Dependent on how Europe lived Colonial America African Americans and slavery Social Science Theory and Research Common Research Methods to study families o Survey o In depth interview o Experiment o Focus group o Observational Study o Secondary analysis Empirical Approach collection and analysis of data Goals of Family Research An approach that answers questions through a systematic o Describe some phenomena o Examine the factors that predict or are associated with some phenomena o Explain the cause and effect relationship or provide insight into why certain events do or do not occur Methods of Research o Survey behaviors through the answers that give people possible answers a form of research that gathers information about attitudes or Advantages Allow for generalization Open ended questions or fixed response Disadvantages Can be bias Low return response rate Expensive Time consuming o In depth interview o Experiment Advantages examines cause and effect relationships Access to cause and effect relationship Easily replicated Disadvantages o Focus Group brought together Advantages Bias for obtaining information from small groups of people Group interaction provides valuable insight Quick Inexpensive Disadvantages Setting is contrived People feel uncomfortable in groups a general framework explanation or tool used to understand and Theory describe the real life world o Help us make sense of the world Levels of analysis from Macro to Micro o Structural functionalism the family as an institution and how it functions o Conflict social inequality results in unequal resources resulting in o Feminism investigation of family life as experience by those with to maintain its own needs and those of society inevitable conflict minority status especially women rewards and control costs Principle of Least Interest o Social Exchange Family life as a rational exchange designed to maximize o Symbolic Interaction o Developmental Theory Family interaction governed by symbolic communication that defines reality normative stage and the accomplishment of corresponding tasks in functional or dysfunctional outcomes Family life predicted my passage through circular interactions among the system member resulting o Systems Theory 1 22 2013 Chapter 2 Socialization the link between private and experiences and social structure The hierarchical ranking of categories of people o Social Stratification within society Start off small but we are shaped by our culture Sex Gender and Patriarchy Biological difference between men and women and their role in Sex reproduction found in the meanings beliefs and practices associated with femininity and masculinity Culturally and socially constructed difference between males and females Gender possessing both masculine and feminine traits in near equal Sex and Gender differences o Androgyny proportion Gender Learning o Gender Socialization male of female socialization o Agents of Socialization Teaching the cultural norms associated with being The primary groups responsible for gender books show boys as a leading characters and girls in differential treatment becomes a self fulfilling prophecy hidden curriculum encourages sex typed behavior and Parents
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