Study Guide FAD 4265 Familiarity we think that we are experts in family because we each have our own experiences but we must look at families objectively but our own perspectives make it difficult Mystification deliberate misdefinition of family matters or complicated stratagems to keep everyone in the dark This distorts family realities So as a result we often misunderstand family processes This also can obscure our objective thoughts about families Sacredness and secrecy another obstacle that handicaps our goal of objectivity are the sacredness and secrecy of familes Families have their own secrets myths and information processing rules that determines the kind of communication that goes on what can be said and what can not be said The family is not only provate but also sacred label with strong moral connections A family s business is no one else s business but their own Back stage Erving Goffman s term as a backstage area is where the family members can act in ways that they would not in public Intimacy of family life remains hidden Front stage are the performances or behaviors to maintain a proper appearance in front of others Images of family Family as a Haven the family as a place of intimacy love and trust in which individuals may escape the competition in modern society Haven in a heartless world This image as two distinct themes love and protection Family as Fulfillment The family is more compensatory than protective It supplies what is needed but missing in other social arrangements If you are missing out on excitement from work you can go home and expect the family to be exciting The family can make us feel alive and invigorating The family is still seen as a haven but a haven of primary fulfillment Obligation to enjoy family life Family as Encumbrance a negative image that the family inhibits full human development One would stay at work longer to escape the demanding and stressful family relations We yearn for spice and space and with children it is not always present in a family SNAF Dorothy Smith s concept for the glorified image of the family with a breadwinner husband and a wife whose primary responsibility is the care of husband household and children ever if she works for pay This pervasive image serves as an instrument of control by prescribing family structure in public policy Myths of family myths are beliefs that are held uncritically and without examination or scrutiny They are bound up with memory selective perception and cultural values concerning what is typical and true about the family Myths of a stable and harmonious family of the past People believe that families of the past are a lot better than families of the present because society has first romanticized the past families and because of the extraordinary changes in families that have occurred Family historians have found that there has never been a time that families were perfect Divorce rates seem to be lower in the past because of the religious prohibitions and community norms against divorce creating empty marriages Children were still raised by single parents because of death rates in childbirth Problems considered unique in today s families also existed in the past The myth of separate worlds People believe that the family is completely separate from the outside world a haven in a heartless world This myth developed during industrialization the demand from the outside world changes familes We want families to be private and to protect us from the outside world but we also expect them to prepare us for society Families are expected to adapt to work conditions socialize children and be competent workers Families are shaped by the demands of jobs careers schools and other institutions Agencies and people outside have taken over functions that were once performed by families children are now raised by doctors teachers social workers and t v this change weakens parental authority Globalization is the biggest cause of changes in families today the workforce economy and the World Wide Web The family is embedded in social settings that affect the day to day realities of family life Myth of the Monolithic Family Form the monolithic image of the normal American Family has three sitinctive features 1 The family is the nuclear unit separate from society and no other kin 2 It consists of the mother father and their children 3 It exhibits a gendered division of labor Father is breadwinner and mother the homemaker This model is only 10 of families Contemporary familes include single parent households stepparent familes extended multigenerational families gay and straight cohabiting families child free couples transnational families lone householders with ties to various families and many other kinds of families There are no defined boundaries of what actually makes up a family The family is a set of social relationships and the household refers to residence of living arrangements There are four causes to the diversity 1 Global forces causing families and their members to cross geographic social and cultural boarders for jobs 2 Women s participation in workforce 3 New patterns in marriage and divorce 4 Decline in number of children women bear Most striking change is the number of single mother households and the correlation with poverty feminization of poverty There are also economic and demographic changes rise in racial ethnics creates diversity in families in the united states Because family is an idealized concept sociologists often find it useful to use the concept of household which is a domestic unit Myth of the Unified Family Experience we assume that family members experience the family in the same way To understand the within family diversity is to decompose it The two systems in the family are the gender system and age system This defines the division of labor in the household leisure activities the giving and receiving of nurturance and emotional support decisions about consumption and employment The differences in age and gender can cause family conflicts Adult women are providers of care but less likely to receive the care Gender and age create different experiences for men and women and adults and children The Myth of Family Consensus family life is based on a harmony of interest among family members Family life can be problematic because of 1 Power relations in the family 2 Competitive aspects of family relations 3 3 New patterns of work and leisure 4 The intense emotional quality of