SOCI 1101 TEST 4 TOPIC 10 Marriage and Family pg 279 301 Individualism and Marriage On one hand we think marriage is the best way to lead one s life it should be a permanent loving relationship with divorce as a last resort On the other hand is the strong cultural belief in individualism that urges people to examine their personal situations and make changes if they are not satisfied These conflicting views may help to explain the major transformation that has taken place in marriage and family life during the last 50 years Nearly everyone is marrying later today than in the past but certain groups are not marrying at all Difference between Household and Family Household o Consists of people who share the same living space can include someone who lives alone or several people who share a dwelling Family o A social group characterized by common residence economic cooperation and reproduction includes adults of both sexes at least two of whom maintain socially approved sexual relations and one or more children 6 Common Functions of the Family 1 Regulating Sexual Behavior 2 Patterning Reproduction 3 Organizing Production and Consumption 4 Socializing Children 5 Providing Care and Protection 6 Providing Social Status Family Structures Nuclear Family o The most basic family form and is made up of a married couple and their biological children Extended Family o Includes other relations and generations in addition to the nuclear family so that along with married parents and their offspring there might be the parents parents siblings of the parents the siblings spouses and children and in laws Patriarchal Family o Most family affairs are dominated by men Matriarchal Family These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute o Most family affairs are dominated by women relatively uncommon but exists becoming more common in American society with the rise of single parent families Marriage An institution found in all societies the socially recognized legitimized and supported union of individuals of opposite sexes Differs from other unions in that o It is initiated in a public manner o It includes sexual intercourse as an explicit element of the relationship o It provides the essential condition for legitimizing offspring o It is intended to be a stable and enduring relationship Romantic Love More than half of American adults believe in love at first sight 52 Defined in 5 dimensions o Idealization of the loved one o The notion of a one and only o Love at first sight o Love winning out over all o An indulgence of personal emotions In other societies romantic love is unknown or seen as a strange maladjustment marriage in their societies is seen as an institution that organizes or patterns the establishment of economic social and even political relationships among families Marriage Rules Rules of Endogamy o Limit the social categories from within which one can choose a marriage partner o Ex marry within one s religious ethnic or economic group Rules of Exogamy o Require an individual to marry someone outside his or her culturally defined group o Ex in many tribal groups members must marry outside their lineage Homogamy The tendency of like to marry like Age o In American society people typically marry within their own age range o Only 23 of women marry men younger than them o Within the first marriage the male is typically 2 years older than the female but is related to age at the time of marriage Race o Homogamy is most obvious in the area of race o 7 of US married couples are interracial o the most common marriage of a spouse who is of one race and another who is of multiple races o interracial marriages are more likely to involve at least one previously married partner than are marriages between spouses of the same race o the degree of education also differs in interracial marriages o although the rate of interracial marriages is growing the proportions vary widely by state Hawaii number 1 Religion o Not nearly as widespread as racial homogamy but most marriages still involve people of the same religion Social Status o Level of education and type of occupation are two measures of social status o In these areas there are usually a great deal of similarity between people who marry each other Marriage and Divorce Quiz The so called red states that encourage traditional families have lower divorce rates than the more liberal blue states o False One of the reasons there is more divorce today than in the past is because people live longer and there is more time to get divorced o False If your parents divorced your chances of divorcing are increased o True Because the high divorce rate weeks out the unhappy marriages people who stay married have happier marriages than people did in the past when everyone stuck it out no matter how bad the marriage o False An unmarried women is more likely to experience domestic violence than a married women o True Second marriages are more successful than first marriages because people learn from their mistakes o False Women are more likely than men to be the ones who initiate a divorce o True Teenage marriages are fairly successful if they can get through the first year o False Cohabitation Unmarried couples living together out of wedlock Has increased dramatically in the past 20 yrs and is already having a significant impact on the American family As the personal lives of unmarried people start to resemble those of married people the meaning and permanence of marriage changes also Divorce Until the past few decades couples could divorce only certain circumstances The divorce rate was relatively low in the early 20th century Rising divorce rates are not unique to the US most industrialized nations have experienced similar patterns All segments of American society have been affected by the rising divorce rate Religious sanctions against divorce seem to have little influence Divorce rates have increased due to what we have come to expect from marriage and from the possibilities for women in the workplace Divorce Laws Before 1970 divorces in most American states could be obtained only on fault grounds o Those that asses blame against one of the spouses and typically consist of adultery desertion physical and mental cruelty long imprisonment for a felony and drunkenness California became the first state to enact a no fault divorce law o Family Law Act of 1969 Other