Week 1 Outline

Families - General Notes Families - General Notes

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I. What is a family?

A. family - a social group of two or more people related by blood, marriage, or adoption who live together.
B. family of orientation
C. family of procreation
D. nuclear family
E. extended family
F. cohabitation

II. Societies are built on kinship - social relationships based on blood, marriage or adoption.

A. Industrial societies - close relatives

B. Family forms vary across cultures, as they have varied across history

III. Historically, the nuclear family has predominated in American society.

IV. Marriage in the United States is monogamous. Most preindustrial societies permit

A. polygamy
B. polygyny
C. polyandry

V. Cross-culturally family patterns include

A. neolocality - U.S.
B. patrilocality
C. matrilocality
D. bilateral descent - a practice linking children in kinship to the families of both parents.
E. patrilineal descent
F. matrilineal descent

VI. Structural-functional analysis - 4 major functions of the family:

A. socialization of the young
B. regulation of sexual activity
C. social placement
D. providing emotional support
E. In modern society, many of the socialization functions of the family have been taken over by other institutions. How have the schools, churches, and mass media supplemented or replaced the family in socializing children? A number of the care and protection functions have also been taken away from the family. Name some of these, and discuss which institutions perform these functions now.

1. incest taboo - cultural norms that forbid sexual relationship between certain kin.

VII. Social-conflict theory draws attention to the fact that the family serves to perpetuate social inequality in terms of social classes, ethnic and racial groups, or gender.

VII. Symbolic-interaction analysis highlights the dynamic nature of family life. The reality of family living differs for different family members, and member's interactions shape and reshape the family over time.

VIII. The life course of the family:

A. Courtship - romantic love vs. arranged marriages
B. Marriage - Ideal and real - is romantic love the basis for a lasting relationship? What are the realities of marriage after the wedding?

IX. sexual infidelity

X. Child Rearing - decrease in birth rate and family size Why?

A. children are economic liability
B. large numbers of women are in labor force
C. birth control technology
D. infant mortality is low
E. Delaying childbirth
F. No children option

XI. Family in Later Life - marriage changes as children leave home to form families of their own.

A. Retirement -
B. Death - usually husband goes first

XII. Social class and family life - Wealth vs. poverty

XIII. Ethnicity and race.

A. Hispanic families
B. Black families

XIV. Gender - husband dominates, marriage provides more benefits to men than to women.

A. married women - poorer mental health more passive toward life great personal unhappiness
B. married men live longer than single men
C. single women live longer than married women

XV. Divorce

A. The divorce rate is 10X what is was a century ago.
B. Approximately 1/2 to 2/3 of all marriages will end in divorce.
C. Most people who divorce -especially men - remarry. Subsequent marriages are more likely to end in divorce than first marriages.
D. Blended families.

XVI. Family violence -

A. spouse battering
B. child abuse

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