9. Affective Individualism

Question 0

____ ____ refers to the practice of forming marriage ties on the basis of romantic love. This concept comes from the work of the historian Lawrence Stone who traced the emergence of the nuclear family in Europe around the middle of the nineteenth century.

Answer 0

Affective individualism

Question 1

Stone argued that the ____ ____ irrevocably changed the form and function of the European family household.

Answer 1

industrial revolution

Question 2

Whereas the family household had previously been an economic unit and the centre of production, the industrial revolution moved production into the newly emerging ____. This had major implications for people within households.

Answer 2

factories

Question 3

Affective individualism conceptualised the resulting changes in personal life. In particular, associations between ____ became more private and personal.

Answer 3

adults

Question 4

The courtship rituals of the victorian bourgeoisie came to valorise ____ ____ as a prerequisite for marriage and family formation.

Answer 4

romantic love

Question 5

Similarly, it was during the Victorian period that many of our contemporary practices around motherhood emerged, and ideas about children as ‘____ ____’ began to be replaced by a whole new set of ideas about children as different types of human beings with special ‘child needs’.

Answer 5

small adults

Question 6

The contemporary experience of affective individualsm is charactersed by free choice in terms of ____, but some of us are less free than others.

Answer 6

relationships

Question 7

Giddens argues that new relationship forms and new meanings of intimacy have emerged that reflect wider social changes that have impacted on conventional patterns of ____ nuclear family life.

Answer 7

traditional

Question 8

In the past three ____ these general changes have occurred in terms of family life: 1. sex and marriage have been separated 2. parenthood and marriage have been untied 3. marriage and relationships have been reconstituted 4. the sexual division of labour has altered.

Answer 8

decades

Question 9

Giddens’ argument is that as marriage has become more terminable, we seek particular forms of relationships that satisfy our indvidual quest for ____.

Answer 9

intimacy

Question 10

Drawing on ideas of affective individualism, Giddens calls these types of relationships ‘____ ____’.

Answer 10

pure relationships

Question 11

Pure relationships are different to older forms of intimate association like ____ marriage: pure relationships are based on the desire of having a ‘meaningful personal life’, rather than a ‘happy family life’ that typified the romantic quest associated with companionate marriage.

Answer 11

companionate

Question 12

Intimate relationships are central to the ways in which we maintain our sense of self. Giddens means that our sense of who we are comes from the stories we tell about ‘self’, but such a narrative of self needs others to help us negotiate ____.

Answer 12

meaning

Question 13

Pure relationships are important here. According to Giddens these relationships are no longer compulsorily heterosexual, are no longer permanent, but are more ‘____ ____’ than previous forms of intimate relationships.

Answer 13

personally intense

Question 14

Although Jamieson and Giddens produce different accounts, they are both relatively optimistic about relationships in contemporary society. This is because they both see relationships as potentially ____, and as a site rich for personal growth for ‘individuals’. Of course both acknowledge that not all relationships are necessarily like this.

Answer 14

democratic (socially equal)

Question 15

One of the most pervasive and significant expectations associated with families is that of ____. We expect our parents, children and partners to be lowing and supportive. Unfortunately these of dreams intimacy are not always met. Violence against children and women, sexual abuse, neglect and exploitation are also common within families.

Answer 15

intimacy

Question 16

Stone argues that in sixteenth-century England, before the spread of ____, the family was an open-ended, low-key, unemotional, authoritarian institution. Essentially an economic unit, it was short-lived because parents died early and children were fostered out in apprenticeships.

Answer 16

individualism

Question 17

Over the last 300 years Western families have become more preoccupied with ____ than with production: marriages and partnerships are entered into for reasons of love and children are viewed as treasured individuals.

Answer 17

consumption

Question 18

Transformations in society are very closely linked to ____ in family forms.

Answer 18

transformations

Question 19

As people, both rich and poor, took up the new ways of living associated with industrialisation and capitalism, so new ____ ____ emerged that were smaller, more mobile and more focused on the emotional or affective bonds between family members.

Answer 19

family forms

Question 20

In relation marital relationships, ____ ____ has emphasised the intimate and romantic nature of married love between two equal individuals. In this context, marriage became a more private institution separate from the concerns and interference of kin groups and the larger community.

Answer 20

affective individualism

Question 21

In the shift from feudal tithes to capitalist markets, from indentured serfs to expendable workers, individualism took root as a powerful ideology that came to serve the interests of ____.

Answer 21

capitalism

Question 22

Moreover, the ideology of individualism contributes to the idea that men and women are not only free in the labour market, but are also free to make other kinds of ____ as they see fit.

Answer 22

contract

Question 23

The historical construction of affective individualism has also shaped the construction of ____ ____ and the value placed on children.

Answer 23

parental relationships

Question 24

In particular, there has been an increasing emphasis on the ____ bond as being important for the child’s physical, mental and emotional development. More recently still, the role of the father has come to be extolled as being central to a stable and happy family life.

Answer 24

mother-child