Changing Life Course

Question 1

Allan and Crow

Pre 1960s

Answer 1

Standard life course
Marriage, living together, sex, children
Close link to marriage, family life cycle reproduced by children + grand-children

Question 2

Allan and Crow

Post 1960s

Answer 2

Major change- increased divorce, marriage not lifelong committment
Fewer children at older ages
More serial monogamy, step families, lone parents, gay couples
More births outside marriage and people in non-family households

Question 3

Levin

Answer 3

Life course was ‘compulsory’ - strong social norms prescribing it as proper + expected ways to live (cereal packet family, trad roles)

Question 4

Lewis

Answer 4

Individuals have greater freedom of choice in personal behaviour + life arrangements - not regulated by externally imposed public moral code. No such thing as ‘typical family’

Question 5

May

Answer 5

Personal relationships take on diverse forms, would be appropriate to study sociology of personal life, not the family
(no longer centre of many people’s lives + relationships)

Question 6

Gabb

Answer 6

Relationships outside the family affect those within the family (such as with friends or families of choice)