Families and households Flashcards

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1
Q

Name 3 family types

A

Nuclear family - The ‘perfect family’, woman plays the expressive role, while the man plays the instrumental role

Extended family - Your relatives; aunts, uncles, cousins, etc

Beanpole family - 3 generations that live together; grandparents, parents, kids

Matrifocal family - The mother is dominant

Lone parent family - (self explanatory)

Serial monogamy - having many different monogamous families

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2
Q

Summarize the Functionalist view on the family

A

Functionalists see the family as a vital ‘organ’ that maintains the ‘body’ of society, and sociologist Murdock coined the 4 main functions of education;
Sexual - expressing sexuality in a socially approved context
Reproduction - reproducing for the next generation
Socialization - Unit of primary socialization, children learning
Economic - The family provides food and shelter for family

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3
Q

Who brought up the 4 functions of education

A

Murdoch

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4
Q

What are the 4 functions of the family

A

Sexual - expressing sexuality in a socially approved context
Reproduction - reproducing for the next generation
Socialization - Unit of primary socialization, children learning
Economic - The family provides food and shelter for family

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5
Q

What is ‘Monogamy’?

A

Having various relationships one after the other, but no cheating

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6
Q

Feminist view on family

A

A unit based on patriarchy, reproducing and supporting a society which men have power and authority

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7
Q

Marxist view on family

A

Marxists see the family as a means of teaching its members to submit to the ideology of the bourgeoise

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8
Q

What are Talcott Parsons’ two functions of the family

A
  • Primary socialisation of the young
  • Stabilisation of adult personalities
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9
Q

Summarize Parsons’ ‘Functional Fit’ theory

A

Parsons argues that the particular structure and functions of a family will fit the needs of the society in which it is found in, and according to Parsons there are two types of families;
- Modern industrial family
- Preindustrial family

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10
Q

Name 3 characteristics of a pre industrial family

A
  • The family produced most of the goods necessary
  • Reproduction and nurturing of children
  • The family being a source of education
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11
Q

Name 3 characteristics of a post industrial family

A
  • Work was moved outside the house and people bought things with their wages
  • Increase in reproduction of children
  • Education is now the responsibility of professional teachers rather than parents
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12
Q

Summarized view of the New Right

A
  • Similar to functionalists, they believe the nuclear family as important for performing functions in securing social stability
  • Also believing the nuclear family is under threat by social changes
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13
Q

What is ‘Foucault’s idea of surveillance’?

A

Throughs social institutions, the state exercises social control by external pressure, the system watches over them and encourages them through persuasion to conform to social norms

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14
Q

Liberal feminist view on family

A

They believe the best way to improve the position of women in society is to reform measures within the present system; like stop stereotyping women into housewife roles

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15
Q

Radical feminist view on family

A

Believe men are the main obstacle for equality for women, and believe women should stay clear of patrichal families

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16
Q

Marxist Feminist view on the family

A

They believe women are doubly exploited as workers and wives; getting unequal pay and having to play the expressive role

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17
Q

What is Engels and Zaretsky’s (Marxists) view on the family

A

They see the main function of the family within a capitalist society is to act as a ‘unit of consumption’; the family buys the products necessary to keep capitalism running.

By having monogamous relationships they can keep al the wealth within a tight knit circle (within the bourgeoise)

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18
Q

What did the Conservative Party Policy do

A
  • Encouraged women to stay at home
  • Preferred the nuclear family
  • The welfare system may encourage non - traditional family forms
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19
Q

What did the Labour Party Policy do

A
  • Cuts to lone parent benefits; to promote women doing more work
  • Civil partnership act; allowing same sex relationships to be acknowledged as marriages 2004
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20
Q

What did the Coalition Party Policy do

A

Mixture of new rights approach which promoted the nuclear family

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21
Q

Post- modernist view on the family

A
  • They believe the family is very diverse and there is no longer one dominant family type (nuclear family); generalisations are invalid
  • People are no longer bound by traditional ideas, and social changes like monogamy and family structure are just a reflection of people’s choices
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22
Q

What are ‘Conjugal roles’?

A

roles of a husband and a wife within the home

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23
Q

What are ‘Segregated roles’?

A

The clear separation in roles of a male and female;
- Man doing DIY work
- Women staying at home and doing housework

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24
Q

What are ‘Joint roles’?

A

The husband and wife are more flexible and shared with tasks

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25
Q

What did Willmott and young believe

A

There’d be an increase in symmetrical families

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26
Q

What is ‘Primogeniture’?

A

Passing wealth on to the son, a nuclear family idea

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27
Q

Name 2 criticisms of Marxist views on the family

A
  • Ignore benefits individuals receive from the family
  • Ignore different family types
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28
Q

What do divorces not show

A
  • The number of people separated, not divorced
  • The number of people who live in empty shell relationships; people want to leave but are deterred by their parents
  • All the unstable and unhappy relationships there were before divorces were made easier
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29
Q

Name 3 reasons for the increase in divorce rates

A
  • Changes in law make it easier to get divorces
  • Secularisation has made it socially acceptable to get divorces
  • Changes in positions of women
  • Functionalists believe people now expect way more in their relationships than older generations
  • Due to reduced functions in the family, marriage is seen as less practical
  • Increasing life expectancy means more time for marriages to go wrong
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30
Q

Name a divorce stat

A
  • 70K divorces in 1971 and 130K divorces in 2006
  • From 1966 (40,000), divorces went up by 5000 every year
  • In the 19th century, only men could make divorces
  • The Divorce Law Reform Act pf 1969 meant people can get divorces other than the fact if a partner was having an affair
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31
Q

What is ‘Individualization’?

A

Individualization is caring about your wants and needs, instead of identifying your self in a group

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32
Q

What is a ‘Pure Relationship’?

A

A relationship that exists for the needs of both in the relationship

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33
Q

What is ‘Life Course’?

A

Looking at peoples life events

34
Q

What is ‘Confluent Love’?

A

People only staying together if their needs are met

35
Q

What is ‘‘Divorce Rate?

A

Divorces per 1000 married people

36
Q

What is Chambers’ individualization thesis

A

People have greater choice decide for themselves how to shape their lives, not affected by tradition

37
Q

Name an advantage of a step family

A
  • Combined income
  • more socialization due to more family members
38
Q

Name a disadvantage of a step family

A
  • Can be bad tension
  • different parenting styles
39
Q

What is ‘Childhood’?

A

A social construct of the life stages from the age of 0 -12

40
Q

Why is childhood a social construct

A

Because it ain’t a biological phase, people from different cultures have different versions of childhood;
- people in poor Asian countries may be child labourers while children in the west may have a ‘normal’ childhood
- Children decades ago had no childhood and were put into work immediately

41
Q

Why did Aries claim the late 1900s claim it was the ‘age of the child’.

A
  • Consumerism
  • Decrease in infant mortality rate
  • Compulsory education
  • increased affluence
  • children rights
42
Q

Name 3 legislations that protected children over the years

A
  • Driving a car, min age 17
  • Paid work, age 16
  • Sex, min age 16
  • Cigarettes, lottery and alcohol ,age 18
43
Q

What is ‘social construct’?

A

Something created by society

44
Q

What is ‘Child- centeredness’?

A

Giving priority to the interests and needs of children

45
Q

Name 3 reasons for the causes of child centredness

A
  • Families have become smaller meaning more focus is on the child
  • The increase in standard of living has helped children
  • Welfare state provides more benefits for children
  • Parental fears
46
Q

1 thing that show the loss of childhood perhaps is true

A
  • People losing their virginity at 17 instead of 22
47
Q

Summarize Neil Postman’s view that childhood is disappearing

A

TV means that children have access to the adult world

48
Q

Summarize Sue Palmer’s view on childhood disappearing

A

She believes TV is damaging young people, lowering their retention and exposing them to harmful adult things; porn, war, etc

49
Q

What is ‘Demography’?

A

The study of human populations, their size and profile

50
Q

What is ‘Census’?

A

A countrywide survey everyone MUST do, or they’d be fined and such

51
Q

What is ‘Birth Rate’?

A

Number of live births per 1000 of the population

52
Q

What is ‘Infant Mortality Rate’?

A

number of infant deaths per 1000 children

53
Q

What is ‘Life Expectancy’?

A

An estimation how long someone will live

54
Q

What is ‘Death Rate’?

A

Number of deaths per 1000 people

55
Q

What is ‘Immigration’?

A

Number of people entering the UK to stay longer than a year

56
Q

What is ‘Emigration’?

A

Number of people leaving the UK to go back to their origin country

57
Q

What is ‘Net Migration’?

A

The difference between immigration and emigration

58
Q

Name 2 reasons for changes in birth rate

A
  • Change in position of women
  • Decline in infant mortality rate
59
Q

Name 3 reasons for the changes in death rates

A
  • Improved nutrition
  • Better healthcare
  • Environmental improvements
60
Q

What is the dependency ratio

A

(0 to 14 and 65+) / total population (15 to 64)

61
Q

Name 3 pull factors

A
  • Better education
  • better healthcare
  • freedom of speech
62
Q

Name 3 push factors

A
  • Natural disasters
  • War
  • High crime rates
63
Q

Name 2 criticisms of the Functionalist/New Right approach

A

Exploitation of women
- women are exploited at home as having to do unpaid domestic labour and at work, by not being payed equal

Too old fashioned
- Both men and women perform expressive and instrumental roles now

Dark side of the family
- Assumes traditional family is and was rosy and perfect. Acting as if women and children don’t get abused

64
Q

Name 3 reasons for the increase in cohabitation and decline in marriage

A
  • Growing secularism
  • Reduced functions of the family means marriage is less practical
  • Rising divorce rates mean couples don’t wanna take the risk
  • Changing role of women mean women have less need for a marriage
65
Q

What’s ‘LAT’

A

Living Apart Together
- long term intimate relationships where they don’t share a common home

66
Q

Name 2 reasons why people choose LAT over marriage and cohabitation

A
  • May have pre existing responsibilities and commitments which unables them to live together
  • Practical reasons such as cost of housing
  • Avoid the risk of recreating the same conditions in which previous relationships failed
67
Q

Name 2 reasons for more lone parent families

A
  • Woman have greater economic dependence, thus not needing a partner to support them
  • Secularism means less pressure to have children in marriage
  • Reproductive technology allows women to have children with no men

-

68
Q

Name 3 advantages of an aging population

A
  • grey pound contribu tree s to the economy
  • Less crime as old people are less likely to commit crime
  • retired people play a role in the community
  • Grandparents provide unpaid childcare
69
Q

Name 3 disadvantages of an aging population

A
  • More work for women as they have to take care of the elderly
  • more ill people
  • Loss of labour force
  • Family stress; overcrowding
70
Q

“The high figures for remarriage suggest that heterosexual attraction (need for intimacy and companionship) means families will not disappear”

A

Somerville

71
Q

Believes in radical feminism
- the creation of ‘matrilocal’ households as an alternative to heterosexual families

A

Germaine Greer

72
Q

(Marxist feminist)
Women absorb anger (from husbands who are frustrated at work)
“Takers of shit”

A

Ansley

73
Q

They talk about:
- Functional fit
- Warm Bath theory
- Stabilization of adult personality

A

Parsons

74
Q

What sociologist claims the family performs 4 essential functions:
-sexual regulation
-economic needs
-primary socialization
-reproduction

A

Murdock

75
Q

“Primogeniture”

A

Engles

76
Q

there is an illusion that the family is a private space, separate from economics and capitalism.
- Family is a unit of consumption

A

Zaretsky

77
Q

(Marxist)
“Modern society and old age
Old are excluded from labour force, made dependent and powerless –> no use to capitalism”

A

Philipson

78
Q

“Historical differences
The idea of childhood did not exist”

A

Aries

79
Q

“Western notion of childhood
Childhood is a separate ‘golden age’”

A

Pilcher

80
Q

“Toxic childhood and rapid technology change is bad”

A

Sue Palmer

81
Q

“Disappearance of childhood”

A

Postman

82
Q

“Segregated and conjugal roles”

A

Bott