family

Question 1

nuclear family definition

Answer 1

A family type consisting of two parents (heterosexual) and their children.

Question 2

lone parent family

Answer 2

A family arrangement consisting of one parent (mother or father with their dependent
children.

Question 3

household

Answer 3

The house and its occupants as a unit. A person living on their own or with friends or
flatmates is considered to be living in a household, rather than a family.

Question 4

extended family

Answer 4

A family that consists of relatives in addition to the immediate family, who live together or
nearby

Question 5

arranged marriage

Answer 5

A marriage in which the bride and groom are chosen for each other by their families.

Question 6

extended family vertically

Answer 6

A particular type of vertically extended family with up to four generations living together or
nearby, but with few children, making them appear long and thin in structure

Question 7

step-family

Answer 7

A family made up of one or both partners with children from a previous marriage or
relationship living with them. The new partners might go on to have their own children
together.

Question 8

boomerang

Answer 8

Grown up children who return to live with their parents as a result of the break-up of a
relationship or because they can’t afford to rent or buy a house.

Question 9

polygamy

Answer 9

A marriage where one partner is legally allowed to marry several partners at the same time

Question 10

Monogamy

Answer 10

The marriage practice where, in terms of the law, men and women can only have one
marriage partner at a time.

Question 11

extended family horizontally

Answer 11

has two generations with relatives other than immediate family living together such as uncle,cousin and aunt

Question 12

beanpole family

Answer 12

they are a particular type of extended family with up to 4 generations living together or nearby but with few children making the structure appear thin like a beanpole

Question 13

modified extended family

Answer 13

is an extended family whose members do not live together or even very
close by, but ago keep in regular contact through visits, phone calls, video calls, text messages and
emails, showing the importance of close extended family ties.

Question 14

same sex family

Answer 14

Marriage union between people of the same sex.

Question 15

cohabitation

Answer 15

refers to the concept in which two people who are in a sexual relationship live together without being married in the UK
cohabitation of men used to be 11% in 1981 but in 2008 it was 25%

Question 16

families & Murdock

Answer 16

Murdock claims the family has four specific functions.
❑ Reproduction
❑ Emotional
❑ Education (primary socialisation)
❑ Economic
*Note; another function is ‘sexual’. This means that couples have happy, sexual relationships

Question 17

Talcott Parsons and The Warm Bath Theory

Answer 17

The warm bath is a metaphor for the family. The family is a warm bath.
Family life provides adults with the release from the strains and stresses
of everyday life – like a warm bath.

Question 18

The Dark side of the family

Answer 18

Functionalists are too positive about the nuclear family. The neglect the dark side of the family such
as domestic violence. The family can cause mental illness for example, stress and frustration. R.D Laing
said that families could cause schizophrenia.

Question 19

The Loss of traditional nuclear functions

Answer 19

Talcott Parsons suggests that the modern family as we know it today has undergone significant
changes about the functions it performs. Today the family has two basic ‘irreducible functions’,

Question 20

the decline of the classic extended family
and the emergence of nuclear family

Answer 20

✓ The need for geographical mobility
✓ The higher rate of social mobility in contemporary societies
✓ The growth in peoples wealth and income as society has got richer and the welfare
state has developed

Question 21

The New Right perspectives on family life

Answer 21

Charles Murray
and Peter Saunders
*Children who are brought up by two parents are likely to perform better educationally,
physically, psychologically and socially.
* If children have two parents from the opposite sex who are married, then they are more
likely to develop into stable adults.

Question 22

New Right believe that family values are important

Answer 22

Jewson argues Family members must provide for each other and to look after older, sick, unemployed
or homeless members of the family.
1. Family values are based on the view that there is a normal family type, made up of a married
couple bringing up their own natural children.
Same-sex couples, single parents and fatherless families are bad for the socialisation and
development of children.
* A male and female role is needed so that children can learn their roles in society.

Question 23

Marxism and the Family

Answer 23

The nuclear family has several functions, which ultimately maintain capitalism….
1. Provides emotional support for the workers
2. Reproduces the ‘labour power’
3. Consumes products of capitalism (cars/food /I. Pods/ Blackberry phones)
4. Socialises children to accept inequalities of capitalism.

Question 24

Eli Zaretsky on the family

Answer 24

Zaretsky is a Neo Marxist and suggests the family provides ‘a cushion’ from the effects of capitalism.
The family allows the worker to relax, refresh and unwind after a day at work. This means that the
worker can then feel revitalised for work the next day. Families separate & fragment individuals
from the rest of community. This is the cult of private life. The cult of private life stops a revolution
from happening (divide and conquer approach).
Capitalism also encourages pester power.

Question 25

The Feminist view of the family - Jessie Bernard

Answer 25

Jessie Bernard argued that marriage was good for men and that they needed marriage more than
women. Radical Feminists Delphy and Leonard see the family as patriarchal and maintain the
power of men over women. They argue that women contribute the most to family life in terms of
domestic work, emotional work and support, while men benefit the most from family life.

Question 26

ann oakely’s view on the family

Answer 26

Ann Oakley, a Feminist, suggests that from birth, children are taught that men and women have
different places in the world and that the male role is superior
(canalisation)
Oakley argues that the division of roles in the family
benefits men, as it gives them more power, status, money and choice

Question 27

Domestic abuse

Answer 27

Feminists argue that another way men dominate women, sometimes, is through domestic violence
and abuse.

Question 28

domestic abuse evidence

Answer 28

According to the Office for National Statistics in 2015, two women are murdered every
week in England and Wales by a current or former partner.

Question 29

sylvia walby

Answer 29

argues that domestic
violence against women is both a consequence and cause of women’s inequality in a culture that
undermines and devalues women.

Question 30

The Rapoport’s view on the family

Answer 30

In the 1980s, the Rapoports (American Social Scientists) suggested that
families were becoming more diverse in Britain. The Rapoports noticed a
change in family structure and the roles between family members.
Structures included the rise of lone parents and extended families. They
looked at the increase in divorce, remarriage and cohabitation and suggested that these trends have
made family structures more unpredictable.

Question 31

British African Caribbean families

Answer 31

This group has a lower rate of marriage, a higher rate of divorce and separation and a higher rate of
single parenthood. They are less likely to live with a partner than white people

Question 32

Pakistani and Bangladeshi family

Answer 32

South Asians are more likely to get married, have larger families and women are less likely to work
when they have children. They have lower rates of separation and divorce. They are more likely to
keep ties with the extended family.

Question 33

Robert Chester

Answer 33

Chester disagrees with the Rapoports! There have been some changes BUT the nuclear family is still
important and the main family type. He suggests several arguments to back up his view.
o The majority of people still marry and do not divorce.
o Most cohabitating couples go on to marry.
o Many divorced people still remarry.
o Most people live in a nuclear family at some time in their lives and the nuclear family is the
family type people aspire to.
Data shows, that despite an increase in cohabitation and lone
parents over the las decade or so, married couples and civil
partnerships are still the most common in the UK. However,
cohabitating couples are the fastest growing family type.

Question 34

Reasons for family diversity
changes in norms: secularisation

Answer 34

• Changes in norms: Secularisation
• Stigma (public shame) was
  attached to children born outside marriage, and to divorce and same-sex relationships (the latter
  being particularly stigmatised and was once, for men, illegal).
  -These norms were based on and strengthen by religious ideas of marriage as an institution set by
  God.

Question 35

evidence of change in norns: secularisation

Answer 35

Call the Midwife, a popular television drama set in London in the 1950s, reflects the norms of the
time by its treatment of the characters Patsy and Barbara. These young women were in a lesbian
relationship, but had to hide it from their family and friends because such as relationship was
unacceptable at the time.

Question 36

secularisation in today’s society

Answer 36

Sex outside marriage, cohabitation, divorce and same
sex relationships have become more acceptable. This process can be associated with the decline in
religion in Britain, known as secularisation

Question 37

changing position of women

Answer 37

Another reason for the growth in family diversity is that the position of women in society has
undergone change. It was the norm for women to give up work when they had children. The
husband’s role was the breadwinner (to earn money) and the wife’s role was to look after the
children and home.

Question 38

evidence for change in position of women

Answer 38

The Good Wife’s Guide’ from a 1955 edition of the marriage Housekeeping
monthly gives the following advice to women on how to treat their husbands (in the evenings) in
order to keep their marriages happy
Women’s magazines and books today are unlikely to offer advice like this

Question 39

changing in laws

Answer 39

-Opportunities at school have improved for
girls and, in some areas, girls are achieving better exam results than boys. –Job opportunities and
career prospect have opened up for women and more women are now working and establishing a
career rather than filling a temporary job until they marry.
- Women are not as dependant on men
to support then financially and this allows them to remain single, cohabit or divorce, and to bring
up children on their own. -Developments in contraception have enabled women to control when
they have their children and how many they have.

Question 40

The Symmetrical Family – Willmott and Young

Answer 40

It’s a family unit based on equality between partners
* Couples and their children are more home centred i.e. the growing interest in DIY.
* Family members spend more time together.
* Entertainment is more home based.

Question 41

Reasons behind the symmetrical family

Answer 41

-Some reasons include;
o New Technologies: ‘Labour Saving Devices’.
o Increased Employment Opportunities
o Improved Status & Rights of Women
o The Importance of ‘Dual Incomes’.
o Divorce Reform & Higher Expectations of marriage

Question 42

Stratified diffusion

Answer 42

Willmott and Young claimed that the
way of life of those at the top of the class structure, would filter down to those below them. They
call this ‘stratified diffusion’.

Question 43

Power dynamics

Answer 43

Edgell (1980) found that men are more likely to make the important decisions.

Question 44

Why do men tend to dominate decision-making?

Answer 44

1. Men tend to earn more money than women
2. For some ethnic groups, traditionally men make decisions.
3. Men may feel like their masculinity is threatened if they do not make decisions.
4. Some feminist argue that women are socialised to be passive.

Question 45

Power and domestic violence within families

Answer 45

Domestic violence includes violence by men against women within the home and violence by
women against their male partners. It also includes physical, psychological or sexual abuse of
children, violence between brothers and sisters and the neglect and abuse of the elderly

Question 46

Feminist arguments against symmetrical family

Answer 46

Feminists claim Wilmott and
Young have exaggerated their findings. Patriarchy is rife!
Anne Oakley found some evidence of husbands helping but no evidence of symmetry.

Question 47

Feminist perspectives: The Dual Burden and the Triple Shift.

Answer 47

-Ann Oakley argued that despite women working they have acquired a dual burden of paid work and
unpaid housework.
-Men benefit from women’s earnings and their domestic labour. -Duncombe and
Marsden (1995) added to Oakley’s idea and talk of a ‘Triple shift’ refers to women who have paid
work, do most of the housework and take on the emotional needs of her family.

Question 48

Dual earner families

Answer 48

o Esther Dermott (2003) conducted a survey and found that many fathers wanted to be involved
with childcare and wanted to spend more time with their children.

Question 49

Traditional Masculine roles

Answer 49

Many working class men had jobs that required strength and hard physical work. Men were the
breadwinners. Men had authority in the home and were regarded as the head of the household
because they worked hard to earn the money the family needed. All these factors gave men status
and respect. Boys were socialised in a way that would prepare them for this.

Question 50

masculinity

Answer 50

Refers to the qualities, character and behavioural traits expected of men.

Question 51

Reasons for the change in masculine role

Answer 51

1. Traditional industries in Britain such as coal mining have decline, leading to unemployment
   and the loss of the breadwinner role.
2. Manual jobs have been replaced by the service industry which do not require physical
   strength and can be done my women.
3. More women are succeeding in education and following a career and challenging the male
   role as breadwinner.
4. Women expect more involvement from men in the home.
5. Feminism has questioned the right of men to have power over women in the home.

Question 52

Further difficulties for men

Answer 52

Men receive conflicting messages. Agents of socialisation such as the media in the form of magazines,
TV and films still tend to show men in traditional ‘masculine roles’. Male heroes such as the Avengers
series are physically powerful and assertive. Most car adverts feature a male driver. BUT Feminism,
and many of the women in men’s lives, expect men to be more caring and sensitive and in touch with
their feminine side

Question 53

Crisis of masculinity

Answer 53

How does the decline in the ‘traditional male role’ affect men?
Sociologists and politicians suggest there is a crisis of masculinity in society. Men are losing their
traditional roles and taken for granted authority and are left confused and unsure of their identity.
53
This has caused particular concern because young men have higher rates of suicide and depression,
lower rates of educational achievement and are more likely to be homeless than any other group in
society.

Question 54

changing role of men in society

Answer 54

d the chance for
more involvement with their partners and children is welcome.
Research by Ester Dermott has shown that some father want to be what she calls ‘intimate fathers’,
that is, fathers who are closely involved with their children and their daily activities.

Question 55

Serial
monogamy

Answer 55

where men and women may have several marriages over their lifetime, has become more
common in Britain as people are increasingly divorcing and marrying again.

Question 56

Reasons for the rise in divorce: Changes in law

Question 57

Reasons for rise in divorce: changes in law

Answer 57

Question 58

Reasons for rise in divorce: Declining stigma and changing attitudes

Answer 58

Divorce has become normalised. With less stigma people are more willing to resort to divorce.

Question 59

Reasons for rise in divorce:secularisation

Answer 59

Question 60

Reasons for rise in divorce: rising expectation for marriage

Answer 60

Fletcher (1966) Argues that we now place too higher expectations on our marriages which is why so
many of us end up getting divorced. Higher expectations make couples nowadays less willing to
tolerate an unhappy marriage.

Question 61

Changes in the position of women

Answer 61

Women are more likely to be in paid work. This has risen from 47% in 1959 to 70% in 2005. Although
women generally still earn less than men do, equal pay and anti-discrimination laws have helped to
narrow the pay gap. This means women can take care of themselves financially without a husband.

Question 62

New rights view on divorce

Answer 62

he New Right see the nuclear family of two parents and their children as the ‘proper’ and best
family form. They argue that it is how families are meant to be (and would be biologically) and that
any other family type is inferior. As we have seen, New Right sociologist Charles Murray believes
that lone-parent families are the cause of most of society’s problems. The New Right see divorce as
threatening the future of the nuclear family and causing an increase in ‘inadequate; and ‘inferior’
families.
The New Right support their disapproval of divorce with evidence which suggests that children
from lone parent families are more likely to fail at school and are also more likely to be involved in
crime.

Question 63

Reasons why people are likely to remarry

Answer 63

• Divorcees with young children may want another partner to assist them in bringing their children
  up.
• In society today, marriage still remains the norm and is seen as the conventional thing to do.
• Those who seek divorce are not rejecting the institution of marriage, they are rather rejecting one
  particular partner and remarrying in the hope to find happiness with someone else
• Some people may remarry for companionship.

Question 64

Is the nuclear family really in decline?

Answer 64

The New Right view the nuclear family as the ‘right type’ but this family is in decline! Alternative
families are inadequate! Lone parent families are on the rise due to perverse incentives- Benefits!

Question 65

But it is still the (nuclear family)most common family type..

Answer 65

Statistically, the nuclear family is still the most common. Robert Chester points out that most people
live in nuclear families at some time in their lives, but fewer people are spending the majority of their
lives in traditional nuclear families.

Question 66

However An alternative view towards is the nuclear family in decline

Answer 66

The Rapports looked at family diversity. They agree that
traditional nuclear families are in decline, but regard the
increase of other family forms as desirable. The family
has not declined - It has changed. Postmodernists
support this view. They argue that people are now free to
choose how they want to live their lives, including what
family they want to live in.

Question 67

Why do females usually head single parent households

Answer 67

1. Socialisation: Women are generally socialised to be more nurturing and to take on the primary
   care role.
2. Masculinity: Men may feel that caring for children threatens their masculinity. They are
   generally not socialised to be the carer.
3. Employment: Men are generally more reluctant to give up careers to care for children.
4. Divorce: Women more likely to get custody after a divorce. Courts and Law often side with the
   female.
5. Social norms: It is more socially acceptable for women to care for children in contemporary
   society

Question 68

Singleton - Good side

Answer 68

1. Single parents do a great job. They don’t all
   raise ‘delinquents’.
   2.Feminists and Postmodernists suggest
   women should have the choice to be a
   single parent.
2. Cashmore claims that one good parent is
   better than two bad ones.

Question 69

Singleton -bad side

Answer 69

1. New Right theorists such as Peter Saunders
   and Charles Murray argue that single
   parents provide inadequate socialisation.
2. Single parents are usually dependent on
   the welfare state.
3. Children from single parent backgrounds
   under perform at school and more likely to
   get into trouble.

Question 70

singleton

Answer 70

Singlehood refers to a group of people who are not married and or in a relationship. Instead they
remain single. According to the 2011 Office for National Statistics (ONS) 51% of people in England and
Wales were single.

Question 71

Postmodernist views on Singletons

Answer 71

Singlehood shows that people are free to make their own lifestyle choices. We are no longer under
pressure to marry and have children. Diversity is embraced. We can create our own alternative family.

Question 72

Ageing Population

Answer 72

People are getting older and living longer

Question 73

Some reasons for high birth rates include:

Answer 73

Some reasons for high birth rates include:
* need for large families, e.g. to work in rural areas
* lack of family planning
* people have many children because many infants die

Question 74

Some reasons for falling death rates include:

Answer 74

• increasing wealth
• better hygiene and improved healthcare
• better farming techniques

Question 75

Good and Bads of ageing population

Answer 75

Ageing population can bring benefits, such as more experience and knowledge. But it also increases
the cost of healthcare and adds to the government spending, as they have to pay everyone a
pension (retirement income).

Question 76

Sandwich generation

Answer 76

The Sandwich generation refers to middle aged or older people
(usually women) who act as carers for their elderly parents while at
the same time providing help and support to their children

Question 77

Boomerang children

Answer 77

refers to grown up children who return to live with their parents because of a
breakup of a relationship or because they cannot afford to buy a house.

Question 78

The changing role of children - aries

Answer 78

(Aries)-Childhood is a social construct
A social construct refers to something that is created by a society. Childhood is arguably a social
construct because it has been created by society. Sociologists know this because childhood changes
from time to time and place to place. It is not always based on biology.

Question 79

Child centred society

Answer 79

Child centeredness refers to prioritising the needs of children. Phillipe Aries refers to this stage as ‘the
century of the child’. In this stage Childhood and adulthood are completely separate. Some features
associated with ‘child centeredness’ are;
* Family time is viewed as important.
* Living standards have risen and families are smaller.
* Parents spend more leisure time with children.
In addition, society has created childhood specific products, services and activities. Children have
their own:
* TV shows
* Toys
* Clothes

Question 80

The Future of Childhood

Answer 80

According to Neil Postman, “Childhood is disappearing at a dazzling speed”.
-According to Postman, childhood has disappeared due to the movement from print culture
vs TV culture. Print culture is described below in the book to the left.
In comparison to print culture, TV does not require special skills to access it, and it makes
information available to adults and children alike. Children can watch the images. It is more
difficult to hide children from ‘adult content’.

Question 81

Dark side of childhood