Family 4: The Rapoports

Question 1

D: What research method did the Rapoports use?

E: What was their main finding?

C: How does this go against Parsons, Zaretsky and Oakley?

Answer 1

D: Secondary sources

E: That there is a range of family types in Britain. There are differences between and within families= there is diversity.

C: These sociologists focus on the conventional family, the nuclear family.

Question 2

D: What acronym can you use to remember the factors?

E: List the factors causing differences between families.

C: Which family type did the Rapoports not consider in their study?

Answer 2

D: CLOGS

E: 
C= cultural
L= life course
O= organisational
G= generational
S= social class

C: Civil Partnerships and gay marriage laws had not been passed at the time of writing their study, so they did not consider lesbian and gay families.

Question 3

D: Which factor explains the difference in parenting styles between middle and working class families?

E: What type of diversity would exist between a lone parent family and an empty nest family?

C: Name one way religion can cause cultural diversity.

Answer 3

D: social class

E: Organisational- lone-parent families need to consider child care.

C: Catholic families may be different from other families- larger family sizes.
Jewish families may prioritise eating together on the Sabbath.
Muslim families may be more likely to live in extended families.

Question 4

D: which factor explains the differences within one family as they change over time?

E: Name one way a family might be impacted by the generation the parents have grown up in.

C: Can you make a link between the two types of diversity above?

Answer 4

D: Life course.

E: Generational- the parents might have been through a war and will be less wasteful of resources.
Parents may have been socialised before the internet was widely available/ used. Their parenting on social media could be impacted by this.

C: Generational- a parent may have been socialised by post-war propaganda that women should stay at home to look after children, so when having children (life course) will be more likely to give up a job.

Question 5

D: Do all sociologists agree that there has been a fundamental change to families in Britain?

E: Which type of family is arguably still the most common?

C: The Rapoports believe that we should celebrate family diversity. Which sociologists would disagree?

Answer 5

D: No, some would suggest that the amount of change has been over-exaggerated.

E: Nuclear.

C: Parsons- would argue that the traditional nuclear family is the best for socialising children. The New Right would agree that the nuclear family brings stability for society.