Family&Households- Topic 2(Paper2)

Question 1

3 features of childhood in our society.

Answer 1

-Childhood is regarded as a special time of life and different to adults.
-Physically and psychological immature and not yet completed to run their lives.
-Children’s lack of skills, knowledge and experience means that they need a lengthy, protected period of nurturing and socialisation before they’re ready for adult society and it’s responsibilities.

Question 2

3 examples of how children are treated differently in different societies.

Answer 2

-They take responsibility at an early age. Bolivia found that once children are about 5 years old they are expected to take work responsibilities in the home and in the community.

-Less value is placed on children showing obedience to adult authority. Raymond Firth found that among the Tchopia of the western pacific doing as you are told by a grown up is regarded as a concession to be granted by the child not a right to be expected by the adult.

-Children’s sexual behaviour is often viewed differently. for example among the Trobriand Islanders of the south west pacific, Bronislaw Malinowski found that adults took and attitude of tolerance and amused interest towards children’s sexual explorations and activities.

Question 3

What is meant by the globalisation of western childhood?

Answer 3

some sociologists argue that western notions of childhood are being globalised. international humanitarian and welfare agencies have exported and imposed on the rest of the world western norms of what childhood should be- a separate life stage based in the nuclear family and school in which children are innocent dependent and vulnerable and have no economic role.

Question 4

2 ways in which children were seen to be the same as adults in the Middle Ages.

Answer 4

-Miniadults-same rights
-Duties skiils.

Question 5

How does the painting illustrate Aries view of childhood in the Middle Ages?

Answer 5

Children appear without any of the characteristics of childhood they have simply been depicted on a smaller scale. The paintings show children and adults dressed in the same clothing and working and playing together.

Question 6

How were parental attitudes to children different in the Middle Ages?

Answer 6

Edward Shorter argues that high death rates encouraged indifference and neglect especially toward infants. Its not uncommon for parents to give a newborn baby the name of a recently dead sibling.

Question 7

3 reasons for the emergence of the modern notion of childhood

Answer 7

-Schools came to specialise purely in the education of the young. This reflected the influence of the children which increasing saw children as fragile creatures of God in need of discipline and protection from worldly evils.

-There was a growing distinctive between children’s and adults clothing. By the 17th century an upper class boy would be dressed in an outfit reserved for his own age group which set him apart from adults.

-By the 18th century handbooks on child rearing were widely available- a sign of the growing child- centeredness of family life at least among the middle class.

Question 8

State one criticism of Aries work

Answer 8

Aries argues that childhood didn’t exist in the past.

Question 9

3 ways in which postman argues that childhood is disappearing.

Answer 9

-Neil postman argues that childhood is disappearing fast if we continue to give children the same rights as adults.

-The disappearance of children’s traditional unsupervised games.

-The growing similarity of adults’ clothing committing adult crimes like murder.

Question 10

According to Postman, what is the main reason for this disappearance?

Answer 10

The cause first of emergence of childhood and now its disappearance lies in the rise and fall of print culture and its replacement by TV.

Question 11

Outline how in Postman’s view the information hierarchy has been destroyed.

Answer 11

Television blurs the distinction between childhood and adulthood destroying the information hierarchy.

Question 12

Give one criticism of Postman’s view the information hierarchy has been destroyed view

Answer 12

The disappearance of adulthood where adults and children’s tates and style become indistinguishable.

Question 13

According to Jenks, what is the difference between childhood in modernity and postmodernity?

Answer 13

Childhood is undergoing change as society moves from modernity to postmodernity.

Question 14

How does Jenks see parents relationships with their children in postmodern society?

Answer 14

They become distant from the constant uncertainty and upheaval of life.

Question 15

2 criticisms of Jenks’ work.

Answer 15

-The evidence comes from small, unrepresentative studies.
-Over-generalising.

Question 16

Give 3 ways in which children’s lives have improved according to the march of progress view.

Answer 16

-Better healthcare.
-Protected from harm and exploitation by laws.
-Valued more education.

Question 17

According to Palmer, what are the causes of toxic childhood?

Answer 17

Rapid technological and cultural changes in the past 25 years have damaged children’s physical, emotional and intellectual development.

Question 18

2 criticisms that the conflict view makes of the march of progress view.

Answer 18

-These are inequalities among children in terms of the opportunities and risks they face many today remain unprotected and badly cared for.

-The inequalities between children and adults are greater than ever children today experience greater control, oppression and dependency not greater care and protection.

Question 19

Give examples of the inequalities among children in relation to gender, ethnicity and social class.

Answer 19

Gender-Mayer Hillman-boys are more likely to be allowed to cross or cycle on roads, use buses and go out after dark unaccompanied. Jens Bonke found that girls do more domestic labour- especially in lone parent families.
Ethnicity- Julia Brannen’s study of 15-16 year olds found that Asian parents were more likely than other parents to be strict towards their daughters.
Social class- children born into poor families are more likely to die infancy or childhood. Poor mothers are likely to have low birth eight babies.

Question 20

Give an example of neglect and abuse in which adults control children.

Answer 20

Firestone argues that protection from paid work isn’t a benefit to children but a form of inequality. In 2013 43,000 children were subject to child protection plans because they were deemed to be at risk of significant harm.

Question 21

Give an example of controls over children’s space in which adults control children.

Answer 21

Shop signs-no schoolchildren.
Children are told to play in some areas and forbidden to play in others. Fears about road safety and stranger danger.

Question 22

Give an example of controls over children’s time in which adults control children.

Answer 22

Adults in modern society control children’s daily routines, including the times when they get up, eat, go to school, come home, go out, watch TV and sleep.

Question 23

Give an example of controls over children’s bodies in which adults control children.

Answer 23

Adults exercise enormous control over ‘s children’s bodies including how they sit, walk and run, what they wear etc.

Question 24

Give an example of controls over children’s access to resources in which adults control children.

Answer 24

Labour laws and compulsory schooling exclude them from all but the most marginal, low paid, part time employment.

Question 25

Define age patriarchy.

Answer 25

Descries inequalities between adults and children.

Question 26

How might children resist the statue of ‘child’

Answer 26

Jenifer Hockey and Allison James describe one strategy as acting up- acting like adults by doing things they are not meant to do.

Question 27

2 criticisms of the child liberationist view.

Answer 27

-The child liberationist view argue that some adult control over children’s lives is justified on the grounds that children cannot make rational decisions and so are unable to safeguard their interests themselves.

-Although children remain under supervision they aren’t as powerless as the child liberationists claim.

Question 28

What is meant by the idea that children are mere socialisation projects?

Answer 28

For adults to mould, shape and develop of no interest in themselves but only for what they will become in the future.

Question 29

How are children seen by the new sociology of childhood?

Answer 29

Active agents who play a major part in creating their own childhoods.

Question 30

What methods are most appropriate for studying a child’s point of view?

Answer 30

Jenifer Mason and Becky Tipper show how children actively create their own definitions of who aren’t proper aunts or grandfather etc, but who regard them as close.