Final- Chapter 5 Flashcards
What are social roles?
Expected behaviors and attitudes that come with ones position in society
What is a role transition?
Roles changes with life circumstances
Emphasis is on the idea that roles are neither gained or lost but will change as life circumstances change
What is a social clock?
Similar to a biological clock
Patterns of change in social roles over adulthood- normal sequences of adult life experiences
What did the biological clock look at?
Health and physical function throughout adulthood
What are gender roles?
What men and women actually do in a given culture during a given historical era
What are gender stereotypes?
Sets of shared beliefs or generalizations about what men and women in a society have in common
Indicates what each gender does and how they should behave
Can be useful and inaccurate
Harmful if used to judge how well someone is measuring up to a standard of behavior
What are some male stereotypes?
Instrumental qualities-
Competitive
Adventurous
Physical strong
What are some female stereotypes?
Communal qualities-
Sympathetic
Nurturing
Intuitive
What is the learning schema theory?
Proximal- current influences
Children taught to cues the world through gender polarized lenses
Artificial or exaggerated distinctions between genders
What is the social role theory?
Proximal
Results from children observing division of labor within a culture
What is the evolutionary psychology theory?
Distal- past influences
Based on primitive ancestor responses to problems they faced millions of years ago
Genes females and males have are genetically predisposed to behave differently
What is the bio social perspective theory?
Distal and proximal causes interaction to produce gender roles that reflect an individuals biology, developmental experiences, and social position
Proximal- current social and cultural influences
Distal- roles evolved over the course of human evolution, based on biological differences
Describe the transition to adulthood and it’s effects on the individual
Young adulthood- greatest changes in social roles
A lot of variability seen as young people move to adult roles
Long transition periods give people a chance to change trajectories (getting clean and sober)
Describe emerging adulthood
18-24 proposed by Jeffrey Arnett
A time in life when young people try out different experiences
Does not occur in all cultures
What are 5 defining features that distinguish emerging adulthood from adolescence or adulthood?
1) age of identity explorations
2) age of instability
3) self focused age
4) age of feeling in between
5) age of possibilities
What is the leaving and returning home process?
A lot of variability today in timing and the destination
People move in and out of their homes as they attend college it are in between apartments
What are the gender differences in leaving and returning home?
Makes stay home longer
59% men and 50% women 18-24 live at home
19% men and 10% women 25-34 live at home
What is the boomerang effect?
Younger the adults are that leave parents home, more likely they return
Generational solidarity- late leavers show a higher solidarity (unity) with their aging parents than siblings who moved out at a younger age
Adults who leave at a later age are more apt to receive financial support from parents
Some people enter a different culture
What is cohabitation?
Living together without marriage
Decrease marriage rates
Later marriage
Same sex relationships
Country differences- economy, religion, partnership laws, benefits and availability to afford housing
Alternative to marriage
What are egalitarian roles?
Men and women have more equal roles at the beginning of a marriage before children are born
Still gendered division of labor (even in early marriages)- women do more household chores
Explain martial status and health
Comparing the health and longevity of married and unmarried people, the health of married people is more significant than unmarried people
What is the martial selection effect?
Hypothesis that people with poor mental and physical health are not as likely to marry as those who are better off
What is the martial resource effect?
Being married is financially and socially advantageous and leads to healthier lifestyles
What is the martial crisis effect?
Married people are healthier because they have not experienced trauma of divorce or becoming a widow
What is martial stability?
NOT the same as martial quality
Unhappy relationships are not good for your health
Are adults delaying their age to become parents?
Yes
Less teenage and young adult childbirths
Females over 40
85% of adults in US become parents
What is a parental imperative?
Shift in gender roles toward the more traditional stereotypical male/ female roles
What is the parental investemnt theory?
Evolutionary psychology explains that men and women evolved different behaviors and interest because women have more invested in their children than men
Ex: pregnancy, caring for child
Men can have many babies at once while women can’t
What is the economic exchange theory?
Men and women function as a couple to exchange goods and services
Does happiness decrease when becoming parents and increases when children leave the nest?
Yes
What is John Gorman’s study: martial friendship?
Component that makes difficult times such as the transition to parenthood easier
What happens to social roles in middle adulthood?
Between 40-65
Parenting roles less demanding
End of childbearing years
Happier marriages and partnerships
Relationship with aging parents change
What are the positive experiences when children departure?
Higher level of happiness
New opportunities
- women take on new careers
- both May seek out new interests
- travel
Who has a negative experience when their children depart?
Minorities
What happens when crossover gender roles crossover during midlife?
Men and women change roles
Women become more assertive
Men become more passive
What happens during expansion of gender roles during midlife?
Expansion of roles
Men and women express new roles- take on attributes of the other gender
Describe becoming a grandparent
More grandparents in the world today
Can be a grandparent for the get half your life
Healthy and wealthy in the US
What is a grand family?
Grandparent raising their grandchildren
Who are the usual caregivers for aging parents?
Daughters and daughter in laws
Slowly changing
What is caregiver burden?
Mental and physical effects of caregivers
African Americans are less likely to experience caregiver burden than white caregivers
78% of middle aged adults have a living parent
Describe living alone
Change brought by losing a spouse or divorce
Women are more likely to be widowed before men
of children and their location
Can they afford it?
What happens when you become a care receiver?
Loss of independence and freedom
Care from family
Benefits- become closer
Disadvantages- stressful emotionally and financially
What percent of men 65 and older live with their spouses?
What percent of men 65 and older live alone?
Souses- 70%
Alone- 20%
What percentage of women 65 and older live with their spouses?
What percentage of women 65 and older live alone?
Souses- 42%
Alone- 37%
What are the rates and reasons for single people?
Rates-
over 1/3 of households
4% of 65 and older
Career focused, shy, higher income women etc
Why are people childless?
Women are either unable to or don’t want any (6% of women)
Other form of support networks (siblings etc)
Lack of milestones
What is the rate of divorce?
30% of young adults divorce by 10 years
Most remarry
What are some new roles that come with divorce?
Single parents take on both roles
Blended families
Stepmothers
Cultural stereotypes- only recognize one mother per child yet the stepmom takes many tasks
Detrimental effects- stretching income of a single parent where there used to be 2
What is social timing?
Roles we occupy
How long we occupy these roles
Dependent on culture
Order- when does society dictate order of roles?
What is a social clock?
Adds dimensions to roles
Pattern of role transitions are
similar for most
Some theories point to less stress in ones life the stronger the correlation between their social role sequence and developmental norms
Not always in our control
How has our understanding of aging and social roles changed over time?
We used to view aging as losing roles, but now we see them as changing roles
