key terms 1

Question 1

childhood

Answer 1

a socially defined age-status. (there are differences in how childhood is defined, both historically & between cultures)

Question 2

conjugal roles

Answer 2

the roles played by husband and wife. (segregated roles are where husband=breadwinner & wife=homemaker and joint roles are where wife & husband perform tasks together)

Question 3

domestic labour

Answer 3

work performed at home e.g., childcare & cooking

Question 4

dual burden

Answer 4

when a person (usually a woman) is responsible for two jobs, often paid work and domestic labour

Question 5

emotion work

Answer 5

the work involved in meeting the emotion needs of others.

Question 6

expressive role

Answer 6

the caring, nurturing, ‘homemaker’ role in the family.

Question 7

extended family

Answer 7

any group of kin (people related by blood, marriage or adoption) extended beyond the nuclear family e.g., grandparents or cousins

Question 8

family structure

Answer 8

a group of people who live together as a family unit e.g., nuclear family & same-sex family

Question 9

families of choice

Answer 9

people who are not necessarily related by blood or marriage but who feel a sense of belonging together as a family.

Question 10

feminism

Answer 10

a sociological perspective and political movement that focuses on women’s oppression and the struggle to end it

Question 11

functionalism

Answer 11

a consensus perspective in sociology that sees society as based on shared values into which members are socialised. it sees society as an organism, each part performing function to maintain the system as a whole.

Question 12

household

Answer 12

a group of people who live together and share things / or one person living alone.

Question 13

industrialisation

Answer 13

the shift from an agricultural economy to one based on factory production.

Question 14

instrument role

Answer 14

the breadwinner or provider roles in the family.

Question 15

interactionism

Answer 15

a perspective that focuses on small-scale interactions between individuals and groups, rather than large-scale workings of society.

Question 16

marxism

Answer 16

a conflict perspective based on the ideas of karl marx, it sees society as divided into two opposed classes (the bourgeoisie exploits the proletariat).

Question 17

nuclear family

Answer 17

a two-generation family of a man and woman and their dependent children.

Question 18

patriarchy

Answer 18

feminists use this term to describe a society based on male domination; a system or ideology of make power over women.

Question 19

separatism

Answer 19

a radical feminist idea that women should live independently of men as the only way to free themselves from patriarchal oppression.

Question 20

structural theories

Answer 20

see individuals as entirely shaped by the way society is structured or organised e.g., functionalism sees society as socialising individuals into shared norms and values that dictate how they behave.

Question 21

symmetrical family

Answer 21

a nuclear family with more equal and join conjugal roles, in which husbands participate in domestic labour as well as being breadwinners, and wives go out to work as well as being being homemakers.