Midterm Flashcards
Survey
used to gather information about attitudes or behaviors through the answers that people give to questions
Random Sample
Allows every “person of interest” an equal chance of being selected for your research study
In-depth interviews
allows an interviewer to obtain detailed responses to questions such as, “what does it mean to you to be a father”
Experiment
a controlled method for determine cause and effect
Focus group
obtains information from a small group of people who are brought together to discuss a particular topic
Observational studies
Natural setting and observe people in action
Quantitative research
focus is on data that can be measured numerically
Qualitative research
focus on narrative description (ex: themes)
Patterns of Authority
patriarchy, matriarchy, egalitarian
Patriarchy
men are assumed to have a natural right to be in positions of authority over women
* manifested and upheld in legal, educational, religious, economic, and other social institutions
Matriarchy
Social power and authority is vested in women
* theoretical alternative because no historical cases of true matriarchies are known
* seen in Native American tribes
Egalitarian
expectation is that power and authority are equally vested in both men and women
Micro-level perspective
Concentrating exclusively on their individual interactions in specific settings
* Focuses individual uniqueness, personal decision making, interactions between small groups
* the focus is on the individual and their interactions
- personal choices
- behaviors and feelings
- communication
- decisions
- constraints
- values
Macro-level perspective
the focus is on the way our personal relationships interconnect with the rest of society, the recognition that our social structure influences our marriages and families
* culture
* history
* power and inequality
* social institutions, including the economy, political system, or dominant religion
social status, including sex, race, ethnicity, and social class
* social movements and social change
Sex
refers to the biological differences between men and women and their role in reproduction
Gender
characteristics of women, men, girls, and boys that are socially constructed
* example: norms, behaviors, and roles associated with being a female/male as well as relationships with each other
Social class
based most, obviously on income and wealth, but also other resources, such as educational level and occupational prestige
* these include:
* The upper class
* The upper middle class
* The middle class
* The working class
* The working poor class
* The underclass
Gender scripts
societal expectations or “scripts” that define how individuals, particularly men and women, are expected to behave, think, and act in specific situations, often reinforcing traditional gender roles and stereotypes
Gender socialization
teaching/learning the cultural norms associated with being male or female
* parent scolding a young son for showing his emotions - “ big boys don’t cry”
* a parent buying a doll for a daughter in a truck for son
* apparent everywhere
* masculine vs feminine
Examples of agents of socialization
parents, toys, schools, peers, media
Attachment Theory
presented by John Bowbly and Mary Ainsworth, claims that early emotional bonds between infants and their primary caregivers significantly impact their emotional and social development, influencing future relationships and behaviors
Strange situation
by Ainsworth, series of introductions, separations, and reunions involving the child, the mother, and an unfamiliar persons
Attachment styles in strange situation:
Secure attachment: infant feels safe when their parents are out of sight, child is able to be comforted when in distress
Insecure ambivalent: child is unable to be comforted by their caregiver
Insecure avoidant: child does not interact with their caregiver, shows no attachment to parent
Disorganized – disoriented: parents are overwhelmed and abusive to their children
Adult attachment styles
- Secure attachments: easy to get close to others, are comfortable depending on others and having others depend on them, do not worry about being abandoned
- Anxious ambivalent attachments: get too attached, worries that their partner doesn’t love them
- Avoidant attachment: not comfortable being close to someone, difficult, trusting people, does not become dependent on other individuals
Rhesus monkey experiment:
- monkeys in a cage with 2 diff kinds of artificial “mothers” (mesh wire/soft terry cloth)
- even when the feeding bottle was in the wire mother, the baby monkeys spent almost all of their time on the cloth mother
Benefits of friendship:
- social support (and emotional support in the form of affection, physical, advice, and material)
- help you live longer
- to lower blood pressure, heart rates, and cholesterol levels
Same sex friendships
women develop strong bonds with other women, expressed love and tenderness, and frequently describe physical/emotional longing for the other
Sternberg’s Triangular Theory
love has three components: passion, intimacy, and commitment
* passion: encompasses feelings of physical attraction, romance, and sexual arousal (most intense)
* intimacy: encompasses feelings of closeness and bonding, and includes such things as self disclosure, respect, trust and warmth
* commitment: represents both the short term decision decisions to love one another and a longer term commitment to continue that love (feelings as loyalty, faithfulness, dedication and devotion
- A relationship is most stable when partners agree on these dimensions
Sternberg’s love types; 8 types
- non love
- empty love
- liking
- infatuated love
- companionate love
- Fatuous love
- romantic love
- consummate love
Non-love
many relationships really have no love in them, no intimacy, passion, or commitment
Empty love
sometimes people remain together solely because of a commitment (example: staying together for the sake of the children), there’s no passion or intimacy
Liking
the relationships are intimate, such as good friendships, but typically there is no passion or commitment
Infatuated love
we see these types of relationships on TV or in movie stars, the relationship is full of passion, but when that passion ends, little intimacy or commitment remains
Companionate love
long-term couples; the passion may have waned, but the couples share intimacy and commitment to one another
Fatuous love
passion, and commitment are the elements of this type of; people may marry very early on, but without developing real intimacy
Romantic love
these relationships are intense and full of passion and intimacy; however, they typically lack a degree of commitment and the focus is on physical and sexual attraction
Consummate love
when the relationship contains all three components
Dating behavior
- we are more likely to date someone like us
- highschoolers are dating less
- those we they are typically similar to us due to geographic closeness and cultural expectations
Cohabitation
living with your romantic and sexual partner without being married
People who cohabit spend all ages, races, and ethnic groups and are found within all social classes usually tend to be…
- younger
- have less education in our likely to have graduated from college without a college degree
- have lower household incomes
- more likely to live in poverty
Sexual scripts
rules regarding sexual behavior, govern the who, what, where, when, how, and why we have sex
From what three sources do we learn are sexual scripts from?
- the culture in which we live : includes parents, friends, the mass media, religion
- interpersonal communication: between us and our partner as we begin our personal relationship
- our personal views of sex: based on feelings, desires, and fantasies
Double standard
traditionally men are granted far more leeway in sexual behavior than our woman
Freud’s psychosexual theory
sexual desire is the driving force behind human development
* children go through a series of psychosexual stages that lead to the development of the adult personality
Freud‘s psychosexual stages (5 stages):
Oral stage: birth - one year
- erogenous zone:
Anal stage: one year - three years
- erogenous zone: bowel and bladder control
Phallic stage: 3 to 6 years
- erogenous zone: genitals (exploring body)
Latent stage: six years to puberty
- libido inactive (learning about friendships and the social world)
Genital stage: puberty to death
- maturing sexual interests
Sigmund Freud
the father of psychology and the first psychotherapist/psychoanalyst
* Believed that personality was established by the age of six
Masters and Johnson research
addressed the physiology of human sexual response, a greater understanding of women’s sexuality, and the treatment of sexual dysfunction
* in an observational study, watched nearly 700 individuals during sexual activity, two observe sexual responses
* the sexual response cycle includes: desire, excitement, orgasm, resolution, and a refractory period
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
the concept that language shapes are culture, and at the same time our culture shapes or language
* culture shapes language: words like cell phone, texting, and even PC were not a part of the everyday vocabulary of your parents when they were your age
* Language shapes our culture: new words like attention deficit disorder, or ‘gifted’ have created new dimensions of our culture
Gendered communication:
- women: more likely to use conversation as a way to establish/maintain relationships, tend to use communication for connecting/relating with other people, tend to smile, more often and express a wide range of emotions through facial expression and nonverbal behavior, make more eye contact, prefer side by side interactions
- men: talk when they have something to say/need to receive or give information, speech and nonverbal communication is more direct and assertive, tend to spread their bodies out and occupy more space, talk face-to-face, use more gestures
non-productive communication:
- Bypassing
- Lack of precision
- Overgeneralizing
- Static evaluation
- polarization
- biased language
Bypassing
misunderstanding what someone is saying when one word has several meanings
Example: I love you
lack of precision
unclear language can easily foster miscommunication (example: I don’t like it when you do that”)
Over generalizing
imply that evidence has been collected to reach a definitive conclusion when in reality this is probably not the case (example: “you always forget to unload the dishwasher”)
Static evaluation **
making changes that don’t allow for change (example: “you’ve always been the wild one in the family, haven’t you?”
Polarization
speaking in extremes (example: it’s all your fault)
Biased language
using words that reflect biases about race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, religious faith, or other cultures can also foster miscommunication and conflict
Productive verbal communication
- describe your own feelings rather than evaluate behaviors of others (example: I’m feeling frustrated when…)
- solve problems rather than try to control others (example: what should we do?)
- be genuine rather than manipulative (example: I really want to make sure we’re OK…)
Listening Cycle (5 stages)
- receiving the message
- understanding what the speaker saying
- remembering and retaining
- evaluating the message
- responding
Gottman’s Four Horsemen:
- criticism - verbally attacking personality or character
- defensiveness - victimizing yourself to ward off a perceived attack and reverse blame
- contempt - attacking sense of self with an intent to insult or abuse
- stonewalling - withdrawing to avoid conflict and convey disapproval, distance, and separation
History of marriage and Colonial America:
- founders of the US government established marriage as a free-choice, heterosexual union that put husbands at the head of the household
- husbands were required to support their wives and children and represent them legally
- wives didn’t hold independent legal status, colonel be tried for a crime
History of marriage and the 19th Century:
- Women’s rights and emancipation
- urged a marriage standard of equal partnership and greater social, economic, and legal opportunities for women
- marriage was also challenged by those who resisted monogamy
History of marriage / After Industrial Revolution
- carved separate spheres of work for men and women
- moved families from farms and small communities to cities in search of work, weakening the community’s influence on the married couple and bringing a more personal focus to marriage based on companionship
- responsibilities of spouses were still largely differentiated and complementary
- men worked outside the home while women took care of the children and the home itself
Homogamous marriage
spouses share certain social characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, education, age, and social class
Heterogamous marriage
spouses don’t share certain social characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, education, age, and social class
Interracial marriage
marrying someone of a different race (illegal until 1967)
Interethnic marriages
partners from different cultural or ethnic background
* more common than interracial marriages
Conflict-habituated marriage
filled with tension and verbal and perhaps physical conflict, but the partners don’t feel these are reasons to divorce
* believe fighting is normal part of marriage and is an acceptable way to communicate and solve problems
Devitalized marriage
although the couple may have been in love when they married, their relationship exist now without much passion
* spend time together, but for obligation or habit (for their children, jobs, or community) rather than for the joy of being together
Passive-congenial marriage
these partners may have married with low expect of the intimacy marriage would provide, and their expectations have remained low
* little conflict in these marriages but also little excitement; however, excitement was never expected
Vital marriage
the lives of the partners are intertwined in this type of marriage
* both physical and emotional intimacies are important to them, and they work hard at communication and compromise so their relationship continues to be satisfying and enjoyable
Total marriage
as in vital marriages, these partners have considerable energy invested in each other and their marriage is a priority
* they share additional facets of their lives, however; perhaps they own a business together, have the same friends, or spend time on the same hobbies. They have few independent interests
Marital decline perspective
institution of marriage is increasingly threatened by the hedonistic pursuit of personal happiness at the expense of long term commitment
* point of high divorce rates and increase in cohabitation and childbearing outside marriage
* social problems, including poverty, violence, and teenage delinquency
Marital Resilience Perspective:
Marriages are overall no weaker than in the past
* people today enter into marriages more intelligently because they are less likely to marry for purely economic reasons or to avoid stigma of single good
* views the real threats of marriage as poverty, discrimination, poor schools, lack of worker friendly policies, the lack of social services that families need to remain strong and resilient, and continuing patriarchal framework
Fictive kin
non-relatives who’s bonds are strong and intimate, such as the relationship shared among unmarried same-sex or heterosexual partners, or close friends (not blood related)
Families of colonial America:
most people in colonial America lived in nuclear families
6 or more children
a wife was considered her husband’s helpmate, but not his equal
*parents tended to be strict
resiliency of families that included slaves
* when slavery tore apart families, kinship bonds persisted
Intersectionality
different aspects of a person’s identity (like race, gender, class, etc.) can combine to create unique experiences of discrimination or privilege, rather than just being separate issues
Love hormone
oxytocin ; revived through physical touch, kissing, hugging, etc
Homosexuality can contain an important
Biological components
Male sex script
emphasizes sex over intimacy
Women sex scripts
emphasizes feelings over sex
Kinsey scale
You are not fully straight or fully gay you lie somewhere on the range
True or false: there is little difference in the number of sexual partners across income and education levels?
True
Allen’s study:
Listeners can identify a speaker’s race from his or her speech, even if only hearing short snippets of speech and this identification has been used to discriminate against Black individuals
Delayed Marriage
The age at first marriage has been steadily increasing, particularly over the past few decades
- Average age for marriage is 27 or older for women and 29 for men
- Reasons for this increase include changes in occupational and educational opportunities
