SOCIAL ACTION VIEWS ON FAMILY Flashcards
What is the social action/interpretivist view on the family ?
Social action views on the family are that they are shaped by interactions with people and this shapes their behaviour
What is the social action view on society ?
- They believe that society is socially constructed this means that society is created by individuals and this defines social norms and values
- Culturally relative - this means that meanings and actions are increasingly changing according to the place , personal experience and globalisation
What do social actionists/ Interpretivists view relationships as ?
- They view relationships as Fluid and see meanings attached to relationships that are no longer surrounded by biology and marriage alone its much greater than that
What is Bracketts view on the family ?
- Brackett argues that the family is changing and that it is negotiated.
- he argues that the family life is a socialisation process not only for children but parents who are learning as they are going( Trial and error )
- ## parents cope with different meanings and behaviour so children by hoping that they will grow out of it
What are the key words that can be used to describe Brackets theory /
- The family is changing over time
- They see learning as a trial and error not only socialisation for children but for parents
- Cope with behaviour by hoping that there child will grown out of it
What are some evaluations of Bracketts argument ?
Positive - shows that socialisation is a life long and two way process this differs from macro approaches that overlook this expereince of the family
- Negative - Ignores explanations about age patriarchy and power relationships between parents and their children because there is little reference to wider social structures
How do Brackett’s ideas differ from functionalist or marxists ideas ?
- Because marxists and funct theories do not acknowledge the changing ways of the family
Explain Clarks ideas on marriage
Clark argues that marriages are all different
-he identified four types of marriages
- Drifting- this refers to couples who are unsure about there future and are living day by day
- Surfing - this refers to couples in reconstituted families that are dealing with spouses from there previous relationship
- Establishing - Couples who are planning there future together including savings and children
- Struggling , couples who experience financial difficulties because of employment etc
What is life course analysis ?
This is an approach that is concerned with the way individuals make decisions about relationships and family life
What are the ideas of Hearven ?
Hearven develops the idea that there is flexibility and variation in peoples life, she argues that peoples lives are becoming more complex and we go through a number of family structures
What meanings do we attach to family life and relationships over time according to allan and crow?
- According to Allan and crow generally in the 1960s the course of the family was fairly standard and stable and people stayed together
- Levin called the social norms of the family at the time the cereal packet family but there has been a huge change in the life course because of changing laws , attitudes and the role of wome
Name some family types that have become common because of the shift in life course?
-SPF(single parent family )
- Step families
- cohabitation
- Lone parent house holds
This is because of policy such as the divirce refom act that made it possible for people to detach from relationships that no longer suit them
- Change social attitudes have made it socially acceptable for a person to cohabitate or be in a lone parent household
What does the personal life perspective stress ?
- It takes an approach that stresses the importnace of exploring new relationships and meanings this enbales people to expereince better connections that go beyond the traditional family relationships including
- friendships
- same sex
What does smart argue about the personal perspective ?
- He argues that there is a significant amount of family diversity which enables people to experience new relationships and connections however he disagrees with late modernist Giddens and postmodernist beck arguing that we have increased choice over all our identities which is known as the pick and mix
Briefly explain the personal life perspective theorists and there explanations.
- Smart - stresses the importance of non biological relationship’s to experience new connections such as friendships , work relationships etc he also argues that the family is over significant not as important and alterantive realtiosnhips
- Misztal- argues that through the life course , memories and identity shape important decisions in life specifically in childhood such as the death of a pet or grandparent
- Tipper - he argues that children’s interpretations of what counts as family includes pets etc and can be more fluid
