The Family

Question 1

What is extended family?

Answer 1

Multiple generations of adults living with their spouses and children. More asian and middle east families.

Question 2

What is a nuclear family?

Answer 2

An adult male and female and their offspring living together. More anglo-americans.

Question 3

What is the idealized nuclear family?

Answer 3

Married heterosexual couple with children, usually a son and a daughter, lives in the suburbs, middle class, white, christian, father works, mother looks after children.

Question 4

What is a single parent family?

Answer 4

Typically a female parent, usually working in the paid labour force and does domestic chores. Typically visible minorities.

Question 5

What are the types of couples?

Answer 5

Common law couples, same sex couples

Question 6

What are the types of families in Canada?

Answer 6

Nuclear families - 44%
Unmarried - 15.5%
Single parent - 15.9%

Question 7

What are types of benefits for families?

Answer 7

Family allowance, child tax credit, education tax credits, social assistance, low income housing developments.

Question 8

What is absolute poverty?

Answer 8

Families live in a state of absolute poverty when the household income does not cover all the basic necessities, such as food, shelter and clothing.

Question 9

What is relative poverty?

Answer 9

When a family income does not have the things that middle class families typically enjoy, such as a car, a tv, microwave oven, washer and dryer, etc.

Question 10

What is cultural capital?

Answer 10

Children’s social assets gained from their parents which will help them to succeed in school. These assets include values, beliefs, attitudes, and competencies in language and culture.

Question 11

What is “keeping up with the joneses”?

Answer 11

If people see their friends and neighbours have the latest toys and gadgets, they want them too. The downside is excess consumption and the rising level of household debt.

Question 12

What are the types of family income? (2)

Answer 12

1. Single income earner household
2. Dual income earner household
3. Multiple income earner household

Question 13

What are some typical family problems?

Answer 13

Sandwich generation, boomerang children, daycare.

Question 14

What is a sandwich generation?

Answer 14

Parents who are looking after their aging parents and children at the same time.

Question 15

What are boomerang children?

Answer 15

Children who return home after economic hardship (e.g., losing a job).

Question 16

What does functionalist theory say about the family?

Answer 16

See the family as being one of the key agents of socialization.

Question 17

Parsons says that families serve two roles, what are they? (functionalist)

Answer 17

1. Expressive role - ensures the emotional well-being and the socialization of children.
2. Instrumental role - in which the male head of the household earns an income to support the family by dealing with the world “out there”

Question 18

What does conflict theory say about the family?

Answer 18

Argue that the family is organized to meet the needs of the economy, and to serve the interests of the ruling class. Families are engaged in social reproduction, where the raising of children will produce future generations of workers for an industrial capitalist economy.

Question 19

What does symbolic interactions say about the family?

Answer 19

Examines the social situations that families find themselves in and finds meanings that family members derive. They also examine the multiple roles that family members play (e.g., wife, mother, provider) and how roles fluctuate.

Question 20

In symbolic interactionism, what is role strain?

Answer 20

When there are competing roles for family members to fill. This is where a family member may not be able to handle a change in role (e.g., single mother taking over the role of an absent father).

Question 21

What does feminist theory say about the family?

Answer 21

No one family form is natural or functional. The “nuclear family” is a political and ideological ideal. Men’s and women’s roles in families are not the outcome of biological differences.

Question 22

What does post-structuralist theory say about the family?

Answer 22

Try to dismantle the definitions of what a family is and the idealized conceptions of family members. What is the real meaning of a “good father” or “good mother”?

Question 23

What is the cost of family violence?

Answer 23

It is a public issue, because of the costs of social services, criminal justice, absenteeism from work, and health care.