The Family Flashcards
Adolescence
distinctive phase of childhood, first theorised by Hall (1904), which starts with the onset of puberty and ends at the beginning of adulthood.
Age set
people of a similar age who share certain rights and responsibilities because of their age.
Age stratification
system of social ranking by age. Children, for example, may be ranked lower than adults because they have fewer rights.
Ageing population
an increase in the average (median) age of a population due to rising life expectancy and/or failing birth and fertility rates.
Ageism
discrimination on the basis of age.
Beanpole family
an inter-generational, vertically extended family structure with very weak intra-generational links. This structure develops in societies with low or declining birth rates and increasing life expectancies.
Childhood
socially variable period of pre-adulthood.
Civil partnership
same-sex relationship giving the participants similar legal rights to married couples.
Cohabitation
a relationship where two people live together as if they were married.
Cohabitation
a relationship where two people who are not married to each other live together as if they were married.
Common-law family
adult couple and children living together as a family without the adults being legally married.
Commune
shared household involving a group of largely unrelated people living together.
Confluent love
refers to the idea of love being contingent; it is given in return for something else.
Conjugal roles
male and female roles played within the home.
Conjugal roles
male and female roles played within the home. Joint conjugal roles involve adults within the family sharing domestic duties. Segregated conjugal roles involve a clear separation between family members.
Dependency ratio
relationship between the economically inactive section of a population and those who are economically active. A high dependency ratio means, for example, that there are more elderly people who depend on fewer younger people to maintain things like state pensions or health services funded through taxation.
Disengagement
process whereby people withdraw from social relationships, as the age.
Divorce
legal dissolution of a marriage.
Divorce
legal termination of a marriage.
Domestic labour
work done within the home, often performed by women.
Domestic violence
any form of physical or verbal abuse towards family members within the home.
Dual burden (double shift)
the idea that women perform ‘two shifts’, one inside the home as domestic labourers and one outside the home as paid employees.
Dysfunctional
the idea that something, such as a family structure, is not performing its function correctly and that it may be actively harmful to the individual and/or society.
Empty-shell marriage
when a couple continues to live together, even though the marriage may be effectively over, for reasons other than love.
Empty-shell marriage
when the couple are married in name only, living in the same home but as separate individuals.
Expressive/Instrumental role
expressive roles involve dealing with people on the basis of love and affection. Instrumental roles are the opposite - they involve dealing with people in an objective, unemotional way, based on what they can do for us and what we can do for them.
Extended family
family structure containing more than the parents and children of nuclear structures. A vertically extended family, for example, involves three or more generations, such as grandparents, parents and children.
Family diversity
expression of the range of family types in a society, from nuclear through extended and reconstituted to single-parent families.
Family functions
the various purposes the family group exists to perform in society, such as primary socialisation.
Fertility rate
a measure of the number of children born to women of childbearing age (usually taken as 15-44) in a society each year.
Functional fit
the idea that social institutions, such as the family, education and work are closely related. The functional fit between the family and work is such that while the family produces socialised individuals for the workplace, work provides the physical means for family survival.
Functional prerequisites
the things that any institution, such as family, must perform if it is to continue to function successfully.
Gay and lesbian families
family group involving same-sex parents (gay males or lesbian females) and children, such as those from a previous heterosexual relationship.
Gender inequality
unequal relationship between males and females, usually expressed in favour of men.
Household
residential unit consisting of unrelated individuals.
Household
this is the residential unit of people living together in one home (dwelling); the term is often used more specifically for when the people are not related to each other.
Instrumental/expressive role
instrumental roles involve dealing with people in an objective, unemotional way, based on what they can do for us and what we can do for them. Expressive roles are the opposite - they involve dealing with people on the basis of love and affection.
Irretrievable breakdown of marriage
the ending of a marriage relationship for reasons other than the death of a partner.
Joint/segregated conjugal roles
joint conjugal roles involve adults within the family sharing domestic duties. Segregated conjugal roles involve a clear separation between family roles, this traditionally involves women having responsibility for domestic labour and men for paid work outside the home.
Kibbutzim
communal movement that developed in Israel after the Second World War.
Kinship networks
family relationships, based on biology, affinity or law, that form unique and distinctive patterns (grandparents, parents, grandchildren) and networks; members of kinship groups may feel a special bond with and responsibility for other kin.
Life-course analysis
the examination of differences and changes over the course of an individual’s lifetime. An individual’s family experiences as a child and an adult are, for example, very different.
Living Apart Together (LAT)
couples who are married or in a long-term relationship but do not live together.
Lone-/Single- parent family
both consist of a single adult and dependent children. Lone parenthood is usually distinguished from single parenthood on the basis of factors such as divorce or the death of a partner, rather than choice.
Loss of functions
situation in which functions that were once performed by an institution are now performed by another institution. The educational function of the early-industrial family has been taken over by schools in late-modern societies.
Marital breakdown
the ending of a legal marital relationship for reasons other than the death of a partner.
Marriage
union between two people, recognised by law.
Matriarchal family
where the mother or eldest woman is head of the family and exercises authority.
Matriarchy
female-dominated family unit.
Matrifocal family
family that focused on women, such as a female grandparent, parent and children.
Matrifocal family
a family that is centred on the mother, with the father playing only a minor role.
Matrilineal
tracing ancestral descent through the female line.
Modified extended family
contemporary form of extended family: family members maintain contact but rarely live in close proximity to one another.
Monogamy
having a single sexual or marriage partner at any given time.
New man
someone who combines paid work with their shared domestic labour.
New man
a man who combines the provider (breadwinner) role with a greater share of domestic labour and childcare.
Nuclear family
a family consisting of a mother, a father and their dependent children.
Nuclear family
family unit based on two generations - parents and their dependent children.
Particularistic values
how people such as family members or work colleagues treat others differently based on the value of their particular relationship.
Partnership
being part of a couple, often living as married people but without any legal ties.
Patriarchal family
where the father or eldest man is head of the family and exercises authority.
Patriarchy
male-dominated family unit.
Patrifocal family
family structure focused on men.
Patrilineal
tracing ancestral descent through the male line.
Pivot (or sandwich) generation
the generation of people, usually in middle age, who care for their dependent children and their ageing parents at the same time.
Polyandry
one woman married to a number of men.
Polygamy
having more than one sexual or marriage partner at the same time.
Polygyny
one man married to a number of women.
Post-feminism
post-feminist theory is an approach to understanding gender inequality that seeks to avoid single, over-arching explanations of the position of women.
Postmodern family
idea that in postmodernity the focus of family members is on individual self-development.
Primary socialisation
teaching and learning process normally first carried out within the family.
Privatised family
structure that is home-orientated, child-centred and built on emotional relationships between adults and children.
Privatised nuclear family
structure that is home-focused, child-centred and built on emotional relationships between adults and children.
Reconstituted family
sometimes called a step-family, this involves the break-up of one family and its reassembly as a new family through marriage or cohabitation.
Rite of passage
rituals that denote transitions from one phase in the life course to another.
Serial monogamy
a situation where an individual may be involved in sequential, sexually exclusive relationships. For example, although one person may only be married to one other person at the same time, the failure (breakdown) of this marriage may result in each partner forming a new monogamous relationship with a different partner.
Social capital
how people are connected to social networks (who you know) and what people do for each other.
Social construction
behaviour that is culturally, rather than neutrally, produced. Sociologists believe behaviour is socially constructed because it varies both historically and across different societies.
Status group
social group sharing similar levels of status and often similar lifestyles or occupations.
Symbolic capital
how upper-class children in particular learn self-confidence, a strong sense of entitlement and self-worth within the family that they apply in the workplace.
Symmetrical family
relationship in which family roles are shared equally within the home.
Triple shift
where a female double-shift refers to women’s roles as domestic and paid labourers, a third element of female responsibility is the emotional work they do; investing time and effort in the psychological well-being of family members.
Universalistic values
values that apply to everyone, regardless of their particular situation. The idea that everyone is equal under the law is an example of a universalistic value.
Urbanisation
the development and growth of towns and cities.
Verticalised
form of extended family that reaches up and down the generations. A classical vertically extended family involves grandparents, parents and children living together or in close proximity.
Youth culture
cultural norms, values and identities particular to specific groups of young people.
Black (difference) feminism
challenges the view that the nuclear family is the major form of family and celebrates diversity. Understands the role of slavery, racial prejudice and other forms of social disadvantage played in family life. They reject the notion of sisterhood put forward by white women.
Arranged marriage
a type of marriage organised or arranged by the parents of the couple and/or matchmakers.
Age patriarchy
a system of inequalities caused primarily by age differences and especially the idea that adults, particularly the heads of households, know what is best for children.
Alienation
a concept which Marxists in particular suggest is now becoming a common characteristic of how workers feel about their jobs. Alienation refers to the lack of satisfaction, identification and control that workers experience on a daily basis and the fact that they work merely for a wage.
Ascription/ascribed role
a role assigned at birth over which an individual has little choice or say. For example, members of a royal family inherit a role. In patriarchal societies, females involuntary occupy a subordinate role.
Baby strike
a call by radical feminists for women to refuse to have babies, claiming that motherhood is the biggest obstacle to women’s progress and that it reinforces patriarchy.
Basic and irreducible functions
the two crucial functions performed by the nuclear family in modern capitalist societies: the primary socialisation of children, and the stabilisation of adult personalities.
Beanpole family
a four-generational type of family that has few extended kin such as aunts, uncles and cousins.
Bigamy
the state of being married to two people at the same time. It is a criminal offence in Western societies.
Bi-nuclear family
Children of divorced or separated couples often belong to two nuclear families because their natural parents have remarried or are cohabiting with a new partner.
Blended family
a variation on the reconstituted family that includes, in addition to step-children, the natural children of the remarried couple.
Boomerang family
families in which children leave home, but because of circumstances beyond their control they are forced to return to live with their parents as young adults.
Canalisation
a component of gender role socialisation where parents lead or channel their children’s interest and activities to gender-appropriate areas. For example, toys are often classified as suitable for either boys or girls.
Chaos of love
Beck believes that marriage is potentially a battleground, because the institution of marriage demands compromise and selflessness but people often look out for their own interest first.
Child abuse
physical maltreatment or sexual molestation of a child.
Child-centredness
the notion that the child should be the focus of attention. Child-centred families see rising children as the most important component of family life.
Child-free
the decision usually taken in conjunction with a partner not to have children.
Childlessness
the state of not having children. This may be voluntary or involuntary.
Chore wars
the conflict that results between a couple about who should be responsible for domestic labour.
