The Family And Intimate Relationships Flashcards
Families
Groups of people related by birth, affinity, or cohabitation
Family household
Group of people who share a relationship by blood, marriage, or legal adoption living together
Marriage
Legal union between two people, allowing them to live together and have children
Nuclear family
Two or more adults living with one or more children
Extended family
Two or more generations
Grandpa, great grandma
Deinstitutionalization of marriage
Rules and norms around marriage are changing, and people are more critical of marriages role in society
5 ways marriage is becoming deinstitutionalized
1) fewer people are getting married, choosing to remain single or cohabitate
2) the role individuals play in modern society are increasingly questioned
3) norms surrounding children are Changing
4) divorce rates in society are rising
5) diversity in forms of marriage are rising
Cohabitate
Couples living together without being married
Larger social changes that affect the family
1) rise in women’s rights
2) declines in levels of religion
3) increasing individualism
Types of marriage
Institutional marriage
Companionate marriage
Individualized marriage
Institutional marriage
A way to bind larger famalies and communities
Companionate marriage
Based on bonds of sentiment, friendship, and sexual ties
Individualized marriages
Each spouses satisfication is the focus, as is each spouses sense of self, happiness, and fulfillment
Monogamous marriages
Marriages in which the couple relates with one another exclusively
Polygamous marriages
Having or more spouse at a time
2 theoretical traditions to family
Structural functionalism
Conflict theory
Structural functionalism
Focuses on how the family functions to create stability and order in society
The family plays a large number of roles . Roles fall into 4 main categories
1) reproduction
2) socialization
3) support
4) regulation
Issues with the structural functionalism approach
Many feel this theory overemphasizes how harmonious families are
Conflict threory
Concerned with the unequal distribution of resources
Does not see the family as harmonious
Conflict theory believes that conflict within the family is related to _______. Who has it, and who uses it
Power
Some feminist conflict theorists see the family as:
An area for gender based conflict
Such as who does the housework or family finances
Age based conflict is prevalent in famalies due to
Power differentials between parents and children
