the personal life perspective

Question 1

what do the personal life perspective argue?

Answer 1

functionalist, marxist and feminist theories all suffer from two weaknesses

Question 2

what are the two weaknesses that functionalist, marxist and feminist theories all suffer from?

Answer 2

they all assume the nuclear family is the dominant family type

they are all structural theories and assume that their members are puppets manipulated by the structure of society to perform certain functions

Question 3

what is a top down approach?

Answer 3

society controls us

Question 4

what kind of approach do the personal life perspective take?

Answer 4

a bottom up approach - we shape are relationships through our actions

Question 5

who can be viewed as family according to the personal life perspective?

Answer 5

friends

fictive kin

gay ‘chosen families’

relationships with dead relatives

pets - tipper (2011) found that most children view their pets as part of their family

Question 6

what does the personal life perspective provide a way of explaining?

Answer 6

diversity of families, households and relationships we find in society today

Question 7

carol smart

Answer 7

accepts that people now have more freedom to construct their own families

believes that this can’t be done in isolation from the traditions and norms of the families

there is an element of choice but the choices that people are making are:
- embedded in their past experiences or family history
- expectations of society they presently live in
- subject to structural factors such as social class, ethnicity and gender inequality

Question 8

criticisms

Answer 8

ignores what is special about relationships based on blood or marriage

rejects top down view but sees intimate relationships as performing the important function of providing us with a sense of belonging and relatedness

unlike functionalism, it recognises that relatedness is not always positive

Question 9

modern perspectives

Answer 9

believe in social progress

social research can reveal the truth about which types of societies are best, and actively work to construct a better society through social policy and more radical means

Question 10

post modern perspectives

Answer 10

reject the idea of ‘truth’ and the idea that social progress is possible

no longer possible to make generalisations about society in the same way that modernists do