Unit 4 - Family Flashcards
1
Q
Types of family
A
- Single parent families: One parent and there dependent children.
- Nuclear Family: Two parents and their dependent children
- Extended Family: Nuclear family with additional family members such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.
- Blended/Reconstituted Families: These are families with step parents and children for someone who is getting married the second time after death or divorce of their first partner.
- Civil Partnerships: a relationship between two people usually of the same sex that has been formally registered giving them similar rights to married couples.
- Household Units: This is a group of people living together in the same residence and sharing living space.
2
Q
Sociological approaches to family
A
- Functionalists: They argue that family is the bedrock of every society. They believe that the nuclear family is beneficial to society as it provides functions such as reproduction, primary socialisation, social control, care of the children, regulating sexual behaviour and economic support.
- New Right: They outrightly endorse the nuclear family because of the various types of family that exist in our contemporary society. See the family as negative for society, if not nuclear. They opined that children from Nuclear families do better at school, get better jobs and do not turn to crime and delinquency. New rights approach publicly condemn divorce as it breeds feminism.
- Marxists: They agree with functionalists on the importance of family but the disagree on the functions of the family. Marxists believe society is based upon conflict between classes. They believe the family helps to maintain class differences in society as the rich can give children better start than poor. They believe the family socialises the working class to accept it is fair that classes are unequal. They believe family is the main unit of consumption, they also argued that having families makes it difficult for workers to go on strike because they wont be able to support their families.
- Feminists: They believe the family is bad for women as family teaches patriarchal values through the teaching of gender roles during socialisation. They fully believe that women should stay out of relationship if it is based on male superiority as it is exploitative.
3
Q
Alternatives to marriage
A
- Cohabitation: This is when two people live together in a sexual relationship but are not married to each other.
- Civil Partnership: Same sex marriage. In some few countries in the world they are allowed to marry.
4
Q
Functions of the family
A
Emotional support
Economic support
physical care
reproduction
socialisation
social control
