psy290 Study Guide - Spring 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Memory, Psychology, Anxiety
11 Oct 2018
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psy290
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Psyc 290
Unit 1 :
Chapter 1
• What is a family?
o Household – a person or group of persons who occupy the same dwelling
o Communal living – a group of people who may or may not be related by
birth or marriage, sharing financial resources and living arrangements.
• Legal family
o Government regulations determine “family” for services such as
immigration, medical benefits, bereavement leave, penitentiary visits
o Common-law spouses, singe parents, same-sex couples all considered
families under various laws.
• Nuclear family
o Family consisting of a husband, wife and their children.
o Aka, “standard North American family”; forms basis for what advocates
call “traditional family values”.
o Family of orientation is family that we are born into and raised in
o Family of procreation is formed through marriage or cohabitation
o Extended family encompasses nuclear family and all other relatives.
• Personal definition of family
o Close friends
o In cases of conflict, a family member might not be considered as belonging,
even though he/she may be “blood” family.
• Intentional families
o A family whose members, though not related by blood or marriage, call
themselves a family; may share residences and common lifestyle
o Decision to join one often arises from human need for companionship and
emotional connection that comes from shared experiences.
• How does society influence family?
o Families do not exist in isolation but are part of a vast social network.
Family members are part of a larger society through membership and
participation in neighborhoods, schools, work, religious organizations,
social/recreational groups.
o Society provides expectations for family behaviour. Family members are
supposed to socialize children and look after each other physically and
emotionally (not inflict harm).
• Conflict theory
o Macro – views family from the perspective of society.
o some stress negative influences and are concerned with power relationships
and inequality. i.e. Marxism
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
o others focus on how families compete with other social institutions for
scarce resources. i.e. how family benefits in the workplace are negotiated
o not strong demonstrating how families contribute to society as a whole
o neither are they good at explaining why society’s norms and values change
slowly
• Structural-functional theory
o Views family as an institution
o Macro
o Family has important societal functions:
▪ reproduction
▪ socialization – a lifelong process in which cultural knowledge of
how to survive and participate in social life is passed on
generationally
▪ social placement
▪ economic support
▪ emotional support
o Social stability results when family performs all these functions well.
o Social scripts – the cultural rules that outline what, where, when, how, and
why we should do something.
o Strength: explains how family relates to other institutions and contributes to
society on whole
o Weakness:
▪ Not clear in explaining why families change
▪ Often ignores topics such as family violence and sexual abuse
▪ Not very tolerant of differences from SNAF; the monolithic bias is
the tendency to treat all families the same with one correct form and
universal functions
▪ Tends to assume society has one set of norms and values
• Symbolic interactionism
o Micro approach
o Emphasizing people’s responsibility in shaping their views of the world. As
a result, has been as a basis for family therapy.
o Weakness: ignores factors such a slaws, economics, social class, or values.
It does not explain society-wide changes in families.
• Family systems theory
o Macro & Micro
o A system contains a set of interrelated and interacting parts
▪ Anything that affects one part of the family will affect its parts
▪ Recognizes the complementarity of roles
▪ Families also contain subsystems or smaller groupings of members
within a family
▪ Systems and subsystems have boundaries, which mark who is/not a
member
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Family members are part of a larger society through membership and participation in neighborhoods, schools, work, religious organizations, social/recreational groups: society provides expectations for family behaviour. As a result, has been as a basis for family therapy: weakness: ignores factors such a slaws, economics, social class, or values. The branch of psychology concerned with everyday, practical problems: behaviour. Any overt (observable) response or activity by an organism: behaviourism. A theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behavior: biological psychology cell assembly clinical psychology. The branch of psychology concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems and disorders cognition. The mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge critical thinking. The use of cognitive skills and strategies that increase the probability of a desired outcome culture. The widely shared customs, beliefs, values, norms, institutions, and other products of a community that are transmitted socially across generations empiricism.
