SOCL 2505 Chapter : Socl
Chapter 1 8/29/2013 5:31:00 PM
Contemporary Family
• Nuclear family- mom, dad, kid
• 1950’s sitcoms portrayed the American Family at the time
o male was the “breadwinner”--- leave it to beaver
Is this the ideal family
• Todays families are vastly different
o Single parents, gay & Lesbian, mixed ethnic racial families,
blended families
• Diversity can either be tolerated or of great concern
Traditional/ conservative viewpoint
• Childbearing
• Nuclear family
• Marriage is man and woman
• Children should come after marriage
• Diversification of families is producing negative outcomes for
children
• Conservatives also favor public policy that encourages and
promotes marriage as the way out of problems
Modernist/ liberal viewpoint
• Argue that society can adjust to new family forms
o Diversity defenders
• Feel public policies should support families of all types
Individualism and families
• More individualized view of family and personal life today
o Individualism: a style of life in which individuals pursue their
own interests and place great importance on developing a
personally rewarding life
▪ Two types utilitarian- their for after you do things for
yourself
▪ Expressive- you want a friend rather than a
“breadwinner”
o More toleration for family life without the boundaries of
marriage, and the idea to never marry is acceptable
o 1950’s- 23%
o 2000- 26%
What is a family?
• Two extremes
o Families are so diverse that the concept may not even be
useful anymore
o There is one real and true family form
• Economic importance
o Meaning of family member determines financial benefits
• Cultural context
o Western nation
▪ Monogamy: marriage systems where only one spouse is
allowed
o Non- Western Nations
▪ Polygamy: allowed to have more than one spouse at a
time.
▪ Typically woman work in the house
o There is no single definition of a family that is adequate for all
purposes
Two views (public and private) same family
• Two key questions
o How well are families taking care of children the ill and elderly
(publicly)
o How well are families providing emotional satisfaction that
people value (private)
• Both the public and private perspectives can apply to the same
family unit
The Public Family
• One adult or two who are related by marriage, partnership, or
shared parenthood, who is are taking care of dependents
• Public goods: things that may be enjoyed by people who do not
themselves produce them
• Free-rider problem: tendency for people to obtain public goods by
letting others do the work producing them
The Privacy Family
• Two or more individual s who maintain an intimate relationship that
they expect will last indefinitely or in the cas of parent and child,
until the child reaches adulthood and who live in the same
household and pool their income and household labor
• Definition also includes the notion that the partnership usually is
household based and economic as well as intimate
• Issue of boundary ambiguity: a state in which family members are
uncertain about who is in or out of the family
• Also more difficult to define kinship
o Assigned kinship- ties that people more or less automatically
acquire when they are born or when they marry
o Created kinship- times that people have to construct actively
(like a close friend)
How do family sociologists know what they know?
• Social scientific methodology
o Objectivity: ability to draw conclusions about a social situation
that are unaffected by one’s belief
o Scientific method: systematic organzedf series of steps that
ensures maximum objectivity and consistency in researching
a problem
o Survey, observation, and theory
Sociological theory and families
• How we study families and the types of questions we want to
answer are influenced by sociological theory
• Four theories
o Exchange theory: a sociological theory that views people as
rational beings who decide whether to exchange goods or
services by considering the benefits they will receive, the
costs they will incur, and the benefits they might receive if
they were to choose an alternative course of action
▪ People viewed as tational actors attempting to
maximize their benefits and minimize their costs
▪ Resource based (the more access to valued resources
the better position one is in)
▪ Sometimes (irrational) cost are incurred consciously
• Symbolic interaction theory: focuses on peoples interpretations of
symbolic behavior
o George Herbert mead and herber blumer
