Families and Intimate Relationships

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Chapter 11

• Families and Intimate Relationships

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What do we mean by family?

• A social institution found in all societies that
  unites people in cooperative groups to oversee
  the bearing and socializing of children
• Is this a micro view or a macro view of
  families?

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What is kinship?

• A social network based on common ancestry,
  marriage, or adoption
• Kinships serve different functions
• Basic needs (e.g., food, shelter)
• Property-transfer arrangements
• Economic production
• Power allocation

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A macro contrastIndustrialized vs. Traditional

• In which kind of society do families serve fewer
  and more specialized functions?
• Industrialized (including post-industrialized)
• Why?

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Types of Families

• The family into which a person is born or adopted
  and socialized is called a
• family of orientation
• The family that a person forms by having or
  adopting children is called a
• family of procreation
• Persons who are not related by blood or adoption
  by who are accepted as family members are called
• families we choose (Judy Root Aulette)
• (Also called Family of choice)

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Types of Families

• A family unit composed of relatives in addition
  to parents and children who live in the same
  household is called an
• Extended family
• A family unit composed of one or two parents and
  their dependent children, apart from other
  relatives is called a
• Nuclear family

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What do we mean by marriage?

• A legally recognized and/or socially approved
  arrangement between 2 or more individuals that
  carries certain rights and obligations and
  usually involves sexual activity.
• A marriage between 2 partners is called
• monogamy
• What about serial monogamy?
• A marriage between 3 or more partners is called
• polygamy
• 2 kinds polygyny
• polyandry

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Theoretical Perspectives of Families

• Here, we are going to try to explain families
  from macro and micro sociological perspectives,
  paying attention to patterns and variation
• I. How would functionalists explain the
  existence of families?

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Functionalist Perspectives of Families

• In industrialized postindustrialized societies,
  families serve 4 key functions for society
• 1. Sexual regulation (boundaries)
  reproduction of societal members
• 2. Socialization (especially early in life)
• 3. Economic and psychological support
• 4. Provision of social statuses

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Conflict Perspectives of Families

• II. How would a conflict theorist understand and
  explain families?
• Some conflict theorists claim that families in
  capitalist societies mirror the workplace, i.e.,
  are sources of inequality and exploitation of
  some over others. Womens work is unpaid and
  therefore devalued and women are subordinated.

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Conflict Perspectives of Families

• Other conflict theorists claim that inequalities
  experienced in the workplace place stress on
  lower-class families and contribute to family
  problems (e.g., high divorce rate, family
  instability in lower social classes).
• Feminist theorists focus on traditional
  patriarchy (rather than capitalism) as a source
  of womens powerlessness in families. Thus, they
  question the traditional family structure.
• What does this structure look like?

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Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives of Families

• III. How would symbolic interactionists
  understand and explain families?
• Focus on how we modify our roles (and selves) to
  others expectations
• Also, focus on how we experience family life and
  how our self-concepts are shaped by it
• Marriage involves the construction of a shared
  reality.
• If this shared reality does not develop OR one
  or both members subjective experience changes,
  what may happen?

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A Postmodernist Perspective of Families

• IV. How would postmodernists understand and
  explain families?
• Postmodernists recognize that families are
  diverse and often disjointed. Because of
  technology, family life and work life are
  blurred.
• What are possible consequences of technology on
  family life?

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Cohabitation Domestic Partnerships

• Cohabitation 2 people living together as a
  couple without being legally married.
• Domestic partnership Cohabitation with the same
  rights and benefits as accorded to married
  heterosexual couples.

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Housework and Child-Care Responsibilities

• Dual-earner couple both partners are in labor
  force
• Families in which husbands consider themselves
  the primary breadwinner are less likely to
  contribute to housework
• Families w/ more egalitarian values are more
  likely to have an egalitarian distribution of
  housework ?

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To Have or Not have Children

• Mean family size 2 children (in U. S.)
• Infertility affects nearly 5 million couples
  (about 1 in 12)
• Why? Causes related to male 40 Causes
  related to female 30-40
• Unknown causes 20. One source of
  infertility in both sexes ? STDs

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Adoption

• Adoption a legal process thru which the rights
  and duties of parenting are transferred from a
  childs biological and/or legal parents to a new
  legal parent or parents.
• Thousands of children are available for adoption.
• Why has adoption of U. S. babies decreased in
  recent decades?

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Remaining Single

• Why has remaining single increased in recent
  years?
• See Figure 11.1 on page 365.

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Challenges in the 21st Century

• Family violence types?
• Children in Foster Care Why is the staying in
  foster care increasing??
• Elder Abuse types?

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Challenges in the 21st CenturyDivorce

• Macro-sociological causes of divorce
• Greater opportunities for women to be
  economically self-sufficient
• Legally, divorces are easier to obtain (no
  fault-based systems exist)
• Less cultural stigma on divorce
• Risk Factors of persons to divorce
• Early age at marriage (lt18 yrs.)
• Short acquaintanceship lt marriage
• Disapproval of marriage by relatives friends
• Limited economic resources low wages
• No formal schooling beyond high school
• Having parents in unhappy marriages having
  divorced parents
• Presence of children at start of marriage

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Challenges in the 21st Century.Remarriage

• Do most divorced people remarry?
• YES! (see pp. 371-372)
• Sex differences?
• Age differences?
• Educational differences?