Public and Private Families
Chapter 1
Increasing ambivalence
• Women in workforce vs. children in day care
• Divorce vs. unhappy marriage
Focus on the individual
• Individualism
• Utilitarian individualism
• Expressive individualism
Public vs. Private
• Public
• One adult, or two adults who are related by marriage, partnership, or shared
parenthood, who is/are taking care of dependents
• Private
• Two or more individuals who maintain an intimate relationship that they
expect will last indefinitely and who usually live in the same household and
pool their incomes and household labor
Public vs. Private
• Public
• Externalities
• Benefits or costs that accrue to others when an individual or business produces
something
• Negative – costs imposed on others
• Positive – benefits received by others
• Public goods
• Things that may be enjoyed by people who not themselves produce them
• Free-rider problem
• The tendency for people to obtain public goods by letting others do the work of
producing them
Public vs. Private
• Not all families will be accepted by society or by the state
• There are implications to our social construction of family
Sociology and the Scientific Method
• The scientific study of social relationships and human groups.
Theory
• A set of statements or propositions that seek to explain or predict a
particular aspect of social life.
Sociological Theory and Family
• Structural Functional
• Conflict/Feminist
• Symbolic Interaction
• Exchange
• Postmodern
Structural Functionalism
• Assumes that society is structured to maintain stability
• Control and regulation
• Socialization
• Emotional support
Conflict Perspective
• Examines society in terms of conflict, struggle and scare resources.
• Who benefits and who suffers?
Feminist Theory
• Looks at gender as the central organizing principle within society
(Conflict and SI)
• Men’s domination
Social Exchange Theory
• Assumes that humans’ choices are motivated by the same forces that
drive economic marketplaces.
• Maximize rewards and minimize costs
Symbolic Interactionist Theory
• Looks at everyday social interactions as well as symbols.
Postmodern
• Individuals reflexively influence their social environments
• Late modern era
• The last few decades of the 20th century and the present day
• Self-identity
• A person’s sense of who he/she is and of where he/she fits in the social
structure
• Reflexivity
• The process through which individuals take in knowledge, reflect on it, and
alter their behavior as a result.
Objectivity
• The ability to draw conclusions about a social situation that are
unaffected by one’s own belief
• Critical to scientific study
What is the Scientific Method?
• Systematic, organized series of
steps that ensures maximum objectivity
and consistency in researching a problem
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Defining the problem
Reviewing the literature
Formulating the hypothesis
Selecting the research design
and collecting and analyzing data
• Developing the conclusion
Replication
• The practice of researchers performing similar studies to see whether
they obtain the same results as a previous study.
Hypothesis
• A researchable prediction that specifies the relationship between two
or more variables.
Research
• Hypothesis: Speculative statement
about the relationship between two
or more factors known as variables
• Variable: Measurable trait or characteristic subject to change under different
conditions
• Independent variable: Variable
hypothesized to cause or influence another
• Dependent variable: Action depends
on influence of the independent variable
Research
• Experiment – A research method designed to elicit some sort of
behavior; typically under closely controlled laboratory conditions.
Research
• Survey – A form of social research in which researchers ask
respondents a series of questions, either orally or through a
questionnaire.
• Primary analysis – analysis of survey data by the people who collected the
information
• Secondary analysis – analysis of survey data by people other than those who
collected it
Observational/Field research
• A type of research in which the researchers goes out and observes
events as they actually occur.
Unobtrusive research
• Content analysis – study of recorded communication to determine
variations in social trends over time
• Historical analysis- research method that relies on existing historical
documents as a source of data.
Samples
• Representative
• Random
• Convenience
Globalization
• The increasing flow of goods and services, money, migrants, and
information across the nations of the world
• Impact on the family
Social institution
• A set of roles and rules that define a social unite of importance to
society
• Organized patterns of belief and behavior centered on meeting social needs