The Real World
AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY
2nd Edition
Kerry Ferris and Jill Stein
Chapter 13
Life at Home
What is the Family?
• The U.S. Census Bureau defines family as
two or more individuals related by blood,
marriage, or adoption living in the same
household.
• According to sociologists, family is defined
as a social group whose members are bound
by legal, biological, or emotional ties, or a
combination of all three.
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What is the Family? (cont’d)
• An extended family is a large group of
relatives, usually including at least three
generations living either in one household or
in close proximity.
• Kin is defined as relatives or relations,
usually those related by common descent.
3
What is the Family? (cont’d)
• A nuclear family is a heterosexual couple
with one or more children living in a single
household.
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Diversity in Families
• Endogamy refers to marriage to someone
within one’s social group (race, ethnicity,
class, education, religion, region, or
nationality).
• Exogamy refers to marriage to someone
from a different social group.
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Diversity in Families (cont’d)
• From the time of slavery through the 1960s,
many states had antimiscegenation laws
(the prohibition of interracial marriage,
cohabitation, or sexual interaction).
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Diversity in Families (cont’d)
• Monogamy, the practice of marrying (or being in a
relationship with) one person at a time, is still
considered the only legal form of marriage in
modern western culture.
• Polygamy, a system of marriage that allows people
to have more than one spouse at a time, is
practiced among some subcultures around the
world, but is not widely acknowledged as a
legitimate form of marriage.
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Diversity in Families (cont’d)
• The more common form of polygamy is
polygyny, which a system of marriage that
allows men to have multiple wives.
• Polyandry, a system of marriage that allows
women to have multiple husbands, is a more
rare form of polygamy.
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Sociological Perspectives on the
Family
• Structural Functionalism views the family
as one of the basic institutions that keeps
society running smoothly by providing
functions such as producing and socializing
children, economic production, instrumental
and emotional support, and sexual control.
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Sociological Perspectives on the
Family (cont’d)
• Conflict theorists believe that society
revolves around conflict over scarce
resources, and that conflict within the family
is also about the competition for resources:
time, energy, and the leisure to pursue
recreational activities.
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Sociological Perspectives on the
Family (cont’d)
• Symbolic Interactionists examine the types
of social dynamics and interactions that
create and sustain families, emphasizing the
ways that our experiences of family bonds
are socially created rather than naturally
existing.
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Theory in Everyday Life
The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company
Forming Relationships, Selecting
Mates
• The process of selecting mates is largely
determined by society and two concepts
(homogamy and propinquity) tell us a lot
about how this process works.
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Forming Relationships, Selecting
Mates (cont’d)
• Homogamy means “like marries like,” and is
demonstrated by the fact that we tend to
choose mates who are similar to use in
class, race, ethnicity, age, religion,
education, and even levels of attractiveness.
• Propinquity is the tendency to marry or
have relationships with people in close
geographic proximity.
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Doing the Work of Family
• Many types of work (both paid and unpaid)
are necessary to keep a family operating.
These tasks can be either instrumental or
expressive.
15
Doing the Work of Family (cont’d)
• Instrumental tasks refer to the practical
physical tasks necessary to maintain family
life (washing dishes and cutting grass).
• Expressive tasks refer to the emotional
work necessary to support family members
(remembering a relative’s birthday or playing
with the kids).
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Doing the Work of Family (cont’d)
• Men and women have always performed
different roles to ensure the survival of their
families, but these roles were not considered
unequal until after the Industrial Revolution.
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Doing the Work of Family (cont’d)
• Women nowadays have two jobs: paid labor
outside the home and unpaid labor inside the
home.
• Second shift (unpaid labor inside the home
that is often expected of women after they
get home from working at paid labor outside
the home).
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Family and the Life Course
• Children’s experiences are shaped by family
size, birth order, presence or absence of
parents, socioeconomic status, and other
sociological variables. In addition, the
presence of children affects the lives of
parents.
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Family and the Life Course (cont’d)
• Life expectancy is increasing. What is
happening to the elderly population?
• About 10% of the elderly live below the poverty
line.
• Care of the elderly is no longer a primary
function of family: over 40% of senior citizens will
spend time in a nursing home.
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Trouble in Families
• Domestic violence is by far the most
common form of family violence. It includes
behaviors abusers use to gain and maintain
power over their victims. Abuse can be:
•
•
•
•
•
Physical
Verbal
Financial
Sexual
Psychological
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Cycle of Violence in Abusive
Relationships
• Stage one: relationship seems normal.
• Stage two: the victim feels like “walking on
eggshells” to avoid arguments.
• Stage three: acute battering and violence
occur, lasting for seconds, hours, or even
days. The abuser blames the victim.
• Stage four: the abuser will apologize
profusely and promise that it will never
happen again.
Trouble in Families (cont’d)
• Rates of domestic violence are about equal
across racial and ethnic groups, sexual
orientations, and religious groups.
• People are more likely to be killed or
attacked by family members than anyone
else.
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Trouble in Families (cont’d)
• Children and the elderly also suffer at the
hands of abusive family members. Child and
elder abuse are likely to be underreported,
due in part to the relative powerlessness of
the victims and the private settings of the
abuse.
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Trouble in Families (cont’d)
• Another kind of abuse children may
experience is neglect (a form of child abuse
in which the caregiver fails to provide
adequate nutrition, sufficient clothing or
shelter, or hygienic and safe living
conditions).
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Trouble in Families (cont’d)
• Another form of child abuse is incest
(proscribed sexual contact between family
members; a form of child abuse when it
occurs between a child and a caregiver).
• Elder abuse can include violence and abuse,
as well as financial exploitation, theft,
neglect, and abandonment.
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Divorce and Breakups
• As of March 2002, the U.S. Census reported
that more than 123 million persons were
married while about 21 million were divorced.
Research indicates that about 50 percent of
all first marriages now end in divorce and
most who divorce remarry.
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U.S. Divorce Rate Over the Past Century (Figure 13.1)
The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company
Divorce and Breakups (cont’d)
• Mothers still disproportionately receive
custody (physical and legal responsibility for
children assigned by a court), but there is
now a trend toward joint custody.
• Women are more likely to suffer downward
economic mobility after divorce, especially if
they retain custody of their children.
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Trends in American Families
• About 5% of all households are occupied by
couples who are cohabitating (living
together as a romantically involved,
unmarried couple).
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Cohabitation in the United States (Figure 13.2)
The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company
Trends in American Families (cont’d)
• Increases in the numbers of:
•
•
•
•
Single people.
People who are cohabitating
Single parents
People who are living in intentional
communities
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The Postmodern Family
• Families adapting to the challenges of a
postmodern society may create family
structures that look very different from the
“traditional” family and can include exspouses, new partners and children, other
kin, and even non-kin such as friends and
coworkers.
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Life at Home | Concept Quiz
1. How do contemporary sociologists define family?
a. Relatives or relations, usually those related by
common descent
b. A social group whose members are bound by legal,
biological, or emotional ties, or a combination of all
three
c. Two or more individuals related by blood, marriage,
or adoption living in the same household
d. A two-parent household with children
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Life at Home | Concept Quiz
2. The fact that people tend to marry someone from a
similar social class background demonstrates:
a. endogamy
b. polygyny
c. polyandry
d. exogamy
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Life at Home | Concept Quiz
3. The prohibition of interracial marriage, cohabitation,
or sexual interaction is called:
a. antimiscegenation
b. antifulcrumation
c. antiinternization
d. antipolygamation
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Life at Home | Concept Quiz
4. Which of the following is NOT a current trend in the
population of American families?
a. There are more single people.
b. There are more married couples.
c. More people are cohabitating.
d. Modern families include a greater variety of
structures, like new partners, ex-spouses, and
step-children.
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Life at Home | Concept Quiz
5. The unpaid labor inside the home that is often
expected of women after they get home from
working at paid labor outside the home is called:
a. gendered work
b. instrumental work
c. a resistance strategy
d. the second shift
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Additional Art for Chapter 13
Chapter Opener
The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company
Who Gets to Marry?
The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company
Talking About Kin
The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company
What’s for Dinner?
The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company
What’s for Dinner?
The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company
Sandwich Generation
The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company
Supermom
The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company
Marie Wilcox-Little, Age 73, Swimmer
The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company
Donald Goo, Age 73, Surfer
The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company
Family Troubles?
The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company
The Brady Bunch
The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company
Intentional Communities
The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company
This concludes the Lecture
PowerPoint presentation for
Chapter 13
The Real World
AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY
2nd Edition
Kerry Ferris
and
Jill Stein
For more learning resources, please
visit the StudySpace site for
The Real World, 2e at:
wwnorton.com/studyspace
© 2010 W. W. Norton Co., Inc.
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