School of Business Administration
IU – VNU HCMC
BA116IU
Introduction to Social Sciences
Semester 1, 2010-2011
Instructor:
Dr. Truong Thi Kim Chuyen
USSH – VNU HCMC
1
Chapter 12
The family and Intimate Relationships
Chapter Outline
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•
•
•
•
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Global View of the Family
Studying the Family
Marriage and Family
Divorce
Diverse Lifestyles
SOCIAL POLICY AND THE FAMILY: Gay
Marriage
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McGraw-Hill 2006
The Family: A Global View
• Composition: What Is the Family?
– Family: set of people related by blood,
marriage, or some other agreed-upon
relationship, or adoption who share
primary responsibility for reproduction and
caring for members of society
3
The Family: A Global View
• Composition: What Is the Family?
– Nuclear Family: nucleus or core upon which
larger family groups are built
– Extended Family: family in which
relatives live in same home as parents and
their children
Serial
Monogamy: when
a person
has several
– Monogamy:
form
of marriage
inspouses
whichin
his or
her woman
lifetime, but
only
oneman
spouseare
at amarried
time
one
and
one
only
to each other
4
The Family: A Global View
• Composition: What Is the Family?
– Polygamy: when an individual has several
husbands or wives simultaneously
– Polygyny: marriage of a man to more than
one woman at a time
– Polyandry: marriage of a woman to more
than one husband at the same time.
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The Family: A Global View
Figure 14-1. U.S. Households by Family Type, 1940—2003
Source: Fields 2004; see also McFalls, Jr. 2003:23
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The Family: A Global View
• Kinship Patterns: To Whom Are We
Related?
– Kinship: state of being related to others
• Bilateral Descent: both sides of a person’s
family are regarded as equally important
• Patrilineal descent: only the father’s relatives
are important
• Matrilineal descent: only the mother’s
relatives are significant
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The Family: A Global View
• Authority Patterns: Who Rules?
– Patriarchy: males are expected to
dominate in all family decision making
– Matriarchy: women have greater
authority than men
– Egalitarian family: family in which
spouses are regarded as equals
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Social Institutions: Family
and Religion
• Social Institution
– Organized patterns of beliefs and behavior
centered on general basic needs
• Functionalist View
– Family serves six functions for society:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Protection
Socialization
Reproduction
Regulation of sexual behavior
Affection and companionship
Provision of social status
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Studying the Family
• Conflict View
– Family reflects inequality in wealth and
power found within society
– In wide range of societies, husbands
exercised power and authority within
the family
– View family as economic unit contributing
to social injustice
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Studying the Family
• Interactionist View
– Focuses on micro level of family and other
intimate relationships
– Interested in how individuals interact with
each other whether they are cohabiting
partners or longtime married couples
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Studying the Family
• Feminist View
– Urged social scientists and social agencies
to rethink notion that families in which no
adult male is present are automatically a
cause for concern
– Feminists stress the need to investigate
neglected topics in family studies
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Studying the Family
Table 14-1. Sociological Perspectives on the Family
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Marriage and Family
• Courtship and Mate Selection
– Aspects of Mate Selection
• Endogamy: Endogamy specifies the groups
within which a spouse must be found and
prohibits marriage with members of other
groups.
• Exogamy: Exogamy requires mate selection
outside certain groups, usually one’s own family
or certain kin.
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Marriage and Family
• Courtship and Mate Selection
– Aspects of Mate Selection
Incest Taboo: social norm common to virtually all
societies prohibiting sexual relationships between
certain culturally specified relationships
• Homogamy: conscious or unconscious
tendency to select mate with personal
characteristics similar to one’s own
– The Love Relationship
• Coupling of love and marriage not universal
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Marriage and Family
• Variations in Family Life and Intimate
Relationships
– Social Class Differences
• The upper class emphasizes lineage and
maintenance of family position; lower class
families likely to have one parent at home, and
children typically assume adult responsibilities
– Racial and Ethnic Differences
• Subordinate status of racial and ethnic groups
profoundly affects family life
16
Marriage and Family
• Child-Rearing Patterns in Family Life
– Parenthood and Grandparenthood
• One of most important roles of parents is
socialization of children
• Recently, U.S. witnessed extension of
parenthood with adult children living at home
– “Boomerang generation” or “full-nest syndrome”
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Marriage and Family
• Child-Rearing Patterns in Family Life
– Adoption
• Process that “allows for the transfer of the
legal rights, responsibilities, and privileges
of parenthood” to a new legal parent or
parents
– Dual-Income Families
• Among married people between the ages
of 25 and 34, 92% of men and 75% of
women in the labor force
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Marriage and Family
• Child-Rearing Patterns in Family Life
– Single-Parent Families
• In 2000, a single parent headed:
– 21% of White families with children
– 35% of Hispanic families with children
– 55% of African American families with children
– Stepfamilies
• Rising rate of divorce and remarriage led to
significant increase in stepfamily relationships
• Stepfamilies are exceedingly complex
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Marriage and Family
Figure 14-2. Percentage of People
Aged 20 to 24 Ever Married,
Selected Countries
Source: United Nations Population Division 2005
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Divorce
• Statistical Trends in Divorce
– Divorce rates increased in late 1960s,
started to level and decline since late
1980s
– About 63% of all divorces in U.S. remarry
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Divorce
• Factors Associated with Divorce
•Greater social acceptance of divorce
•More liberal divorce laws
•Fewer children
•Greater family income
•More opportunities for women
• Impact of Divorce on Children
– About a third of children benefit from
divorce because it lessens exposure to
conflict
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Divorce
Figure 14-3. Rise of Single-Parent
Families in the United States, 1970-2000
Source: Bureau of the Census 1994:63; Fields 2001:7
23
Divorce
Figure 14-4. Trends in Marriage and Divorce in the United States,
1920—2004
Source: Bureau of the Census 1995:64; National Vital Statistics Reports 2005
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Diverse Lifestyles
• Cohabitation
• Remaining Single
• Marriage without Children
• Lesbian and Gay Relationships
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Diverse Lifestyles
Figure 14-5. Unmarried-Couple Households by State
Source: T. Simmons and O’Connell 2003:4
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Social Policy and The Family
• Gay Marriage
– The Issue
• Idea of same-sex marriage strikes some in U.S.
as attack on traditional marriage
– The Setting
• Vermont gave gay couples legal benefits of
marriage through civil union
• Massachusetts Supreme Courts rule state’s
constitution gives gay couples right to marry
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Social Policy and The Family
• Gay Marriage
– Sociological Insights
• Functionalists: religious views toward marriage
cannot be ignored
• Conflict theorists: denial of right to marry
reinforces second-class citizenship
• Interactionists: focus on support or opposition
of family, co-workers, and friends
• As many as 50% of citizens favor civil union
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Social Policy and The Family
• Gay Marriage
– Policy Initiatives
• Netherlands, Belgium, and Canada recognize
same-sex marriages
• Many nations remains strongly opposed
• In U.S. local jurisdictions have recognized
domestic partnerships for benefits
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Social Policy and The Family
Figure 14-6. Discriminatory Marriage and Anti-Gay Discrimination Laws
Source: Human Rights Campaign 2005
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Key terms
• Adoption In a legal sense, a process that allows for the
transfer of the legal rights, responsibilities and privileges of
parenthood to a new legal parent or parents.
• Bilateral descent A kinship system in which both sides of a
person’s family are regarded as equally important
• Cohabitation The practice of living together as a male –
female couple without marrying.
• Domestic partnership Two unrelated adults who share a
mutually caring relationship, reside together, and agree to be
jointly responsible for their dependents, basic living expenses,
and other common necessities.
• Egalitarian family An authority pattern in which spouses are
regarded as equals.
• Endogamy The restriction of mate selection to people within
the same group.
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Key terms
• Exogamy The requirement that people select a mate outside
certain groups.
• Extended family A family in which relatives-such as
grandparents, aunts, or uncles – live in the same home as
parents and their children.
• Familism Pride in the extended family, expressed through the
maintenance of close ties and strong obligations to kinfolk
outside the immediate family.
• Family A set of people related by blood, marriage or some
other agreed-upon relationship, or adoption, who share the
primary responsibility for reproduction and caring for members
of society.
• Incest taboo The prohibition of sexual relationships between
certain culturally specified relatives.
• Kinship The state of being related to others.
• Machismo A sense of virility, personal worth, and pride in
one’s maleness.
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SUMMARY
•
The family, in its many varying forms, is present in all
human cultures. This chapter examines the state of
marriage, the family, and other intimate relationships
in the United States and considers alternatives to the
traditional nuclear family.
 Families vary from culture to culture and even within the
same culture.
 The structure of the extended family can offer certain
advantages over that of the nuclear family.
 Societies determine kinship by descent from both parents
(bilateral descent), from the father only (patrilineal
descent), or from the mother only (matrilineal descent).
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 Sociologists do not agree on whether the egalitarian
family has replaced the patriarchal family as the social
norm in the United States.
 William F. Ogburn outlined six basic functions of the
family: reproduction, protection, socialization, regulation
of sexual behavior, companionship, and the provision of
social status.
 Conflict theorists argue that male dominance of the
family contributes to societal injustice and denies women
opportunities that are extended to men.
 Interactionists focus on how individuals interact in the
family and in other intimate relationships.
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 Feminists stress the need to broaden research on the
family. Like conflict theorists, they see the family's role in
socializing children as the primary source of sexism.
 People select mates in a variety of ways. Some
marriages are arranged; in other societies people
choose their own mates. Some societies require mates
to be chosen within a certain group (endogamy) or
outside certain groups (exogamy). And consciously or
unconsciously, many people look for a mate with similar
personal characteristics (homogamy).
 In the United States, family life varies with social class,
race, and ethnicity.
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• Currently, in the majority of all married couples in
the United States, both husband and wife work
outside the home.
• Single-parent families account for an increasing
proportion of U.S. families.
• Among the factors that contribute to the rising
divorce rate in the United States are greater
social acceptance of divorce and the
liberalization of divorce laws in many states.
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• More and more people are living together
without marrying, a practice known as
cohabitation. People are also staying single
longer, and some married couples are deciding
not to have children.
• The gay marriage movement, which would
confer equal rights on gay and lesbian couples
and their dependents, is strongly opposed by
conservative religious and political groups.
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