Chapter 12: Families and Intimate Relationships

1. Chapter 12: Families and Intimate Relationships

2. Objectives (slide 1 of 2) 12.1 Introduction to the Concept of Family • Describe the four family forms and three marriage patterns. • Explain the various residential patterns of families. • Define and identify the various patterns of descent. 12.2 Theoretical Perspectives on Families • Discuss different theoretical perspectives as they apply to the family unit. 12.3 Stages of Intimate Relationships • Illustrate the different stages in family construction. 12.4 Problems in the Family • Illustrate the various forms that family violence takes and assess its impact on later social development.

3. Objectives (slide 2 of 2) 12.5 Transitions • Identify the major transitional stages in the American family. 12.6 Family Alternatives • Discuss the different alternatives to the classic family forms. 12.7 Families: Class, Race, and Gender • Discuss how race, class, and gender affect our understanding and perceptions of the family.

4. Defining Family and Kinship • Family:A group of individuals related to one another by blood, marriage, adoption, or social convention • Kinship:The linking of people through blood, marriage, adoption, or social convention

5. Family Structures and Characteristics • Nuclear family: A family consisting of two parents and children • Sole-parent family: A family composed of one parent and children • Extended family: A family consisting of more than two generations or relatives living within the same household • Blended family: A family created when people with children from previous relationships remarry (also known as a stepfamily)

6. Marriage Patterns (slide 1 of 2) • Marriage:A socially approved union between individuals • Monogamy:A system of marriage that permits marriage to only one partner at a time

7. Marriage Patterns (slide 2 of 2) • Polygamy:Marriage that unites more than two partners • Polygyny:A form of marriage in which a man may have more than one wife • Polyandry:A form of marriage in which a woman may have more than one husband • Endogamous:Marriage within one’s own social group • Exogamous:Marriage outside of one’s own social group

8. Residential Patterns • Residential patterns: Culturally determined patterns that dictate where new families will live • Matrilocal:Describes a family system in which the new family lives near the wife’s parents • Patrilocal: Describes a family system in which the new family lives near the husband’s parents • Neolocal: Describes a society in which the new family lives apart from both sets of parents

9. Patterns of Descent • Descent: A system by which members of society trace kinship through generations. • Matrilineal:A society in which kinship and sometimes property are passed from mothers to their children. • Patrilineal: A system of descent that considers only the father’s side • Bilateral descent: A system of reckoning descent from both the mother’s and father’s side

10. Patterns of Authority and Power • Patriarchy: A society in which males maintain the majority of social power • Matriarchy: A society in which women maintain the majority of social power

11. Functionalist Perspective • The functionalist perspective argues that families contribute essential tasks to society through: • Primary socialization: The main process by which children learn the values and norms of their society • Personality stabilization: The role that family plays in the cognitive and emotional development of the individual

12. Conflict Perspective • The conflict perspective explores the ways in which family creates and maintains social inequality.

13. Symbolic Interactionist Perspective • Symbolic interactionism tries to understand how the roles and concepts of the family are constructed through the interactions that take place. • The social exchange approach sees the family as a form of negotiation framed in terms of cost-benefit analysis.

14. Evolutionary Perspectives • Evolutionary perspectives seek to understand how the family is both a cause and consequence of our evolved nature.

15. Love and Intimacy • Dating scripts: Culturally guided rules and expectations about dating practices • Romantic love: People being sexually attracted to one another and often idealizing one another • Homogamy:The tendency of people with similar characteristics to marry one another

16. Marriage • Marriage: A pledge to form a family • Marriage patterns in the United States are trending toward later age at first marriage due to: • Increasing rates of cohabitation • Increasing numbers of people—especially women—deferring marriage to attend college • Increasing participation by women in the workforce • Societal changes that support individualization

17. Cohabitation • Cohabitation: Two people living together in a sexual relationship without being married

18. Children • The average cost of raising a child in the United States from birth through college currently exceeds $250,000 • The average number of children a family has declined from eight in the 1800s to just over one today.

19. Ways of Parenting • Developmental psychologist Diana Baumrind identified four general types of parenting styles • Permissive • Authoritarian • Authoritative • Neglectful parenting

20. Housework • One area that has not seen a significant change in gender roles, however, is the division of housework. While industrialization has made housework generally easier and less time consuming, and while women have taken an increasingly large role in activities outside of the family, they still tend to do more housework than men

21. Violence and Abuse • Intimate partner violence:Physical, emotional, or psychological abuse toward an intimate partner • Although the rate of intimate partner violence is declining, the rate of child abuse and neglect is increasing. • Intergenerational transmission of violence:The tendency for people who are victims of abuse or who witness abuse to be perpetrators of violence at a later stage of the life course

22. Divorce and Dissolution • A good way to determine the rate of divorce is to look at the percentage of married people that gets divorced in any given year. • Using these figures, fewer than 2% of couples get divorced each year.

23. The Effects of Divorce on Children • Children with greater resilience are less likely to suffer serious negative consequences from divorce. • Resilience: The degree to which a person can endure changes in his or her environment • Feminization of poverty:The trend of an increasing number of women—usually with children—living below the poverty line

24. Blended Families • Blended families are structurally dissimilar to nuclear families due to unclear roles and responsibilities. • The roles of each family member are not the result of naturally occurring biological relationships but rather through socially and legally constructed means.

25. Launching Children • Marital happiness is greatest at two points during the lifespan of the marriage: • First year (honeymoon phase) • After the last child leaves home • Empty nest syndrome: A myth that parents mourn after the last child leaves the home

26. Gay and Lesbian Couples • One of the most controversial family forms is lesbian and gay couples. While many nations, beginning with Denmark in 1989, have legalized gay unions, in America, homosexual unions continue to meet with resistance.

27. Sole-Parent Families • Women who have children outside of marriage have a much lower degree of societal support. • Patterns of women who raise children outside of marriage tend to take one of two forms: • Women have children at a young age, increasing the chances the child will be raised in poverty. • Women delay having children until they have achieved education/career goals.

28. Racially Mixed Marriages • The number of racially mixed marriages in the United States is 14.6%.

29. Social Class • Children who grow up in poverty are more likely to have problems in school, behavioral problems, and other developmental and social difficulties. • Acceptance of alternative family forms varies with social class: • Lower social class families are less supportive of homosexual pairings. • Higher social class families are less supportive of sole parenting.

30. Ethnicity and Race • Because race and ethnicity have real consequences in society, differences emerge in both beliefs and behaviors associated with the family. While some ethnic and racial minorities attempt to retain their traditional views of the family in the face of rapid cultural change and pressures to assimilate, some views of the family are shaped by the way in which society institutionalizes minority status.

31. Gender • Men and women see marriage in fundamentally different ways: • Men who are married tend to have better mental and physical health, make more money, have a longer life span, and report being happier than single men. • Women who are married report higher rates of depression, make less money than single women, and report lower levels of happiness than single women.