Families In Canada Unit 1

Blended Family

a family reformed through marriage after a past divorce, includes stepfamily and half siblings

Extended family

All immediate relatives

Nuclear Family

Husband and wife with at least one biological child

Research Essay

Written to support a thesis, uses research information to support it

Research Reports

• Summarize the results of an investigation

• Allows other researchers to replicate the study and determine its validity

Qualitative Data

• detailed information from individuals

• Ex. Case studies for individual behaviours

Quantitative Data

Gathered from many people and can be statistically analyzed

Ex. Prevalence of specific condition in population

Sociology

Social Science that explains the behaviours of individuals as they interact in social groups

Psychology

Study of behaviour based on mental processes and how the individual thinks

Anthropology

The study of human societies and cultures and their development

Functions of the family

1. Physical Maintenance

2. Addition of new family members through procreation or adoption

3. Socialization of children

4. Social control of members

5. Production, Consumption, and distribution of goods and services

6. Love

Hunter Gatherers

• Loosely defined family (community raised in small nomadic bands)

• Related by consanguinity (blood) or conjugal (sexual)

• Men and women had clearly defined roles and both had relatively high status (egalitarian relationship)

Agricultural Family

• Families now owned land and survived through physical labour

• Husbands owned land, wives, and many children (patriarchy developed)

• Polygamy began to emerge (multiple wives)

• Arranges monogamous marriages also became common

Pre-Industrial Family

• Increasing populations made people move to towns

• Male jobs became builders, artisans, soldiers, merchants (cottage industry)

• <50% of children survived due to child labour

• Monogamous marriage was an economic necessity

• Men owned property and family

Urban Industrial Family

• All members of the family began factory work

• Transitioned to industrial nuclear family, men worked while women stayed home and raised children

• 1871-Compulsory education for children under 14

• Child labour laws in mid 1880s

• The few women who worked recieved 1/3 less than men

• Marriage was delayed and families had less children for economic factors

Modern Consumer

• Women are gentle and patient, take care of family

• Men are aggressive and tough, suited for the workplace

• Children did not work but were disciplined

• Nuclear family became ideal model

• Baby boom resulted in average of 4 children

Contemporary Family

• Became difficult to support family with one income in 60s and 70s so women began to work

• 1968 divorce laws became more lenient

• birth control became legal in 1965

• Nuclear family remains the most common but there are many different types now

Symbolic Interactionism

• Psychological Micro Theory

• How individuals behave based on their perceptions of themselves and others

• actions are based on meaning one assigns to it

• “I am what I think you think I am”

Functionalism

• Sociological Macro theory

• How society is organized to perform its required functions

• Status: specific position in a social group

• Role: set of behaviours expected within status

• Norm: The most accepted behaviour in a group

• Social Change=Devestating to social balance

Systems

• Sociological Macro Theory

• How groups interact in a system

• Stability is achieved through feedback

• Individuals are inseparable from the group

Conflict

• Interdisciplinary Theory

• Society is put into groups based on power

• Those with the most power exploit those with less

• Explains racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism

• Critique of society rather than analysis

Exchange

• Psychological Micro Theory

• Individuals make choices by weighing costs and benefits

• Benefits meet a perceived need

• Costs are actions such as providing support or sharing goods

• Take on roles to maximize benefits and minimize costs

Feminism

• Interdisciplinary

• Impact of sex and gender on behaviour from the point of view of women

• Androcentric: assumes male behaviour is human behaviour

Liberal Feminism

• Against notion that biological women are less than men

• focused on discriminatory policies that restrict womens rights to participate in society

Socialist Feminism

• Based on the assumption that the status of women is a social inequity rooted in the sexual division of paid and unpaid labour

• Challenges capitalism and patriarchal models

Radical Feminism

• Difference in power results in any male-female relationship being exploitative

• Only development of a separate female culture can fix this

Ecological Theory

• Psychological

• emphasizes that individuals develop within and are influenced by complex systems of social, cultural, and physical environments

• Humans develop due to multiple interconnected systems

• Microsystems: Made of most immediate contacts

• Mesosystems: Small groups socialize with the individual in ways that are influenced by society

• Exosystems: The socioeconomic environment set expectations and influence

• Macrosystem: The sociocultural environment, the society in which the individual lives

• Chronosystems: Changes that occur over time in an environment such as a pandemic

Life Course Approach Theory

• Interdisciplinary

• Focuses on stages of development in ones life

• Normative events: predictable life events such as graduation and marriage

• Non-Normative Events: unpredictable events such as illness, death, divorce

• Physiological Development: Change in physical nature such as puberty

• Emotional Development: Learn what feelings are and why they occur

• Psychological Development: Experience changes in emotions, thoughts, and expression

• Social Development: Interaction and learned behaviours