Families In Canada Unit 1

List the 6 functions of the family

1. Physical care of members
2. Addition of new members through procreation or adoption
3. Socialization of children
4. Social control of the members
5. Effective nurturance
6. Production and distribution of goods and services

What are the definitions of the first 3 functions of the family?

1. PHYSICAL CARE OF MEMBERS
take care of the physical needs of each member (taking old parents to appointments)

2. ADDITION OF NEW MEMBERS
Reproduce through birth, adoption, fertility clinics

3. SOCIALIZATION OF CHILDREN
Train kids to be functional members of society - teach social skills, knowledge, values and attitudes of their society

What are the benefits for PHYSICAL CARE OF MEMBERS

- individuals of family stay healthy
- productive contributors to society

What are the benefits for ADDITION OF NEW MEMBERS

- maintain population
- maintain economy (more money = wealthier society)

What are the benefits for SOCIALIZATION OF CHILDREN

- communicate with others & form connections
- work with others to maintain a stable workforce
- find good jobs = better economy

What are the definitions of the last 3 functions of the family?

4. SOCIAL CONTROL OF MEMBERS:
Teach children appropriate behaviour for the outside world. Ex. right from wrong

5. AFFECTIVE NURTURANCE:
Provide emotional support to children to participate in society. Family members comfort children when crying

6. PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF GOODS AND SERVICES
Parents work & earn money to consume goods and services to contribute to economy

What are the benefits for SOCIAL CONTROL OF MEMBERS

- individuals peacefully coexist & do right by others
- individuals obey the laws of society

What are the benefits for AFFECTIVE NURTURANCE

- improved mental health increases productivity
- strong relationship with people = create more families that care for one another

What are the benefits for PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF GOODS AND SERVICES

- Families contribute to society
- parents provide for family
- families provide and require goods

How does Family get defined?

- Define family based on personal experiences
- Effective if it can be used between families and other groups
- Can be seen differently to others (biological parents // adopted...)
- Baker article: definition has changed from idealistic, to more inclusive over the years

Define Family

Any combination of 2+ persons who are bound together over time of mutual consent, birth or adoption, who together, assume responsibilities for "functions of family"

5 family structures in history

Hunters and Gatherers
Agriculture Families
Pre-Industrial Families
Urban Industrial Families
Contemporary Canadian Families

Hunters and gatherers

- existed as the main aspect of human history, where men and women hunted and foraged for food
- earliest human family structure
- Men and women were equal
- dominant family type until development of agriculture
- stayed in one location for sustainable food sources near by
- nuclear // monogamous

1. MEN: leave family to hunt large animals
2. WOMEN: gathered fruits, herbs, and small prey- responsible for young children
3. CHILDREN:- helped gather food

Agricultural family

- agriculture began 11 000 years ago in the fertile area of the Middle East
- Have larger families (extended) for more help on the farm
- lived in more permanent settlements (didn't have to hunt daily for food)
- tamed animals, grew plants for food
- nuclear, extended, arranged marriages, monogamous

1. MEN: patriarchy: authority & decision makers of family
- ensure fatherhood and the inheritance of property
2. WOMEN: care for children and handle domestic work- toil fields- became legal property of husbands
3. CHILDREN: help work on land- support parents when they got older

Pre-industrial family

- Marriage and children were an economic necessity
- once population grew, roles became more rigid for women and men
- food surpluses enabled people to move to towns and cities

1. MEN: men dominant in public life (breadwinner)
2. WOMEN: expected to maintain family household- married women had high status cause their essential economic role, wife considered men's property
3. CHILDREN: less than 50% reached adulthood, child labour common, by 7 expected to work (boys work on farm- girls do household work or labour for other families)

Urban Industrial family

- Children are allowed to be children
- Families became smaller due to birthing rates declining
- began because of the industrial revolution- more lived in towns and cities and migrated to places where work could be found

1. MEN: money earners who worked to provide for their family- commonly seen as the head of household
2. WOMEN: motherhood became the primary role, supported financially by husbands, became strange for women to work
3. CHILDREN:- less need for children to work, education instituted in 1871 for children under 14- child labour laws passed mid-1880s, "age of innocence" idea born for children

Contemporary canadian family

- families changed as there were new outlooks on the economic, political, and social pressures
- women become more independent
- Blended, transitional, and dual income are seen as families
- acceptance of gender roles for the first half of 20th century
- immigrant families from countries brought new influences & family structures like arranged marriages & matriarchal family

1. MEN:- earn enough money to support family
2. WOMEN:- entered workforce in 1960s - in 2005, 81% of women were employed, w/ 74% being mothers - women less dependent on spouses
3. CHILDREN:- go to school

Transitional Family

A family structure where the mother temp leaves work to look after her young children

Blended family

A family where the divorced parents marry other people with their own children (becoming stepparents/ stepchildren)

10 trends for canadian families (50 yrs of changing families)

1. Fewer heterosexual (straight) couples are getting married
2. More couples are breaking up.
3. Families are getting smaller.
4. Children experience more transitions as parents change their marital status
5. Canadians are satisfied with life.
6. Family violence is under reported
7. Multiple earners are now the norm.
8. Women still do most of the juggling involved in balancing work and home.
9. Inequality is worsening.
10. The future will have more aging families.

What years did the baby boom take place

1946-1965

What year did the birth control pill legalize

End of the 1960s

what is common law

A legal system based on custom and court rulings
Ex. living with someone for a long period of time without being married

When was common law couples for the same sex, first counted?

2001

When was married couples for the same sex, first counted?

2006

What year was the legalization of same sex marriage in Canada

2005

3 disciplines of social sciences

Sociology
Anthropology
Psychology

What does sociology mean and how does one research it?

The study of human social life, groups, origins, and relationships in society

-Analyzes how society affects individuals and how individuals contribute to society
-Observations

What does anthropology mean and how does one research it?

'the study of man'. The study of the lives and cultures of human beings as species - dead or alive

-Cultural: Live with a cultural group to observe rituals and behaviours
-Physical: collect physical evidence (fossils, skeletal remains) to support theories of how humans evolved

What does psychology mean and how does one research it?

The study of individual behaviours and mental processes. Examines what guides our thinking

-Study people's feelings, thoughts, and personality development
-Interviews
-Conducting experiments

Use "SAP" to analyze this issue: Family Violence

Anthropologist: What cultures is it acceptable in? Is there a reason it's happening in this family? Has it been created as a norm over generations?

Psychologist: How would the victim feel about what's going on? Who is committing the violence? What made them continue with the violence? Is there generational trauma that produced this behaviour? Is it a feeling of superiority? Do they feel guilty?

Sociologist: Who is involved in the violence? Is it multiple? Is it physical, emotional abuse?

Functionalism theory

- society is made to perform a function effectively. (structural functionalism.)
- Economy, government, and family all rely on each other and contribute to the stability of society.
- major part of this theory: development of the concept of values and norms, status and roles. Family members are to fulfill these roles.
- A status: position within a group (student)
- A role: set of behaviours that a person is required to perform within that status
- The norm is known when functionalists observe role behaviour and the rate when behaviours occur (higher rate = norm)

Conflict theory

Conflicts occur when resources, status, and power are unequally distributed between groups in a society. As a result, creates serious conflicts between different classes.
- analyzes power relationships
- explores the endless conflict between different classes in society
- inequalities among members; men & women // boys & girls
- inequalities in power lead to conflict
- power is what holds society together

Symbolic Interactionism theory

Focuses on how people communicate with each other within society through the use of symbols. Humans behave based on what they believe, not only on what is true.
- understanding relationships is examining the meanings each person sees in others' words and actions
- people define and interpret their experiences which gives them meaning
- explores how one person may enjoy/ perceive something differently than another person (sitting under a tree relaxing; got stung by a bee)

three basic concepts:
+ me & I
+ take the attitude of the other (expect what they'll do)
+ shares symbols (ex. lang.) = easier to communicate

Social exchange theory

- People expect others to contribute to the relationship more than the other
- Rewards and the costs of relationships should be proportional throughout
- helps us understand decision making in families
- maximize benefits, minimize costs
- social roles are stable when an exchange is equal, (benefits=cost)
- benefits & cost are based on perceptions not facts
- Cost of relationship: actions that meet the needs of the other. Ex. physical/ emotional support, & sharing goods

Systems theory

The theory suggests that individuals cannot be understood by being separated from one another, but instead can be understood in a social unit.
- believes that what affects one member, affects all to a degree
- difficulties occur if members of a family fail to live up to their roles
- opposite to functionalism, when a mother goes back to work, chores get split between family members
- How we rank people in our lives
- Focuses on the structure and relationships of each

Subsystems:
-Family unit of members sharing household
-Interpersonal individuals (mother-son)
-Personal compromised interaction between self and member of family

Feminist theory

Explores the ways in which one gender can be minimized, or devalued compared to the other. (analyzing gender inequalities)
- Developed in 2nd half of 20th century to describe the influence of sex & gender, and the behaviour viewed by women
- Androcentricity: sees mens experience the same as womens
- Double standards: see men and women separately and apply different standards in order to study
- Liberal feminism: states that policies restict women into a class that limits their rights to live in a society
- Socialist feminism: assumes inequality is based on the sexual division of paid/ unpaid labour

Developmental theory

- life cycle: uses emotional and intellectual stages from childhood-retirement
- developmental task: uses growth responsibilities that arise at different stages in life
- divides each cycle into stages
- at each stage, the family changes in predictable ways
EX. marriage, childbirth, child leaving home... In each stage, a family goes through developmental tasks in order to proceed
- failure to accomplish tasks, leads to unhappiness, social disapproval, and difficulties mastering later tasks
- explains the factors that affect differences in behaviour made by people