HDFS 120: Final Exam

Sociological Imagination (C. Wright Mills)

ability to understand how individuals' experiences are connected to larger, societal forces

fictive kin

non-relatives who are accepted as part of the family because they have strong bonds with biological family members, provide important services and care

In history, which racial group had more fictive kin in their families?

Africans --> Chattel Slavery

Cult of Domesticity

idealized view of women & home; women, selfless caregiver for children, refuge for husbands

In which family was the Cult of Domesticity more prominent?

American Families: glorified women's domestic roles

- increased during the Golden 1950s

Race/Racial Group

SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED - a SOCIETAL invention that labels people based on physical appearance

Ethnicity/Ethnic Group

people who identify with a particular origin or cultural heritage (language, geographic roots, customs, food, traditions, and religion)

Racism

a set of beliefs that one's own racial group is inherently superior to others

Individual discrimination

one-to-one basis by a member of a dominant group against a member of a minority group

institutional discrimination (systemic discrimination/structural discrimination)

minority group members experience unequal treatment and opportunities as a result of the everyday operations of a society's laws, rules, policies, practices, and customs

Theory

a set of statements that explains WHY a phenomenon occurs

Qualitative Research Methods

information in narrative form

Quantitative Research Methods

information in numerical form

Sex

assigned at birth

- biological and physiological aspects of a person

- chromosomal, anatomical, hormonal, and other physical and physiologic attributes

Gender

the SOCIALLY learned behaviors, attitudes, and expectations associated with being masculine/feminine

Intersex

situation in which a person's reproductive anatomy (chromosome patterns, gonads, genitals) does NOT appear to fit the sex categories of male OR female

Transgender

Gender identity that is DIFFERENT from their assigned sex

Gender Role

sociocultural expectations about gender attitudes and behaviors

- LEARNED -- not innate

Gender role stereotypes

OVER-generalized beliefs and expectations about how people will look, act, think, and feel BASED on their sex

- female characteristics: weakness

- male characteristics: strength

- have negative consequences

Differences between traditional and current definitions of family

TRADITIONAL

- nuclear family

- men and women marriage

- biological kinship (children)

• economic unit

- traditional gender roles

CONTEMPORARY

- blended families; single parent families; adoption/foster care

- emotional bonds, commitment and shared history members (DOES NOT have to be blood-related)

- diverse partnership (same-sex)

- chosen families (platonic friends)

- flexible and egalitarian family roles

5 Myths Characterizing Families

1. Myth about what is natural

2. Myth of the Family as a Loving Refuge

3. Myth about the Past

4. Myth about the Self-Sufficient Family

5. Myth about the Perfect Marriage

Myths Characterizing Families: Myth about WHAT IS NATURAL

marriage, heterosexuality, having children

REALITY: what is deemeed "unatural" in families has been presented in families for a long time

Myths Characterizing Families: Myth of the Family as a Loving Refuge

common beliefs: families provide love, nurturance, and emotional support

REALITY:

- parents experience stress while balancing work and family responsibilities

- many children suffer abuse by family members (IPV - intimate partner violence)

Myths Characterizing Families: Myth about the Past

Few problems, happy people, strong family ties: TVs showed what a "perfect" family looked like

REALITY: Many social "flaws" that are attributed to the breakdown of the family have been part of American social life since Colonial Times

Myths Characterizing Families: Myth about the Self-Sufficient Family

Assumed that families were held together by hard work, family loyalty, and a fierce determination not to be grateful to anyone (esp. the state - charity)

REALITY: the U.S. has always depended to some degree on several social institutions and groups including: churches, neighbors, courts, government, tax cuts for wealthy, enslaved AA, NA

Myths Characterizing Families: Myth about the Perfect Marriage

expectations of perfect couples

REALITY:

- two-family myth: one we live with (the way families REALLY are) and one we live by (the way we would LIKE families to be)

- a family one is born in or marries into seldom satisfies most people's need for a sense of continuity, belonging, unity, and rootedness

- unmet expectations can create dissolutions

Families in Historical Perspective: Characteristics of families of the 19th century

- Patriarchal structure

- the nuclear family ideal

- traditional gender roles

Families in Historical Perspective: Family characterization in the GOLDEN 1950s

- nuclear family

- traditional gender roles

Families in Historical Perspective: Family characterization in the TRANSFORMATIVE 1960s (5)

1. decline in nuclear family

2. decrease in family size

3. women in the workforce

4. gave children more freedom

5. challenged social norms

What practices and policies have contributed to the existing racial and ethnic diversity among families in America? (4)

1. Immigration Policies

2. Labor and Economic Practices (EX: Enslaved Africans - forced migration)

3. Civil Rights and Anti-Discrimination Policies (Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Fair Housing Act)

4. Interracial Marriage Laws and Social Change: Loving v. Virginia legalized interracial marriage nationwide

How did the GOLDEN 1950s impact families?

post-WWII: produced baby boomers

- CENTRAL: family

- traditional families

- black and other racial/ethnic families: Discrimination

How did the TRANSFORMATIVE 1960s impact families? (2)

- challenging traditional gender roles

- emphasized individualized marriage and family life (individualism)

KEY family theories (6)

1. Structural Functionalism

2. Conflict Theory

3. Symbolic Interactionism

4. Social Exchange Theory

5. Family Development Perspective

6. Feminist Theory

Family Theories: Structural Functionalism

Family = system of interrelated parts of KEY functions

- members serve a key function in the family

Instrumental role

Husband/Father: "breadwinner" - providing food and shelter for the family and being hard-working, tough and competitive

Expressive Role

Wife/Mother: providing the emotional support and nurturing that sustain the family unit

Family Theories: Conflict Theory

Conflict: NATURAL part of human interaction, including families

- POWER basis of relationships

- competition for limited resources

- traditional roles = gender inequality

Family Theories: Feminist Theory

Diverse views about society and families centering the inequality between men and women

- CENTRAL focus: GENDER

Family Theories: Social Exchange Theory

Family member rationally make choices and act on what they perceive as most ADVANTAGEOUS

- costs, benefits

Family Theories: Family Development Perspective

Each family changes over time -- goes through stages

Family Theories: Symbolic Interactionism (MICRO)

Focuses on the micro-level; how shared symbols, language, and daily interactions create family roles and meanings (e.g., "mother," "breadwinner")

Strengths: Agency, social process, family complexities

Limitations: ignores MACRO-level social forces (societal forces: gender

Difference between Gender Identity and Gender Expression

Gender Identity: Internal sense of gender along the spectrum (man, woman, both, neither, nonbinary, fluid, queer)

Gender Expression: how one communicates their gender to others - DOES NOT always match up with the assumption that there two biological sex categories

(EX: behavior, clothing, hairstyles)

How do we learn gender roles?

Gender Role Socialization: FAMILY is the PRIMARY agent

OTHER AGENTS: parents, peers, mass media, computer/video games, religion, teachers/schools, chores, language, organized sports, toys, dress

True or false: Gender Role Socialization is BI-Directional

TRUE - parents and children can both influence each other on gender roles

Self-Love

Love for oneself

Why is having self-love important?

- for our social and emotional development

• prerequistie for loving others

- an important basis for self-esteem

For cohabitation, what is KEY for deciding?

Mutual Commitment

Cohabitation: Why is Mutual Commitment important?

Cohabitation Effect: MORE PROMINENT for those who do NOT have mutual clarity about their relationship future than for those who are strongly committed to marriage at the time they start living together

Sexual Arousal

LUST: PHYSIOLOGICAL rather than an emotional response (consciously OR unconsciously)

Sexual Desire

PSYCHOLOGICAL state in which a person wants to obtain a sexual object that one does not now have or to engage in a sexual activity in whcih one is not now engaging

- DOES NOT HAVE TO LEAD TO sexual intercourse

What are the PUSH factors to marry? (3)

1. Pressure from parents

2. Cultural expectations

3. Loneliness

What are the PUSH factors to NOT marry? (3)

1. View Relationships as suffocating

2. Obstacles to self-development

3. high divorce rates

What are the PULL factors to marry? (5)

1. Parental Approval

2. Marriages of Friends

3. Physical Attraction

4. Emotional Attachment

5. Desire to have children

What are the PULL factors to NOT marry? (4)

1. Career Opportunities

2. Sense of Self-sufficiency

3. Freedom, psychological and social autonomy

4. Role models, positive images

What are the different types of SINGLES? (4)

1. Voluntary Temporary

2. Voluntary Stable

3. Involuntary Temporary

4. Involuntary Stable

Types of Singles: Voluntary Temporary

- currently unmarried and are NOT seeking mates

- education, career, an active social life, or self-development

- open to the possibility

- includes men and women who live TOGETHER but AREN'T married

Types of Singles: Voluntary Stable

- CHOOSING to remain single (even after divorce/widow) and see themselves doing so on a PERMANENT basis

- religious beliefs that forbid marriage - priests and nuns

Types of Singles: Involuntary Temporary

- like to marry and are ACTIVELY seeking a mate

(includes widowed/divorced people + single parents who'd like to get married)

Types of Singles: Involuntary Stable

- desire marriage but have NOT YET found a mate

- have accepted the probability of remaining single for life

- includes older divorced, widowed, and never-married

Cohabitation Effect

PREMARITAL Cohabitation: associated with GREATER risk for problems in marriage

- harder to end a cohabiting relationship than a non-cohabiting dating relationship

- puts relationships on the trajectory toward marriage EVEN IF it is not fulfilling

- make it harder to break up if cohabitation is used as a test-run for marriage

Marital Stability

Whether a marriage is INTACT or NOT

Marital Satisfaction

Whether each partner sees the marriage as good, and includes BOTH positive and negative characteristics

Common Pre-Wedding Rituals

1. Engagement

2. Premarriage Festivals

3. Prenupital Agreements + Premarital Programs

4. The Wedding

Common Pre-Wedding Rituals: Engagement

TRADITIONALLY: formalizes a couple's decision to marry

Marriage and Health: Selection Effect Theory

ONE reason married people are HAPPIER

- healthy people: attracted to others who are like themselves + tend to be happier and more sociable before marriage and don't depend on marriage to make them happy

SIMILAR characteristics INCREASE desirability as marriage partners

Marriage and Health: Protection Effect Theory

Receiving emotional, physical, and financial support from a spouse improves one's general health and longevity

- reduces anxiety, preventing or lessening depression, and increasing psychological well-being

Conflict

Discrete, isolated disagreements as well as chronic relationship problems

Romantic Love

Associated with COMMON beliefs

- love at first sight

- fate

- destiny

- can FIZZLE as passion evaporates

Factors that ignite romantic love

similar social class, physical attractiveness, and need for intimacy

Long-Term Love

demanding, altruistic gestures = LESS TANGIBLE AND MATERIALISTIC

- grows and develops

KEY differences between romantic love and long-term love

Romantic Love: SELF-Centered

- fantasies and obsessions

- gestures: flowers and other gifts (OUTWARD expression)

- can diminish

Long-Term Love = ALTRUSITIC (selfless)

- putting partner before oneself and making them feel cherished

- gestures: less tangible and materialistic

- grows and develops

Characteristics of Contemporary Dating Patterns + Rules

- hanging out

- getting together

- hooking up

• less based on traditional roles: women and men intiate

• fewer committed relationships

• Marriage: NOT the ultimate goal

Why do couples break up?

MICRO (individual) reasons: EX - lack of trust, support

MACRO (structural) reasons: EX - dating norms (unfulfilled expectations)

How was Singlehood viewed in EARLY America (2)

1. Stigmatized

- defective, incomplete

- sinful, unnatural

-old maid; spinster

2. Non-Normative

- religious beliefs

- practical reasons

Cohabitation: Sliding Vs. Deciding

SLIDING: sliding through relationship transitions

- commitment JUST happened (NOT intentional abt it)

- one thing led to anotther

DECIDING:

- INTENTIONAL relationship decisions

- clarifies commitment and intention of the relationships

- protective

What are the TOP topics couples FIGHT about? (5)

1. Money

2. Housework

3. Fidelity and Sex

4. Children

5. Social Media

What are the conflict resolution strategies? (4)

1. Accommodation

2. Compromise

3. Standoff

4. Withdrawal

Conflict Resolution on Strategies: Accommodation

One person submits to another

Conflict Resolution on Strategies: Compromise

Partners find a middle ground between their opposing positions

Conflict Resolution on Strategies: Standoff

The disputants DROP the arguments WITHOUT RESOLVING

- agree to disagree and move on

Conflict Resolution on Strategies: Withdrawal

Refusal to continue the argument, either by clamming up or leaving the room

- AVOIDS RESOLUTION

What are the EFFECTIVE ways of handling conflict? (3)

1. Confront problems head-on eventually

2. negotiate

3. Compromise

Postpartum Depression (PPD)

A serious illness that occurs up to a year after childbirth and requires medical treatment

- feel sadness, anxious, hopeless ,and worthless, and have trouble caring for the baby

Fertility: Defintion + Pattern

Actual number of live births in a population

Patterns may VARY across racial, ethnic, and class lines

How is the fertility rate changing + Factors (5)?

Fertility rate is DECLINING

- slowing of the economy

- birth control pills

- legalization of abortion

- increase in women's labor force participation

- increase in age at marriage

Infertility

inability to conceive a child after 12 months of unprotected intercourse OR the ability to carry a pregnancy to a live birth

Causes of Infertility: Women (3)

Ovaluation problems, blockage of fallopian tubes, hormone imbalances

Causes of Infertility: Men (2)

low sperm productivity, low sperm activity

Options for Infertility: Examples of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART)? (4)

1. Artificial Insemination (AI)

2. In-Vitro Fertilization

3. Embryo Transplant

4. Surrogacy

Work-Family Connection: Positive Spillover

carryover of satisfaction and stimulation at work to a sense of satisfaction at home

Work-Family Connection: Negative Spillover

bringing home work problems and stresses + limiting full participation in family life

Working Poor

people who spend at least 27 weeks in the labor force but whose wages fall below the official poverty level

Poverty threshold

Official Poverty Measure (OPM): poverty threshold - minimum income level that the federal government considers necessary for basic subsistence

(DOES NOT VARY BY STATE)

Occupational Distribution

Location of workers in different occupations

EX: teachers, engineers, firefighters

How does the occupational distribution affect men and women in the workforce?

Women: "feminized" sectors like teaching and healthcare - lower pay + glass ceiling

Men: concentrated in fields like manual labor, management, and transportation (historically higher pay + glass escalator)

Occupational Sex Segregation

Channeling women and men into different types of jobs

Glass Ceiling

Attitudinal and organizational workplace obstacles that prevent women from advocating for leadership positions

Glass Escalator

Men who enter female-dominated occupations receive higher wages and faster promotions

What do Glass Ceiling and Glass Escalator refer to?

Phenomena that allow men to advance in the workplace more than women do

Alzheimer's Disease

- progressive, degenerative disorder that attacks the brain and impairs memory, thinking, and behavior

- 5th leading cause of death among ages 65+

- linked to genes that cause a dense deposit of proteins and debris called plaques, called tangles that kill the brain's nerve cells