Sociology of Familes 2651 - Final Exam Review

Sociology

A social science involving the study of the social lives of people, groups, and societies.

Social Institutions

Stable, long-lasting patterns of social organizations (beliefs, roles, norms, relationships)

Sociological Imagination

Vivd awareness of the relationship between personal experience and wider society

Private troubles (Sociological Imagination)

Tendency to see human behavior in terms of individual characteristics, abilities, choices, and preferences

Public Issues (Sociological Imagination)

Focus on larger processes of social, economic, and political change

Exclusionist Mindset

Marriage if fundamental in defining family

Moderate Mindset

Children are fundamental in defining family

Inclusionist Mindset

Relationship quality (Romance) is fundamental in defining family

Social Construct

Social mechanism, phenomenon or category created and developed by society; Perception of an individual group or idea that is constructed through cultural or social practice

How to tell if it is a Social Construct

Definition changed over time and across cultures

Theory

Statement of how and why specific facts are related

Theoretical Perspective

Basic image of society that guides thinking and research - perspective sociologist bring to their research and how it exerts influence over it

Theoretical Perspectives:

Structural Functionalism, Symbolic Interaction, Conflict Theory, Feminist Theory, Exchange Theory, Modernity

Structural Functionalism

Society as a complex system of interconnected parts. Each part fulfills different needs or functions of the social system.

Symbolic Interaction

People create perceptions of each other and social settings, transmitting and receiving symbolic communication when they socially interact

Conflict Theory

Opposition and conflict define a given society and are necessary for social evolution

Feminist Theory

Gender inequality between men and women

Exchange Theory

individuals or groups with different resources, strengths, and weaknesses enter into mutual relationships to maximize their own gains

Modernity

The idea that people have a choice in what type of family they want.

Families are diverse.

Ideal Types

Formed by characteristics and elements of a given phenomenon (institution) but not meant to correspond to all characteristics of any one particular case

An ideal type of theoretical perspective is…

Consensus Theory

Quantitative Research Methods

Sample surveys, longitudinal surveys, Survey experiments

Qualitative Research Methods

In-depth Interview, Observation/field experiments

Egalitarian

The idea of becoming more equal

Thorton and Young-Demarco

Examined trends in family attitudes and values through longitudinal data. Found that sex roles were becoming increasingly more egalitarian.

Sample Survey

Asking the same questions to a population of people

Experimental Survey

Involves changing some aspect of the survey experiment for some respondents

Longitudinal Survey

Interview the same people over a period of time

Essential for tracking sequence of events

Ethography

Direct observation and interaction with subjects of the research

Time Use Studies

Collect detailed data on how family members spend their time

Time estimates more accurate

In-depth Interview

Asking open-ended questions for more emotional and detailed response

Content Analysis

Study of recorded human connections

Repilcation

Conducting research multiple times with multiple samples to come to a synonymous conclusion

Triangulation

Using 2+ methods in a study in order to check/confim the results

2 major errors in making casual inferences

Not possible to determine casual connections from imperial data

Intervention designs are not stable enough to provide factual reason for intervention

Problems with casual connections

Causality always implies a direction of effects - the cause

Longitudinal studies don’t solve the issue because they could still continue

Social trend data cannot determine case because correlation ≠ causation

Correlations can result from a 3rd variable that produces the association between them

Reasoning backwards about causality produces backward thinking

Methodology

Ethnographers collect data through ongoing interactions and observations, fostering trust and allowing participants to share sensitive info freely

What does Cherline argue in “One Thousand and Forty-Nine Reasons Why it’s Hard to Know When a Fact is a Fact”

U.S. welfare system is deeply flawed because it provides piecemeal, inconsistent support through programs and services instead of offering clear, equitable, and stable assistance.

Wedding Industrial Complex

Conjunction of an immense culture of consumption, social expectations and a large professional wedding industry

Theories of love and loving

Biological

Psychological

Sociological

Combonation

Biological Theories

Love grounded in evolution, biology and neurochemistry

3 stages of Biological Love (Biological Theories)

Lust, Attraction, Attachment

Psychological Theories

Attachment Theory

Secure Attachment

Anxious Attachment

Avoidant Attachment

Attachment Theory

Primary motivation is to be connected with other people

Depending on the parent behavior that develops this style

Secure Attachment Theory

Warmth and love come naturally

Stable self-esteen

Open about feeling and responsive/understanding of partners needs/feeling

Anxious Attachment Theory

Want to be close and intimate/vulnerable

Risk their own needs for their partners

Take things personally with negative twist and plays mind games to get attention

Avoidant Attachment

More independent and less vulnerable

Once committed, creates distance and focuses on relationship flaws

Where do Attachment Styles come from

Primary caregivers and significant events

Homogamy

Dating/marrying someone with similar traits

Heterogamy

Dating/marrying someone with different traits (often what they lack)

Assortative Mating

Non-random mating pattern in which individual with similar characteristics mate one another more frequently than it would be expected under random mating

Matching Hypothesis

Someone on the same level - similar to you

Competition Hypothesis

Someone on a higher level (what you lack)

Positive Assortative Mating

Like will marry like when traits are complements

Negative Assortative Mating

Traits are substitutes - gain to specialization

Combination Theory

Love happens at all 3 levels and they all interact and influence each other

Bridge Study

Hypothesis: Heightened anxiety causes people to feel they have romantic feelings for someone

Men on the “dangerous” vs “safe” bridge to see who would do the survey and reach out to her

Result: Men on “dangerous” bridge called more and more romantic replies to the survey

Marriage decline due to…

Changing attitudes

Childbearing outside of marriage

Changing division of labor; women are self-supporting

Growth in cohabitation

Andrew Cherlin Video

Marriage/Weddings have symbolic value

Weddings have become

Deinstitutionalized; support other ways of family life

Price Discrimination (Wedding institution)

Couples are charged more for services just because the event is a wedding

Little Price transparency

Won’t disclose prices right away. Must give personal info first to determine how much you can spend

Price Obfuscation

Price per guest in the form of “[price] plus plus” with one “plus” referring to taxes, service, or administration fee

Consumers are Uniformed

Most are “1st time shoppers”

Less informed about fair price because they don’t have experience

Consumers Sentimentality

Couples urged not to cheap out on the most important day of their lives

Strong Consumer Preferences

How you’ve imagined your wedding to be and so you spend more money to make it happen

Gottman and Levenson (1986)

Masters vs Disasters

Experiment to find out how to keep relationships happy by talking to newlyweds and then 6 years after to see if they are still married and happy

4 Habits of Masters & Disasters

Scanning

Practice Kindness

Turning Towards vs Turning Away

Bids for Connection

What is the best way to share joy?

Active Constructive

Types of Cohabitation

Here and Now/Money Savers

Testers

Engaged/Pre-engaged

Pesions Partners

Marriage Never/Cohabitant forever

Here and Now/Money Savers

Partners focused on the specific moment of the relationship not of the future - main reason is for economic convenience

Testers

Cohabit because they want to see if they have a future together

Pension Partners

Been married before and are older - part of money savers

Marriage Never/Cohabitants Forever

Don’t feel the need for legal binding document. The love they share is enough

Why do people resist marriage?

The definition

Concern for sexist, religious, governmental control, and dislike of ceremony

Percieved relationship changes

Shamster

Disproving the argument that marriage makes a person happier through a fake drug experiment that showed that the No-Drug intolerable and Withdrawn group still took the drug, meaning the drug did not make these people happier.

SNAF

Benchmark for the “Normal” family

First marriage nuclear families, roles are

Ascribed

Remarried/blended families, roles are

Voluntary

Role Ambiguity

Unclear expectations for step roles

Boundary Ambiguity

Uncertainty about who is in or out of family system

Mediating Roles

Work of managing relationships between other people, especially when there’s potential conflict, miscommunication, or emotional tension

Gendered Labor

Women disproportionately perform this kind of work over men

Invisible

Rarely recognized as “Work'“ but crucial to household stability

Power

Those who mediate often have less formal (legal/economic) authority

How are singles legally targeted

Federal benefits directly tied to marriage (FMLA, SS)

Employer-sponsored health care plans

Pay, even controlling for performance and seniority

Housing discrimination experiments

Evidence for Sexuality being innate

Inc*st Taboo

Heteros*xuality as the norm

Some share same-s*x attraction

Men more likely to see women in sexual terms than vice versa

Components of Sexuality

Attraction

Behavior

Identity

Mize and Manago

Vignettes about whether men or women participants believed that example characters were LGBTQ due to one Homos*xual experience.

Found that women believed they were mostly like hetero and experimenting

Men believed they were most likely homos*xual

Formal Rights

Legal rights - partnership benefits conferred on married couples

Informal Privileges

Interactional and often subtle advantages that dominant group enjoy over minority groups

Masterpiece Cake Shop Ltd. VS Colorado Civil Rights Commission

Gay couple wanted to buy a cake from a shop but owner refused saying it was against their religion to make it.

State sided with the couple on basis of discrimination. Later overturned by supreme court on the basis of religious freedom for the cakeshop

Powell, Schnabel, and Apgar

Vignette experiment manipulating type of business, and minority and reason for refusal of service.

Results: Most people chose Interacial/S*xuality, Self-employed/corporation, Religious/non-religious

Polyamory

Having more than one partner in a relationship

Polyandry

One woman and 2 or more men in a relationship

Polygyny

One man and 2 or more women in a relationship

What primarily dictates the ultimate decision in polyamory vs monogamy

Culture

Medical Paternalism

Medical provider represents patient and influence/make medical decisions for them

How do People Have Kids?

Hetero S*x

Adoption

Foster Care

Assisted Reproductive Tech (ART)

Why is it more difficult for LGBTQ+ couples to adopt kids

Faith-based agencies, fewer birth parents choose to place children with SS couples, few countries allow for international adoptions by LGBT couples