As level Aqa Sociology - Family & Households

Family/Household type

What is a Nuclear family?

A family unit consisting of two parents and their children, typically living together. A traditional nuclear family has segregated gender roles.

What is a Extended family?

A family structure that includes 2 or more generations of family members with additions beyond the nuclear family. Horizontal - of the same generation (aunties/uncles & cousins). Vertical - grandparents included.

What is a Beanpole family?

A multi-generational family, but fewer people in each generation due to increased life expectancy. Results in a tall and thin family structure.

What is a Matrifocal family?

A family structure with a female headed household, where the mother is the primary caregiver and financial provider.

What is a Patriarchal family?

A family structure in which the father holds the primary authority and control over family decisions, typically leading to a male-dominated hierarchy.

What is a same sex family?

Families headed by two parents of the same gender, with or without children.

What is a Single/Lone parent family?

Families headed by one adult (often the women).

What is a LAT family?

Living Apart Together are families or couples who do not live together usually due to work reasons.

What is a Cohabiting family?

Couples who live together but are not married.

What is a Empty shell family?

A couple living together but not emotionally committed to one another.

What is a Empty nest family?

A family where the children have left home.

What is a Reconsituted family?

A family formed when one or both partners have children from previous relationships.

What is a Symmetrical family?

A family structure where both partners share conjugal roles and responsibilities in domestic and economic tasks.

What is a Neo Conventional family?

A family structure characterised by the dual earning model, where both partners are working and share responsibilities, diverging from traditional gender roles.

Childhood

What does Pilcher suggest about childhood?

Pilcher suggests that childhood and adulthood are separate due to: Laws - In place regulating what children are and are not allowed to do and controlling their activities. For example, restrictions on alcohol, age of consent and compulsory education until the age of 18. Products and services - Children use different products and services to adults such as clothing, toys, books, TV programmes and food. Lifestyle/activities - Pilcher argues that childhood is a “golden age” of happiness and innocence where most of children’s time is full of leisure. Innocent and vulnerable - There are safeguarding and child protection laws which keep children separate from the dangers of the adult world.

What are Cross cultural differences?

It is argued that children in non industrial societies are treated differently from their modern western counterparts.

What did Punch (2001) find?

Punch conducted research on childhood in Bolivia and found that children as young as five are made to work and expected to take on responsibilities in the home and community, that are usually associated with adulthood, contrasting from the modern western view. This highlights the significant cultural variations in the experience of childhood.

What did Malinowski (1957) find?

Malinowski conducted ethnographic research in the Trobriand Islands and found that children are sexually aware and play a role in their communities much earlier than in Western societies, highlighting differing attitudes toward childhood.

What did Aries (1960) suggest?

Aries conducted historical research on childhood in Europe. He argues that childhood in medieval times did not exist, from the time when children were no longer physically dependent on their parents. In other words they were seen as mini adults. His evidence came from paintings where children were not distinct from adults, wearing the same clothes and took part in the same activities. Aries argues that we have now reached a period called the cult of childhood, that these historical changes, from the 10th to 13th century where childhood did not exist, to the 20th century where childhood is seen as a special time with society changing to become obsessed with it.

Evaluate Aries research?

+ Aries work is useful as evidence that childhood is socially constructed. - Criticised for being subjective as the findings are purely based on his interpretations.

What are the reasons for the emergence of modern childhood?

Laws and policies - Factory Acts from the 1800s removed children from the workplace, which ensured that they weren’t being exploited. Compulsory schooling - Children were seen as a burden, dependent on adults. With the school leaving increasing to 18 in 2014, this separated children from the adult world of work. Children’s rights - Various children’s acts have given children more power, where they now have a say in their own life and can make decisions without being dictated by their parents. Decline in family size - More value and time placed on children as there are less of them. Greater financial and emotional support. Growing interest in child development and health - Children need more supervision and protection.

Has the position of children improved?

Some sociologists argue that the position of children has improved, they take on a March of progress view that sees childhood as increasingly positive. However, Conflict theories suggest that childhood is based on inequalities of power and this negatively impacts on the experience of children.

What does Gittens suggest about childhood?

Gittens suggests that childhood is full of age patriarchy (the ways adults dominate, control and oppress children). Neglect and abuse - Controlling children through food. Control over children’s space - Control over where they go. Control over children’s time - Control when they wake up, have breakfast and go to school. Control over children’s bodies - Piercings, clothes and hairstyles. Control over access to resources - Pocket money.

What does Opie argue about childhood?

Opie argues that childhood is staying separate from adulthood through things like children’s books, nursery rhymes, games and songs.

What does Postman suggest about childhood?

Postman argues childhood is disappearing at a dazzling speed. He suggests that the distinction between childhood and adulthood is becoming blurred due to the rise of media and the availability of information, leading to children being exposed to adult themes and losing their innocence.

What does Palmer suggest about childhood?

Sue Palmer says that we are living in a toxic childhood, where children are exposed to adult content through television like the news showing graphic images. This is damaging the physical, intellectual and emotional development of children.

What does Hockley and James (1933) suggest about childhood?

Their concept Resistance of status proposes that children try to resist the status of childhood by rebelling through smoking, drinking alcohol and wearing designer clothes.

What does Smart suggest about childhood?

Smart argues that we need to look at how children help shape family life and their relationships within it, emphasising their active role during times of divorce.

What social policies have changed childhood?

1833 and 1867 Factories Act limited working hours to 48 hours a week to ensure children under 13 receive 2 hours of schooling a day; the Education Act of 1944 made education compulsory for children up to age 15, improving access to education and reducing child labour.

Theories of the family

What is the Functionalist view of the family?

Functionalists see the family as an important institution as they see it as a ‘building block’ of society which performs the crucial functions of socialising the young and meeting the emotional needs of its members.

What does George Peter Murdock suggest about the family?

Murdock sees the nuclear as the basic unit around which all family systems are organised. The family is universal as neither the individual nor society could survive without it. Sexual - Sexual relations between spouses allows for a closer bond, leading to the stability of the family structure. Economic - A family provides all its members with the necessities e.g food and shelter. Educational - A family helps to transmit the norms and values to their children (Primary socialisation). Reproduction - A family ensures the reproduction of humans which allows for continuation of society.

What does Talcott Parsons suggest about the family?

Parsons believe that the family serves 2 functions: primary socialisation of children where individuals internalise norms and values and the stabilisation of adult personalities (SOAP) which provides security and support from wider society, preventing stress overwhelming the individual and threaten stability of society.

What are Parsons Biologically determined roles?

Parsons argues that gender roles in the family are based on biological differences. Instrumental role - Played by the man who offers leadership and discipline. Expressive role - Played by the woman who is nurturing and caring.

What is Functional Differentiation?

Parsons suggests the family is losing functions to the state as industrial societies have become increasingly specialised with the need for institutions to carry out specific functions for example children are now educated in schools, not family.

How is the family a Warm bath?

Parsons argues that the family is a warm bath, as it helps relieve stress from work and provides a warm and stable environment.

What does Ronald Fletcher suggest about the family?

With the growth of the welfare state the family is gaining functions. Education - Parents are expected to support their child’s school experience through attending parents evening, helping with homework and paying for school trips. Health - Parents are expected to ensure their children have regular health check-ups and are engaged in healthy lifestyles. Economic - The family may not work together but they have economic responsibilities to provide for the family unit's needs and ensure financial stability.

What are the strengths of the Functionalist view of the family?

+ Promotes stability. + Shows the importance of primary socialisation. + Explains societal problems via the breakup of the nuclear family.

What are the weaknesses of the Functionalist view of the family?

- Parsons view of the family roles of husband and wife is outdated. - They ignore dysfunctional aspects of family ( e.g conflict and domestic abuse). - Ignores other family types.