AQA A Level Sociology - Families and Households Flashcards

75 vocabulary flashcards covering the key sociological concepts, research, and theories for AQA A Level Sociology: Families and Households.

Functionalist View of the Family

The theoretical perspective that sees the family as a key social institution maintaining social order, stability, and consensus by performing crucial roles for both individuals and society.

George Murdock (1949)

Functionalist sociologist who studied over 250 societies and argued the nuclear family is universal, performing four essential functions: stable satisfaction of the sex drive, reproduction, socialisation of the young, and economic support.

Functional Fit Theory

Talcott Parsons' (1955) theory that the dominant family structure changes to meet the needs of the society it exists in (e.g., extended families in pre-industrial society vs. nuclear families in industrial society).

Primary Socialisation of Children

One of Parsons' two irreducible functions of the modern nuclear family, involving teaching children society's shared norms and values so they become integrated members of society.

Stabilisation of Adult Personalities

One of Parsons' two irreducible functions of the modern nuclear family, where the family provides emotional support and release from work pressures (also known as the 'warm bath theory').

Ronald Fletcher (1966)

Functionalist thinker who argued that while some family functions are now shared with state institutions, the family still performs essential roles in emotional support, education, and caring for members.

Neo-Conventional Family

Robert Chester's (1985) concept describing a dual-earner nuclear family household where both spouses work, which he argues has replaced the traditional single-earner nuclear family.

Charles Murray (1989)

New Right perspective thinker who argued that welfare dependency created an underclass and that lone-parent families led by single mothers result in poor socialisation, higher crime rates, and educational underachievement.

Conflict Theories

Theoretical approaches such as Marxism and feminism that reject the view that the family is harmonious, arguing instead that it benefits powerful groups and maintains social inequality.

Engels (1884)

Marxist theorist who argued that the monogamous nuclear family developed to control women's sexuality and ensure private property was passed on to rightful male heirs.

Zaretsky (1976)

Marxist sociologist who claimed the family offers an 'illusion of a haven' from capitalism, comforting workers while distracting them from their oppression.

Althusser

Marxist thinker who claimed the family functions as part of the ideological state apparatus by transmitting capitalist values to children.

Pester Power

The process by which children, targeted directly by media and advertising, persuade their parents to buy consumer goods like toys, clothing, or fast food.

Keeping up with the Joneses

The social pressure on families to match the consumer lifestyle and purchasing habits of their peers to maintain social status.

Marxist Feminism

Feminist perspective arguing that women's oppression in the family is caused by capitalism and patriarchy working together, benefiting capitalism through unpaid domestic labour.

Reserve Army of Labour

A pool of workers, such as women, who can be brought into the workforce during economic booms and discarded during recessions.

Fran Ansley (1972)

Marxist feminist who described women as 'the takers of shit' because they absorb the frustration and anger caused by their husbands' capitalist exploitation.

Emotional Labour

Term coined by Arlie Hochschild (1983) to describe the invisible work women do managing the emotional wellbeing and mental health of family members.

Liberal Feminism

Feminist perspective asserting that gender inequality in the family is gradually improving through legal changes, equal rights, and changing social attitudes.

Dual Burden

Ann Oakley's (1974) concept describing the double workload faced by women who carry out paid employment as well as the majority of domestic labour.

Radical Feminism

Feminist perspective viewing the family as a key site of patriarchal control where men benefit from women's unpaid labour, sexual services, and childbearing.

Delphy and Leonard (1992)

Radical feminists who argued that men dominate family structures, benefiting directly from women's labour while giving little back in return.

Social Policy

Laws and government actions that aim to improve or influence the lives of individuals, including policies on education, welfare, housing, employment, and family life.

Donzelot (1977)

Sociologist who studied how state policies are used to monitor, police, and control families rather than support them, reflecting state surveillance.

David Marsland

New Right sociologist who claimed that the welfare state has weakened moral responsibility and encouraged a culture of dependency.

Beveridge Report (1942)

Report leading to the establishment of the UK welfare state in 1945 to tackle 5 'giants': want, ignorance, squalor, disease, and idleness.

Family Planning Act (1967)

UK social policy that provided contraception to all women through the NHS, increasing female reproductive choice and control over birth rates.

Divorce Reform Act (1969)

Legislation that allowed couples in England and Wales to divorce on the grounds of 'irretrievable breakdown' without proving fault.

Equal Pay Act (1970)

UK legislation requiring equal pay for equal work between men and women, helping increase women's career aspirations and financial independence.

Sex Discrimination Act (1975)

Act banning discrimination based on sex or marital status in areas like employment and education.

Section 28 (1988)

Policy that banned the promotion of homosexuality in UK schools, marginalising same-sex couples and the LGBTQ community.

Child Support Agency (CSA) (1993)

Government agency created to enforce maintenance payments from non-resident parents, supporting New Right ideas on parental responsibility.

Sure Start (1998)

Social democratic early intervention program providing healthcare, learning, and parental support in deprived areas across the UK.

Adoption and Children Act (2002)

Legislation that permitted same-sex couples and unmarried individuals in the UK to adopt children.

Civil Partnership Act (2004)

UK legislation granting legal recognition and equal financial/legal rights to same-sex couples.

Equality Act (2010)

Act combining previous UK anti-discrimination laws into a single piece of legislation to protect marginalised groups and families.

Triple Lock Pensions (2010)

Policy guaranteeing state pension increases by the highest of inflation, average wage growth, or 2.5%, protecting elderly households.

Troubled Families Programme (2011)

Targeted government intervention program aimed at families with multiple problems, criticized by some sociologists as state policing of working-class families.

Two-Child Benefit Cap (2017)

Policy limiting child tax credits and Universal Credit to the first two children in a family, impacting low-income and larger families.

Secularisation

The decline in the social significance and power of religion in society, weakening traditional religious views on the permanence and sacredness of marriage.

Individualisation

Ulrich Beck's concept explaining how individuals in modern societies are freed from traditional social roles and expectations to construct their own personal lives.

Transformation of Intimacy

Beck-Gernsheim's concept describing how personal relationships have become fluid, negotiable, and contingent on ongoing mutual satisfaction.

Pure Relationship

Anthony Giddens' concept of a relationship entered into purely for emotional satisfaction and personal fulfillment rather than social obligation or tradition.

Fertility Rate

The average number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime (currently less than 1.6 in the UK, below the replacement level of 2.1).

Birth Rate

The number of live births per 1,000 of the population per year.

Risk Society

Ulrich Beck's (1992) concept arguing that modern individuals face greater uncertainty, making them more cautious and strategic about major life decisions like marriage and children.

Personal Life Perspective

Sociological approach (Carol Smart, 2007) arguing that family life is defined by personal choices, emotional ties, and relationships rather than fixed traditional structures.

Reconstituted Family

Also known as a blended family, a family structure where one or both partners have children from previous relationships (accounting for ~10% of UK families with children).

Chosen Families

Jeffrey Weeks' (1999) concept describing support networks, common in LGBTQ+ communities, formed through personal choice and friendship rather than biological kinship.

Beanpole Families

A family structure with strong intergenerational connections across multiple generations but fewer members in each generation (tall and thin shape).

Living Apart Together (LATs)

Couples in a committed relationship who choose to maintain separate residences (Haskey, 2005 found this applies to ~1 in 10 UK adults).

Rapoport and Rapoport (1982)

Sociologists who identified five distinct types of family diversity: organisational, cultural, social class, life cycle, and cohort diversity.

Organisational Diversity

One of Rapoport and Rapoport's 5 types of family diversity, referring to variations in internal family roles and labor division (e.g., dual-worker vs. joint conjugal roles).

Cultural Diversity

Variations in family structures, roles, and values based on different ethnic, religious, or cultural backgrounds.

Matrifocal Households

Households headed by mothers with support from extended female kin networks, identified by Reynolds (2005) as common among Black Caribbean families.

Connectedness Thesis

Carol Smart's (2007) argument that people are not purely autonomous individuals, but remain embedded in social relationships, obligations, and histories.

Instrumental Role

Talcott Parsons' term for the breadwinner role in a traditional family structure, responsible for financial support and typically fulfilled by men.

Expressive Role

Talcott Parsons' term for the emotional and domestic caregiver role in a family, responsible for nurturing and typically fulfilled by women.

Segregated Conjugal Roles

Elizabeth Bott's (1957) term for traditional family relationships where domestic tasks, leisure activities, and roles are distinctly separate between partners.

Joint Conjugal Roles

Elizabeth Bott's (1957) term for modern family relationships where partners share household tasks, leisure time, and decision-making.

Symmetrical Family

Wilmott and Young's (1973) term describing nuclear families where roles and responsibilities are shared more equally between partners.

Lagged Adaptation

Jonathan Gershuny's (1994) theory that as women's employment increases, men's participation in domestic chores increases at a slower, delayed rate.

Triple Shift

Duncombe and Marsden's (1995) concept describing how women often undertake paid work, domestic work, and emotional work within the household.

Gender Scripts

The socially expected roles, behaviors, and norms prescribed for men and women in family life and wider society.

Social Construction of Childhood

Stephen Wagg's (1992) argument that childhood is not a natural or universal biological stage, but is defined differently across time, cultures, and societies.

Separateness of Childhood

Jane Pilcher's (1995) concept describing modern Western childhood as a distinctly separate stage of life with special legal rights, spaces, and protections.

Centuries of Childhood

Philippe Ariès' (1962) historical study arguing that in medieval Europe, childhood did not exist as a separate phase and children were viewed as 'mini adults'.

Age Patriarchy

Diana Gittins' (1998) concept describing adult power, domination, and control over children's time, space, bodies, and finances.

Disappearance of Childhood

Neil Postman's (1994) thesis that mass media and television expose children to adult information early, eroding the distinctions between adults and children.

Toxic Childhood

Sue Palmer's (2007) concept arguing that modern lifestyle factors like junk food, testing, technology, and lack of play damage children's development.

Boomerang Children / KIPPERS

Terms for young adults who remain financially dependent or return to live in their parents' home into their 20s or 30s ('Kids In Parents' Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings').

Paranoid Parenting

Frank Furedi's (2001) term for parents' obsessive concern over child safety, leading to extreme supervision and a loss of childhood independence.

Infant Mortality Rate

The annual number of deaths of infants under one year of age per 1,000 live births.

Ageing Population

A demographic trend characterized by an increasing proportion of people aged over 65 relative to younger age groups in a country (Hirsch, 2005).

Net Migration

The numerical difference between the number of immigrants entering a country and the number of emigrants leaving it.