Principles of Sociology

Sociology 1 0 1
College of Southern
Nevada
Flora R. Woratschek

NOTE: This PowerPoint

Presentation contains informatio
from both the textbook and from
Chapter 10: the Instructor.

The Family
 Family, Marriage, and
Intimate Relationships

• The family is a universal social institution that is central to

social life.
• The family is defined as a group of people who are related by
descent, marriage, or adoption.
 Family, Marriage, and
Intimate Relationships

• Sociologists are interested in

– The relationship between family and marriage
– The forms that families take
– How families are formed and maintained
– How they expand, contract, and dissolve

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 Basic Concepts
• Marriage: the socially acknowledged, approved, and (often)
legal union of two people.
• Marriage takes many shapes
– Monogamy involves a family with one wife and one
husband.
– Polygamy involves multiple spouses.
– Polygyny involves multiple wives.
– Polyandry involves multiple husbands.
– Cenogamy involves group marriage.
• Mate Selection – norms govern choice of partners.
– Endogamy involves marrying a person with similar
social characteristics.
– Exogamy involves marrying someone with different
social characteristics.
 Family, Marriage, and
Intimate Relationships
• Intimate relationships involve partners who have a
close, personal, and domestic relationship.
• Love
– Passionate love tends to involve idealization of the
one who is loved.
– Companionate love develops more gradually and is
tied less to sexual attraction and more to rational
assessments of the one who is loved.

© 2017, SAGE Publications, Inc.

• Institutional marriage refers to the preservation of
marriage as a social institution. Traditional form.
• Companionate marriage operates within the nuclear
family and involves a clear division of labor between
husband and wife, where the man is the breadwinner.
• Individualized marriage focuses on individual satisfaction,
outside of traditional forms of marriage. The relationship
is more flexible. Preferred form in postindustrial cultures.
• Arranged Marriages – historically common, still prevalent
• Romantic Marriages – modern western preference
 Three-Stage Courtship Process

• Stimulus—we meet someone to whom we

are attracted

• Value comparison—we find a person

compatible if they affirm our own beliefs and
values

• Roles and needs—the couple explores the

roles of companion, parent, housekeeper,
and lover and find common needs,
interests, and favored activities
 Broad Changes in
Marriage and the Family
• There has been a significant and consistent decline in
marriage and nuclear families.
– There has been a significant and consistent decline in
the nuclear family (in 1970, 70.6% of households were
married; in 2012, 48.7%).
– In 2012, 23% of men and 17% of women in the U.S.
aged 25 and older had never been married, compared
to 10% of men and 8% of women in 1960.
– Only 1/5th of all households represent a nuclear
family, consisting of two adults and one or more
children.
© 2017, SAGE Publications, Inc.
 Perspectives on the
Decline of Marriage
• Andrew Cherlin: the deinstitutionalization of American
marriage – social norms relating to marriage have weakened.
– Women entering the work force.
• Less economic dependence.
– Norms associated with having children within the context of
marriage is eroding.
– High divorce rates.
• Divorce became legally easy and less expensive to get
• No-Fault Divorce Laws
– Increased cohabitation.
– Growth in same-sex marriage.
 Perspectives on the
Decline of Marriage
Marriage as a carousel: Some of those intimate partners are
to be found in marriages, but those marriages are more
likely to end; people are likely to remarry, perhaps more than
once.
• Anthony Gidden’s view on the new individualized forms of
marriage and relationships is “self-disclosing intimacy.”
– Pure relationship is one that is entered into for its own
sake.
 Marriage and Well-Being
• According to contemporary research:
– Married people are happier than unmarried people
– Married people score better on meas ures of psychological
well-being, are physically healthier, h ave better s ex lives,
and have lower death rates
– Marriage helps keep m e n from committing crime
• Marriage h a s these benefits for several reasons:
– The emotional and practical support sp o u se s give each other
– Their greater financial resources compared to those of
unmarried people
– The sense of obligation that s p o u s e s have toward each other
 Marriage and Well-Being
• It would be more accurate to say that good marriages
are beneficial, because bad marriages certainly are not
• Marriage benefits seem greater for:
– Older adults than for younger adults
– Whites than for African Americans
– Individuals who were psychologically depressed
before marriage than for those who were not
• Psychologically happy and healthy people m a y be the
ones who get married in the first place and are less apt
to get divorced
 Nonfamily Households
• Nonfamily households are those in which a person
lives either alone or with nonrelatives.
• 1970: 1 3 % of all households.
• 2012: 2 7 % of all households.
– Increasing affluence.
– The growth of individualism.
– Rising status of women.
– Social connection through communications
technology.
– M a s s urbanization.
– A n aging population.
© 2017, SAGE Publications, Inc.
 Nonfamily Households

• Those in which a
person lives either
alone or with
nonrelatives

Ritzer, Essentials of Sociology 3e

14
SAGE Publishing, 2018
 Family Forms
• O ne - p a re n t fami ly - Nuclear family that dissolves
upon divorce/ separation or the death of one of the
parents
• E x t e n d e d fa m ilies - nuclear family plus
grandparents, cousins and other relatives living in the
s am e household or nearby
• Nuclea r f a m i l ies - husband, wife and their
immediate children
• B l e n d e d Family – husband, wife and their children
from current and previous marriages.
• Seri a l Fa th erh ood
 Forms of Families

• Cohabitation
– Couples sharing a home and a bed without being
legally married.
• Single-parent families
– The U.S. has the highest rate (29.5% of all
households with children), while Japan has the
lowest rate (4.9%).

© 2017, SAGE Publications, Inc.

 Forms of Families

• Nonresident parents and the masculinization of

responsibility.
• Stepfamilies involve two adults who are married or
cohabiting, and at least one of them has a child from a
previous marriage living with them.
• A blended family includes some combination of
children from the partners’ previous marriage or
relationship along with one or more children of the
currently married or cohabiting couple.

© 2017, SAGE Publications, Inc.

 Forms of Families
• Lesbian and Gay Families
– Gay and lesbian couples tend to be more reflexive and
democratic in their family decisions and practices than
straight couples.
– The Netherlands was the first country to extend
marriage rights to same-sex partners (in 2000).
– Vermont was the first state in the U.S. to legalize same-
sex marriages.
– With the Supreme Court ruling of June 26, 2015, same-
sex marriage is legal throughout the U.S.
© 2017, SAGE Publications, Inc.
Theory Snapshot
 Who Does the Housework?

• The second shift—refers to the housework and

child care that employed women do after their
first-shift job
– Women put in an average of 40 more hours per
month than their spouses in housework and
childcare related tasks, hence the term “second
shift”.
• 83% of women and 66% of men spend some time
doing housework
• U.S. women spend on average 12 hours a week
on child care, men spend about 6 hours
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25
 Family Descent Patterns

– Bilateral descent: Considering ourselves related

to people on both parents’ sides of the family,
and parents pass along their wealth to their
children

– Patrilineal: Inheritance through the male line

– Matrilineal: Inheritance through the female line

 Family Residential Patterns
– Neolocal Residencial Pattern: Newly married couples establish
a new residence away from both sets of parents.

– Patrilocal Residence Pattern : Newly married couples establish

residence with the groom’s family of origin.

– Matrilocal Residence Pattern: Newly married couples establish

residence with the bride’s family of origin.

– Avunculocal Residence Pattern and other variations also exist.

– Residence patterns are often aligned with descent patterns:

• Example: Patrilineal descent often pairs with patrilocal
residence pattern.
 Problems in the Family: Conflict

• Conflict often resonates within the family, typically in

the form of divorce, violence, and oppression.
 Domestic Violence

• Physical, sexual, emotional, psychological

– A major cause of homelessness
– Women five times more likely than men to suffer at
hands of an abuser
– 10% of elderly respondents in national survey
reported some type of abuse

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 Problems in the Family:
Abuse and Violence
• Violence within the family can be either emotional or physical.
• Child abuse
– Can be in the form of physical and/or emotional abuse,
sexual abuse, and neglect.
– The most common forms are hitting a child with an object,
kicking, biting, or hitting a child with fists.
– There is often a cycle of violence and abuse toward
children that stretches across several generations.
– There are heavy social costs associated with child abuse,
including the costs of providing social services and health
care, including incarceration and treatment.
© 2017, SAGE Publications, Inc.
 Problems in the Family:
Abuse and Violence
• Domestic or Intimate Parner Violence
– Involves exerting power over an intimate partner through intimidation,
harassment, and/or physical violence.
– Several generalizations can be made about domestic violence.
• Women are five times more likely to suffer at the hands of an abuser.
• Women are six times more likely to be assaulted by intimates.
• Poor females aged between 16 and 24 are the most likely victims.
• Domestic violence is a major cause of homelessness.
• One-third of all female homicide victims were killed by intimate
partners.
– Elder abuse is a form of domestic violence.
• In a large national study, about 10% of elderly respondents reported
some type of abuse.
© 2017, SAGE Publications, Inc.
 Children a n d P ar en t al Discipline
• Four major styles of parental discipline
– Authoritative - Parents set clear rules for their children’s
behavior but also let their kids exercise independent
judgment
– Authoritarian - Parents set firm but overly restrictive
rules for their children’s behavior and are generally not
very warm toward them
– Lax or permissive – Parents set few rules for their
children’s behavior and don’t discipline them when they
misbehave
– Uninvolved – Parents provide their children little
emotional support and fail to set rules for their behavior
 Children a n d P ar en t al
Discipline
• Types of Discipline: Authoritative, Permissive and
Authoritative
– All 3 m a y types exist in the content of EITHER parent
warmth/regard O R coldness/neglect. Worse outcomes for
children of permissive/neglectful parents.
• Authoritative discipline* is better than authoritarian
discipline
– It avoids spanking in favor of “reasoning” types of discipline
and punishment
• Spanking teaches children:
– That they should behave to avoid being punished
– That it is acceptable to hit someone to solve an interpersonal
dispute
• Children who are spanked m a y resent their paren1t1s-3
 Percentage Agreeing That “It Is Sometimes
Necessary to Discipline a Child With a Good, Hard
Spanking”
 Divorce

• Divorce
– The U.S. has the highest divorce rate in the world.
• Divorce factors
– Increasing cultural emphasis on self and
individualism
– Decline in negative attitudes, values relative to
divorce
– Changing material circumstances surrounding
conditions of divorce

Ritzer, Essentials of Sociology 3e

66
SAGE Publishing, 2018
 Global Families

• Just as the nation-state is eroding in the face of

globalization, it could be argued that the traditional
family is also declining in the face of globalization.
• New hybrid forms of the family are being created to
meet the demands of globalization.
• Families are increasingly liquid.

© 2017, SAGE Publications, Inc.

Major global family changes include:

− free choice of spouse

− more equal status for women
− equal rights in divorce
− neolocal residency
− bilateral kinship systems
− pressures for individual equality
 Global Families

• Global Flows that Involve the Family

– Entire families can move from one part of the globe
to another with relative ease.
– Individual family members can move to a different
part of the world and then bring the rest of the
family along later.
– Individuals can immigrate in order to create a new
family.
– Transnational adoptions generally involve the flow
of children from less to more developed countries.
© 2017, SAGE Publications, Inc.
 Global Families

• Global Flows that Affect the Family

– Global migration
– Global human trafficking
• Human trafficking involves selling and buying
humans as products.
• This typically involves children who are
trafficked for purposes of adoption.
• Human trafficking also includes trafficking
human organs, people for the purpose of
prostitution, and forced marriage.
© 2017, SAGE Publications, Inc.