Families and Society cumulative review

How are racial-ethnic intermarriages changing the scope of the American family?

If having a multiracial identity becomes more acceptable, it could provide a further boost to the multiracial numbers that the census will count.

What factors have been offered to explain the decline of marriage among African Americans?

The economy boomed and the civil rights movement lowered barriers, African Americans made unprecedented gains in employment and income.

What are the four widely used theoretical perspectives in family sociology?

The exchange perspective, the symbolic interaction perspective, the feminist perspective, and the postmodern perspective

What was unique about 1950s families?

They married younger and had more children than any other 20th century gen. The time of the baby boom. Couples had children faster, and more of them.

What do we know about Native American or American Indian familes?

They remain an economically disadvantaged population. They have high levels of poverty, Indian families headed by an unmarried woman is common, the percentage of adults who are divorced is also high.

Why has masculinity studies emerged recently?

This body of literature grew as social movements aimed at men gained strength.

What are two types of individualism?

Utilitarian individualism, and expressive individualism

How do the types of individualism differ?

Utilitarian- a style of life that emphasizes self-reliance and personal achievement, especially in one's work life expressive- a style of life that emphasizes developing one's feelings and emotional satisfaction

Is "whiteness" an ethnicity?

Yes, an ethnicity that ordinarily provides power and privilege. Not an inherehent characteristic of people;rather, those considered white can differ over time and from place to place.

Do employers discriminate against women?

Yes. Discrimination in hiring was one of the factors that kept the percentage of women players low until the 1970s. Now it is getting better in part bc young women are now more likely to graduate from college than are young men.

Conjugal families

a kinship group comprising of husband, wife, and children

Extended families

a kinship group comprising the conjugal family plus any other relatives present in the household, such as a grandparent or uncle

How does the term Asian American signify race/ ethnicity as a social construct?

a person living in the US who comes from or is descended from people who came from an Asian country

The feminist perspective

a perspective developed to better understand, and to transform, inequalities between women and men.

Social institution

a set of roles and rules that define a social unit of importance to society

The symbolic interaction perspective

a sociological theory that focuses on people's interpretations of symbolic behavior, supporters of this perspective see the social world as a much more fragile and unstable place, in which individuals are continually creating and sustaining meanings, often without much conscious thought to costs and benefits.

The exchange perspective

a sociological theory that views people as rational beings who decide whether to exchange goods or services by considering the benefits they will receive, the costs they will incur, and the benefits they might receive if they were to choose an alternative course of action

What is entailed with the survey research method?

a study in which individuals from a geographic area are selected, usually at random, and asked a fixed set of questions

What is entailed with the observational study?

a study in which the researcher spends time directly observing each participant

What do sociologists' mean by the term social class?

an ordering of all persons in a society according to their degrees of economic resources, prestige, and privilege.

Describe the distinctive characteristics of Black Middle-Class families in terms of women's paid work

because black women had been excluded from te "cult of true womanhood" that enveloped white women in the late 1800s, they were freer to pursue careers.

The "success" element of mascultinity (Doyle 1995) discussed in lecture entails both __________ and __________.

competition; admiration

What is the smallest family unit found in kinship groups across societies?

consisting of a mother and children always, a husband usually, and other household members sometimes

As discussed in Chapter 4, working-class and middle-class parents differ in their choice of important childrearing values primarily because of ________.

different job experiences

How does social class affect how parents raise their children?

each class socializes its children to fill the same positions their parents have filled.

What are some of the characteristics of upper-class families?

families that have amassed wealth and privilege and that often have substantial prestige as well. Tend to own large, spacious homes, possess expensive clothes and furnishings, to have substantial investment holdings.

What are some of the characteristics of lower-class families?

families whose connection to the economy is so tenuous that they cannot reliably provide for a decent life. They may live in deteriorated housing in neighborhoods with high crime rates. May not be able to afford adequate clothing for winter, and they may need government-issued food stamps to purchase enough food.

What are some of the characteristics of middle-class families?

families whose connection to the economy provides them with a secure, comfortable income and allows them to live well above a subsistence level. Can usually afford privileges such as a nice house, a new car, a college education for kids, fashionable clothes , a vacation at the seashore.

What are some of the characteristics of working-class families?

families whose income can reliably provide only for the minimum needs of what other people see as a decent life. A modest house or an apartment, one or two cars, enough money to enroll children at a state or community college.

What is the growing scholarly consensus about gender differences?

gender differences are produced and reproduced at all the levels we have examined in this chapter: biosocial, childhood socialization, interactional, and social structural.

Why do sociologists prefer longitudinal surveys?

they prefer a survey in which interviews are conducted several times at regular intervals because this design allows social scientists to study social change

Public good

things that may be enjoyed by people who do not themselves produce them

Private family

two or more individuals who maintain an intimate relationship that they expect will last indefinitely- or, in the case of a parent and child, until the child reaches adulthood- and who usually live in the same household and pool their incomes and household labor

What are several ways that globalization is affecting the family?

-In developing countries, the new factories have created millions of low-wage jobs that have drawn mothers into the paid work force. -The jobs, even though the pay is low, have provided women with a greater degree of independence in their family lives -have increased women' bargaining power with their husbands and allowed some to escape abusive marriages -is changing the relations between women and men in areas where manufacturing work has grown -internal migration is creating family forms that span the developed and developing countries in ways that have never been seen before.

In what two primary ways have gender studies helped us to understand the family?

-They have demonstrated that the roles men and women play in families are in large part socially and culturally constructed. -Sociologists of gender have taught us that gender distinctions sometimes reflect differences in power between men and women.

Compare and contrast the characteristics of mexican american families

-They marry at a younger age than other hispanics, non-hispanic whites, or African Americans -The mexican-origin population has a high birthrate by american standards

Compare and contrast the characteristics of cuban American families

-Us gov allowed cuban citizens to enter the country as political refugees -their prosperity derived in large part from business ownership

What do we know about asian American families?

-place a greater emphasis on children's loyalty and service to their parents than do western families -asian immigrant parents are more likely to live in households in which their adult children provide most of the income

Compare and contrast the characteristics of Puerto rican families

-they are US citizens because Peurto Rico is a US territory -lower economic standing -high % of children born to unmarried mothers

What do transgender people and two-spirit people teach us about gender?

A person in discomfort about his or her gender identity can find info more easily than in the past due to the rise of the intenet. Someone who questions the idea of a fixed gender identity can quickly find a supportive online community

boundary ambiguity

A state in which family members are uncertain about who is in or out of the family

How did the family life of different racial-ethnic groups differ from that of the dominant white, middle-class families in the US prior to the 1960s?

Africans had been forced to immigrate- captured or bought in West Africa, transported across the ocean under horrible conditions that killed many, and sold as slaves upon arrival. Mexicans, in search of grazing land, had pushed north into the area that is now the Southwest. Asian immigrants first arrived in large numbers in the mid-nineteenth century, when they were used as laborers by the railroads and and other enterprises

Why does Cherlin advocate for considering social class in terms of three status groups rather than the widely held four-class model?

Although these four categories seem ingrained in both social scientific research and popular thought, the definitions are so broad that is is very difficult to draw a clear distinction between middle-class and working-class families or between working-class families and lower-class families.

Summarize the "diverging demographics" of educational status groups in the US in terms of childbearing outside of marriage

Among women without college degrees, and especially among women who have never attended college, far fewer wait until marriage to have children than was the case a half-century ago.

How do conjugal families and extended families differ?

An extended family also includes any other relatives present in the household, like a grandparent or uncle

Describe the American family during 1900-1960?

An increase in premarital sex. A drop in the birthrate. A new youth culture reeling against propriety, dressing outrageously, and indulging in indecent dance steps. A rapidly rising divorce rate. Marrying younger and had more children than any other 20th century generation (1950s) Baby boom.

Describe the distinctive characteristics of Black Middle-Class families in terms of incomes and wealth

At all times during the 20th century, the % of black women who worked for pay was higher than that of white women. Moreover, the wealthiest black women had the highest rates of paid work, suggesting that better-off black women were working for satisfaction as well as income

Why did the chance to work for wages undermine the authority of fathers in early American families?

Because sons had alternatives to farming, fathers no longer had a near monopoly on the resources needed to make a living.

Describe the American family during 1960-present?

Birthrate plunged low. Birth control pull. Marrying later and at later ages. Cohabitation. Percentage of children not living with both parents rose toward the end of the century because of increases in marital separation and divorce and births to unmarried parents. Parents have less influence over who their children marry or live with.

How does social capital help us understand the economic success of some immigrant groups?

Community provides members with resources that help them to achieve goals they could not achieve alone, or even as families working together.

How do created and assigned kinship differ?

Created kinship-kinship ties that people have to construct actively Assigned kinship- kinship ties that ppl more or less automatically acquire when they are born or when they marry

What was unique about depression-generation families?

Economic hardships forced many young adults to postpone marriage and childbearing. As fathers and mothers struggled to make a living, their children helped out. Boys took whatever jobs they could find, and teen girls took over more of the household work for mothers who were forced to work outside of the home.

Summarize the "diverging demographics" of educational status groups in the US in terms of opportunities for marriage (assortative mating and the marriage market)

Education has become a more important factor in who marries whom over the past half-century or so. Sociologists call the tendency of people to marry others similar to themselves assortative marriage.

Why is intersectionality important to the study of the family?

Family ties have been central to the successes and the struggles of racial-ethnic groups in the US

Gestational construction of gender

For the first several weeks of gestation, the external sex organs of soon-to-be girls and boys are identical. These primitive genitals can develop into either a clitoris, vagina, and ovaries or a penis, scrotum, and testes.

Describe the life-course perspective as it relates to emerging adulthood

It demonstrates the substantial social changes that have occurred in this stage of life. It places that transition in historical perspective by showing the influences of the decline in manufacturing jobs, the growing employment opportunities for the well-educated, and the greater acceptance of cohabitation and childbearing outside of marriage.

Why do middle-class families rely less on their kin than working-class or lower-class families?

It is expected that the conjugal family will spend it s savings on a down payment for a house rather than doling it out to relatives who need train fare to attend funerals or to pay bills and because it is expected that the family will move away from kin, if necessary, to pursue better job opportunities.

Why is it difficult for sociologists to conduct experiments?

It is more difficult for a sociologist to be objective than it is for a natural or physical scientist. Sociologists not only study families, they also live in them. They often have strong moral and political views of their own, and it is difficult to prevent those views from influencing one's research.

Why are social class divisions ideal types?

It is useful for understanding social life, even though any real example of the phenomenon may not have all the characteristics of the ideal type.

What is meant by the polarization of the labor market?

Job opportunities have increased for the most-educated workers and for the least-educated workers, while declining for workers with moderate levels of education and skill.

Why was kinship such an important factor in settled agricultural society?

Kinship groups ensure order, recruit members from outside the group (usually through marriage), defend against other outsiders, provide labor at harvest time and assist the less fortunate.

How can kinship networks be both advantageous and disadvantageous to their members?

Kinship networks can be helpful because they can help their members survive hard times such as poverty. Kinship networks can be bad because an individual's meager income must be shared with many others, it is difficult for her or him to rise out of poverty.

What is unique about present-day families?

Many married women with children work outside the home, education is increasingly important and the main factor in the lengthening one emerging adulthood.

Describe the American family during 1776-1900?

Marriage was increasingly based on affection and mutual respect rather than on male authority and custom. The primary role of the wife became the cure of children and the maintenance of the home. Women came to be seen as morally superior to men. The attention and energy of the husband and wife were increasingly centered on their children. The number of children per family declined, in part as a consequence of the greater investment of emotion and time that they were seen to need.

Why is the association between the type of family you live in and your social class position stronger today than in the past?

On the economic side, two developments stand out: The movement of married women into the workforce and the declining employment prospects of men without college education. On the cultural side: the rise in expressive individualism and people's higher aspirations for material goods.

Summarize the "diverging demographics" of educational status groups in the US in terms of divorce

The drop was greatest for college graduates. by 2000s, college graduates had a substantially lower lifetime risk of divorce than the less-educated.

Why is childhood not a protected, extended stage of life for most families before the 19th century?

Parents withheld love and affection from infants and toddlers because so many of them died. If children did survive, they were treated as little adults. By age 7, boys and girls performed useful work-helping fathers in the fields or mothers at the hearth- and played the same games and attended the same festivals as adults. With the spread of schooling and the decline of child deaths, then childhood turned into a protected, extended stage of life

What was unique about 1960s families?

People lived on their own, or in cohabitation (the sharing of a household by unmarried persons who have a sexual relationship), the divorce rate rose

Summarize the "diverging demographics" of educational status groups in the US in terms of age at marriage

People with four-year college degrees are displaying a pattern we might call catch-up marriage: until age 25, relatively few of them marry, which is consistent with the society wide trend toward later marriage. But by age 30 they are slightly more likely to have married than are the less educated.

How is social class related to the concepts of life chances and status group?

People's life chances may be augmented by the higher education they obtain or their family's contacts in the labor market. They are sometimes distinguished by prestige-the honor and status a person receives-such as the prestige of medical doctors or university professors.

How do sex and gender differ?

Sex is the biological characteristics that distinguish men and women. Gender is the social and cultural characteristics that distinguish women and men in a society

What does this scholarship of masculinity studies suggest about men and masculinity?

That there is more than one way to be masculine.

Describe the growing importance of education for determining one's social class.

The amount of education that people obtain has become a stronger predictor of the types of families that they live in and how well off they are.

Why is caring for dependents considered a public good?

The funds for social security checks for retired Americans, come from payroll taxes paid by workers. In the future, baby boomers will reach retirement age. By 2030 there may be only 3 people of working age for every retired person. So, the burden of supporting the elderly will increase greatly..It's in society's best interest then, for families to have and rear children today who will pay taxes when they grow up. Children in this sense, are public goods.

Which of the following BEST explains the decline in marriage among African Americans (Chapter 5; Lecture)?

The lack of suitable marriage partners for women due to job losses, violence, and drugs among men.

childhood construction of gender

The most obvious influence comes from their parents, who typically treat girls and boys differently. Children receive messages about gender from television and other media. When they play together at a day care center or in their neighborhood or at school, they again are that lessons about how girls and boys are supposed to behave

Intersectionality

The perspective that has been used to understand the role of marriage in the lives of college-educated black women

What is at the heart of the controversy over the "Scarborough 11"?

The question of what constitutes a family.

What are some characteristics of social institutions?

The roles of social institutions give us positions such as parent, child, spouse, stepfather, partner, and so on. The rules offer us guidance about how to act in these roles.

What were the characteristics of the Cult of True Womanhood?

The true woman was an upholder of spiritual values, she was also pure: she was to have no sexual contact before marriage- although men might try to tempt her- and none afterward except with her husband. The true woman was submissive to men, particularly the husband. She was domestic: her proper place was in the home, comforting her husband, lovingly raising her children

What was the irony-the perhaps unintended consequence- of the "Women's Sphere" within the Cult of True Womanhood?

The women's sphere in the 1800s at once limited women's opportunities and glorified their domestic rule.

Describe the American family before 1776?

There were families of the indigenous people, who are now known as American Indians. Also, the families of the European colonists and the families of the African slaves, who were transported involuntarily to the Americas beginning in the 1500s.

The postmodern perspective

They argue that the modern era- the long period that began with the spread of industrialization in the mid-to-late nineteenth century-effectively ended in the last half of the twentieth century. It has been replaced, they say, by what they call the postmodern era. Looking back at the modern era, they emphasize that individuals moved through a series of roles (student, spouse, parent, housewife, breadwinner) in a way that seemed more or less natural. Choices were constrained.

What does "doing gender" mean? give examples

gender is not a set of traits, nor a role, but the product of social doings of some sort. these social doings occur through interactions between men and women in particular settings. example: A husband smiles-the symbol- indicates to his wife that he is incapable of sponging all the crumbs off the table, despite having enough brains to be a brilliant and successful lawyer. Kit is a way for the husband to express a feigned helplessness, which he and his wife both interpret as meaning that she's the only one who can do a good job of cleaning up after dinner.

What does Cherlin mean when he refers to the "asymmetry of gender change"?

it is the greater change in women's lives than in men's lives

Describe gender as social structure.

its hierarchies of dominance and power and its economic and political systems. gender differences are social creations deeply imbedded in society. Gender is said to be a basic part of social structure, a central way in which a society is stratified into more and less powerful groups.

What is the ideology of "separate spheres"?

men's sphere being the world of work and, more generally, the world outside the home; and women's sphere being the home, relatives, and children. Men's sphere was seen as being governed by the rough ethic of the business world, women's sphere came to be seen as morally pure, a place where wives could renew their husbands' spirituality and character. Men's sphere was seen as providing no reward other than a paycheck, women's sphere was the center of affection and nurturing, the emotional core for husbands and children

Describe the distinctive characteristics of Black Middle-Class families in terms of neighborhoods of residence

middle-class black neighborhoods tend to be closer to poor black neighborhoods, and their neighborhoods usually contain some poor families. They tend to live in neighborhoods that have less crime and poverty than the neighborhoods of low-income blacks, but more crime and poverty than those of middle-class whites.

What is a mediating structure and how does this concept help us to understand black middle-class families?

midlevel social institutions and groupings, such as the church, the neighborhood, the civil organization, and the family. It helps us to understand black middle-class families by being the greatest source of continuity, outside of the family. In some of the poorest black neighborhoods, which have lost both population and organizations over the past few decades, churches are among the few nongovernmental institutions left.

Free Rider problem

the tendency for people to obtain public goods by letting others do the work of producing them-metaphorically, the temptation to ride free on the backs of others

Describe the evidence for the decline of marriage among African Americans and how this compares to the decline of marriage among whites (table 5.1)

more than half of all African American family households are headed by a single parent. For non-hispanic whites, the comparable figure is 26%. But, the white figure has more than doubled since 1970. Conclusions: 1) African Americans have high levels of childbearing outside of marriage and single-parent families and low levels of marriage, 2) whites are changing too, 3) childbearing outside of marriage has grown at a faster rate among whites in recent decades, leading to a narrowing of this racial difference

According to Chapter 2, kinship groups in most societies are made up of smaller family units that ALWAYS consist of __________.

mothers and children

Why do some scholars argue that we must simultaneously examine gender, race/ethnic, and social class?

one often needs to study a situation from these three overlapping lenses- gender, race, and class- at the same time in order to fully understand it, because individuals experience inequality often in multiple ways at once.

Public family

one or more adults who are jointly caring for dependents, and the dependents themselves

racial-ethnic group

people who share a common identity and whose members think of themselves as distinct from others by virtue of ancestry, culture, and sometimes physical characteristics

How does the term Hispanic signify race/ ethnicity as a social construct?

refers to a person living in the US who traces his or her ancestry to Latin America

The concept of sexual identity requires a _____________ and ________________ that was not prominent until the late nineteenth century (Chapter 6).

self-consciousness, self-examination

What are some of the strengths and limitations of social science research?

strengths: results can be generalized to the population of interest. Detailed knowledge is obtained. limitations: Only limited knowledge can be obtained; hard to judge honesty of responses. Findings may not be representative of other, similar individuals or families.

social capital

the resources that a person can access through his or her relationships with other people

What are the main factors in the new life stage of emerging adulthood?

the role of education, constrained opportunities (for emerging adults with more limited education), declining parental control over their children,