Family as a Social Institution Test #2

Humans are innately good (class notes)

(rodgers, maslow, piaget, kohlberg), promote self-actualization- self-esteem, self- respect, self- realization (rose metaphor- the seed is good just give it the right conditions), evil comes from the outside, we are good in nature (permissive parenting style) (physical/concrete- social- higher order)

what are the two options to answer the question of if marriage is good for you? (book notes)

1. being married actually causes people to feel better and live longer OR 2. mentally and physically healthier people are more likely to get married and to stay married

what is required to get the full benefits of marriage (class notes)

1. commitment to lifelong monogamy, fidelity 2. reciprocity- mutual giving 3. rejecting modern "individualistic" or "therapeutic" (self-fulfillment) approaches to marriage, where "my needs" are paramount 4. Investment in the relationship

what are 6 marital frustrations? (class notes)

1. financial struggles (the biggest one) 2. Conflict with spouse 3. bad or annoying habits 4. not enough time together 5. poor spousal communication 6. expectations not met

good premarital prep (ayers christian marriage)

1. must follow sound mate-selection and courtship practices 2. must include solid teaching and reflection upon biblical teachings about marriage 3. couples need education or counseling before the wedding (many counselors is good!)

Abilene TX study (class notes)

320 couples were in this study and were mentored by 35 trained married couples (through PREPARE). After the counseling, 1 in 5 couples decided not to marry. Only 4 couples divorced, all of whom were encouraged not to marry until issues were resolved, but they all refused

Marriage and religion (book notes)

Americans go to church more than any other western nation except ireland. Americans think of themselves as religious persons more than ant other western nation besides italy. people are happier and it lowers risk of divorce. AA churches don't really emphasize the importance of marriage and religious groups

The Regnerus research failed to successfully pass the normal review process but was published anyway

False

who, according to ayers, is the greatest sociologist who ever lived? (class notes)

Max Weber

what is wrong with typical charges to social scientists about conservatism involved in funding or reviewing social science research? (Politicized science)

They are upset when articles get funded by conservative companies but don't care when articles get funded by liberal companies

Humans are tabula rasa (class notes)

a blank slate, some people believe that people are a blank slate which would mean there is no basic human nature. social learning- modeling, emphasis on learning over biological endowment in shaping personality- view biological stuff as irrelevant, don't believe in an absolute moral framework, this view is a nurture view, not nature

how long do cohabitation relationships last? (ayers christian marriage)

a few years, they either end in a marriage or break up. Those who do end in marriage, 2/3 eventually divorce

do most married women want to work? (class notes)

a lot of women only work because their husband does not make enough. this could cause resentment. most married women do not want to work full time, particularly when they have children. going into a marriage, it is important to know about these expectations

modern view on marriage (book notes)

a wedding is an achievement now, a symbol. People now use weddings to make a statement. People marry for the capstone experience. The percentage of marriages with receptions and honeymoons immediately following has increased.

Adoption (book notes)

about 2% of children in the US under 18 are adopted. number of adoptions changed because of birth control and abortions. out of all children adopted in the US half are adopted through private agencies and half are from foster care (more disadvantaged) (2/3 form racial ethnic minorities). there was a peak of international adoptions when there were smaller amounts of adoptions in the states but now it is declining. Russia and etheopia are big senders for adoption. china was big because of the one child policy

what is normal in marital sex

adultery is not!! oral (94% of married females) and anal sex (50% of married females) is common. Anal is so bad for you- lots of diseases, orgasms for women, and sex throughout life course. sex drops to less than once a month around 70 years old

PREP (ayers christian marriage)

as of 2010, 500,000 couples had participated in it and 14,500 professionals had trained in it

why are studies of the children of middle-class to wealthy white gays not representative of the real population of children being raised by gays (Politicized science)

because a lot of them have kids from their past heterosexual relationship which makes it impossible to distinguish the impact of such factors as divorce compared to sexual orientation or parents

what are some ways LGBTQ parents can have kids? (book notes)

bring the kids in from past heterosexual relationships, surrogate mother, adoption, form a relationship with someone who already has kids, and donor insemination. About 200,000 children under 18 were being raised by same sex couples in 2013

what are some ways to avoid financial problems? (class notes)

buy instead of rent a house, set a budget and stick to it, avoid serious debt over trivial things, and resist and repent of idolatry

Humans are "fallen" (class notes)

christian view- corrupt in all aspects of being but made in the image of God, need to glorify God in thought action and word, the key to this is the heart! we are heart centered, child belongs to God not parent parent is a "steward", (authoritative parenting- most successful)

Kohlberg (stages of moral development) (class notes)

consequences, self-interest, approval of others, law and order, consensus, individual decision

PREPARE- Idealistic distortion (ayers christian marriage)

created by david olson, it is like an x-ray of two partners and their relationship, 6-8 sessions, communication and conflict resolution is very important!!

grey divorce (class notes)

divorces with elderly people (50+), tied to remarriage, not first marriage. Divorce for 50+ crowd is 2.5 times higher for previously married than for first marriages, still happening within the first 10 years of marriage. The notion of a divorce epidemic among long-term married couples is a myth

children (class notes)

do not affect divorce rate, affect women more than men, lots of disruption and stress, large families (4+ kids) are associated with more happiness

when does marital happiness dwindle? (class notes)

during child bearing and rearing

working and lower class families (book notes)

emphasize obedience and conformity (natural growth- Lareau), children of these parents are less likely to speak up for themselves and more likely to not trust authority

Alderfer (ERG) (class notes)

existence, relatedness, growth

front loaded divorce (ayers christian marriage)

for those who got divorced, over half did so within 5 years of getting married, and over 80 percent did so by the end of their 10th year of marriage. the median duration of marriages that end in divorce are 8 years, legal separation is 7 years (opposite of what people think), after 10-15 years, you are usually in the clear

what is vital to marriage? (ayers christian marriage)

forgiveness

what did the study find? (Politicized science)

found differences between homosexual and heterosexual parenting. Children raised by homosexuals fair worse

what is worse and better than singleness? (class notes)

good marriage is better than singleness and bad marriage is worse than singleness

what defines a good marriage when it comes to conflict (class notes)

good marriages are not marked by an absence of conflict, but by constructively dealing with it.

cohabitation (class notes)

higher levels or autonomy, lower levels of commitment, lower confidence and trust in the relationship's ability to endure hardships, separate finances, less time together, less support from extended families- especially partner's families, unstable- high break up rate

implications about divorce (class notes)

honeymoon phase is the most risky stage. People do not know that and are then unprepared. Men need more encouragement for counseling then women

what is the antidote to group think in the social sciences, according to redding? (Politicized science)

ideological diversity

what questions does redding feel we need to ask in order to determine whether or not the academic reaction to regnerus' research was really because the study was as seriously flowed or biased as his critics tried to claim? (Politicized science)

if this study supported the other side, would it have gotten the same critisizm? Would they fight to revoke publication? would their be aligations about integrity? The answer is no!

how much of the population identifies as gay (ayers christian marriage)

in 2016 it was no more than 4% of the american population, but only 10.2% of that percentage were actively living with the opposite sex

When is the link between marriage and family more debated? (marriage still matters)

in higher income families/ societies

what should you know about your partner? (ayers christian marriage)

information about their family of origin , peers, personality types and personal styles, personal history and self-disclosure (Sidney Jourard) (previous sex lives, men find this harder to do than females), abuse, balancing closeness and flexibility (david olsen), finances (top reason for divorce), recreation and leisure, marital expectations (don't want disappointment from unmet expectations), sex and intimacy (different for men and women), children, gender roles and division of labor (usually more on women), religious beliefs and values, marital commitment (sticking together or feeling stuck) (personal dedication or constraint commitment), and communication and conflict (conflict shows the relationship is healthy if handled correctly)

Humans are innately evil

innate destructive drives that need to be controlled, freud, sublimation- changing or redirecting negatives to a positive, substitute, channel it (gun analogy), biologically oriented, id controlled in balanced way by superego and personality, or ego is a by product of this tension

Harry Stack Sullivan (class notes)

interpersonal theory of psychiatry, unique view of significant other, personality: relatively enduring pattern of recurrent interpersonal situations which characterize a human life, self system- pain and pleasure, personification, how we see ourselves compared to others

what is this gap between hetero and homosexuals? (ayers christian marriage)

it is a gap between mental and physical health. it is might higher for heterosexual couples, homosexual life expectancies are much lower (20 years shorter lifespan for gay men) and 3x more likely to commit suicide

According to redding, what does the reaction and other supposedly "controversial" findings tell us about the state of a great deal of social science research, particularly where it intersects with on-going hot policy and political debate? (Politicized science)

it is value dependent, it's all dependent upon scientists sociopolitical views

why would some couples want premarital counseling before engagement (ayers christian marriage)

it will lead the couple to decide if they want to get engaged, lots of people get divorced over things that were very evident prior to marriage. counseling can help with this.

why do parents today have difficulty disapproving of, being critical of, the aspirations, thoughts and actions of typical teenagers (myth of a teenager)

kids have to have some responsibility and same choices, so what can we really do

marital generosity (class notes)

kind, small things, acts of kindness, mostly cost free, i.e. compliments, encouragement, a major aspect of good marriages

religiosity (class notes)

leads to higher levels of generosity and commitment, church attendance is very powerful, they exercise forgiveness

people are getting married later (that is, waiting until they are older) than in the past. How has this impacted fertility? As age of marriage continues to increase, what will continue to happen to birthrates? (marriage still matters)

less fertile married women, less time to get pregnant, more women who aren't waiting to get married, so there are a lot of out of wedlock births

Charles Horton Cooley (class notes)

looking glass self, primary versus secondary groups, other people are the "mirror" or "lens" through which we view ourselves and form our self-identity. We understand who we are and we view ourselves and our identity, all looking glasses are different

what have been the methodological problems with most studies that have found "no difference" between gay and heterosexual parenting results? (Politicized science)

low response rates, participants weren't blind, almost no variety

sex (class notes)

marriage is a sexual relationship! can be considered an art, it is a learning process. novelty is exciting, can lead to adultery. having a baby disrupts sexual relationships. expectations need to be met. foreplay is about 15 minutes and intercourse is about 5 minutes "bread and butter" is normal, every day sex "gourmet meal" is really good sex

marriage as an investment (book notes)

marriage lowers the risk that your partner will go back on agreements that have been made. they are not as likely to move out. marriage is a commitment device

who is more likely to be remarried (class notes)

men

why do married men make more money (ayers christian marriage)

men now have more to work for. they have to work harder and are motivated to find side or part time jobs

what are some benefits to marriage (class notes)

men's individual salaries are typically higher when married, generating more wealth because of taxes, happier, lower levels of psychological distress, lower levels of substance abuse, lower suicide risk, healthier (mentally and physically), financially, healthier behavior like not over-eating, nagging can be helpful!

who withdraws more easily (ayers christian marriage)

men, women are more anxious to open up

George Herbert Mead (class notes)

mind, self, and society, distinguished between mind and self, look at yourself and reality through the view point of others, primary- significant other, secondary- acquaintances, generalized other- broader, take the rile of the other, preoperatory stage- raw imitation, play stage- creativity, make it your own, game stage- coordinating with other people

LGBTQ parents (book notes)

more likely to be black or hispanic, less likely to have a college degree, and more likely to have a low income

what errors in parenting does platt identify that he feels parents exercise towards their teenage children? (myth of a teenager)

negligence, allowance, after school jobs, now they have money to spend on whatever, parents who set up a "pro-choice: version of welfare

we have high levels of non-marital fertility (that is births out of wedlock). Does that mean that married women aren't more likely to have babies than single ones? (marriage still matters)

no! married women have more kids than unmarried women, marital births have remained stable

are parents today much different than teenagers? how or how not

no, because they were teenagers too and that shaped who they become

do we really know- as it is so often claimed- that children born to gay parenting situations are raised exclusively by married gay parents will turn out just fine? why or why not? (Politicized science)

no, not enough time has gone by, not enough evidence

does dating and cohabitation prepare people for marriage? (class notes)

no, people just think they do. marriage requires people to look farther than dating criteria like physical attraction and focus more on concrete realities and issues

Maslow's hierarchy of needs (class notes)

physiology, safety, love, esteem, self-actualization

How does religion relate to this trend? (marriage still matters)

religious background has remarkably little constant correlation with country-level non marital family rates

According to redding, do people generally really oppose or support gay parenting and marriage based on whether they believe it will hurt children? if not, what is their opposition and/or support based on? (Politicized science)

religious beliefs play a role, but i think the outcome of the children is the driving factor

according to redding, how does group think influence the degree to which one social science study versus another is subjected to reasonable scrutiny? (Politicized science)

research that isn't politically correct is under more scrutiny

2010 Pew research study (ayers christian marriage)

revealed that from half to a large majority of Americans think that married people are no better off than singles in these three areas (happiness, health, and financial)

According to Redding, why is it reasonable that the public and policy makers are so often quite skeptical about social science research, and policy claims based on such research? (Politicized science)

scientists tend to overlook methodological flaws in studies they feel are important whereas they tend to detect such flaws in other studies, very hypocritical, one sidede

Census SIPP Survey, 2009 (class notes)

second marriages are more likely to end in divorce, for those married between 1990 and 1994, 23% of men, and 25.5% of women, did not reach their 10th anniversary. Over 10% did not reach their 5th anniversary

Piaget (stages of cogntitve development) (class notes)

sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal (abstract)

In terms of whether having a baby led to getting married, how did things change in the 1990's compared to the 1970's and 80's (marriage still matters)

sexual revolution, became more accepted to have sex (which leads to children) outside of marriage. Before, there were shot gun weddings to cover up the pregnancy, stable marital birth since the 80's

Is the link between having babies and being married declining, as some have argued? what evidence do the authors give on this issue? (marriage still matters)

since the 1980's marital birth rates have been fairly stable, even as premarital birth rates have fallen a bit. the link between marriage and childbearing is intensifying

Berger and Luckman (class notes)

social construction of reality, externalization vs internalization, internalization- society entering into you and your beliefs, externalization- you entering your own beliefs into society. Primary vs secondary socialization- enter situation, encounter significant others, adopt their view of reality

what evidence do the authors cite to show that marriage promotes childbearing, and, on the other hand, childbearing also promotes marriage? (marriage still matters)

study in finland said that long-term stable partnerships strongly predict higher fertility. Married women have more kids then unmarried women, shot gun weddings in the 1970's because of pregnancies

middle class parents (book notes)

tend to emphasize autonomy and self-direction, socialize their kids differently (concerned cultivation- Lareau)

correlation between hours a wife works and a positive relationship (class notes)

the less a wife works, the better the couple seems. divorce is higher for dual career marriages. Adultery is higher for working women, they are always seeing the best sides of their male co workers. Men who make more money- less likely to get divorced. Women who make more money- more likely to get divorced. on the flip side. male unemployment also increases the chances of divorce

elderly divorce epidemic (class notes)

the notion of a divorce epidemic among elderly married couples who have been married many decades but then decided to split in their old age is a myth! it happens, but not very much. in the 2021 census report, only 7% of divorces were women 65 or older and 8% for men 65 or older

whos opinions matter more? (class notes)

the opinions of people who you are close to matter the most, family members shape your view of yourself (bad parent example with making kid feel ugly and dumb when he wasn't)

the thought about dumping the bad marriages (class notes)

the thought that higher marital satisfaction is because of the higher divorce rates, they are dumping all the bad ones, is not able to be held up in any argument

when was the idea of teenagers invented, and what evidence does platt give that this invention occurred at this time. (myth of a teenager)

the word literally did not exist. there were no teenagers before WW!!, before that it was youths. the word was first noted in the 3rd edition of webster's dictionary in 1961, but only used as an adjective; "teenage"

what does the academic reaction to regenerus' research tell us about the degree to which academic are willing to deal professionally and honestly with the question of whether or not gay parenting is good for children? (Politicized science)

there is a lot of bias in this area and a certain agenda is always trying to be pushed. it is very political. they don't like it unless it is consistent with their views

in what ways, according to platt are teenagers orphaned (myth of a teenager)

there is parental neglect. no one is more responsible than their parents. they have turned over their own children to be educated by others (Tv, peers, idols), which are all now invited into the house

What does the text book believe about comparing kids in hetero and homosexual headed households (book notes)

they believe there is no difference, but that is just not true.

how did regnerus' study compare to other studies of the effect of gay parenting that in fact had not only been published in refereed journals, but whose conclusions were being accepted as valid in many family texts and scholarly articles? (Politicized science)

they got like no criticism, used a random national sample of data collected by a national research firm, lots of variety

what excuses do the parents of teenagers giver for their negligence which, platt asserts, they exercise towards their teenage sons and daughters? (myth of a teenager)

they need to go out and learn stuff on their own. they need to take responsibility for their deeds

social class and child rearing (book notes) (Melvin Kohn)

they usually match up, a job with a lot of freedom (middle class jobs) relate to a parent who emphasizes freedom versus someone who is underneath someone else at work and would them emphasize conformity

what are teenagers greatest fears (myth of a teenager)

to grow up, have a child of their own, 2nd greatest is death, then solitude. they are the most free but the least happy people

what are youths greatest desires? (myth of a teenager)

to reach adulthood, to be trusted and given responsibility

same-sex marriage (class notes)

too recent to have any definite info on it, small percentage, too much political correctness- discourages honest analysis. There are few reasons to believe that it now or ever will produce equivalent benefits (more std's), fidelity lower (monogamish) even gay advocates admit that marriage is not helping as much as they claimed it would, domestic violence is higher. Will marriage "fix" this, we will see but it id doubtful

Ayers agrees with John Piper that churches should not conduct marriages for cohabiting couples unless they show true repentance, refraining from sex during a period of counseling preceding the wedding and, where possible, living apart

true

what do the authors say about the argument that asian fertility rates have dropped mainly because of non-marital childbearing is heavily stigmatized in Asia? What have been the trends for marital childbearing in Asia nations? (marriage still matters)

unmarried women in Asia have less kids because of stigma against it, people think that this stigma should be erased so that the fertility rate would rise because it is currently very low. it is not simply due to nonmarital fertility being low. the likeliest drivers of low fertility are conditions outside of a couple's relationship

how helpful is marriage prep? (ayers christian marriage)

very helpful! the average person who participated in a premarital prevention program was significantly better off afterwards than 79% of people who did not participate, 30% increase in measures of outcome success BUT those who are in need of it most are least likely to seek it out

how powerful is the group think that redding talks about, and what is the political and ideological nature of group think in social science scholarship about the family? (Politicized science)

very powerful! happens when there is a lot of homogeneity in a group of people so everyone begins to think the same

what are the four types of premarital couples? (class notes)

vitalized, harmonious, conflicted, traditional

if redding is correct, what should we think about the degree to which social science findings about the effect of gay marriage and gay parenting have influenced- been used as explicit justification in fact- pro gay opinions in various courts about the constitutionality of bans on gay marriage, policies of adoption agencies that only place children with heterosexual married parents and so on? (Politicized science)

we should be weary of it all. double check, do your own research, look for intentionally ignored material

Soft tyranny of craving social approval (class notes)

when people strive so hard for the approval of others

who guard their relationships more and are more sensitive to threats in them? (ayers christian marriage)

women, men do not handle marital conflict as effectively as women do

Be prepared to identify and describe each difference, identified by Platt, between 'teenagers' and 'youths' (myth of a teenager)

youths were people who wanted to become adults, they looked forward to the future. Teenagers don't have that horizon. Youths still were connected to family and not embarrassed to be seen with them. Youths had heroes, teenagers did not