SOCI 200
where do people marry and divorce at a greater frequency than anywhere else?
US, serial monogamy
Rules of Descent: unilineal descent
Unilineal descent- Matrilineal Patrilineal Reckons descent through either the mother or father's side
Theoretical Definitions
Use the concepts and propositions from a social science theory A concept is an abstract set of things or ideas collected under one idea Example: "marriage" contains having "a publically recognized sexual bond between two people" Definitions are the starting point for theory Propositions are the backbone of a theory defined by any statement that relates one concept to another Theoretical definitions are not 'correct/incorrect' only consistent with the concepts and propositions in a theory
Communication
Verbal Talk and meta talk Importance of topic and agreement Non-verbal Psychologist Mehrabian Gottman 1979 Gotman and Porterfield 1982 Gottman and Levinger and prediction model
Attraction: Propinquity Theory
We are attracted to those individuals who are around us Repeated contact (familiarity) causes us to like an individual (Zajonc, 2001) With new technologies, propinquity becoming less important Now possible to meet someone halfway around the globe through an online dating site -if you want to be popular at work get a cubicle by the water cooler/bathroom
Legal issues and cohabitation
What about the distribution of assets and arrangement of child custody when the cohabitation ends? The lack of standardized legal treatment of cohabitation leaves the distribution of assets and assignment of child custody to local magistrates Without specific laws in place to insure the equitable distribution of assets, one party may be disadvantaged when the union dissolves
CHAPTER 10 TEXTBOOK: attentional control
ability to multi-task with attention - to allocate our attention over serveral different things at the same time
Trend of sexual activity in BC youth
actually declining in recent years
dating and mating continuum
adolescent fun--> serious dating---> mate selection---> cohabitation
Explanatory power of vairbles looked at in Amatto's study of union disolution
all of the variables he studied have some contribution to why toure more likely to have union dissolve. (eg. educaton, age at first union, attitude) but all have very small seperate influence all individual contributions= 8% -total when factors are combined = 48% explained
Types of Grandparents: Involved grandparents
are the least common type, but they have parent-like duties -Less warm than companionate and remote grandparents (because they must discipline their grandchildren)
Types of Grandparents: Remote grandparents
are the next most common type -Grandparent is less involved in the grandchild's life, usually because they live far away from one another
gay couples feeling pressure to marry
as this opportunity opens up to them, they feel pressure to participate for stability and longevity of their relationships -wrestling with the meaning of marriage bc of legal and social transition
Cowan and Cowans intervention group in their study
assisted the couple during pregnancy, helped them talk realistically about the expectation each had for post partum division of labor as well as social values and expecations of family and friends surrounding them
Attachment parenting:
attachment is incredibly important (bond between the child and their primary caregiver) -allows child to be the center of your existence e.g. allowing your infant to sleep in your bed until they are ready to leave -Morsette: big proponent of attachment theory
Example of successful aging
banana george, 85, waterski show barefoot
why are people not getting married?
because you can! You can still have a satisfying life w/o a marriage
Age-Specific Fertility Rates, Selected Age Groups, Canada, 1941-2002
before many people birthed at 20-24 and now many more people have children around 30-34 and 25-29
example of being off time in the timing of life events
being an undergrad that is married- potential marital breakdown, drop out of school, another example: teen pregnancy
low fertility
below two children per woman, if every woman had 2 children population would remain level across generations
Types of Aging: Psychological aging
changes in personality, cognition, emotional arousal, memory, learning, and motivation
mothers well being is associated with ______
child well-being
Unidirectional Models of Parent-Child Effects: Child to parent unidirectional model
child's temperament effects the parents -can be traced to hippocrates 4 humors and temperament
example of Conceptual and Measurement Hypotheses
conceptual hypothesis: marital conflict is negatively related to academic performance (conceptual hypothesis is natural extension of theoretical definition) Measurement hypothesis: number of parental arguments and grades (measurement hypothesis- operationalize the variable, concrete measurement)
CHAPTER 5 TEXT: structural committment
conditions that cause a person to continue on a course of action once he or she has initiated that course of action, regardless of whether he or she is personally committed to it
CHAPTER 10 TEXTBOOK: parental generativity
contributing to society by nurturing and socializing children
CHAPTER 10 TEXTBOOK: cultural generativity
contributing to society by passing on cultural values and traditions to the next generation
CHAPTER 10 TEXTBOOK: technical generativity
contributing to society by teaching skills to the next generation
domestic partnership
couples sharing domestic life without marital or civil union status
Chinese divorcing scandal
couples who own two homes and want to sell one will divorce to avoid paying the 20% tax on their home -they are evading property control laws
why is it important to avoid an ecological fallicy?
data/ theory/ proposition that deals with one level of analysis but we apply it to another level e.g. divorce rate is 50% then go out to dinner with another married couple and ask: which one of us is going to get divorced? Inaproriate because this is at the level of the institution
interracial dating vs marriage
dating is normative and general approval by society given, very low approval of interracial marriage, means we dont see dating as mate selection leading to marriage
CHAPTER 5 TEXT: personal commitment
dedication to continuing a course of action
CHAPTER 8 TEXTBOOK: Bill C-38: The civil marriage act
defines civil marriage as " the lawful union of two persons to the exclusion of all others" thus extending civil marriage to conjugal couples of the same sex
CHAPTER 9 TEXTBOOK: top 5 reasons couples separate
different values and interests, abuse- physical and emotional, alcohol and drugs, infidelity, carreer-related conflict
Reiss theory of autonomy
discrepency between individuals who experience pleasure of seuxualty and the parents differeing perception -kids think there should be no penalty placed on sexuality, parents do because they see the consequences -greater child autonomy= higher likelyhood of sexual activity
example of marriage squeeze
disparity of 3-5 years historically (last 100 y ago) of older men--> to earn money, men were the breadwinners -but now with women in the workforce similar education, similar workplace but men are still marrying younger women, and educated women are getting squeezed out
leptokurtic
distribution of population when trying to understand normative behaviour -not a normal distribution, norms are stronger, influences the distribution to be narrow ex) pressure to get married when you're young
Italy and cohabitation
does not view cohabitation positively, kids live at home until they form their own households
what is family of origin instability correlated with?
early baby, depression, suspense from school, increased number of sexual partners, deliqunicy neg correlation: education
early research and "molding the child"
early research suggested you could mold the child into anything that you desired -modern research suggests childs temperament influences parents -in reality, the interaction is reciprocal but parent is most dominant (proactive) but also reactive
Demographic transition theory visualized
early society: high birth rate, high death rate, low and stable pop. THEN birth rate remains high, death rate falls and there is a total population increase- lead to outcomes like the 1 child policy THEN increase slows down THEN Stable or slow increase THEN Slow decline: birth rate may drop below replacement level, leading to rapid population decline e.g. Japan
what is the primary reason for inc in age for marriage?
education, direct correlation between length of education and age of marriage
Fertility in Canada: total fertility rate
estimate of fertility per woman -Based on the assumptions: -she will maintain the cohort rate of fertility for the past year and -she will live to the end of her fertility (usually 45-50 years of age)
Churlin's argument for the deinstituationalization of marriage
evidence: more cohabiting couples, more children out of wedlock, increase in expressive divorces (Want to be self actualized not because of something bad happening), removing laws pertaining to marriage, no discernable patterns of how people keep money (together or seperate)
"Empty nesters" charts: traditional
example of traditional marriage 16 y old woman, 18 male 1st child 20 woman, 22 male menopause 42, 44 male 58 woman, 60 dies -once married at age 20, all your life you had dependent children. This is a traditional environment
what is the most adaptive unit of society?
family is the most adaptive- society, technology, school changes
CHAPTER 5 TEXT: moral commitment
feelings of obligation to maintain in a relationship
example of filter model of mate selection
feild of eligibles--> endogamy/ exogamy--> homogamy--> propinquity--> physical attraction--> percieved similarity--> complementary
dowry
female has to bring something to make her more attractive to the male e.g. money
Gender disparity in SPOUSAL homicide rates
female spouse killed disproportionately MORE
Total Fertility Rate, Canada, 1871-1996
fertility rate declined significantly from 7 children per woman in 1871 to less than 2 children in 2002 -fertility has been in decline since then
example of sequencing norms
finish education,, get job, get married- this pattern shows lower divorce rates in men
Unidirectional Models of Parent-Child Effects: Parent to child unidirectional model
flows from the parents to the child
Symbolic Interaction theory
focuses on individuals being constructed by their society; when individuals arrive in the world, they learn the signs and symbols of their language so they can navigate their world. Symbols require agreement as do meanings to words and games and society. Indeed, Mead discussed the play and game stage of child development
cohabitation in BC
government sanctions you to divide acculuated assets and debts after 2 years -why? to get control over the relationship. Interested in stability, dont want debts and chaos, they are making sure alot of people aren't on the government payroll -looking for responsibility
what is a slider?
gradually move in with partner, difficult to pick time you actually moved in
bride price:
grooms family pays brides family to appease brides father
what is a theory?
harmonized propositions
Baumbrind Parenting Styles: Authortative parent
high control, high warmth -nurturing, affectionate, sets boundaries, disciplines through guidance, open communication
Baumbrind Parenting Styles: authoritarian parent
high control, low warmth strict, inflexible, high expectations, punishes rather than disciplines "tiger mom"
Low Developed population pyramid
high mortality rate, bulk of the population at the bottom and very skinny at the top -see notes, looks like upside down V
Baumbrind Parenting Styles: permissive parent
high warmth, low control nurturing, affectionate, few or inconsistent boundaries, takes role of friend rather than parent
American Divorce study with interracial backgrounds
higher divorce rates from interracial backgrounds- experienced more strains and stressors
types of extended family: stem
household of different generation
types of extended family: joint
household of same generation
demographic transition theory
how the family adjusts itself to various societies over time -family adapts to survive -agrarian: large families because children= assets -industrial: gets smaller because children and eldery= liability, must be mobile -nuclear family is natural result of 20th cent life, it is more practical -Goode predicts we will move onto the conjugal unit and that we will see the rise of childless couples, THEN individualistic society -around 1970, TFR in Canada slipped below replacement level
Each type of government will be active to one extent or another in influencing the life course of individuals and families through policies and laws: example?
how the state legally defines marriage, whose financial responsibility children are, or if procedures affecting fertility such as abortion, are considered legal
US compared to canada and divorce
in US if you get married then divorced/ lose a loved one you're more likely to get re-married (more so than Canada)
Study on sex ratio
in lower sex ratio societies (more women than men) men will raise their standards when choosing a long term mate -in low sex ratio socities, although competing for men women will also raise their standards-- to avoid men seeking short term relationships
No fault divorce in US
in states that adopted it, inc by 6% in divorce rates but these effects are dying out now. This can be explained by selection effect- where it is easier to get a divorce women will marry later and be choosier. No fault divorce laws presence also correlated with greater equality in distribution of work within marriages, which enhances womens negotiating strengths. Unilateral divorce policy also increases divorce in US and europe
Deinstitutionalization of Marriage
indicator of deinstitutionalization The removal of marriage laws so that marital property is no longer joint property between spouses and marriage is no longer restricted to a set number of people and no longer a legally permanent arrangement. No discernible patterns in how married couples keep their money (pooled or separate), their living arrangements (together or apart or with groups of other adults), whether or not they raise children together or in collectives, or how to divide work. not enter marriage assuming a permanent relationship
Levels of analysis with example with process and example of stage
individual: cognitve consistency and single relationship: agreement and cohabiting family: coalitions e.g. parents vs kids and married with children institution: conformity and norm leptokirtosis
what level is life course theory most interested in?
institutional level
combination of certain variables working together is an example of _______
interaction effect
1920s: dating scene
intro of class structure breakdown, then see coffee shops/ restaurants, dates more common without chaperone, coincides with rise of the automobile -males in their 20s with money were finding younger females of lower status to date in the 1920s bc there was a double standard of dating for same age/ class women -there was a power imbalance, female feels shee can achieve higher status but sexual strings are attached
Types of Grandparents: Companionate grandparent
is the most common type -Close to their grandchildren but do not have a parental role
cohabitation agreements
legal agreements drawn up between cohabiting couples to define limitations and boundaries of responsibilities should cohabiting union dissolve. e.g. property rights, child support
CHAPTER 7 TEXTBOOK: ascribed status
level in society attained by forces outside the individuals control e.g. gender, race, caste
define cohabiting
living together in a long term committed, sexual relationship -living together in a "marriage- like relationship"
SUMMARY of Amatto's argument intergenerational divorce
longitudinal data of offspring union disruption (studied from mid-adolescence to young adults) -there is a series of variables that are connected to divorce -dissolutions of the children largely correlated to # of divorces their parents had, more divorces parents had the more dissolutions their children had -Therefore, family of origin instability explained significant amount of offspring union disruptions -no interaction with gender, black, hispanic, white, parental education factors (these were controlled) -outcome variables : education, age at 1st residential union, baby prior to 1st union, closeness to mom/ dad, symptoms of depression, non-traditional attitudes -family of origin instability were significantly related to these variables -all positive correlation but education (-), age at first union (-), close to mom/dad (-) -Parental union and child union dissolution: 48% explained -individual contribution of variables - 8% -joint conribution of variables= 40%
Baumbrind Parenting Styles: uninvolved parent
low warmth, low control -emotionally detached, self absorbed, inconsistent or no boundaries, little interaction
history of particarchy and bride selection
males choice of female in high power positions
marriage and happiness
marital satisfaction is related to length in the relationship -correlation between prescence of children and satisfaction of marriage -more children, satisfaction decline, as children leave the home, satisfaction goes back up
Why Do We Marry? 3 reasons: commitment device
marriage promotes relationship-specific investments (there is permanence) as people age, one divorce does not seem so bad as it is seen in the earlier 20s because it shows they actually can commit to someone -also people who cohabit may delay purchasing home and having children -this is where the majority of couples lie
CHAPTER 5 STARTS HERE: Why Do We Marry? 3 reasons: Exogenous payoff
marriage serves as a rite of passage into adulthood and social approval of the couple- serves as social status, social capitol (freinds and networks), society legitimizes you ALSO Commitment device and signalling device
conflict tactile scale
measures inter-couple violence on a scale: measures forms of interaction in escalation e.g. verbal abuse --> threats--> physical abuse -women tend to score higher on scale as shown in a meta-analysis, even when controlling for self defense. Women are actually the more violent ones in the relationship but men cause more long-lasting physical damage.
Optimal matching analysis
measures when people are in different stages like single, cohabiting, married etc. -odds ratio: comparing likelihood of occurences, 1= equally likely -e.g. when people were cohabiting in 1900-1914 their odds ratio was 10.61- 10 times more likely to get a divorce
Rules of Marriage: polygamy
more than one mate -Polyandry (multiple husbands) Relatively rare Tends to associated with poverty -Polygyny (multiple wives) Most frequent form of polygamy
there are large correlations between union disruptions of parents and childs later in life. Correlation is linear
more union disruptions at 16= more of own union disruptions by 30 ** significant relationship
1930s/40s Quebec had highest fertility but they have now secularized and what is the result?
move away from Cathlocism, now they have lowest fertility in Canada
platokurtic
norms are not very strong e.g. you can get married young or old and it doesn't matter
CHAPTER 6 TERMS: age specific fertility rates
number of children born to women in a given year for each age group, 5 yr incremements eg. 20-24
example scenario of CL CLALT and O
objective= find partner with the most money, what you think you can get is your comparisson level, CLALT are the alternative people you know, outcome: who you end with -relationship stability and satisfaction are assessed -if you get an outcome higher than your comparison level, then youll be happy and satisfied but if there are CAALT above your outcome making more money the relationship will not be stable
CHAPTER 5 TEXT: structural improvement
occurs when a positive change is made in a relationship following a conflict
CHAPTER 5 TEXT: integrative agreement
occurs when both people have their goals satisfied in a conflict
number of children living with gradnparents and no parent is:
on the rise from 1991 to 2006
CHAPTER 3 TEXTBOOK: non-verbal courtship behaviours
original research in client/therapists setting revealed: 1) courtship readiness cues (e.e. presenting muscle tone), 2) preening behaviours (e.g. stroking ones hair, fixing makeup), 3) positional cues (e.g. leaning toward the target), 4) actions of appeal or invitation (E.g. plaming or displaying an open wrist or hand, rolling the pelvis) -women hold the power in initiating conversations in the lab and the bar, conversations started only after a woman looked at a man more than once -signalling to men was more important than attractiveness- more likely to strike up a convo
Research Methods: Period effects
outcomes that occur due to what is happening at the time of measurement
Panel studies and effects of cohabitation leading to later marital instability
panel studies do not reflect the current understanding and meaning of the term cohabitation -measurement issues may be at work because of definitions, timing ambiguity, and problems with retrospective data collection -some studies have shown that the effects of 'selection' have accounted for a portion of the cohabitation effect, but other studies discount this -experience effect: frequency and length of cohabitation are perhaps important--> may reduce need for formal marriage and reduce impact of divroce -the research at this point is inconclusive, but the cohabitation effect seems to continue in recent cohorts.
Mariland couple "free range couple"
parents under fire because 2 children aged 6 and 10 could walk to public park 1 mile away -child protective services came and took them away and they were charged with child neglect -parents purpose: autonomy of the children -charged dismissed but then in another park, child services called again and called the parents and told them they had their kids
all major religions still have people who practice _______
polygamy
Immigration
population for any year is defined by this formula: -Population (Jan 2010) = Pop. (Jan 2009)+ (births + immigration)-(deaths + emigration). -According to the Vanier Institute, Canada's birth rate will continue to be lower than its mortality rate yielding population decline as early as 2030. -Immigration is one population parameter that can be manipulated by policy. -Canada will be competing for immigrants to maintain its population -However, visible minority women's fertility in Canada mainly falls below replacement level -Only in South Asian and Arab/ West African groups was fertility above replacement level and that was probably due to these being more recent immigrant groups (Malenfant and Belanger, 2006) -many countries such as France, have tried pro-nationalist policies and some countries such as Germany have stated that multiculturalism (Which is tied to immigration does not work). This same sentiment has not been expressed in Canada
4 children per woman
population would double
goal of parenting:
prepare the child to no longer be dependent on you, they should become independent grown-ups with self-sufficiency -many parents measure this through "success" -- child economically independent (Achieved through social skills and academics)
CHAPTER 8 TEXTBOOK: BIll C31
prior to the bill an aboriginal woman who married outside of her band automatically became a member of her husband's band. Now this only occurs at the woman's choice -prior to legislation indian woman who married non-indian men also lost their status and band membership--> implications for children. This has now been amended
How do reliegious beliefs affect fertility?
pro-life, pro choice, female circumsicion, belief sex is only for reproduction
Developed country population pyramid
problem when the pyramid gets top heavy, section gets to the top in old-age and dependency ratio increases -See notes for graph: Ballooned out at top and narrower at bottom
Descent Lines:Unilineal descent
reckon kin through one side of the family Two major forms: matrilineal and patrilineal
civil union
relationship status granted to same sex couples when same sex marriages arent legal. purpose is to grant them the same right as married couples
authority patterns
social norms establish who is supposed to make decisions for the family e.g. patriarchal, matriarchal, egalitarian
NEW RESEARCH: suggests 2nd marriages may be more ____
stable than first -- social norm change
CHAPTER 8 TEXTBOOK: mommy and daddy track
symbolic pathways that parents who value family more than career are often placed onto by company supervisors
Distinguishing Theories of Development: Invariant ordering
the conceptualized stages placed in an invariant sequence Must each stage be completed successfully before moving to the next stage?
what is ironically sometimes the reason for the wedding?
the event!
Psychological Approaches: Intimate terrorism-- explanation for harmful family dysfunction
the most destructive form of couple violence. It almost exclusively involves males causing extensive bodily harm or death to their female partners
Elder neglect: passive neglect
the non-intentional failure of a caregiver to provide appropriate services to the elderly individual because he or she does not have adequate knowledge of what is available and what is necessary for proper care
There are three common ways to measure dependency in a population: total dependency ratio
the number of individuals aged 0 to 19 years and the number of individuals aged 65 years and older divided by the number of individuals aged 20 to 64
There are three common ways to measure dependency in a population: youth dependency ratio
the number of individuals aged 0 to 19 years divided by the number of individuals aged 20 to 64 years
Fertility in Canada: crude birth rate
the number of live births to women in a year
Measuring Marriage Rates: 2 ways- The crude marriage rate
the number of marriages for every 1000 people in a given year Problem: denominator in this equation includes unmarriageable people such as children
Distinguishing Theories of Development: Time frame
the period (in life) which a theory addresses Example: if we only focus on childhood then in terms of development, we get smarter, stronger, and more socially adept as we age
Similarity theory
things that we value the most and physical appearance, age -opposites dont attract- may be initial intrigue but is not long lasting
Teachman and Polonko's cohabitation study
those who cohabited for less than six months had no difference from othose who went straight to marriage. Why? probably because they got engaged and moved in together before getting married -its not the length of time while cohabiting, its the committment! -two groups of cohabitors: -sliders: no plan or strategy, move in together eventually -deciders: strategy for marriage, plans about the future
what countries have the lowest fertility rate?
those with extensive old age support
Ontogenetic development
timetable for socialization is set by the physical maturation of the human. Although, socialization and learning are important, the guiding factor is the species specific ontogenetic development
Plural marriages and historical function?
to avoid death, ostracism, and for economic reasons
Why Do We Marry? 3 reasons: signaling device
to state publicly the extent of one's love for the partner
anticipatory socialization
training, skill acquisition, knowledge gathered for future anticipated social role such as spouse or parent
In the 1930's Bertrand Russell (UK) and Margaret Mead (USA) independently argued for:
trial marriage Social stigma largely gone Many churches see as trial marriage
International Context of Cohabitation:
two studies: These cross-cultural studies focus on the local context's impact on union formation patterns Both studies argue: normativeness of cohabitation affects a variety of family transitional events such as fertility, stability and formation patterns
class example of texting and dating
unclear on texting and dating: what is a true date? dating monogamy- should you date more than one person? who should pay for the date? This is a leptokurtic distribution-- males almost always
common law marriage
union of a couple who considers themselves to be husband and wife but has not solemized the relationship with formal ceremony
extraneous factors
variables may influence the dependent variable and should be added as control variables in a correlational design
Much of the work on intergenerational transmission focused on formal education as a key to mobility:
wealthy families can afford an enriched environment for early learning, language and good schools that all aid the child's later success in education and acquiring human capital
hemeneutics
what event means to a person in their time and place- e.g. divorce is different now from 1950s
Elder neglect: Active neglect
when a caregiver refuses to provide the services that the elderly person needs
intergenerational trnasmission of divorce
when both sets of grandparents ever married there are 7 sets of married people per one divorced person -this ratio goes down when divorce occurs
radiating effect of beauty
when dating someone attractive, people believe you must have some positive traits that make you a desirable partner
stats on arranged marriages in cultures condusive to them
when in culture condusive to them- more stable and happier non-condusive: less happy
Elder neglect:self neglect
when the elderly person fails to follow medical directives (intentionally or unintentionally)
Definitions and Context, Important contexts for the study of the "family" Legal definitions :
where the context is enforceable by legislated laws Example of legal def important for family: child custody, common law relationships, immigration to canada to see that "people are reunited with family"
Division of Labor at Home: best indicator of whether relationship is equitable?
who cleans the toilets/ if both do
children of divorced parents more likely to divorce?
yes
do younger or older children experience greater impact of divorce?
younger
Potential Negatives Across the Life Course: Adult children and elder abuse
-Adult children have also been found to be physical, psychologically and financial abusive to their parents, again primarily to mothers -6% of the older general population and a quarter of vulnerable adults report being involved in significant abuse -Reasons for abuse: Caregiver experiencing stress, Depression rates of caregiver twice as high as general population
ADL and IADL
-Assessing an older person's capacity to be able to perform basic self-care is measured by the activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) scales -The ADL scale assesses whether individuals can bathe themselves, dress themselves, go to the bathroom on their own, get out of a bed or chair on their own, walk on their own, get outside, and feed themselves -The IADL scale measures more complex activities, such as one's ability to prepare meals, go shopping, manage money, use the phone, do light housework, and do heavy housework -Difficulties in these areas have been found to be related to age and sex. Increasing age is associated with more difficulties with these tasks, as is being female
Gains and Losses as we age
-Baltes (1987) suggests that there is a proportional shift in the ratio of gains to losses one experiences over the life course -As we age, we may experience more losses than gains
Today, we still find these two distinct schools of thought about experience and forms :
-Behaviorism -Cognition (Piaget) and Language (Chomsky)
Summary of Changes in Canadian Families: Changing age distribution
-Canadian society is aging -Ideal population approximates a pyramid with lots of children and fewer aged -As a result we expect to see increasing dependency ratios representing fewer people in the labor force -The projections, through 2050, support the perspective that it will be a very long time (if ever) before Canada's population returns to a pyramid shape. Indeed, Canada's lower fertility promises to be a long term trend
Hill's ABC-X Model
-Emphasizes systems and the importance of family development across the life course over just looking at individual development -A -the provoking event or stressor -B - the family's resources or strengths at the time of the event -C - the meaning attached to the event by the family -X - represents the stressor and crisis -Hill did not see stressors as either positive or negative but as normative -Stress has the potential to initiate change in the system -Hill's work focused on father returning from combat into the home (WWII). He focused on the family system in a snapshot (specific time). Said fights are a great time to restructure a relationship.
Summary of Changes in Canadian Families: Aging families
-Every society is concerned that its dependency ratio (number under 19 years plus 65 and over/ number 19-64 years of age) not be imbalanced -As couples and individual's age, they are increasingly likely to live alone -By the time people are seventy-five or older, almost 19% of the men and over 40% of the women are living alone
Potential Negatives Across the Life Course: Sibling rivalry
-Form of family abuse seldom discussed -Occurs between siblings
Branching Process of the Life Course
-Imagine your life is a branching process whereby you make choices at various junctures of the process -Each choice has a timing component Examples: your age; duration of time spent in the previous state or stage -If you traverse the life course like the majority of your age cohort, your life course may be normative for your age cohort but disparate with other age cohorts--> Generational difference -Each normative life course may represent what the majority of an age cohort does but it fails to capture the degree of adherence to or variation form that life course
Aging: A Challenge or Opportunity
-Individual aging can be perceived as a challenge or an opportunity, or both -Mid to later life a time involving a shift from a focus on self to a focus on other -Erikson (1950), for example, describes mid-life as being a challenge between generativity and self-absorption and stagnation (inability to find value in guiding the next generation--here life is adequate but unsatisfying) -Late life, according to Erikson, has its own challenge between finding integrity or living in despair (not satisfied by how life turned out)
Marital Interaction: magic ratio
-Marital interaction patterns can greatly affect the quality of a marriage -A 5:1 ratio of positive to negative interactions that is necessary to maintain satisfaction in a relationship
the protection hypothesis and gender differences
-Marriage is more protective of men's health than of women's health -Women tend to have more intimate sources of social support than men do -Men are also more likely to engage in risky behaviours prior to marriage than women are -Thus, women do not benefit as much from a reduction in such behaviours once they are married
Structural Changes in Ethnic Diversity
-Ontario and British Columbia have the highest proportions of immigrant seniors compared to the other provinces and territories in Canada -First Nations and other Aboriginal groups make up about 4% of the Canadian elderly population (Statistics Canada, 2005) -This number is expected to double by 2017 -In terms of the whole population the proportion will still be relatively small (about 7%), however, this will be a significant change for Aboriginal communities--> many aboriginal elderly live in poverty
How do we Understand and Explain phenomena?
-Personal experience - the exception is the rule -Folk wisdom and superstition -Intuition -Science-->How to resolve disputes, Evidence is defined with proper methodology
Origins and Explanations of Harmful Dysfunction in Family: Sociological Approach (MARCO) Culture of violence theory
-Social acceptance of violence leading to a greater prevalence of violence in the family and among individuals -Exposure to violence through violent video games, television programming and sporting events lowers the general conscious toward what is considered a violent act
Models of Marital Change: The emergent distress model
-The emergent distress model assumes that when people get married, they begin their marriage feeling positive about it high levels of love and affection, trust, and intimacy -Over time, negative factors (such as negative interaction patterns) start to chip away at the positive aspects of marriage -From the emergent distress perspective, a person may say, "You aren't as nice as you used to be."
Potential Negatives Across the Life Course: fatal attraction
-When someone is attracted to a certain quality or characteristic of their partner that later ends up being a major irritant to that same person -Much more likely to occur between people who do not share a certain characteristic
two points in lifer that reorganize self-centeredness
-committed long term relationship/ marriage--> sharing, lack of independence etc -having a child--> caring for someone else
example of high sex and low sex rattio
-mainland china -post wartime
Fertility in Canada: Age Specific Fertility
-number of children born to women within a specific age range in a year, Example: 20-24, 24-29
First time mothers and university
-university moms: distribution is more leptokurtic because they have their children in short time frame -non-uni moms: distribution is more platokurtic because they have their children at a range of ages
International Context of Cohabitation: Heuveline and Timberlake
A comparison across 17 nations The more cohabitation is accompanied by fertility, the more it will resemble and compete with marriage as a preferred form of family formation -they note that people across the world cohabit for different reasons: Low cohabitation- italy, spain, poland, alternative to being single: US and New Zealand, alternative to marriage: canada and france
critique of macro-historical theories
Doesn't effectively explain variation in human responses -eg- why do homicide rates change
Love: Lee's six styles (good MC question)
Eros - an intense, physical component Ludus - playful love or game-playing love (e.g., "playing the field") Storge - love based on friendship that grows to lasting commitment Mania - obsessive, possessive love Agape - altruistic and selfless love Pragma - practical love in which a person carefully considers a person's vital attributes (e.g., education level, age) -Men score higher on ludus love than women, women score higher on storge and pragma love
Testing the Conceptual Hypothesis
Find reasonable and sound ways to measure the concepts (validity) Measures must be consistent (reliability) Develop a measure for the relation between two concepts Example: a negative relation or a positive relation; a straight line or a curve -very difficult to do true experiments in sociology, usually do surveys and observations
5 major events in the transition to adulthood:
Leaving home Finishing education Getting a job Being married Having children
LAT Marriages
Living apart together, or LAT marriages (formerly called commuter marriages) - individuals in the marriage live in separate homes, usually in separate cities, often in separate countries, and at times in separate houses in the same neighbourhood Main reason: career advancement of one or both spouses forcing them to live apart (Levin, 2004) Sometimes one partner becomes the "trailing spouse" who relocates several times to "follow" the other partner
Date Rape
Most studies among college and university students. Estimates 15-78% Difficult to get exact statistics because of the ambiguity of the term "rape" Jan Stets 1993 found that date rape and violence are related to the inability to take the role of the other. Antioch College rule.
Potential Negatives Across the Life Course : Conflict
Normal part of any relationship
Why the Negative Outcomes of cohabitation on children?
Other research studies: Earlier sexual initiation, a greater likelihood of teen pregnancy, and lower rates of high school graduation Cohabiting parents may invest less in their parental relationships Higher parental monitoring being associated with later sexual initiation and teen child birth
Communication Model
Sender (select. meaning--> encode--> channel),--> Message (language)---> Reciever (reciever--> decode--> meaning)
Casper and Bianchi (2002) : typology for cohabitation
Substitute for marriage Precursor to marriage Trial marriage Coresidential dating
Exchange Theory Propositions
The formal propositions for exchange theory are as follows (Nye, 1979, p. 6): Individuals choose alternatives from which they expect the most profit. Costs being equal, they choose alternatives from which they anticipate the greatest rewards. Rewards being equal, they choose alternatives from which they anticipate fewest costs. Immediate outcomes being equal, they choose alternatives that promise better long-term outcomes. Long-term outcomes being equal, they choose alternatives that provide better immediate outcomes.
Model of successful aging
Three intersecting circles:Avoidance of disease and disability, high cognitive and physical function, involvement in society (at the epicenter is successful aging)
CHAPTER 10 TEXTBOOK: biological generativity
contributing to society by having children
CHAPTER 6 TERMS: primiparous
first time mothers or couples
wedding ring effect
idea that married or unavilable men are more desirable to women than single or avaliable men
Sociogenic development
it is the availability and experience of particular socializing agents that create developmental outcomes
real divorce rate
lower than 50% probably closer to 25%
marriage type
monogamy or polygamy
how stable are blended/ step families?
more unstable than original marriages
Rules of Marriage: monogamy
only one mate
Research Methods: age effects
outcomes that occur due to one's age or developmental stage
Government influences on family
parental leave from work, access to daycare, one child policy in china, child support, age of marriage, divorce laws
CHAPTER 10 TEXTBOOK: lifetime stability theory
people remain the same throughout their lives (e.g. active when young= active when old)
Measuring Marriage Rates: 2 ways- The general marriage rate
the number of people in a population eligible for marriage restricting the denominator to unmarried women age 15 and older
when do most men buy life insurance?
when they have their first child
Scientific Explanation- covering law
"Covering Law": General propositions that are abstract and universal cover a particular case. They are large in scope e.g. gravity Why did the book fall to the ground? Theory of gravitational force provides the explanation. Why did Bill marry Sue. Because he optimized his exchange.--> this could be a covering law
See text for ABC X and double ABC X model
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See text for circumplex model
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Death Rituals
-"Death rituals are rites of passage that provide formal recognition of the transition from life to death" (Chappell, McDonald, & Stones, 2008, p. 432) -Help family and friends to accept the death of their loved one and provide support so they can continue in life without them -Common options in Canada include burial, cremation, and entombment -Cremation is becoming more and more popular, as it costs less than a traditional burial. -First Nations groups celebrate the "circle of life" and see death as another stage in that circle
Why do Couples Want a Child?
-"Reasons" for fertility are not constant across time, culture and place -Macro-structural causes: the environment, social norms and economic constraints--> We expect fertility to decline in tough economic times or during periods of social upheaval -Micro-individual level causes: "choices" individuals and couples make--> Based on experiences that can be related to macro level phenomenon such as having a stable job or owning a home
Step and Blended Families- Cherlin and effects of step families on children
-'Incomplete institution' (Cherlin, 1978) -Unscripted norms and pathways throughout the life course -Stepfamilies in which a child is born into, have better odds of remaining together as do stepmother families -In Canada, forty six percent of all stepfamilies are blended families -stepfamilies most likely to be found in the US -Stepfamilies may include children from both previously married parents or a child from one of the parents plus the addition of a biological or adopted child to the union -Children raised in stepfamilies do not fare as well as living with two biological parents with respect to numerous areas of social development--> lower outcomes in education, cognitive, emotional, and behavioural measures the differences tend to be modest
Rules of Residence
-(matrilocality-husband lives with wives comminity), patrilocality-wife lives in husbands community) or neolocality-living apart from both of their communities) -Matri-patrilocal: live with both for a certain amount of time Avunculocal - most often groom's mother's brother
Who is doing the abusing of elderly? what situational factors contribute to elder abuse?
-71% of abusers are adult children and spouses -Elderly women are as equally likely to be abused by a child (37%) as by a spouse (36%) while elderly men are most likely to be abused by a child (43%) (National Advisory Council on Aging, 2003-2004) -Risk factors include shared living situations, dementia, social isolation, caregiver mental illness or substance abuse, and the caregiver being dependent on the elderly person (Lachs & Pillemer, 2004)
Changes in the Couple Relationship after birth of a child- what percent of couples experience this decline and what are the consquences?
-75% of couples have declines in their feelings of love and experience less motivation to work on the couple relationship with the birth of the first child -However, some couple relationships improve
Getting Pregnant and Pregnancy and infertility problems in both sexes
-A couples approach to getting pregnant may be indicative of their approach to other phases --> Those initiating sex with the goal of pregnancy compared to those who stop using birth control and let "whatever happen" may be better prepared in other phases of parenthood (relationship enhances) -Infertility Males - lower live sperm count, Females - ovulation disorders, fallopian tube blockages or pelvic inflammatory disease -Canadian rates of involuntary infertility(1990's) = 7% measured over two years of attempts and 8.5% measured over one year (Norris, 2001) More recent studies suggest 16% in 2011.
Effects of Divorce- impacts on the children in childhood and adulthood and the divorced indivuduals across the lifespan
-A recent review on the divorce research from the previous decade shows that both children and adults who go through divorce are negatively affected (Amato, 2010) -Children of divorced parents scored lower on social, emotional, health, and academic outcome measures (compared to children of continuously married parents) (Frisco, Muller, & Frank, 2007) -Adult children of divorced parents are more likely to attain less education, have lower psychological wellbeing , are more likely to report having troubles in their own marriages and are at greater risk of seeing those marriages end in divorce -Divorced individuals, compared with married individuals, exhibit more symptoms of depression and anxiety, more health problems, more substance use, and a greater risk of overall mortality. Comparable for men and women.
End of Life planning
-A time when conflicts may occur, as family members try to determine how the loved one should be cared for at the end of life (Matthews, 2002) -The role of non-kin is often unclear - may be cut off from the loved one and excluded from end-of-life planning. Non-kin may be prevented from seeing elderly person who is dying/ very ill. -This has been a concern among older gay and lesbian couples. They are concerned that their role in their partner`s health care plan will not be recognized by service providers (McFarland & Sanders, 2003)
Canada's history of divorce rates
-According to Statistic Canada only five divorce acts were passed prior to confederation in 1867--> mostly because of Catholic influence in Quebec and the fact that divorce required a parliamentary act -1867 until the first major legislative change regarding divorce: Person would have to petition the government for an Act of Divorce placing it publically in the Canada Gazette as well as two local newspapers. This remained in the paper for a six-month period -Only eleven divorces registered in 1900 in Canada -Until 1968 the only common grounds for a divorce were adultery or after seven years of desertion, THEN 1968 divorce act: granted divorce for couples who had experienced marital breakdown and been separated for 3 years. Grounds for divorce continued to exist. -1985 one year of speration could get you a divorce -
Potential Negatives Across the Life Course :Parenting
-After marriage, the arrival of children may be the next most challenging stage of a family -Couples who had children were more likely to stay together (the good news) but couples who had children also reported a general decrease in marital satisfaction (the bad news)
Application of Aristotles defintion to family
-Application: "Family" -Genus: the family is a social group (such as work groups, peer groups, or friendship groups) -Species: the family is the only form of social group whose membership is achieved through the sexual bond of same generation adults (marriage) and biological reproduction (offspring) Exceptions? adoption
A new stage that occurs for the majority of elderly individuals is widowhood:
-Approximately 30 percent of individuals aged 65 years and older are widowed (Statistics Canada, 2006) -Widowhood occurs more frequently for women than for men -About half of women aged 75 to 79 years are widowed, while only 16 percent of men of this age are widowed -Occurs in part because women marry older men (about two years older on average) and are less likely to remarry (Beaujot, 2000)
Origins and Explanations of Harmful Dysfunction in Family: Sociological Approach (MICRO) Investment theory
-As an person invests more in a relationship over a longer period of time, the harder it is to leave the relationship -Example: why a happily married newlywed couple may be less stable and at risk of divorce than an older unhappy couple as a result of less investment in the relationship like children, assets and social networks
Attraction-Barrier Model of Couple Commitment
-Attractions - the net attractions to the marriage (rewarding aspects minus negative aspects) Example: love for partner -Barriers - restraining forces (both internal and external) that make a person feel they must stay in the relationship Examples: religious beliefs or children -Alternative attractions - a person's net attractions towards their most salient alternative to the relationship Examples: the sum of all of their feelings towards another partner or single life -These act as forces that pull a person out of the relationship -Alternative barriers - the strength of the barriers around leaving the alternative Examples: the mistress gets pregnant, your job requires you to move and your family doesn't want to come along -Commitment to a relationship = the level of attractions to the relationship + the level of barriers to leaving the relationship - (alternative attractions net of barriers around leaving the alternative)
Summary of Changes in Canadian Families: Parenting
-Average family has 3.1 persons -About 44% of families are two-person families, 22% are in three - person families, 21% are in four-person families and the remaining 13% in families with five or more persons -Majority of families (44-66%) are one parent-one child or one parent-two child or two parent-one child families
Psychoanalytic Theories: Freud
-Basic unit of analysis is the individual patient Invariant developmental stages -Each stage is marked by certain developmental adjustments that if not completed successfully, will detrimentally modify all future development -development driven by libido and sexual urges, when one stage isnt completed properly this will detriminetally affect the subsequent ones -Freud's psychosexual development stages: oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latency stage, and genital stage
Historical Context of men-woman relations and equity/inequity
-Benoit (2000) -Gender inequity at different times throughout history -Simple societies: Women equal status with men e.g. hunter gatherers--> with few possesions and no surplus wealth there was not much to differentiate women from men -Small scale farms: Equality relatively intact but Gender roles began to diverge -Large scale farming: Greatest inequity, Men controlled means of production (income and wealth) *Pre-industrial society: Equally hard work for men and women Men greater benefactors of the hard work -Industrial revolution Work and family continued to transform and intersect with one another -Post-industrial society: early mercantalism (women lowest in society) to today.. -as society moved through manufacturing stages women were gaining more power Women making large gains in social status Men's income stagnating; women's growing, but women are still in the more precarious workplace positions -economic structure influences gender equality
Biological Aging: intrinsic and extrinsic factors and three main areas of physiological effects with regard to aging:
-Biological Aging - a process of physical deterioration that occurs over time -Due to internal (intrinsic) factors -Example: loss of lung capacity and brain cells, hardening of our arteries (McPherson & Wister, 2008) -Due to external or (extrinsic) factors -Example: exposure to the sun and loud noise and our personal health habits (diet and exercise) (Health Canada, 2003) -There are three main areas of physiological effects with regard to aging: -Effects on the musculoskeletal system, -Effects on the endocrine system, and -Sensory changes
Is the Family Disappearing?
-Blumberg and Winch (1972) argued that family complexity varied with the economic form of the society-->Hunter-gatherer societies, small mobile family (nuclear family). Pastoral herders could have larger families, but largest linked to domestication of animals and agriculture. Industrial revolution-- linked to nuclear families -Laslett (1972) argued that unless there is strong and compelling evidence to suggest otherwise, family scholars should adopt the "null hypothesis" in regard to family change. The nuclear family will continue to dominate with minor defelctions. Most of recent history is nuclear family form. -Popenoe (1988) argues that the family has undergone defunctionalisation and deinstitutionalization. Functions of family like teaching, daycare, nursing have been claimed by others: now family just provides economic support.There is also more variation than conformity in family behavior -Future families will require supports but the disappearance of the family in some of its forms is unlikely because the institution of the family serves governments well in the nurturance and socialization of citizens and the labor force -the economic costs of raising a child to the age of 18 is shouldered mostly by parents -family is the building block of any society -family bound to survive in 21st cent
Psychological Approaches: Borderline Personality Organization-- explanation for harmful family dysfunction
-Borderline Personality Organization (BPO) -Unstable sense of self, uncomfortable being alone, suffering from abandonment anxiety, having intense anger, being demanding and impulsive and usually connected to substance abuse and promiscuity -Leads to inevitable instability in interpersonal relationships and is often demonstrated in undermining the success of those in close relationships
Bourdieu's Capitals
-Bourdieu clearly argues that social class is announced by consumption -He sees consumption as being tied to economic capital and social capital -Economic capital is what you can afford -Cultural capital is the hierarchy of high to low culture -Culture is more important to a social class than economic capital -he created a chart emphasizing more/less capital volume (economics) and more/ less cultural
Attachment Theory
-Bowlby (1953) originally developed attachment theory -Humans develop a strong an important affectional bond with one consistently present significant caregiver, usually the mother -Argues that human infants need to form secure, affective attachments -Ainsworth measured this impircally -Hazan and Shaver (1987), developed "attachment styles" for adult romantic relationships based on the schema the adult uses to interpret relationships
immigration summarized
-Can help to prevent population decline -Can help to address labour shortages -Countries not favoring increased immigration must focus on pronatalist policies Examples: universal day care, extensive parental paid leave, and payments or tax credits for births
dependency ratio
-Canada's dependency ratio is increasing -It is the ratio of the combined youth population (0 to 19 years) and senior population (65 and older) to the working-age population (20 to 64 years) -Expressed as the number of "dependents" for every 100 "workers" -In other words it is the number of youth (ages 0 to 19) plus the number of seniors (age 65 and older) per 100 workers (aged 20 to 64) -state affects how much money elderly people can expect to recieve . Government can create tax incentives for companies who pay pensions and laws that benefit individual savers
Immigration and Ethnic Diversity in Canada
-Canada's high immigration rates are changing the distribution of ethnic diversity
Work and Family Today
-Canadians are experiencing higher levels of role overload -Direct result of spending more time both at work and with their family -Rise in cohabitation and divorce, increased education, delayed childbearing, and smaller families -More women in paid workforce influenced reduction in family size -Work and family subject to age, period, and cohort effects -need for social support of mothers returning to the workforce -no gender difference between grandparents in providing care by the time they are in their sixties -women spend more time with their children today than they did decades ago --> redcue time spent on housework -workloads of all fathers and mothers indicate gender equality
Nature vs. Nurture debate
-Cannot be truly separated Example: no matter what genetic material a person may have to determine high intelligence, if there is insufficient protein during early life, this potential will not be realized Example: children with low intelligence have much better social functioning when they are raised in a supportive family with ample resources to develop the child's social and analytic skills -another ex) potty training. Children get control of anal sphincter around 18months (ontogenentic) but if they are not shown potty training then they may never develop this capability
REASONS FOR INCREASE in women's labor force participation
-Changing attitudes about life satisfaction -More women available (event timing) -More women with post secondary -Financial need -Increased job opportunity
Summary of Changes in Canadian Families: Family structure
-Changing dramatically in Canada -In 1986, the majority of couples with children (55%) were married couples -In 2006, only 38.7% are married with children -Increases in lone parent families (+ 4.6%) and increases in common law couples with children (+5.0%) -26.2 % of births in Canada are to single never married women, although some of these would be in common law relationships -The average number of children per family type has declined over the last twenty years for all family structures except for common law couples who have remained relatively stable
Protective and Mitigating Factors of divorce:
-Children show little negative affect and may even show improvement if divorce ends a high conflict marriage -Stability for children has been shown to mitigate negative child outcomes (Divorce involves a series of changes and transitions as the family members must adjust and adapt to new residential, custody, economic, and relational environments, Need to reduce number of transitions experienced_ -Maternal parenting style (Major factor in mediating the experience of divorce to the younger children's perceived attachment style)
Potential Negatives Across the Life Course: Relationship formation and jealousy
-Chronic jealousy: Character trait -Relationship jealousy: Situational and predicated on the condition of the relationship -Jealousy is Key cause in 80% of spousal homicides -Penetrates all social positions, intellectual levels, ages, races, and economic strata -Emotional reaction to a perceived threat to an existing relationship
Types of Aging: chronological aging
-Chronological aging - the passage of time -Some events that occur during the life course are based on our chronological age -Example: Canada has a legal drinking age (varies by province or territory), a legal driving age, and a legal voting age
Circumplex Model
-Circumplex model (Olsen) -Stress and conflict in family life doesn't mean that abuse must take place -Proper handling of stress and crisis can actually strengthen a family and help it grow in intimacy -Important dimensions of family functioning identified -Cohesion: Amount of physical and emotional connectedness that a family experiences -Flexibility: Measure of the family's level of comfort with role rigidity Example: a male breadwinner and female caregiver template -Communication: Intersection of the cohesion and flexibility dimensions. Accesses the quality and health of family communication especially in the areas of problem solving and conflict resolution. Allows system to adapt and change -model indicates challenges to family functioning when extreme in one or both of flexibility and cohesion -when working through a problem, family will go through different levels of flexibility and cohesion
Common Reasons for Wanting Children
-Conformity: having children is what you do when you are an adult -Experience: don't want to miss out on the experience of having children -Social Capital: having children adds to the network of relationships an individual has access to (e.g. parents of team mates become life long friends) -Also, Security in Old Age, Entertainment, etc.
Shifting Roles after baby is present
-Cowan and Cowan (2000) suggest that marital roles before children are fairly egalitarian -When the woman becomes pregnant, the couple usually decides on who will take paternity or maternity leave--> Based on who is earning the most salary, need for rest from the labor of child birth, and breastfeeding -For many couples, the decision for the female to take maternity leave rather than the male taking paternity leave seems "rational" -in many cases even egalitarian couples slide into more traditional roles of women staying home and male working longer to compensate
There are three proposed reasons why women report more difficulty with items on the ADL and IADL scales:
-Culturally, it is more acceptable for women to be ill and therefore women are more comfortable reporting such difficulties -Women also use medical services more than men, so difficulties with ADL and IADL tasks are more likely to be detected -Women's roles may in fact be more stressful and therefore there may be more real illness among women (McPherson & Wister, 2008)
Zero Population Growth
-Current rates of fertility Canada cannot expect to maintain their population relative to death past the year 2030 -After we reach zero population growth in 2030, any population growth after that must be tied to immigration (Vanier Institute, 2010) -Ecological and Economic implications - ecological: smaller ecological footprint -economically: see growth in goods and services only if consumer buy increasing amounts because the pop isnt growing larger
Potential Negatives Across the Life Course : Corporal punishment
-Dark elements of child discipline include aggression, antisocial behaviour, psychological distress as well as behavioural issues later in life such as increased delinquency, substance abuse, a greater proclivity to violence and reduced socioeconomic attainment -Effects of corporal punishment may differ across cultural and other subgroups within the population
Summary of Changes in Canadian Families: Marriage
-Declining marriage rates -This change in age at marriage explains some of the decline in marriage because the age cohort in their twenties is delaying marriage -Alternative of cohabitation no longer socially deviant
Biological aging: Sensory Changes--> smell and touch
-Decrease in our ability to smell can cause a loss of interest in food and an inability to smell rotten food (Stevens, Cruz, Marks, & Lakatos, 1998) -A loss in temperature and vibration sensations (touch) (Gescheider, 1997) can lead to slower reaction time to pain and the potential for burns
Dependency Ratios
-Demographers (people who study changes in populations) are interested in the age of a population because this will affect the need for specific types of social supports and resources (e.g., health care) and can help to inform policy-makers on where to allocate resources based on need -Areas of need in a population are measured by examining dependency ratios
Demographic Transition and the Conjugal Family
-Demographic transition theory states that (1) as we move from balanced high fertility/ high mortality of agrarian economies to high fertility /low mortality (industrial) to low fertility/low mortality post industrial societies we will become balanced again. -Parson and Goode argue that this process includes Rural to urban transition Extended to nuclear to conjugal families Parental training to mandatory universaql education Physical capital to human capital Value on family success to individual success
Actual and Desired Fertility
-Desired/Intended Fertility = how many children an individual would like to have -Actual Fertility = how many children an individual has in reality -In developed nations, desired fertility tends to be higher for women than actual fertility -Desired fertility: Canada = 2.4; US = 2.5 -Actual fertility: Canada = less than 2
The Divorce Process
-Different family structures experience divorce differently (Children vs. no children, Blended families) -DVFM (divorce variation and fluidity model) describes an ecology of divorce in which socio-historical, gender, race, cultural values, legal context, and economic conditions are part of the ecosystem in which couples and families must contend with as they go through the process of divorce. Impacts on child and adult wellbeing are present leading up to and after divorce -protective factors influencing adjustement: human and social capitol qualities such as coping and support communities. -risk factors influencing adjustment: pre and post divorce family conflict, finanacial consequences and reality of reduced child-parent contact Potential diversity of pathways in and out of divorce
Difficulties in the Transition to Parenthood for mothers
-Difficulties in the transition to parenthood for mothers was due to four factors: -lack of support for lifestyle other than motherhood -the shift in emphasis from the marital role to mother role -the abruptness of this transition -the lack of guidelines and support for parenthood
Pregnancy: Three trimesters
-Divided in three trimesters (each rough 3 months) -First trimester: -for planners this is a time of joy, for sliders it may be ambiguous Primiparous (first time mothers), time of anxiety since this is the most probable time for miscarriages -Morning sickness -Second trimester: Often reported by women as the most enjoyable Weight and balance are usually not yet a problem and many adjustments to being pregnant have already been made -Third trimester: Preparations such as booking a hospital room, preparing the child's room, and attending prenatal classes
Parson's & Bales view of society and gender inequity/equity
-Division of labour describes how family could be organized as efficiently as industry -Men as breadwinners, fulfilling the instrumental role -Women as homemakers, fulfilling the expressive role -The family was seen as functioning optimally
Divorce in old age and Disrupted Networks
-Divorce also erodes one's support network -The loss is said to be greater for men than for women, as men typically have a smaller support network (friends who they can emotionally talk to and rely on) (Lin, 2008) -Women are often kinkeepers, or the individual in the family who keeps family members connected, so men tend to lose family connections as well -Divorce can also affect grandparent-grandchild relations as it changes the balance of resources (Downs, Coleman, & Ganong, 2000) -Divorce also disrupts family links, making it difficult for adult children and grandchildren to spend time with both parents, especially on holidays
Divorce for older individuals and financial loss
-Divorce in general is more difficult economically for women than for men, because traditionally men are the breadwinners and women are the homemakers depending on their husbands for financial support and women are less likely to form a post-divorce union -Older men also lose financially after divorce because they cannot regain their lost income since they are no longer working (at least not full time) (Keith, 1985)
Summary of Changes in Canadian Families: Divorce and re-partnering
-Divorce rates are no longer as high as in the 1970's, however the rates are still high -Most of these divorces will occur during the early years of marriage -Great majority of divorced people will re-partner in either another marriage or with a common law partner
Double ABC-X Model of Stress
-Double ABC-X Model (McCubbin, Sussman, & Patterson, 1983) -Longitudinal model -Time was added to capture both the multiple concurrent stressors that may be present in the family system as well as stressors that may be occurring sequentially across the life course (like a video- viewing things continuously) -Pile up represents multiple crisis happening at one time such as the birth of a child at the same time as a major housing relocation for work, or a job change concurrent with a child's illness -Relevant cross culturally -pile-up = multiple ABC-X's e.g. pregnancy, loss of job, mom just died -three possible outcomes: -bonadaptive: good adaption -generic adaption -maladaption- poorer adaption
Attributions in Conflict
-During conflict we are generally more motivated to look for reasons for our own and our partner's behaviour than at any other time -View the causes of our behaviour as innocent but will attribute negative motives to our partner's behaviour -Unhappy couples tend to attribute their partners' negative behaviour to internal, stable, and global causes -They also attribute positive behaviour to external, unstable, and specific causes -Happy couples think in the opposite way (Fincham, Harold, & Gano-Phillips, 2000)
Transitions from contraception to to conception
-During your teens and early twenties, most individuals are focused on contraception -A shift commonly occurs with couples in the late twenties and early thirties beginning to shift towards getting pregnant rather than preventing it, they are shifting into the parental role -They switch from not wanting a child to wanting a child -The birth of a child represents one of the major life course transitions -The parent role is dictated by the age of the child and the experiences the child brings to the parent -The child, whether adopted or genetically related, is considered a consanguine (with blood) relative, which makes their relationship to the parent "durable" culturally and legally
David Buss, Sexual Mating Strategy
-Each sex is motivated by the desire to perpetuate themselves through offspring -These strategies are socially developed in order to increase the probability of raising as many healthy offspring to adulthood as possible -Males are more concerned with short term strategies than are women but both must come to consensus in order to survive (men have unlimited reproductive capacity, women have limited reproductive capacity) -Men are more likely to be jealous towards their partners sexual infidelity than they are their emotional infidelity Women demonstrate the opposite pattern. -"The ultimate function of male jealousy is to increase the probability that one's wife will conceive one's own rather than someone else's child"
Early Childhood Care & Education:
-Early childhood education is important -Canada like other OECD countries (organization for economic cooperation and development-- committed to democracy and market economy) -Demographic challenges to an integrated program of early childhood education and childcare (Challenges: young moms in workforce, ethnically diverse population, fertility rate below population level, child poverty)
Theoretical Perspectives Examining the Family: Marx & Weber
-Economic importance of family -Weber Argued close family ties hindered growth of capitalism but the transfer of affintiy with ones kin to one religion through Protestant reformation, individuals could produce goods and services more rapidly. (Weber saw that capitalism arose because of religious beliefs-- people were dedicated to being very hard workers but their religion impacted their world view to not spend any of their hard earned money but to reinvest it into the business).
Never Married people
-Educated women make up the largest proportion of this group -With no economic need for a spouse, decreasing stigma associated with remaining single, and the marriage squeeze as described above, getting an education before getting involved in a serious relationship often leads women to be squeezed out of marriage -NOT lifelong social isolates -Although they do spend less time with their relatives, nevermarrieds have a high rate of co-residency, strong friendship groups , and close ties with their siblings -Never-married individuals usually have no children, although this isn't always the case -Some say that they regret never marrying (Rubinstein, 1987) and some report being lonely, but they generally have high well-being and are spared spousal bereavement and desertion (Pudrovska et al., 2006)
Education and Family Across the Life Course
-Education is the single most important factor in determining future economic well-being, associated with improved health and longer life -Affects variety of life course transitions associated with the family such as marriage, fertility, and divorce -Earlier life events have implications on later life events -Completing education is key event in movement from childhood to adulthood -Young adults extending their time in formal education Created other ripple effects in the life course such as delayed union formation and delayed and reduced fertility
Elder Abuse
-Elder abuse - any act occurring within a relationship where there is an implication of trust that results in harm to an older person -Physical abuse - use of physical force against the elderly person including an inappropriate use of drugs or restraints, or punishing the elderly person for misbehaving -Psychological abuse - verbal threats, intimidation, enforced social isolation, and humiliation -Sexual abuse - any non-consensual sexual contact. This also includes having sexual contact with a person who is incapable of giving consent (e.g., a person with dementia) -Financial exploitation - the illegal or improper use of an older person's funds, property, or assets -Examples: cashing cheques without permission, forging a person's signature, misusing or stealing possessions, coercing or deceiving a person into signing documents not fully understood, and improper use of conservatorship, guardianship, or power of attorney
The Empty Nest
-Empty nest - when children leave the family home to start their own lives and establish their own residences -For most, this is a time of increased satisfaction (Guttman, 1994) -Children leaving the home is called launching -Delayed launching can decrease satisfaction --> parents think that they have failed in some way -As more and more young adults pursue higher education, taking longer to settle into careers and as a result partnering at older ages, launching often does not occur until the children reach their late twenties (Statistics Canada, 2001) -Varies by culture and ethnicity, with many individuals of South Asian, Asian and European descent staying in the parental home well into their late thirties
Positive reasons to remarry in old age include:
-Enlarging your kin network, -Being generally happy with the relationship, -Having increased financial and emotional stability, and -Enhancing relationships with your children (if the children are supportive) since you will become less of a burden to them
Origins and Explanations of Harmful Dysfunction in Family: Sociological Approach (MICRO) Family theory explanations
-Family theory explanations -Treat the family as a level of analysis and not just an aggregate of the individuals in the family (e.g. therapy for families should not involve just the individual-- individual behavior doesnt happen in isolation. Have to look at the family as a unit of analysis. e.g. if the father is sexually abusing his daugher mother likely knows but doesnt tell police bc father would go to prison. -Family development theory Focuses on the systematic and patterned changes that families experience over their life course -Consequences of family transitions, like marriage and childbirth, being out of sequence or off-time from social norms
Theoretical Perspectives Examining the Family: Durkheim
-Family/religion - foundation of societal development -traditional views on Gender interdependence and divorce -he said family will continue to shrink as development continues with extended families turning into Conjugal families (dyad at its focus) and then eventually single parent families -he observed that people were less likely to comit suicide when you have a family- due largely to social capitol and less anomie (social instability, personal unrest)
Potential Negatives Across the Life Course: Newly Weds
-Fear of failure seems to affect most couples -Most marital dysfunction either exists at the beginning of marriages or arises in the first few years"
Decline in Marriage after having a baby
-Feeney et al. (2001) asked first time parents what they disliked most about being parents: 48% = lack of sleep 35% = not knowing what to do -What they liked the best: 45% baby smiling 31% = just having the baby 10% = "being closer to my spouse" -However, most scholars have noted that this transition point is tied to changes in the course of the marriage -Majority of wives were very satisfied with their marriages in the first few years of marriage -After twenty years only six percent were very satisfied
Current Fertility in Canada
-Fertility in Canada is increasing, somewhat -The average first time mother was 29.3, in 2007 -The Total Fertility Rate is 1.7 children/woman, whereas the Replacement Fertility Rate is 2.13--> canada is still very far from maintaining its population through reporduction -Children are also increasingly being born in cohabiting relationships, or to single never married women -In Canada 26.2 % of births are to single never married females versus 61.6% of births to legally married women Births to single never married: 11.6% in Ontario 18% in British Columbia 59.9% in Quebec Over 75% in Nunavut
Post Divorce Relations: Adult children
-Five typologies of divorce (Ahrons, 2007) -Perfect pals (friendly ex-spouses) -Cooperative colleagues -Angry associates -Fiery foes -Dissolved duos (ex- couples that have nothing to do with eachother) -continuing relationship between parents after divorce is very necessary for child well-being -- better relationship with parents, step-parents, grandparents and siblings
Belsky, Spanier and Rovine panel of married couples study
-Followed a panel of married couples across three time points in the transition: -Pregnancy, 3 months postpartum and 6 months postpartum -Statistically significant declines in regard to many of their measures of marriage were in evidence for both husbands and wives with the first birth -Another study Followed married couples from pregnancy to three years post partum -Wives report relationship decline: Decreased love, increased amount of perceived conflict, less effort on relationship maintenance, and ambivalence about the marriage -Husbands showed declines in all areas except perceived conflict -Good news - while 75% of new parents reported decline, 25% of their sample either stayed the same on measures or improved -found that results were linear with no signs of improvement after 3 yrs postpartum
Summary of Changes in Canadian Families: Dating
-Global dating patterns will increasingly become romantic, voluntaristic and autonomous -Some Canadians begin dating as early as ten years of age and there are others that are in their mid-twenties and never dated
GOTTMAN
-Gottman, Markman, and Notarius (1977) and later by Gottman (1979). Their approach is to test the contingencies between spousal verbal and nonverbal messages over time using a series of contingent probabilities (a discrete-state Markov chain). They found that the emotional affect carried in nonverbal messages is a better discriminator of distressed from nondistressed couples than more traditional verbal measures such as spousal agreement. - Gottman claims that researchers can now predict with great accuracy whether relationships will fail or not
Raising Grandchildren
-Growing trend for the elderly to take on the responsibility of raising their grandchildren as primary caretakers -Not normative (Stepan, 2003) and may occur for a number of reasons: -The biological parents may be in trouble with the law, have addictions, be dead or ill, or be teen parents who are unable to cope with the demands of parenting
Barriers to Egalitarianism
-Hard to shake idea that baby's care is women's work -Men clearly expect wives to be competent with babies from the start -Women discourage men from becoming too involved and competent with the baby -The more men take an active role in child care the greater the negative feedback from his parents - The economic of the workplace and quality stay care encourage women to stay home and men to work.
Bronfenbrenner's (1979) Social and Ecological Model of Development
-He asserted that the child did not develop alone but always in interaction with another human, smallest unit we can study the child is in the dyad -Believed development is an outward movement of the child's interaction and increasing competence with levels of interaction -Child is gradually and systematically exposed to an expanding and increasingly complex set of interactions (the chronosphere)
Biological aging: Sensory Changes-->Hearing and sleep loss
-Hearing loss can lead to social isolation and depression as the individual is not able to participate fully in group discussions (Murray et al, 2006) -Older adults also report sleep difficulties (Dowling, 1995) -May compensate by taking naps, but one aspect of sleep called "slow wave" sleep declines as we age (Weiten & McCann, 2007). Loss of this type of sleep does not allow an individual to wake up feeling refreshed from a good night's sleep -Other sleep disorders that occur with age include respiratory problems, sleep apnea, and restless leg syndrome (American Nurses Association (1995)
Potential Negatives Across the Life Course: Intergenerational issues
-High rates of union dissolution and remarriage in the past have obvious implications for current marriage patterns -Abusive behaviour has also been linked to intergenerational influences
Cohabitation and marriage: impacts of education- who does education impact more?
-Higher education consistent with improved communication and problem solving skills which help with entering and maintaining relationships -Higher education benefits men more than women, higher educated women have prepared for careers that are less flexible and more demanding -- less compatible for finding partner and having a career. -Highly educated are more likely to marry rather than cohabit -Higher educational attainment associated with delayed entry into committed unions
Homicide in Families
-Homicide is an event that often has family connections -Young children under 1 year old are the most likely family members to be killed -Boys and girls are equally likely to be fatal child abuse victims -The act predominantly takes place at home -More often when in the solitary or temporary care of a parent, typically the (step) father -family is the place where the most trauma takes place, high murder rates within families
Modernization Theory cont.
-Horticultural and agricultural societies favored stable, immobile family units. Large families could supply labour for the family farm. Elderly could take care of young while mothers and fathers laboured. -children were economic assets-- there is value in their work -In industrial society, mobility becomes important again as people move to be near factories. Elderly and children become economic liabilities. They dont provide any labour for you. Fertility declines as standards of child rearing become professionalized. -elderly are maginalized since they are no longer needed as much, pushed into care facilities. -canada's child average: 1.6, declining fertility rate in 95% of the population
Division of Labor at Home: The "second shift"
-Hours -Economic value -women work twice as much as men do if you include work outside and inside the home. Men not compensating for having their wives in the workforce at the time of this study (1989) -since then, equity has been more achievable
Caregiving to the elderly- percentages of males/females that provide care and typical age of caregivers
-In 2006, about 21% of women and 16% of men provided care to an elderly individual -Individuals aged 45 to 54 years are most likely to provide care (Vanier Institute of the Family, 2010) -Many of these individuals are also providing care to their children - referred to as the sandwich generation -Most caregivers report coping "very well" (54%), many said they were "managing" (42%), and others reported giving up their own social activities (34.7%) and spending less time with their spouses (17.5%) and their children (15.1%) as a result of caregiving (Vanier Institute of the Family, 2010) -The majority of caregivers are in mid-life, partnered (married or common law), employed, and female
Remarriage and Repartnering (Ahron's Binuclear Family)- percentage rates of repartnering after marriage
-In Canada, about 40% of marriages end in divorce, 50% in US The Vanier Institute of the Family (2010) states that the majority of Canadians will go on to repartner after a divorce or separation -After three years, approximately one quarter (26%) of the women and more than a third (37%) of men re-enter conjugal unions -After five years those numbers climb to 36% and 51%. -Twenty years later 69% of women and 82% of men have entered into committed relationships at least a second time -Remarried couples are both less likely to communicate in both a positive and negative fashion than first married couples (More likely to withdraw in conflict (Halford, Nicholson, & Sanders, 2007) -Remarried couples tend to be more egalitarian and more autonomous in decision making about finances and childrearing (Allen, Beaucom, Burnett, Epstein, & Rankin-Esquer, 2001)
Fertility and Miscarriage
-In addition to infertility problems, problems of conception and miscarriage are associated with mother's age -Rates of miscarriage are 50 per 1000 married women in their early twenties but increase exponentially to over 450 per 1000 after forty five years of age -A woman in her late thirties has almost triple the risk of miscarriage as a twenty year old -In 2007, Canada's average age of first time mothers was 29.3 years of age -Some of Canada's lowered fertility will be due to biological problems of infertility and miscarriage associated with delays of child bearing -fertility drops significantly after early 20s and spontaneous abortions increase significantly after age 39
Biological aging: Endocrine System
-In the endocrine system, during later ages, a water imbalance in the kidneys may occur due to a malfunctioning hypothalamus (Gormly, 1997) -Adrenal glands also decrease the production of sex hormones (Murray et al., 2006) -Menopause begins between the ages of 45 and 55 years in women -Men, too, experience decreases in testosterone levels beginning in their twenties
Changing Canadian Socio-Cultural Context: Women in the labor force
-In the last 50 years a massive increase in women participating in the labor force -Ramifications of women's increased participation rates for Canadian society: 1) In order to gain increased access and career mobility, higher level of education is needed As a result, women's attendance at post-secondary institutions increased during these years 2) Women delayed marriage as a result of both prolonged education and early career commitments 3) Changing exchange patterns in couples and families
Retirement
-In the past, retirement was viewed as a negative event -Purpose of life (especially for men) was diminished since they were no longer in the workforce -No longer true -Early retirement is now seen as a worthwhile goal -Greater retirement income makes it possible for some workers to quit earlier than the established standard retirement age of 65 years. -Typically, people choose to retire earlier rather than later (Statistics Canada, 2003) -For an elderly couple, this can be a challenging time -More time available to spend together can lead to irritation or to greater intimacy (Chappell et al., 2008) Many housewives, however, report less freedom as they increase couple activities at the expense of individual ones --> men are seeking greater companionship and time spent together -Married women tend to retire earlier than unmarried women -Due to economics (having adequate income saved) as well as to the age of their spouse (women tend to retire around the same time as their husbands do, although this trend is in decline) -Older couples also may reduce their work hours -According to the Vanier Institute of the Family (2010), 11% of older men and 28% of older women worked part-time in 2006 -retirement for current elderly cohort is less meaningful--> most of them were housewives while their husbands are retiring the domestic work doesn't stop
Potential Negatives Across the Life Course: Adolescent issues
-Increased stress and conflict -Gendered nature of family adolescent conflict Parental conflict with daughters was higher than with sons (likely because of greater expectation for daughter's participation in household upkeep, this is a traditional double-standard-- greater likelihood of conflict with daughters than with sons because of this) Mother daughter conflict was more prevalent than other dyads
Individual Aging
-Individual aging - the biological, physiological, psychological, and social changes that occur over the life cycle -Example: the greying of one's hair and the development of dementia -These changes have an impact on the elderly individual as well as on his or her family members, in both positive and negative ways
Changing Class Characteristics
-Industrial limits are now set by the market, not by labor and production limitations Bourdieu (1984) -Consumption, rather than production, determines social class -"Tastes" are important in maintaining one's social class -"Habitus" : Early in life children acquire basic habits that are so ingrained that they will later seem "natural" or almost "inborn" Equips the child with immediate reflexive behavior Example: saying "please and thank you"
Coping is also dependent on one's locus of control:
-Internal locus of control - the belief that control over life events resides within oneself -External locus of control - belief that life outcomes are due to fate, chance, God, or other people --> responds defensively to a problem or deny it exists -Individuals in later life with an internal locus of control tend to have higher well-being and a more positive view of themselves (Karren et al., 2006)--> confront problems directly and more responsibility for their own lives. -However, when the cause of stress is something that cannot be controlled (e.g., a life-threatening disease such as cancer), individuals with an internal locus of control have lower well-being than those with an external locus of control because they cannot actually control the outcome!
Who is Old?
-Intragenerational diversity within the elderly group -Subcategories include: -The young-old comprise those individuals ages 65 to 74 years, -The old-old are ages 75 to 84 years, -The oldest-old are ages 85 and older -We can measure "old" by chronological age (one's age in years) or by functional age (one's age measured by competence or performance)--> this can be lower or higher than chronological age -We can also think about "old" in terms of life expectancy, or the number of years an individual born in a particular year (cohort) can expect to live
Generativity: major life task for the older adult (Kotre)
-Kotre (1984) also talks about generativity as a major life task for the older adult -He expands generativity to four primary areas in life: -Biological generativity, where people contribute to society by having children -Parental generativity involves nurturing and socializing children (which may or may not be biological) -Technical generativity involves contributing by teaching skills to the next generation -Cultural generativity involves passing on cultural values and traditions to the next generation -A person can be generative in one or all of these areas
Changing Pathways and Emerging Alternatives: LAT families
-LAT's 'living apart together' -Newer form of couple relationship that is on the rise in Europe for both cohabiting and married couples
Labor Force and women- current stats
-Labor Force Participation doubled from 1961 to 1996--> 29% to 58% -Today there are about 15,411,200 in the labour force (2002, Cansim II, Stats Can) -Of these 81% are full time -41.2% of full time are women as opposed to 58.8 men -Women compose 68.8% of part time labor -Women continue to earn 70-90% of men's earnings this is largely because of Women career selection (often lower paid) and wages (gender gap) and Childbearing and wages (the more time you take off/ switch between jobs has detrimental outcomes on your salary)
Non marital cohabitation
-Late adolescence and early adulthood bring increased opportunities to form intimate relationships outside your kinship structure Historically, marriage would be the next step but not so in the 21st century The rise of non-marital cohabitation has been one of the most important trends in the study of the life course of the family Cohabitation has moved from being viewed as a deviant form of union formation to the preferred social norm that precedes marriage
Religions and Family Influence on Couple Formation, Fertility, and Marital Control:
-Late nineteenth century, simultaneous decline in fertility across the European continent -Led to resources being directed toward the study of fertility -fertility higher among catholics than among protestants -highest percentage of socialist votes had largest decline in fertility, those that voted for confessional party had the smallest decline
women and divorce rate: participation or salary?
-Likewise our research also showed that rising divorce rates lead to increased female labor force participation. There are probably two reasons for this relationship. First, women who have experienced divorce enter the labor market to offset the lost income and wealth that accompanies divorce. Second, a rising divorce rate sends a signal to married females that the probability of remaining married for lifetime is declining and they must reduce the risk of a potential divorce. With rising divorce rates, females will substitute away from nonmarket activities (housework and child rearing) to market activities (work). -This year we finished another study about the relationship between divorce and female income using micro data. This study used census data between 1990 and 2000 and tracked 112,740 women, 16,760 of them were divorced while 95,980 of them were married. We controlled for 64 other socioeconomic variables such as race, education, profession, and number of children. We found that as females experience greater levels of success in the labor market, they also experience higher divorce rates. As the wife's earnings become a larger portion of family income, we also found that the probability of divorce increased. -A woman who earns more than her spouse is roughly five times more likely to divorce. Her wages increase her independence and her barriers to leaving the relationship are lessened.
Origins and Explanations of Harmful Dysfunction in Family: Sociological Approach, Culture of violence theory (MARCO)
-Macro explanations -Societal influences for why families behave poorly towards one another -Prevailing ideologies for violence, sanctions on violence, how violent society is in which we live -greater exposure to violence through media and sporting events lowers reaction to violence -patriarchy is perpetuated within the family --> facilitates the abuse of power between men and women and leads to detrimental family behavior. Women are vulnerable to men who seek to gain and maintain control and power through abusive behavior.
government policies and retirement
-Mandatory retirement of older workers first instituted in Germany in the 1880's -People are now living longer and healthier lives -Canada removed mandatory retirement laws from the books -Income in retirement is usually made up of a variety of sources -Personal savings, work related pensions, and government pensions -Each of these sources of funds are also affected by the state
Amato's predictors of divorce (9)
-Marrying before age 20 -Low socioeconomic status -Periods of unemployment -Cohabitation -Premarital birth -Stepchildren, more divorce unless new baby conceived -Interracial marriage -Growing up in home without two continuously married parents -Second and higher order marriages (marriages after 1st marriage)
Returning to the Nest
-May occur due to the children's separation or divorce, job loss, or simply an inability to "make it" on their own -Called boomerang children -Sometimes, children never leave but rather establish their new families as co-residents in the family home called a cluttered nest -According to the Vanier Institute of the Family (2010), 60.3% of adult children aged 20 to 24 years and 26% of adult children aged 25 to 29 years lived in the parental home in 2006. -Approximately 34.7% of boomerang children return home to attend school, 24% return for financial reasons, and 10.5% return due to a relationship ending
Relation of Social Class to Parental Discipline
-Melvin Kohn -Over time, social class has been related to child discipline techniques. -Is social class partially transmitted intergenerationally by means of disciplinary techniques? -Regardless of whether it is permissiveness (1950's) or physical discipline (1930's), Kohn argues that social class usually predicts parental discipline.
Rothman's view of society and gender equity/ inequity- men and womens roles during 19th cent
-Men began to work in city factories rather than home in 19th cent. -Women relegated back to the home where they looked after borders or did laundry for extra income
Symbolic Interactionism
-Mind, Self and Society (1934) a foundation to much of the child's development as a social being (based on the book of Mead) -Identified two crucial sequential stages in development for learning how to play a social role in the world: -Play stage - child learns how to take on and play a social role (often social role) -Example: A young girl might play mommy to her dolly -Child gradually learns that there are a range of expected and approved behaviors and unacceptable and sanctioned behaviors -Game stage - child learns that roles are always an organic and dynamic part of a larger social organization (learns to play with others) -Child learns that several roles could be performed -Child learns that they may take on multiple roles and thus have complex identities
Intergenerational Transmission of Social Class: how does transmission occur?
-Mobility and Endowments, Example: financial transfers -Physical endowments Example: IQ, athleticism -Human capital, Example: knowledge/skills -Cultural capital, Example: cultural practices
There are three major components that affect the aging of a population:
-Mortality or death rates in a population, -Fertility or birth rates in a population, and -Migration or movement of people internally (within country) and externally (between countries) -When at least 10 percent of a population is over 65 years of age, the population is considered "old" -We can also examine the median age of a population -In 2006, the median age in Canada was 39.5 years (Statistics Canada, 2007)
Parenting Young Children
-Most developmental sociologists study parenting as it pertains to the young child from infancy through elementary school years -Parents increasingly lose control over rewards and the environment opens to influences from peers and media -Child outcomes: Child compliance - response to the directions from responsible adults such as parents, teachers, care givers, and authorities. This is critical in early childhood before the child can reason and understand the weight of consequences. Child achievement - social and academic. Develop friends and good relations as well as good grades
Alternative Care
-Most new mothers return to work within one year of the birth -This makes feeding the baby with breast milk more difficult -Intensifies the gender specialization and traditional roles that move many couples further from an egalitarian division of labour -Which may have positive or negative outcomes in the marriage -many mothers have to express their milk to be stored so it can be fed to the baby whenever. The most convenient idea would be to have work site infant care facilities but these are few and far between.
First Time Mothers by Age and Education
-Mothers with post-secondary education are delaying their fertility longer than mothers with no university -Another major factor is economic well-being: "...those who expect to have children, attach more emphasis to job security, career advancement and home ownership. Hence, those who want children express greater desire to set up an environment that is suitable to have children" (Mitchell and Gray, 2007, p.38) (based on sample of Australian couples) -fertility in women aged 30-34 is actually greatest (over women 25-29) in 1961
Determinants of divorce:
-Multiple ecological level variables -Macrostructural influences: -Legislative changes - no-fault divorce laws -Decreasing importance of family -Women's increased labour force participation--> rise in individualism *-Life course and demographics -More complex family forms and secondary marriages at greater risk for dissolution -intergenerational transmission of divorce -Cohabitation, premarital pregnancy, childbirth, low age at marriage--> inc likelihood for divorce -parents of sons less likely to divorce than parents of daughters (greater father involvement shown to reduce divorce) *-Family process -Parental divorce--> more family income = less divorce but more women work force participation = more divorce -most divorces follow a rational choice or exchange theory approach--> couples with high cost of divorce because of the presence of children or low alternatives bc of age or employment status are less likely to entertain idea of divorce.
Biological aging: Musculoskeletal Effects
-Musculoskeletal effects include losses in muscle mass and bone density as we age (Bee, 1998) -Process begins between the ages of 20 and 30 years! -Exercise can help to reduce muscle loss and the rate of bone decline. Weight-bearing exercise, in particular, builds muscle, increases bone density, improves balance, maintains weight, and lubricates joints (Blumenthal, et al., (1991)
Potential Negatives Across the Life Course : Cohabitation
-Negative correlates of cohabitation as it relates to union formation -Premarital cohabitation increases the odds of later marital dissolution -Cohabitation as a relationship status is also correlated to higher rates of partner violence -Majority of men who fatally abused their children (81%) were cohabiting with the child's birth mother -Cohabitation makes it more likely that couples with more risks will stay together than if they were just dating
Summary of Changes in Canadian Families: Mate selection and cohabitation
-No longer one simple path that people follow in mate selection (e.g., dating-->engagement-->marriage) -Cohabitation -Majority of women between 20-29 years of age will have at least one cohabiting partner -Cohabitation is increasing as a post-divorce alternative to marriage -Cohabitation as a new stage of mate selection -Stage that allows couples to have a "trial marriage" to see if there is role compatibility in the crucible of a living together situation -Common law relationships are used by some as an alternative marriage, by others as a prelude to marriage, and by still others as a living arrangement without longer term goals
Fewer incentives to remarry in older age:
-No need to conform to life cycle timing for marriage, Not going to have children together, and -Older individuals may feel the need to protect their estate (and sometimes there is strong pressure from the family to do so!) (Talbott, 1998)
Desired Family Size
-Not clear why this discrepancy exists (between actual and desired fertility) -Difficult to know the reason behind remaining childless--> Voluntary vs. Involuntary childlessness -this may be the result of an attitudinal change, think you want kids when youre young but then your mind changes -after trying to concieve for 12 months most people changes their minds to not wanting children -Desired family size appears to be a poor predictor of actual family size -may be related to steadiness of the peoples jobs
Intergenerational Transmission of Social Class- where is mobility possible and what type of status' hinder/ help achieve mobility?
-OECD report by Cristina d'Addio (2007): -Intergeneration income mobility is higher for Nordic countries, Canada and Australia -Lower in countries such as the United States, Italy and the United Kingdom -Intergenerational mobility: Ascribed status - tied to the status one is born with (e.g. caste system) Achieved status - available through work or affirmative action programs
Ageism
-One challenge that the elderly face is ageism - the stereotyping of older persons -Usually negative but may be positive. -Ageism is thought to be the result of our fear of and vulnerability to our own aging and eventual death (Martens, Goldenberg, & Greenberg, 2005) and due to the separation of young and old cohorts in society --> less true of aboriginal groups
Wisdom and aging
-One of the "gains" in later life is the development of wisdom -Wisdom - the ability to apply knowledge of life events and conditions to make optimal decisions when trying to solve life problems -Older people may be better at foreshadowing problems (problem finding) and problem solving due to their vast life experiences (Dixon, 2000)--> esp. in first nations communities
Parental Disciplinary Techniques: Spanking
-One of the most discussed areas of parenting Example, spanking: -Heightened aggression shown in children that have been spanked -However, only correlational data (not experimental data) exists -Due to clear ethical issues, Causation cannot be determined -the dependent variable spanking can be confused between prosocial aggression (positive: when another person is being attacked) and antisocial aggression (aggressive behaviour intended to harm person or property) -conditional spanking: spanking with another form of punishment like time out
Divorce in Later Life
-Only about 5 to 6% of the elderly are divorced and 10 to 13% of those aged 65 years and older have experienced a divorce in their lifetime -We expect these rates to increase as younger cohorts move into later life, since there is more acceptance of divorce today than in the past -For many older individuals, there are few benefits to divorcing -Without the need or desire to remarry, the costs of a formal divorce may outweigh the benefits -often older individuals separate and simply live as separate individuals
Potential Negatives Across the Life Course: Date Rape & Sexual Coercion
-Over 80% of Canadians 20-24 years have engaged in sexual intercourse at least once -North American research shows that among those ages 20 to 24, males have a higher average number of partners (3.8) than females (2.8) -Ten percent of young women aged 18-24 who have had sex before age 20 report that their first sex was involuntary -The younger they were at first intercourse, the higher the proportion -Regardless of whether sexual coercion is physical or nonphysical, women who have been sexually coerced by an intimate partner experience negative physical and psychological consequences
Parenting Styles (4)
-Parenting styles can be organized through categories: Authoritative, authoritarian and permissive, "Uninvolved" However, parental techniques are clearly developmental in that they depend on the age of the child, the immediate environment and the duration and development of the relationship
Potential Negatives Across the Life Course: Violence
-Percentage of those in grade 6 through 12 who have engaged in dating violence has ranged from 7% to 51% for both victimization and perpetrator -In DuRant et al.'s (2007) study with a representative sample of 3900 college students found that among men, date fight victimization was associated with early onset of alcohol consumption, current tobacco and amphetamine use, and recent threats of physical violence -Female victims of date fighting were more likely to have been victims of other violence, to have had multiple sex partners, to have had a history of heavy alcohol consumption, and to have used illegal drugs
Population Aging
-Population aging - the distribution of a population's age structure -A population is "old" when it contains a large proportion of elderly people (individuals 65+ years of age) -In 2006, 13.7% of Canada's population were elderly individuals (Statistics Canada, 2007) -In comparison, in 1981 the elderly made up only 9.6% of Canada's population. -It is expected that by 2026, the elderly will make up approximately 21.2% of our population (Statistics Canada, 2006)
Worldwide Population Aging
-Population aging is a worldwide phenomenon -Many populations have slow growth or no growth, meaning that the rate at which children are being born into a population is not replacing or is barely keeping up with the rate of people leaving a population (through mortality or migration) -This phenomenon is split according to development -More developed countries, such as Canada and the United States, have an aging population -Less developed regions, such as Africa and Latin America, have "younger" populations since they have higher fertility rates and a shorter life expectancy--> but this is expected to decline and life expectancy is suspected to increase -italy has highest % of seniors while mexico has the lowest
Dating Now and in the Past- what were original goals?
-Prior to the 1920s, dating was closely regulated by chaperones -Dating was considered serious/a commitment to marriage -After World War I, dating was less supervised this became the "golden age of courtship" between 1920-1960 -It became a rite of passage -Goals were to refine gender roles, status, and identity--> led to high rate of marriage, low age of marriage -Four stages: casual dating, steady dating, engagement, and marriage (Nett, 1988) -Beginning in the 1960s, women gained more freedom -Traditionally men were the initiators, planners, and payers for dates, today women have more of a direct role in these processes now -Much less formal -Group activities/"hanging out" became commonplace -Technology has become a source for meeting individuals -The goal of dating has shifted to having fun and meeting new people
Problems with stress and three basic types of coping associated with positive emotions during chronic stress:
-Problems with stress: When individual gets too stress Thymus stops producing T cells which are needed to fight viruses and bacteria. Stress also decreases cognitive ability ie attention, concentration, memory,judgement -Positive reappraisal - when an individual tries to focus on the good aspects rather than the bad -Problem-focused coping - when an individual focuses his or her thoughts and behaviours on things he or she can do to manage or resolve the underlying cause of the stress -Creating positive events for oneself Example: take pleasure in a beautiful day or have a good laugh
Kohn's Model of the Intergenerational Transmission of Social Class
-Proposes an explanation for the long term association between physical discipline of children with its emphasis on obedience and compliance with lower socio-economic status homes -high SES more likely to value creativity and autonomy -the difference in their jobs (differing congitive complexity and creativty vs punching a time clock and following rules) will create differences in their values. -high SES: value creativty -low SES: value obedience -Kohn's theory is that the replication of social class is complex and would involve aspects of Bourdieu's "habitus" but that occupational conditions and values on intellectual flexibility is more proximally related to parenting techniques -Kohn's model identifies the link between how we are raised, school, work and the values we transmit to our children
Psychological Theories: Piaget
-Psychological theories are mainly "curiosity driven" theories rather than "treatment driven" (as was the case for psychoanalysis) Piaget (1952): -Child's cognitive and perceptual development relied on invariant stages that had to be experienced and learned before the next stage could be experienced -Issues with Piaget's theory: -Did not envision a flexible sequence but only a lock step sequence -Did not take into account that some elements of a stage may be experienced on time while other elements might be delayed Sensorimotor: 0-2. Differentiation of object from background and object permamence Preoperational: 2-7. Vocal and written language and nominal grouping Concrete operational: 7-11. conservation of matter and odrinal series Formal operational 11+ Formal symbolic logic and manipulation of symbols
National Survey of Family Growth, Teachman studied marriages over a 35 year time frame (1950-1984)
-Race: Blacks more likely to divorce than whites -Age at marriage: earlier marriages less stable (less than 20) -Education (higher education less divorce but also poorly educated tend to have less divorce- curvilinear relationship) -Premarital births and conception (higher divorce rates because of social external pressure) -Religion and parental divorce (ultra-religious= less divorce, protestants divorce rate are same as general population)
Divorce and separation: relation to education
-Relationship of education with decreased levels of divorce and separation -recent research may suggest curvliniear relationship: low levels of divorce at no education level and at very high education level -Increased female education decreasing the economic benefits of marriage for them
Chatters and Taylor (2005) list the following general links between religion and family behaviour:
-Religion condemns certain forms of behavior and promotes specific beliefs and practices that are conducive to family solidarity and assistance; -It provides a framework for beliefs, norms and practices that reinforce the fulfillment of certain family roles; -It gives guidelines for the handling of life difficulties and conflicts between family roles; -It fosters positive feelings that promotes certain family characteristics; -Religious settings provide benefits and support for families
Religious/Family Socialization:
-Religious convictions and customs are strongly held beliefs that are carried forward by groups through religious socialization -Process is facilitated by two primary institutions: -Formal religious authorities -Families that embrace the religious teaching -three abrahamic-based religions: Chistianity, Judaism and Islam -warm and caring families more likely to pass on religuious beliefs and single-income family structures also aid this -but there is conflicting evidence
Remarriage in Later Life
-Remarriage rates are higher for men than for women (Calasanti & Kiecolt, 2007) -Due to a marriage squeeze -An imbalance in the sex ratio can make it difficult for older women to find new partners. Since women live longer than men (Statistics Canada, 2002) and men tend to marry women younger than themselves, older women often are squeezed out of marriage (Chappell et al., 2008) -Generally, those in poor health, those with poor finances, and the very old do not remarry
Potential Negatives Across the Life Course: Incest
-Reports of male incest lower -Could be because they are less likely to tell
Marital and Family Communications
-Researchers in the 1960s had been guided by the early work of Bateson et al. (1956). Following in this tradition is the work by the MRI group of Watzlawick, Beavin, and Jackson (1967). -Scholars in psychology led by Mehrabian and Wiener (1968) in Non-verbal. -Gottman's work remains strongly moored to the measurement of behavior rather than attitudes and beliefs. -Communication, Conflict and Marriage, Raush, Barry, Hertel, and Swain (1974) developed the sender-receiver model as a system of contingencies.
Summary of Changes in Canadian Families: Social change in timing norms
-Rise of premarital cohabitation illustrates a more general proposition in regard to social change -All institutional norms apply to the individuals participating in those institutions but any one individual participates in several institutions -Examples: work, family, education, religion, polity, etc. -As long as the timing and sequencing of these various institutions are aligned and articulated with one another, there should be no ``pile up`` of role demands -Social change comes about because these various institutions are always adjusting to changes in the composition of populations and the environment -When social change is most rapid the pile up of stressors on individuals may be enormous and often the only recourse is some form of deviance to one or more sets of institutional norms
What causes some elderly individuals to be depressed while others feel happy? (7)
-Ryff (1995) proposed seven key dimensions of well-being: -Positive self-evaluation and self-acceptance, -Positive relationships with other people, -Having autonomy and self-determination, -Having mastery over one's environment, -Effectively managing one's life, -Having a sense of purpose, and -Having a feeling of growth and development as a person -Among older individuals, environmental mastery and autonomy are higher but purpose in life and personal growth are lower than for younger adults (Ryff, 1995)
Social changes over the past 100 years that have made divorce normative:
-Secularization and modernization -The increased rate of women in the paid work force allowed women to reduce their economic dependency on a bread winning partner -Women no longer required to remain in unfulfilling marriages just for financial security -no -fault divorces: divorce is not either person's fault (in US, Canada, Australia)--> divorce is highest in US.
Myths of Aging
-Senility is a normal part of the aging process -Most older people are lonely -Most older people are sick -Most older people are victims of crime -The elderly become more religious as they age -Most older people are non-productive -People who retire experience a decline in health and die quickly after retirement -Older people have no interest in and lack the ability for sex
Biological aging: Sensory Changes--> vision
-Several changes in vision can occur: -A reduction in our ability to make tears can lead to "dry eye" syndrome -Yellowing of the lenses can make distinguishing between colours such as green and blue or yellow and white difficult (Murray et al., 2006) -Weakened eye muscles can lead to limitations in eye rotation (and thus have effects on peripheral vision) -A loss of sensitivity to light can make it difficult to drive or to read a menu in a dimly lit restaurant
Marriage and Happiness- declines in marital happiness associated with? increases in marital happiness associated with?
-Several terms have been used interchangeably in the literature: marital happiness, marital adjustment, marital satisfaction and marital quality. associated with less marital happiness -Amato, Johnson, Booth, and Rogers (2003) - declines in marital quality were associated with premarital cohabitation, job demands, and extended work hours of the wife -Increases in marital quality were associated with increased economic resources, equalitarian attitudes, and support for the idea of lifelong marriage -Increases in the husbands' share of housework made the husbands feel worse about their marriages but made the wives feel better!
Divorce and Cowan and Cowan study
-Six years after Cowan and Cowan study began: 20% new parents divorced 50% childless couples divorced 4% of intervention group couples
Work and Family Across the Life Course
-Social, economic, and demographic transformations affect work and family -Dual earner family now the norm- familys dependent upon two paycheques to maintain standard of living -women outnumber men in university -Women remaining in workforce after arrival of children -Trend towards non-standard employment (outside of monday to friday 8-5)--> some people are working fewer hours than they would like and some are working more than they would like causing a "cancelling out effect"
Summary of Changes in Canadian Families: Micro-macro changes
-Societies cannot have social institutions such as education, family, and work organized so that independent demands pile up or aggregate at a specific point in the life course -Examples: buying your first house, having your first child, getting married, graduating from university and starting your first full time job all at the same time -The pile up of stressful events would be very difficult if not impossible -Benefits of relatively strong and clear social norms about sequencing and timing-->Usually these events are not all expected at once -Societies that experience platykurtic distributions of norms --> May find that individuals are awash in role stress and problems with time management
American Theoretical Perspectives Examining the Family: Zimmerman
-Society not as linear but cyclical -Observed Power family has over its members and three types of families: -Trustee family (locus of power in kinship connections) -Domestic family (balance of power exists between the family and other social institutions) -Atomistic family (strong individualism and weak influence of family on its members) -steady loss of families functions to corporations and government
Origins and Explanations of Harmful Dysfunction in Family: Sociological Approach (MARCO) Feminist inspired theory of patriarchy
-Society structured around male domination -Facilitates the abuse of power between men and women and that manifests itself in detrimental family behaviour -Power imbalance makes women vulnerable to males who seek to gain and maintain control and power through coercion and abusive behaviour
Sociobiological / Evolutionary Psychology: explanation of harmful dysfunction in the family
-Sociobiology examines the combination of sociological and biological factors in the explanation of human behaviour -Applies the Darwinian theory of evolution to explain the motivation behind social conduct -Nurture vs. nature debate
Potential Negatives Across the Life Course: Abuse of Parents by Adolescents
-Some children are physically and psychologically abusive to their parents, most often the mother or stepmother -Physical, verbal, and psychological forms of abuse, including "emotional terrorism" -10% prevalence rate
Psychological Aging: memory
-Some losses associated with memory as we age: -Large losses occur in episodic memory, or memory for personal events and experiences (Bäckman, Small, Wahlin, & Larsson, 2000) -Large losses occur in working memory, or our ability to hold a small amount of information in an available state (Hoyer & Verhaeghen, 2006) -Smaller losses are found in implicit memory, a type of memory where you do not need to think to perform a task—a sort of automatic pilot based on previous experiences and skill development -Smaller losses also associated with semantic memory, or memory for factual information (Hoyer & Verhaeghen, 2006)
Outcomes of Spanking: evolution of the research
-Spanking creates a violent society (Strauss, 1996) -Spanking has a negative influence on the child's intellectual development (I.Q) (Straus & Paschall,1999) -Spanking before the age of two is associated with behavior problems four years later (Slade & Wissow, 2004) -Children from geographic areas that use less spanking have greater I.Q. than areas that use more spanking (Straus & Paschall, 2009) -There is also a sizable literature arguing that spanking has salutary outcomes for children: -Spanking used in conjunction with reasoning with toddlers was more effective in delaying the target behaviors (Larzelere, Sather, Schneider, Larson & Pike, 1998) -Spanking achieved long term outcomes as well or better than alternative forms of discipline (Larzelere & Kuhn 2005) -This remains a complex debate!
Maternal Deprivation and Daycare evolution of research
-Starting in 1970s, women have increasingly returned to work after the birth of their child(ren) -Belsky and Steinberg (1978) found: No evidence that daycare was harmful or that maternal care was superior for infants No evidence that daycare was harmful to the mother-child bond -Found that infants in the first year of life with 20+ hours of daycare/week were at higher risk for developing developmental difficulties at a later age (Belsky, 1988) -Children under three years of age with 20+ hours/week in daycare were significantly more likely to have compliance problems in later elementary school years (Belsky & Eggebeen,1991) -Children are at greater risk to develop insecure attachment if they are in daycare for 10+ hours/week during the first year and the mother is insensitive to the relationship with the child (Belsky, 2003, 2005)
Health care availability and affordability
-State health care policies govern who gets treatment and when that treatment can take place -Even in countries with universal health care, barriers exist that restrict the availability of care -State influences the cost and availability of drugs through pharmaceutical regulations and drug approval processes -Elderly as a group are most affected by this because of their greater use of medication and medical processes
government policies and childhood
-State policies that directly relate to the first stage of the life course, childhood, would need to start with birth and fertility Examples: Chinese government's one child policy; maternity/ paternity leave; universal child care
Timing Norms: children
-Strong norms about timing of children leads to peaked distributions (compressed and leptokurtic) ex) women in university -Weaker timing norms lead to a more spread out distribution (platykurtic) ex) women who dont go to university
Women's Income and Divorce
-Studies examining the relationship between a wife's salary and the probability of divorce give mixed results. One study found that higher wages paid to the wife increases the probability of a divorce while an increase in the husband's wages reduces the likelihood of a divorce. Another economist found that it was the number of hours that the wife worked, not her salary, which increased the probability of a divorce. -Another hypothesis was that a wife's employment will improve a family's socioeconomic status and earning a relatively higher wage may solidify the marriage. Evidence was found to support the second hypothesis. -The Bremmer & Kesselring 2004 statistical study showed that the U.S. divorce rate will increase if either female labor force participation or income increases. This result adds credibility to what has been called the "independence effect." Rising female labor force participation increases women's income and financial independence, and divorce rates increase.
Successful Aging
-Successful aging - a combination of physical health, psychological health, and an active involvement with society (Rowe & Kahn, 1997) -Key tips to successful aging: -Eating a low-fat diet -Getting adequate exercise (Health Canada, 2003) -Having a strong social support network
The changing family: STATS
-The 2006 Census identifies several ways the family is changing: -Fewer married couple families (down to 68.6% from 70.5 in 2001) -Same sex couples are increasing at a faster rate than opposite sex couples (32.6% compared to 5.9%) -Single person households are increasing -More young adults 20-29 years of age live with their parents -For the first time in Canadian history, unmarried people out number the married -Nuclear family is no longer the majority
Transition Points of the birth of a child
-The actual day and time of birth is obviously the transition point, but the transition to being a parent is a process involving: Deciding to have a baby, Conception, Gestation, Birth, and The process of adaptation to having the child at home -There are complex timing norms about relationships that are age and duration graded Example: breast feeding
Age at Marriage
-The age at marriage is increasing In 2004, median age of marriage was 30.5 years for men and 28.5 years for women -In 1970, average age of marriage for men was 25.0 years and for women in 1960 was 22.6 years -The median age for all marriages (first and subsequent) in 2004 was 34.9 years for men and 32.4 years for women -Same-sex couples tend to marry at older ages, with the median being 42.7 years for men in same-sex marriages and 42.1 years for women in same-sex marriages (Vanier Institute of the Family, 2010) -We generally marry someone who is close to us in age (age homogamy), with husbands being slightly older (by about 2 years) than wives (Mitchell, 2009) -As we get older, the age gap between spouses increases--> leads to marriage squeeze for older women
Compression of Morbidity Hypothesis: three most prevalent illnesses causing death and functional disability in later life
-The compression of morbidity hypothesis states that more people today than in the past postpone the onset of chronic disability -The period of time between being seriously ill and death has been compressed (shortened) -The three most prevalent illnesses causing death and functional disability in later life are heart disease, cancer, and stroke (Statistics Canada, 2007)
Models of Marital Change: The disillusionment model
-The disillusionment model also assumes that all marriages begin with high levels of positive factors -However, some people idealize their partners and ignore or fail to see their partners' negative traits -Over time, the "rose-coloured glasses" come off which then leads to declines in satisfaction -Disillusioned individuals may say, "You aren't the person I thought I married."
Models of Marital Change: The enduring dynamics model
-The enduring dynamics model states that people begin their marriages with a realistic view of their partners (are aware of both positive and negative aspects of their partners) -The pattern of interaction established while dating continues into married life -Rocky relationships lead to rockiness and dissolution while stable relationships lead to stability
Generational Stake Hypothesis
-The generational stake hypothesis states that "older parents have a greater stake than children do in the parent-child relationship because of their desire to see their value and lives continued through their children"
Attention and aging
-The main factor that affects our ability to process information is attention (Weiten & McCann, 2007) -Selective attention - the ability to focus on relevant information while ignoring what is irrelevant -Sustained attention - the ability to stay focused on a particular thing over time -Attentional control - the ability to multi-task with our attention - to allocate our attention over several different things at the same time -Much loss in these areas are a result of our lack of practice
Psychological Disorders and Well-being in aging
-The most common psychological disorders in later life are depression, anxiety, and dementia (including Alzheimer's disease) and alcoholism -For most elderly individuals, global or subjective well-being does not decline with age (McPherson & Wister, 2008) -Compared to younger adults, older adults tend to have less negative emotion, comparable positive emotion, more emotional control, and more emotional stability -The elderly tend to be as happy as those in mid-life (Ebersole & Hess, 2004)
Poverty rate among elderly
-The poverty rate among the elderly has declined from 18% in 1976 to 1.5% in 2007 (Vanier Institute of the Family, 2010) -Levels of poverty are higher for unattached elderly individuals than for those in families, but have dropped to 13% and 14.3% for unattached elderly men and women, respectively (Vanier Institute of the Family, 2010)
Caregiver-Care-receiver Outcomes
-The primary reason why children report caring for their parent is because the parent looked after them when they were young --> irredemable obligation -The elderly parent may, however, feels a loss of power -The elderly person can still provide emotional, practical, and financial help to the adult children - helping to maintain a sense of power/purpose -When an elderly person receives assistance due to failing health - emotional strain is felt (Newsom & Schult, 1996) -less obligation felt by adult children to care for parents if they were parented poorly as a child
Protection hypothesis and marriage
-The protection hypothesis states that marriage provides social and economic supports that are linked with improved health -Improves physical health by improving emotional health -Reduces risk-taking behaviour -Helps in the early detection of an illness -The social support hypothesis is an explanation for the link between marriage and health -Marriage provides opportunities for social engagement and companionship -Having a social network can improve your health -Relationships change our moods, behaviours and influence our health habits --> married couples often excersize together or diet together -Provide financial security--married people often more financially secure than non-married people
Marital Quality hypotheses and marriage
-The quality of one's marriage can greatly affect the link between marriage and health -The stress buffering hypothesis states: "the negative consequences of stress are diminished by the presence of social support . . . [thus] the quality of the marriage impacts the effectiveness of the protective function of marriage" -The protection hypothesis works only if the marriage is good -bad marriages reduce health -The social strain hypothesis states: "not only do unfulfilling marriages fail to protect the individuals involved but [they] can also impede the well-being of the marriage partners" -Positive relationship quality (e.g., marital harmony and marital satisfaction) is associated with higher levels of well-being across the life course -Negative quality (e.g., conflict) is associated with poor physical and psychological health -it increases depression,and bad health behaviours, which in turn decreases physiological mechanisms such as cardiovascualr, endocrine, and immune functioning -Unfortunately, negative quality has a greater impact on health than positive quality does, especially for women
Selection hypothesis and marriage
-The selection hypothesis states that it is not marriage per se that is responsible for the link between marriage and health. Rather, healthier people tend to marry each other and unhealthy people have a harder time finding and keeping a mate -Explained by exchange theory and the assortative mating principle -People pair with individuals much like themselves and search for the best possible match they can get in exchange for the resources they have to offer -healthy people marry eachother and unhealthy people marry eachother or no one at all -Thus, marriage does not cause better health -Limited support for this hypothesis -Despite this matching process in mate selection, marriage does seem to provide health benefits above and beyond the selection effect
Work and Family Balance
-The switch from work satisfaction to work-family balance -Tiejde et al 1990 argue that it is the interaction of work and family that creates stress and hardship. -White 1999 found that the single best predictor of "balance" is amount of egalitarian participation in housework.
Fertility Timing
-The timing of life events (education and occupation) has important implications for the timing and even the ability to have children -If couples put off having children, they may end up with only a few years where childbearing is possible -baby boom in women across all cohorts of birthing women- much more liely to become preg. than other decades -economic forces, these women identified as mothers, social movement for pregnancy
critiques of motivational theories:
-The worth of something depends on the situation and norms within the society e.g. now physical appearance is more important, older days child rearing capabilities was more important -Choices which are genetically conditioned (only perceived choice) -Individuals are not capable of computing cost/rewards of an action rationally (Tversky & Kahnneman, 1988) e.g. crime of passion, in the heat of the moment
Ending Conflict
-There are five ways in which a conflict can end: -Separation or withdrawal of at least one partner without any resolution to the conflict; -Domination, where one person continues to pursue his or her goal until the other partner gives in; -Compromise, where both partners reduce their expectations and find a mutually acceptable alternative; -Integrative agreements, where both people have their goals satisfied; or -Structural improvements, where a positive change is made in the relationship (e.g., negative attributions are changed, trust is developed, and hope is increased).
Problems with Detection of Edler Abuse
-There are many reasons why elder abuse is hard to detect and prevent: -Older adult may not recognize the situation as abuse (McPherson & Wister, 2008) -Becomes "normal" over time -Older persons may think they will not be believed, they think nothing will change, or they think their caregivers will get angry and the abuse will get worse (Beaulaurier et al., 2007) -May be ashamed/ embarrassed and reluctant to let others know they have a "bad" son, daughter, or spouse -May blame themselves 0Can't report because due to social isolation and physically unable to report the problem (McPherson & Wister, 2008) -The elderly are also prone to bruising and falling, so outsiders may not be sure whether outward signs of abuse are actually the result of abuse
Evolutionary Theory and harmful dysfunction in the family
-This theoretical approach would describe harmful acts as successful adaptive strategies for survival and to improve reproduction opportunities -Murder becomes an adaptive strategy because it may be employed to eliminate threats from rivals which may include non-genetic relatives such as stepchildren -Genetic fitness would be encouraged by murdering deformed infants, the infirmed or chronically ill -Infanticide may be practiced to insure male offspring survive to adulthood before females or because of contested resources such as available food sources, land or inheritance rights -Rape may be practiced by those less sexually desirable in order to improve their reproduction chances
Veblen and Conspicuous Consumption
-Thorsten Veblen (Theory of the Leisure Class, 1889) has argued that conspicuous consumption was used by the nouveau riche to attempt to gain status. -The effect was to label those with conspicuous consumption as only announcing their lack of class (de classe). Bourdieu (Distinction, 1979) was to take this a step farther.
Economic Well Being and education:
-Time in formal education is often time lost to earning income -Education is usually viewed from a long term or life long perspective -Associated with delays in entering committed relationships and having children -Usually leads to greater economic returns across the life course in the form of higher and more stable income
Total First Marriage Rate
-Total first marriage rate - the percentage of individuals who can expect to marry before age 50 -In 1981, 65% of both men and women could expect to marry at least once before age 50 In 2004, this decreased to 46% for women and 44% for men -In 2003, 66.2% of the marriages were first marriages for both spouses, 18.4% were marriages in which one of the spouses was getting remarried, and 15.5% involved marriages in which both spouses were getting remarried
Sociological Theories of development
-Traditionally focused on the parent-child dyad, the family, or larger social units as the unit of analysis -The determinants of development are usually viewed as more social (nurture) rather than ontogenetically determined (nature) -Typically refer to development as "socialization"
The Future for Canadian Family and Family Policy Changes
-Troubling decline of the marriage rate -Increase in cohabitation as a substitute for marriage -many dont feel need for marriage and are having children in the context of a cohabiting couple -Cohabitation has additional problems: Cohabiting couples cannot get divorced because they are not married but the laws around divorce such as matrimonial property acts certainly protect the married person from exploitation. There is current action being taken to extend these rights to cohabiting partners. As cohabitation becomes more government- sanctioned there may be a decline because it is essentially becoming marriage -Increase of lone parent families -Fertility in Canada is below replacement level, currently no uniform policy on this issue in Canada. Tough to finance children as it takes longer to achieve the median family income in canada --> in the future we will need pro-nationalist policies to encourage increases in natural fertility and to appeal to immigrants -dependency ratio is increasing- enhanced burden on the working population -Immigrants are going to be essential to Canada's future well being: Competing with the other developing countries for educated and skilled immigrants -Continue to see diversity of family types: Single parent families, cohabiting families, stepfamilies, and married families. As Canada begins to develop immigration and natural fertility policies in a consistent and attuned manner, expect family forms to become more traditional and nuclear
Types of problematic communication
-Types of problematic communication: -Continuing to make negative statements -Cross-complaining -- answering complaint with complaint of your own -Offering counter-proposals --- instead of listening to valid solution, individual comes up with a different one (not because its a better idea but beacuse its to not do what the partner suggested) -Mindreading: An individual expects the partner to be able to read his or her mind, An individual decides in his or her mind what the partner's intentions were -Self-summarizing-- continuing to repeat own points to shut up partner -Kitchen-sinking-- arguement that occurred in the part is brought into the current argument instead of focusing on current issue
Parental Disciplinary Techniques: Spanking comparison of US and Canada
-U.S. - 94% of all parents spank three and four year old children -Canada - approximately 52% do so (Larzelere & Kuhn, 2005) -Difficult to determine if this results in pro-social or anti-social aggression
Children as an Economic Asset to liability
-Until the mid 1800's parents viewed children as an economic asset -Major turning point for children shifting from an economic asset to an economic liability due to: Child protection legislation to curb the exploitation of children Mandatory schooling -in many locations worldwide people still live in agrarian type economies and expect the children to take care of them when they reach old age. (here the goal of parenting is not the independence of the child)
W. Lloyd Warner and the classes of society
-Upper-upper class. "Old money." People who have been born into and raised with wealth; mostly consists of old "noble" or prestigious families. -Lower-upper class. "New money." Individuals who have become rich within their own lifetimes (e.g., entrepreneurs, movie stars, as well as some prominent professionals). -Upper-middle class. Professionals with a college education (e.g., doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, professors, and corporate executives). -Lower-middle class. Lower-paid white collar workers, but not manual laborers (e.g., police officers, school-teachers, non-management office workers, small business owners). -Upper-lower class. Blue-collar workers and manual labourers. Also known as the "working class." -Lower-lower class. The homeless and permanently unemployed, as well as the "working poor."
Grandparenthood
-Usually occurs in middle age -By the time a person reaches later life, they usually have teen grandchildren -Since the age at marriage and the age at first birth have been increasing, this may not remain the case among future generations of the elderly -Generally, the role of grandparent is more flexible than that of parent -Usually told what NOT to do (in caregiving) by their adult children -The role of grandparent is also not chosen; you become a grandparent if your own children choose to become parents -Parents often mediate the relationship between the grandparent and the grandchild
Production or Consumption
-Warner emphasized the wage and income tied to a position -As wages are less and less tied to prestige and status, the emphasis on social class has switched to consumption. -Education and occupational prestige are more related to patterns of consumption than is income. -When income is equal, the consumption patterns are distinctive of class values ( art museum or movie?)
Summary of Changes in Canadian Families: Births
-Women are increasingly less likely to be married when they birth their first child -Although we still have traditional families, lower birth rates and lower marriage rates coupled with more alternatives (cohabitation and single never married) have created greater diversity in families and the married, two parent couple with children is no longer the major family structure in Canada
women vs men and Marital Quality over the Life Course
-Women have higher well-being early in life while men have higher well-being later in life -Women fill their material and family goals early in life Examples: they buy a house and car, travel, and have children -Men are more satisfied with their financial and family lives later in life, Examples: the house is paid off, they have adequate retirement funds, and child rearing is over for the most part -Also due to a shift in the proportion of men and women in marital and non-marital unions over the life course -In later life there is a higher proportion of men that are married than women -unhappy wives more likely to move from part-time to full time employment but the full time employment status of the women was related to increases in marital stability (but not satisfaction)
Religion and Gender Roles:
-Women of all ages have higher scores on measures of religiosity -Female membership continues to outnumber men even in newer faith movements -This pattern continues across the life course and religious organizations -Not limited to North America, but is supported in Europe and among Latin American women -there is gender equality in spirit of the Abrahamic based relgiions but not social eqaulity although this is improving in some cases -80% of new immigrants to canada are of christian faith -religion perpetuates traditional gender roles -large family size is consistent with traditional family roles. Example: Muslim women represent powerlessness because of their gender and their religion--> unable to move out of a gender role that values and reinforces large families (ties women to households and maintains gender segregated roles)
sex ratio in India
-arranged marriages are more common -fewer women= less autonomy in mate selection -higher sex ratio, more likely to have parents involved and more likely for the couple to meet on the wedding day -why? the fewer the women, the more valuable they become-- in a western context this greater value means greater autonomy in their decision but in India this greater value of women means the marriage and the marriage partner becomes a greater investment and the parents must be involved to make the right choice
Modernization Theory of Kinship & Descent (Convergence~ homogeneous)
-as cultures and societies mature, technology advances (anything that can leverage the human effort incl. the wheel, hoe, shovel etc.) and this causes families to look more similar -In the past, hunter gatherers had to be adaptive and more mobile -with the advent of technology- this led to a more stationary existence- more stability and larger family needed. -Robert Winch, Goode and Parsons have all contributed to the traditional theory which argues: -In hunter-gatherer societies small mobile family units were the most functional for hunting and following migrating herds. In domestic-pastoral societies there was still a need for some mobility. -Different kinship systems react differently (eskimo)
the beginning vs end of 20th century and cohabiting
-beginning: people didn't live together prior to marriage -by the end, it is the exact opposite -now cohabitation is often seen as stage that leads to marriage but you may stay in this stage forever
CHAPTER 8 TEXTBOOK: Brave new world
-children are created, sex is recreational, castes separating humans -world is at peace with its two billion inhabitants -socialization ensures conformity to their particular castes
second shift and equity theory
-deals with this idea of restoring the equity psychologically, in an interview the woman says the man handles downstairs (which is essentially a man cave) and she handles upstairs which is essentially everything else
4 distinctions between young and old cohabiters:
-demographic: 60% of older cohabitors are men -Economic resources-- Typically cohabitors have less education and fewer economic resources -Cohabitors report poorer physical health and as a result may be less attractive potential spouses -Greater social connections among elderly lead to increased dating patterns Other distinctions: -Higher levels of relationship quality for older cohabiting couples than for younger couples -Higher relationship stability for older couples -Older couples plan to marry less than younger couples -Where younger couples may see cohabitation as a step to marriage, older couples may view cohabitations as long term alternative to marriage -Motivations such as compatibility, independence, sexual satisfaction and commitment do not seem to vary by age
Post Divorce Relations- early vs late divorce for children
-early divorce worse for children: negatively related to childs internal and external expression -academic grades suffer more with later divorce -family breakup associated with self-harm behaviors -inc. anxiety, depression, neg self concept and poor wellbeing -Adolescents of divorced parents report double the level of distress when compared to adolescents of intact and non-distressed parents -Females experience differently than males--> females more anxious and depressive . Not found similarly in males
Rites of Passage and Religious ceremonies:
-family is biggest socializing agent in society for the development of religiostiy in children Religion and family come together in diverse ways across religious traditions -Christian families--> children baptizes/ christened, or confirmed later in childhood -Jewish families--> circumsized on 8th day, bar mitzvah at 13 -Buddhist males carried on shoulder of olfer males during 3 day ceremony Poy Sang Long before being ordained as monks -Australian aboriginal walkabout--> young boys sent out into woods for 6 months to mark transition into adulthood -Latin American--> girls 15th birthday transition into womanhood
The Case of Isolated Children: romanian orphanages
-found the case of 10 and 12 year olds who were eating while defecating -support for the blank slate of childhood
Cohabitation and Effects on Marriage
-generally, individuals who cohabited and then got married were less satisfied and less stable -The general picture we have is that cohabitation has a normatively defined effect. As non-selective participation rises the resulting effects on marriage will disappear. -but in australia and canada, cohabitation shows support for marital stability --> varied context has different impacts
Lewis and Spaniers marriage model
-high stability, low quality: ANOMOLY (people married a long time with lots of barriers (Children, economics, investment-- too much work to find someone else) -high quality, low stability ANOMOLY (beginning of marriage, less investment. Newlyweds dont have alot of barriers) -low quality, low stability EXPECTED -high quality, high stability EXPECTED -see graph in notes
what SES has lowest fertility?
-highest SES has lowest fertility -why? delayed fertility means limited fertility (high SES often have longer education) -delayed fertility is typically compressed
The Case of Isolated Children: Isabelle
-illegitimate child, kept secluded for this reason, found at 6 and a half -mother was a deaf mute -recovery is a success story, she covered 6 years of normal learning in just two years -the difference between isabelle and anna could be that isabelle worked with trained professionals and specialists to develop her speech
how to counteract infertility in Canada?
-immigration, perhaps from high fertility places -fertility incentives: subsidized childcare e.g. Qeubec = $10 a day -better maternity/ paternity leave -tax incentives -pay certain amount of money for each child
Dating Today
-much higher prevelance of "hooking up"- physical encouter and dont expect anything more Dating today refers to two individuals who are attending a function together (Bogle, 2007). The purpose of dating is entertainment not to choose a life partner Dating can be a source of pressure - often linked to social status, if you dont have someone to date you may be seen as having a lower social status -practices vary around the world, mormins are supposed to date alot and South Asian cultures do not--> women supposed to remain virgins till marriage -immigrant youth: date less than Canadians-- but if their parents are particularly strict that may enagage in dating rebellion
Historical overview of divorce:
-not a new entity** developed shortly after marriage! -The history of divorce has two primary stages -An ancient historical phase (Event that took place infrequently, Highly regulated and only permitted to be enacted on by husbands of influence) -the church subdued attempts for divorce rates to grow -roman catholic church does not recognize divorce apart from granting an annulement -divorce not even legal in Ireland until 1995 -Different in north america which was settled mostly by protestnants Modern historical phase -Divorce in US doubled between 1865 and 1890, troubling President Roosevelt
counterargument for deinstitutionalization of marriage (Yodanis and Lauer)
-not deinstitutionalization, there are just a greater number of popular avenues -avoiding entrapments of marriage: children, caring for partners parents, sacrificing career -these are institutional obligations
Research Methods: Cohort effects
-outcomes that occur because one is born in a particular cohort -People born in a particular period of time share certain socio-historical experiences
Exchange Theory Concepts
-people are motivated by self interest to maximize their profit and minimize their loss -Rewards - things a person likes (give something pleasant or take away something unpleasant) Costs - things a person dislikes (give you something unpleasant or take away something pleasant) -profit is the term used to describe calculations of the rewards minus the costs of a choice Comparison level (CL) "is a standard by which the person evaluates the rewards and costs of a given relationship in terms of what he feels he deserves" (Thibaut & Kelley, 1959, p. 21) A measure associated with satisfaction (Miller & Perlman, 2009) Comparison level of alternatives (Clalt) is "the lowest level of outcomes a [person] will accept in the light of alternative opportunities" (Thibaut & Kelley, 1959, p. 21) A measure that relates to our dependency level (Ellis, Simpson, & Campbell, 2002) Salience - some factors may be more important than others and thus have greater weight in our decision making Time - we must consider how our decisions will pan out in both the short term and the long term
The Case of Isolated Children: Genie
-raised in isolation, tied to potty chair in a dark room, named the "wild child" -barely able to walk or talk, beaten for making noises -she was aprehended, and worked with many specialists to improve her condition -eventually due to funding consideration the specialists no longer worked with her and her development seems to have met a plateau, she could produce some speech but mainly in phrases or one word increments and could walk and run clumsily
Well being of children with gay and lesbian parents
-reaction to paper that stated: children of gay parents did not have as much positive outcomes as heterosexuals parents children -This paper states the children of gay parents are not disadvantaged in an way -conclusion: problem with the pre-eisting research is a methodological issue (operationalization of constructs-- comparing children of biological offspring of one partner who re-partners with same sex individual & comparing to intact hetero parents with stable relationship. Like comparing apples to oranges. -Reparenting vs stable family -behavioural problems of the children in the gay marriage are likely due to change, stress, and instabilty -once this methodological issue is controlled for the difference between same sex and opposite sex families becomes very small -defending gay community by highlighting this methodological issue
figure 4.2 Relative risk of union dissolution of cohabitors and former cohabitors compared with women who marry without prior cohabitation
-relative risk: how likely to get divorced -marriage is at one (baseline) -the graph shows a curvilinear relationship, cohabiting people have a higher risk of break up, cohabiting then marriage also have a high risk too -in middle of the graph there is no difference between cohabitation and cohabitation then marriage- this is because it is the norm in the middle of the graph, there is saturation of difussion -on the left side of the graph both marriage after cohabiting and cohabiting have a higher chance of breaking up because cohabitation is so infrequent and therefore there is a large stigma against it -on the right side, when almost everyone is cohabiting, you are comparing the cohabitors to people who go straight to marriage and likely will never get a divorce because they're highly conservative
Functional Theories
-school of thought maintains that the family is a normative institution in all societies and that the family is central in all sosiceties to perform the function of reproduction, control of sexuality and socialization of children. -relied on Freudian psychodynamics and recently attachment theory to justify traditional social roles of mother and father. -example of functional theorists from 1950's: women were pushed back into the home after the second world war and their function was deemed to be childrearing while mens function was deemed to be breadwinning. This is a drive for stability and individual's function. These theorists predicted inc. in divorce after 1950s but it was more bc husband was unwilling to give up his role/ share in the house keeping
what are definitions?
-statement that captures the meaning/ significance of something. -Definitions are at the core of our knowledge -All research begins with observation -We must know what we are supposed to observe -Example: how many "couples" are there in the SUB? Look for whose sitting together, how close etc. you are defining the couple. -Danger of definitions being too narrow (Cant talk about groups of people) or too broad (nothing to distinguish us) -Definitions may carry social legitimacy and social status and rights and responsibilities Example: "parent" is a legitimate and normative status, example of the "creepy" many in the playground who is legitimize when his daughter runs over yelling "daddy!" another ex) may get family rate at swimming pool -Definitions have an ideological component Example: defining same sex couples as "families" is relatively new and some Canadians disagree -Thus, definitions construct social legitimacy and tolerance
Types of Aging: social aging
-the changes in our social roles and social status over time -Example: retirement is a status change from "working" to "non-working"
Types of Aging: Biological aging
-the physiological changes that occur over time -Example: bone mass loss (Bee, 1998) and a reduction of growth hormones
Bidirectional Effects Model of Parent Child Interaction
-this can be partly explained by exchange theory: child can reward the parents for good behaviour with its smiles and bad behavior with its cries -The child influences and conditions the interactions with parents and the parents influence the child -This changes throughout the lifespan of the child -One reason we might examine the parent-child dyad throughout the life course
percent of immigrants among seniors
-tied to family reunification: a family member sponsors another member to come to Canada if the family member who lives here is financially responsible for them -important for non-material culture e.g. learning langs
Transition to Parenthood
-transition represents the assumption of the most responsible roles in a family: mother and father --- regulated by formal and informal norms like it is expected you will be nurturing and legal norms reagarding child neglect -study this transition is also practical -Parent roles are defined by both formal and informal social norms--> Age of child a factor in transitions to kindegarten , elementary school, high school etc, Timing and sequencing- a mother should breast feed her child but not when the child is seventeen! -The transition into parenthood may also be accompanied by declines in areas of marriage.
child attachment styles
-usually observable by 6mo -secure: firmly attached to caregiver, explores with checking back for caregiver -anxious-resistant: disturbed when caregiver absent, angry with caregvier on return -anxious-avoidant: treats stranger and caregiver similarly but avoids caregiver on return -disorganized: lacks coherent pattern of response to caregiver leaving and to stranger
Income and Age at First Birth
-women in 1996 didn't achieve the median family income for Canada until they were thirty or more years of age and then had their first birth -Couples in 1971 achieved this level of well being at about twenty-five years of age -This suggests that the findings in the Australian sample might have a bearing on Canadian fertility patterns -Couples who want children might delay fertility in part so that they can achieve a level of economic well-being that was previously achieved by couples that were much younger -Achieving this economic well-being now requires two salaries rather than one - a deterrent to fertility
1 child per woman
1 child per woman would cut population in half
CHAPTER 9 TEXTBOOK: Ecological correlates of divorce from the individual ecosystems
1) Micro-sociological causes a) individual issues e.g. alcoholism, infedelity b) dynamics of the relationship e.g. poor communication, percieved ineqaulity 2) Meso-sociological causes a) age at marriage e.g. young spouses lack emotional maturity for marriage b) cohabitation e.g. lower committment to marriage c) second marriage e.g. integration of step children d) parental divorce e.g. kids less likely to believe divorce can last e) child bearing e.g. get married for wrong reasons, family size: women with large families/ no children at higher risk for divorce f) stage of marriage e.g. longer duration= lower risk of divorce g) place of residence e.g. urban rates of divorce higher than rural h) religion e.g. more religious= less divorce i) socioeconomic status e.g. increased rates among poor 3) Macro-sociological causes: a) war e.g. separates couple b) economic cycles e.g. less likely to divorce during recession c) sex ratios d) gender expectations e.g. women more dependence = inc divorce rate e) social integration e.g. higher integration equals lower divorce rate f) legislation e.g. no fault divorces
Three qualities of religion that need to be present in order for it to influence fertility: McQuillan
1) The religion in question must have statements of belief concerning behavior that specifically speak to fertility outcomes e.g. contraception and abortion 2) The religious group must not only have the means to communicate these teachings, they must also have the means of enforcing compliance to these norms 3) Members must feel a strong sense of attachment to the group
See notes for subsequent ABC-X model, described here
1) functioning before event (steady) 2) event occurs (subsequent massive drop) 3) hitting bottom 4) Turning point- period of recovery 5) level of reorganization 5a-- lower functioning than before 5b-- equal to previous functioning 5c-- higher than previous functioning
CHAPTER 1 textbook: What are the steps in the research process
1) research question, 2) conceptual research hypothesis 3) research definitions of concepts and relations 4) identifying measures (operationalization) 5) research design for measurement hypothesis
"Empty nesters" charts: modern society
16 woman, 18 man university 23 woman, 25 man career 27 woman, 29 man married 29 woman, 31 man 1st child 31 woman, 33 man 2nd child 33 woman, 35 man college for first child @ 51 and 53 then empty nesters -death at 82 and 80
when was birth control invented and what were the reprocussions?
1960s, controlled fertility, led to more freedom for women
CHAPTER 10 TEXTBOOK: cluttered nest
2+ generations of family living in same family home
cohabiting is now the norm in the _____ age group
20-29
Spousal Retirement Transitions of Dual-Earner Couples
28% wife 5 or more years later than the man -29% second spouse in same or following year
Theoretical Perspectives Examining the Family: Uhlenberg and Mueller and 4 outcomes of wellbeing in the family context
4 outcomes of well-being the family context influences: Survival and physical health, mental health, socioeconomic status and relational success as life course outcomes are directly influenced by the family
CHAPTER 9 TEXTBOOK: current study on divorce in canada
4/10 marriages end in divorce -more unmarried people than legally married people over age 15 -quebec has highest rate of divorce and newfoundland and labrador have the lowest -top 8 reasons people marry: feeling that marriage signifies committment, moral values, belief children should have married parents, is the natural thing to do, financial security, religious beliefs, pressure from family, pressure from friends
when was the rapid rise in cohabitation
60s/70s -this appears to not be a period effect because marital dissatisfaction is still common after cohabitation
Dating and Sex Stats
82% of teens believe that sex before marriage is fine if the two people are in love (permissiveness with affection) -detailed the regional variations in the trends in sexual permissiveness among university students.(permissiveness without affection drop to 48% for females and 68% for males). In 2005, 33% of Canadians aged 15 - 17 and 66% aged 18 or 19 years had had sex (Rotermann, 2008)
Hooking up
A common practice on college and university campuses is "hooking up" (Bogle, 2007) "When a girl and a guy get together for a physical encounter and don't necessarily expect anything further" (Glenn & Marquardt, 2001, p. 4) (For teens) the hookup partner was usually a friend or an ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend 1/3 hope it will lead to a more conventional dating relationship
International Context of Cohabitation: Liefbroer and Dourleijn
A comparison of 16 European nations Marital stability outcome patterns: When "married with prior cohabitation" or "cohabiting outside of marriage", individuals are much more likely to face a breakup than those who marry without prior cohabitation For most countries, risk of breakup is 3-4 times greater (for Spain, it is 11 times greater) For some (Norway), there is no difference in risk The cross-national differences explained by diffusion: innovation (i.e., changing norms) is usually adopted among a smaller group before spreading to the general population With diffusion, you will have early adopters and late adopters with the general population fitting in between these extremes The variation in later marital stability in cohabitating couples is a result of diffusion difference in those countries studied -As the populations of countries approach equilibrium of those who have and have not cohabited prior to marriage the difference in marital stability outcomes decreases -women who cohabited prior to marriage faired much better than those who only cohabited
Developmental Tasks
A completion of a task that leads to a successful transition to a next stage If you were not successful in meeting the developmental task your transition to the next stage would not be successful example: you must mater adding before you can do subtraction -recent research sees developmental tasks as too simplistic- sometimes life just happens!
Alleviating Distress in the equity theory
A person will try to alleviate the stress by : restoring actual equity (making changes in real life)- overbenefitter contribute more, underbenefitter contribute less, restoring equity psychologically (believing that the relationship is equitable), or leaving the relationship
Second way of defining things: Equivalence of meaning
A second way of defining things is by "equivalence" of meaning (Hospers,1967) (synonymous words) All definitions consist of a term to be defined which is then followed by several words which do the defining Adequacy is tested by the ability of the phrase to replace the word in a sentence without damaging meaning
stage in the life course
A stage is a duration of time characterized by a particular property not present before the stage and not present after the stage e.g. student All stages have a beginning point that is marked by an event (transition event) An ending or exit transition event marks the end of the duration of the stage Example, a married couple with no children --> birth of a child (transition event) --> a couple with one child (new stage)
Family Stages
A stage is defined as the period of time between two events There is a connection between the events and stages A stage must represent a qualitatively different period of interaction or family life from the stages occurring before and after
The national marriage project
A study of twenty something, non-college educated males and females on dating and mating Research Findings: Both men and women indicated that marriage was a desirable goal and that they expected marriage to last a lifetime "Soul mates" viewed with skepticism, especially by the females--> many came from divorced families -not interested in marriage in their twenties or romantic relationships -this was a time for "Sex without strings and relationships without rings" Their focus is on sex and relationships, not love; on fun, not obligation or commitment The club scene is a frequent destination as a place to drink, have fun, have casual hookups, but not to find a future mate -guys report "club girls are trash," females report males are only looking for sex Rapid change in norms and values surrounding non-marital sexuality led to a serious generation gap between the early adherents and their parents
Timing of Life Events
A subset of informal norms includes the timing of events and stages as well as the sequencing of events. Timing norm or age graded norm = an isolated event which should occur at a certain period of life Example: "You should get your driver's license when you are a young adult." Sequencing norm = the order which one should experience stages or events Example: "You should get married before you have children."
Income of unattached elderly (never married, separated, divorced, and widowed) has increased
According to the Vanier Institute of the Family (2010), these improvements reflect gains from "market" sources (private pensions, investment income, and earnings) as well as significant increases in transfer payments received through government programs
Off Time and Out of Sequence Norms
Age graded norms - can be formalized (e.g. laws concerning drinking ages) or informal (e.g. the age at which you should finish school) - main purpose is organizing society around age When you are off time there are usually sanctions or consequences Sequencing norms = are social norms about the expected sequence of events Getting out of sequence early in life is associated with later life disruptions (White, 1991) (e.g. labour force participation disruptions and divorce)
Systems Theories
All elements of a system are connected, must look at the family holistically Most of the theory in this regard has focused on feedback, family boundaries (conceptual) and systems with equilibrium-- family members effect eachother and the balance of the family system -this is essentially a modern functionalist theory -used extensively in therapy, cant isolate a person and blame them solely for their problems but must look at the entire family
function of Dating
Although some might see dating as a mate selection strategy, it is more usual that dating is for Fun Sexual encounters Practicing gender roles Establishing identity Acquiring social status Being romantic gaining status-- radiating effect of beauty socialization recreation mate selection
American Theoretical Perspectives Examining the Family: Ogburn
American home 'merely parking places' for parents and children who spend most of their time elsewhere--> argued state should assist people with this inevitable path -state should ensure full-time work for moms and universal daycare for children -moving towards Individualization of society -didn't care about the family, just trying to describe what he saw -family uses home like "motel"-- just sleeping there -steady loss of families functions to corporations and government
Dark side: Honour Killings
An honour killing is "the death of a female family member who is murdered by one or more male family members, sometimes with the active assistance of other women related to the victim. In 'honor' murder, a female family member is deemed by her male relatives to have transgressed the family's 'honor'" (Welden, 2010, p. 380) Rare in Canada (White & Mick, 2007) About 5000 women per year are killed in this manner (United Nations General Assembly, 2006)
The Nature of Analysis
Analysis means to try to understand a phenomenon or event by breaking it into its parts How these parts fit together and are organized (the mechanisms at work) Why an event or phenomenon occurred (the causes) We use theoretical analysis to answer these questions -social forces are in action: e.g. classroom behaviour -individual agency is in action: e.g. being on fb during class
Application of family to equivalence of meaning
Application: "Family" Family - equivalent to "a social group containing sexually bonded adults and biological offspring" Example: Bill, Sue and their children are a family Bill, Sue and their children are "a social group containing sexually bonded adults and biological offspring" Example: Bill, Tom and their children are a family Bill, Tom and their children are "a social group containing sexually bonded adults and biological offspring" -second example problematic bc Bill and Toms children likely unrelated to them
Arranged Marriage Myths
Arranged marriage - the practice of having someone other than the individual who will be married select the marriage partner, avoiding (or at least shortening) the practice of dating Common myths: Individuals do not get to choose their marriage partners Arranged marriages are forced marriages Individuals are unhappy and "stuck" in their arranged marriage
Normative Theories
Assume social norms predict behaviours and actions Norms become the basis for social expectations. Formal norms = laws or rules established by an authority Informal norms = not codified or written down but are shared by many people Life course theory = norms that organize individual and family changes are related to age/stage of life
Macro-Historical Theories (aggregate level, population based)
Assumes forces beyond the individual or society create change Historical forces (Marx & Engels, 1965) - founder of conflict theory, believed society is run by physical realities and economic necessities like having a roof over your head Evolutionary (van den Berghe, 1979)- goal is to out-produce your enemies and the fittest of a species will reproduce -Individual behaviour is determined by macroscopic forces, such as historical dialectics and evolution
Pathway in the life course
At any point in the life course there is always the possibility of a stage transition The probabilities for a transition depend on: the stage you are currently occupying how long you have been in that stage the social norms favouring one type of transition over another -Often individuals think of their pathway as their choice However, historical and random factors arise to change or modify our pathways (Example: war, depressions, natural disasters)
which province has the highest life expectancy?
BC
Mate Selection: Biosocial Theory
Based on an evolutionary perspective -->Related to genetically adaptive procreation Women have higher parental investment, More selective in their choice of sex partner favouring someone who shows willingness to contribute resources to potential offspring Men are less selective -To their advantage (genetically speaking) to have as many children as possible --> Favour choosing someone for a sexual encounter rather than as a long-term mate Due to differences in parental investment, men and women find different traits attractive Women are attracted to men who look strong and dominant, especially when ovulating --Due to better genetics that can be passed on to offspring Men are attracted to women who outwardly exhibit health and the potential to bear offspring successfully and have an hourglass figure (birthing hips) A waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7 is most attractive across many cultures -what is attractive to women is shifting- status and wealth are now achieved through intelligence rather than brawn--> intelligent, wealthy, successful male may be the winner over the strong dominant man -when women are not ovulating a committed man is more attracitve, when they are ovulating a attracted to a dominant man
Thorton, Axinn and Xie (2007): typology of cohabitation
Being single and cohabiting as equivalent contrasts to marriage Marriage and cohabitation as equivalent contrasts to marriage Marriage and cohabitation as independent alternatives to being single Marriage and cohabitation as a choice conditional on the decision to form a union Cohabitation as part of the marriage process
Descent Lines: bilateral systems
Bilateral systems - reckon kin through both the mothers and fathers sides of the family
Family stress theory
Builds around what Hill (1949) termed the ABC-X model and focuses on how families deal with stressors to the family system
Second and higher order marriages tend to be less stable
Bumpass and Raley (2007) report that 40% of second marriages will end in divorce or separation by the end of the first decade compared to 32% for first marriages
what is at the interaction of human agency and social forces?
CHOICES!
CL CLALT and O
CL= comparisson level, what you hope for CLALT= comparisson level of alterntives in the marriage market O= outcome -time and values are important
Social Dynamics
Change can only be measured across time points Example: Change takes place when family "A" at time point two is not the same as family "A" at time point one Identity (same across time points) and change (different across time points) are central to developing a dynamic theory Because we would like our analysis to be generalizable, unique events and changes would be useless Example: we examine structural changes to the family: birth, death, marriage, divorce, etc. We don't examine unique and idiosyncratic states of consciousness- the python eating the mouse!
Nature vs. Nurture formula 2
Child Outcome = Nature + Nurture + (Interaction of Nature and Nurture) Example: Intelligence = genes + family background + (genes x family background)
Potential Negatives Across the Life Course: Child neglect and abuse
Child abuse may also take the form of neglect not just violent acts
Nature vs. Nurture formula 1
Child outcome = Nature + Nurture Example: Intelligence = genes + family background
Beyond the European Family of cohabitation, what is cohabitation like in asia, brazil and the caribbean?
Cohabitation as a union formation practice elsewhere: Eastern Europe: still rare Asia and North Africa: not practiced (or done secretly) Brazil: religious marriages from 20% (50 years ago) to 4% (2000) of all sexual unions Caribbean: high prevalence of non-marital cohabitation Influenced by structural factor of widespread poverty
Legal Definitions of Cohabitation
Cohabitation is not synonymous with common law marriages although often used interchangeably Common law marriages: couple who hold themselves out to be husband and wife but have not solemnized the relationship with a formal ceremony with state representative and witnesses What constitutes official cohabitation? Criteria varies and may include: ongoing sexual relations, duration of the cohabitation, holding of a joint living address -people who believe they are common law in the US may actually have no legal rights when cohabiting with another individual, even though it has been a number of years
The Canadian context of cohabitation
Cohabitation patterns highly influenced by contextual factors Canada is a multicultural bilingual country with a tolerance for diverse ethnic traditions Cohabitation is much more socially acceptable in Quebec and as a result more prevalent than in other parts of Canada Translates into cohabiting unions lasting longer and more likely to have children present. Longest stability and highest number of children born into cohabiting relationships in quebec. Here it is normative, which means there are less stressors in the relationship
Marriage Tasks
Common marital "tasks" that must be negotiated by the newly married couple: 1) Marital identity- akin to developing a marital image-- e.g. "fun party couple", find identity in extended family network and negotiate their own identity in the relationship e.g. will the woman take the mans last name. Secondly, telling kin we are now married! This gives you a different status. 2) Marital boundaries- "circle of trust" what are the boundaries of a family? Can your friends still come over to drink on a saturday night without warning? 3) Household management Finances- together or seperate? Division of labour within the household Divided along traditional gender lines? Divided by talent, ability, expertise? Divided by power? 4) Managing the "emotional climate" Conflict resolution Sexual scripts Providing support
Attraction: Complementary Theory
Complementary theory - "opposites attract" Little evidence that complementary personalities cause attraction Complementary behaviours or interests are attractive, but similarity provides the context for the relationship Often we exchange beauty for resources (Mathes & Kozak, 2008) Opportunities for self-expansion is gratifying
Origins and Explanations of Harmful Dysfunction in Family: Sociological Approach (MICRO) Exchange theory
Concentrate on what is going on in the life of the individual or the lives of the couple -Hurtful and harmful behaviour - goal achieving activities that outweigh the costs associated with that activity -Example: If a husband receives no legal or social sanction for abusing his wife then he may continue the practice because it works in achieving dominance and control
Theoretical Assumptions
Concepts and theories gives us alternative ways to think about a phenomenon
Conflict Theories
Conflict theories are usually macro theories that see individuals as being blown around by the macro forces of large scale change. For Marx large scale social change was caused by historical forces driven by the dialectical opposition between those controlling the means of production and those laboring for those in control.
Conjugal Status of Canadians
Conjugal status of Canadians aged 15 years and older in 2006: Largest group - married couples (47.9%) Second largest group - never legally married couples (27.6%) -Of the 45,300 same-sex couples that were recorded on the 2006 Census, 16.5% were married
Covenant Marriage
Covenant marriages have come about to try to make it more difficult to end a marriage It often requires premarital counseling and proof of fault (e.g., adultery or abuse), or at minimum requires long waiting periods before a divorce will be granted -must sign agreement to enter convenant marriage, making it more difficult to divorce
Normative Theories critiques
Critiques: Doesn't explain how norms are formed and developed (circular reasoning, behaviour creates norms and norms create behaviour) Norm development is due to rational choices of individuals Norms vary greatly between societies Norms may be based on our biological nature
child custody and cohabitation
Custodial concerns for cohabiting couples Not at issue when children born to the union which would legally grant parental rights to both parents Focused on the non-biological partner's rights to parental authority and visitation
Restrictive definitions
Definitions state what the function of a family should be Provide very specific definitions (e.g. "two opposite gender adults and their biological or adopted offspring") Excluded groups include: gay marriages and their children single mother and single father families children raised by their grandparents -they are often proscriptive (What a family should be)
Kübler-Ross (1969) proposed five stages that an individual will go through in the process of dying:
Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance -not everyone goes through all of these stages or one at a time
Coontz view of society and gender inequity/ equity
Denunciation of this ideal functionalist image of the middle class nuclear family-- family was never like the sitcom leave it to beaver, she attempts to clarify the heterogeneity of families during this time period
Research Definitions
Derived from a theory, from a social problem, or from a hunch Common property is that they are linked to measurement Measurement is simply a way to assign numerals to a concept Research questions might also be generated from gaps in our empirical knowledge or data
Total fertility rate over time in High and Low Development Countries: Weighted by Population Size
Developed and developing countries fertility rates have been on the decline since 1960 -worldwide fertility is declining
Filter Model of Mate Selection
Developed by Kerckhoff and Davis (1962) -incorporates personal and societal factors related to our choice of mate selection and this choice is filtered among several dimensions Through a process of filtering, we narrow the total number of people who are available to a small group First divide the pool of eligible people by roughly half simply by filtering out those who are not of the sex we prefer or are attracted to Second, we narrow our search to those who are in close proximity to us The sex ratio of a given area can have an impact on our pool of eligibles Sex ratio is defined as the number of men per 100 women in a given population High = more men than women in a population Low = more women than men When the sex ratio is high, the rate of marriage increases Trovato (1988) , men have to compete to "gain" a wife, leads to a more traditional society -but if sex ratio is low then women will be enageged in the workforce- more autonomy and not married
Cross-National Policies of cohabitation
Different countries have different approaches to legislation regarding cohabitation Almost all nations have registered partnership legislation which provides marriage equivalent status and protections (Popenoe, 2009) Only France, the Netherlands and Belgium make this status available to same sex couples Cohabitation benefits (e.g., health insurance; property rights) also vary across nations Definition of official cohabitation also varies e.g. ongoing sexual relations, duration of cohabitation, and holding a joint residence
Secular and religious influences on divorce in society:
Divorce and its place in society is discussed at length in the Jewish Pentateuch dated to be well over 3000 years ago -Roman Catholic church-->Only ways to get divorce were through Annulment (fraud took place, or if there are any impediments e.g. alcohol, not of a sound mind) -Death
Do Legal Incentives Help? Cohabitation vs marriage
Does legislation have influence over how couples choose their union formation? With legislative attempts to reduce the distinction between marriage and cohabitation, there is no evidence to support the idea that the institution of marriage was harmed Some see that legal recognition and support for cohabitation does not discourage marriage, while others see that it weakens the distinctive cultural and legal status of marriage
cohabitation Later Effect on Children
Early research predicted that cohabitation would have negative outcomes on child development Instability of cohabitation in comparison to marriage - parental instability leads to negative child outcomes Lower levels of education in cohabiting couples Selection effect: parents with behavioural problems or weaker parenting abilities may be more highly represented among those cohabiting Fewer legal and social benefits than marriage
2011 Family Relations Act
Enact major reforms to the law's property division regime, that would: Extend it to common-law spouses who have lived together for two years in a marriage-like relationship or who are in marriage-like relationship of some permanence and have children together. Exclude certain types of property (e.g. pre-relationship property, gifts, and inheritances) from the pool of family property to be divided 50-50. Provide that debts are subject to equal division. Set as defaults: the date of separation as the triggering event and the date of the court order or agreement as the valuation date.
Mate Selection: Equity Theory
Equity theory states that people will try to maximize their outcomes (rewards minus costs) when making a choice. Additional propositions include the following: Groups will generally reward members who treat others equally and generally punish (increase costs) members who treat others inequitably When individuals find themselves participating in inequitable relationships, they will become distressed. The more inequitable the relationship, the more distress individuals will feel Individuals who discover they are in an inequitable relationship will attempt to eliminate their distress by restoring equity. The greater the inequity that exists, the more distress they will feel, and the harder they will try to restore equity The more a person contributes to a relationship, the more he or she should gain from it If a relationship is not equitable, we will feel distress Underbenefitter - not getting as much as you should Will feel unappreciated and used Overbenefitter - getting too much will feel guilty Both feel distress, just in different ways -if represented mathematically then it should be you outcomes/ your contribution= your partners outcomes/ your partners contributions
Psychoanalytic Theories: Erikson
Erikson then extended these stages into adulthood: Trust versus mistrust, Autonomy vs. doubt, Initiative vs. guilt, Industry vs. inferiority, Identity vs. role confusion, Intimacy vs. isolation, Generativity vs. stagnation, and Integrity vs. despair Represented deep conflicts that needed to resolved before moving to the next stage *took Freud's ideas and caried them into adulthood
Stage Transitions in the life course
Every organism and social organization experiences transitions Many transitions contain intense adjustments which lead to high stress Example: the birth of a child marks the (instantaneous) transition from one stage to another for a couple
Dating and Romantic Love
Evolution of love: Greek forms of love with agape as ideal tied to Christian God, Eros was as close as the Greeks came to romantic love, Arranged marriage- middle ages, Courtly love - "love from afar" Dante and Beatrice, Kept the person on the "pedestal" During the late 1700 and early 1800's romantic love and autonomous mate selection both increased in popularity. Today romantic love is associate with selective and managed information so as not to see accurately. White 1987.
The Case of Isolated Children: Anna
Examining cases of isolated children demonstrates that without the dyad , family, or society, individual development does not take place -she was an illigitimate child born to a woman who did not want her and the grandfather entirely disaproved of it. She bounced around to different adoption centers and then was kept finally on the second floor of the grandfathers house very much unattended. She could not walk or talk or do anything intelligent. -when are the center for "retarded children" she did eventually develop some speech, mostly phrases and single words, had pretty good cleanliness habits and was able to walk and run thought clumsily -she may have had mental impairment from the start but it is difficult to know -found at 6 died at 10
Mate Selection: Social Exchange Theory
Exchange theory - an economic model of human behaviour The focus of this theory is motivation To understand a person's behaviour, we need to understand his or her motivations People are motivated by self-interest, to maximize their profit and minimize their loss Another assumption - we are rational - we have the ability to make the best choice based on an assessment of the costs and benefits of each alternative
developmental fallacy
Failing to separate age, period, and cohort effects leads to the developmental fallacy in which cross-sectional age differences are interpreted as developmental change e.g. believing that IQ drops with age-- giving the same IQ test to an elderly individual and a young adult may show a drop in IQ but we need to consider different educational standards and opportunities. Longitudinal studies show much less decline.
Defining Families over the Life Course
Families change and shift over the life course "A family is an intergenerational social group organized and governed by social norms regarding descent, and affinity, reproduction and the nurturant socialization of the young"(White 1991, p. 37) Intergenerational - the basic unit for a group to be a family is the adult-child relationship Goal for the family is the successful raising of children
Zimmerman's cyclical theory
Family and the state compete for power in society -Trustee family: Low development and population density. Family is the only institution and they have all the say in society----> *cycle continues* -domestic family: emerging town/village. Some structure e.g. sheriff, see other institutuions like the one room school house popping up. State is influencing society but the family still has some say in society-----> *cycle continues* -Atomistic family: family is small, focused on individuals. The state is incredibly powerful and has limited power e.g. forced vaccinations, child care laws.-----> society collapses and cycle continues *** starting all over with trustee family -he was concerned in the 30s and 40s that another collapse would happen (last collpase was Roman Empire)
Theoretical Perspectives Examining the Family: Aristotle
Family as key component to healthy stable society -he had a more autonomous view, saw family as the anchor of society (less collectivistic than plato) -he thought there should be less government intervention and more autonomy
Theoretical Perspectives Examining the Family: Plato
Family not important he was a collectivist who believed that children should not know who their family is so then they will show allegiance to the state. He argued the key institution is the state.
Sex Ratio and Mate Selection
Figure 3.4 shows the number of men and women (by age) in Canada in 2010 Overall there are more women than men in Canada Most of this difference occurs in later life, when there are higher numbers of females than males in the same age groups An imbalance in sex ratio can reduce marriage for one group or the other - called a marriage squeeze, where marriage is reduced for a given group due to lack of available partners Social norms can also cause specific groups to be squeezed out of marriage Example: successful women; men with low social status Due to the mating gradient, where women seek men of similar or higher status and men seek women of similar or lower status (Mitchell, 2006)
Early work-family interaction research: Coser and Hogan
Focused on dysfunctional aspects of interaction Coser (1974) - two 'greedy institutions' (family and work both want committment) Hogan (1978) - temporal order of significant life events (when men dont complete the normal sequence of finishing school, getting a full-time job, and then marrying they are much more likely to get divorced. Institutions shape our future)
Why Do We Marry ? Additional reasons besides conformity!
For religious reasons For emotional security For companionship To start a family Due to intense physical attraction For economic security Due to family pressure To escape the parental home/ rebel against parental control To rebound from a previous relationship To be "rescued" from an unsatisfying life
Aristotles metaphysics: "defintion"
From Aristotle's Metaphysics - a standard form of definition: genus and species Establish the meaning of a word by two components Genus: what other things share similar properties Species: how the thing we are defining differs from other things in the genus
Major Theoretical Frameworks for Studying Families
Functional theories Conflict theories Feminist theories System theories Rational Choice/Social Exchange Symbolic Interaction Bio-ecological theories Development/Life Course theories
Functions of Dating
Gaining status Socialization Recreation Mate selection
Generativity
Generativity is the ability to move beyond your own interests and toward helping the generation to come. Stagnation, in contrast, is the inability to find value in guiding and aiding the next generation
government policies and labor force participation-who is benefited? what groups?
Government Policies benefit some segments of society more than others Examples: Dual parent families versus single parent families; wealthier families versus poorer families--> state prefers intact families -immigrants dont experience same benefits as native population -government also interested in marriage (defines it) because it determines mutual responsibility of each partner as well as physical and emotional care of children -Plato believed that the state should control how many children could be had -in 16th and 17th centuries, state became more concerned about its population- need to protect borders and trading markets. Recognized the individuals who needed care and established welfare state to ensure everyone's needs were met
Recent feminist approaches
Importance of understanding the differences that emerge among women when ethnicity, race, and socioeconomic stratification are considered
Rate of Marriage in Canada
In 2006, 58.4% of Canadians were in a conjugal union and, of those, 80% were married Rate of married couples with children has been decreasing while the rate of cohabiting couples has been increasing -lone parent families have also been increasing
Monogamy
In Canada, only monogamy is legal Monogamy - the marriage of one person to another at one time We often practice serial monogamy - a person can have more than one marriage partner in his or her lifetime but must have these partners one at a time
Antioch College Rules
In response to the issue of sexual coercion and violence on their campus, Antioch College proposed a set of rules in an attempt to decrease and ultimately eliminate sexual aggression on their campus--> must have verbal agreement
Stats on cohabitation
In the US: 1965-1974: about 10% of marriages were preceded by cohabitation Early 1990s: 55% were preceded by cohabitation In Canada/France/NZ/Mexico/Finland: 2000: approximately 16-18% of all current unions were in the form of non-marital cohabitation Quebec and the rest of Canada (2000): Quebec: 29.8% of unions were non-marital 50% of first births are to cohabiting couples Rest of country: 11.7% were non-marital
inaprorpriate actions that could constitute an honor killing
Inappropriate actions can include: failing to cover her face, hair, or body; choosing to wear Western clothes or makeup; dating those not approved of by the family; attending higher education; marrying someone not chosen by the family; divorcing; and acting autonomously (e.g., driving by herself) (Chesler, 2009)
Parent-Child Levels of Analysis
Individual - examining the parent or individual child in regard to attitudes beliefs and actions Dyad - examining the relationship between one parent and one child e.g. in terms of same gender or cross gender conflict or agreement Group - examining the parent-child relationship in the context of the family group e.g. coalitions
Events in the life course
Individual's lives are experienced as events Example: birth, graduation, wedding, death The actual date does not carry the critical information about our lives that the event carries Most life events are readily understood in that they are "normative" or "expected".
Rational Choice and social Exchange Theory
Individuals make rational choice that maximize rewards and minimize costs. Relationships that have proven on average to provide more rewards and fewer costs are valued in themselves. The micro branch emphasizes individual agency and choice using values to predict and explain variations. The macro branch tends to emphasize the networks of social exchanges and the density of social capital people have to receive valued exchanges. Especially useful in health research. -exchange theory is a subset of rational choice theory- if im a good bread winner then you need to be a good caregiver
Facts on non consensual sex
Initiators and victims (male and female) had more sexual partners and a history of childhood victimization than those who are not coerced or coercing 24.4% of males and 23.3% of females report some form of sexual coercion before age 14 Guilt and intoxication were the most common strategies used (Craig,1990; Loh & Gidycz, 2006)
Institutional Norms
Institutional norms are social rules consensually agreed upon by most members of a society, these are different than internal norms within families such as rules for bedtime Some of these are codified as formal norms in legislation (e.g. marriage) while others are more informal (you should get married before kids) Norms organize and stabilize all societies Social change mainly comes about by normative change--> this starts as social deviance
Integrity
Integrity is the ability to accept one's life as something that had to be rather than regretting what it was not. Despair is the feeling that life has been in vain and is felt by a person who is still not satisfied with how his or her life turned out
Interracial Dating
Interracial dating is on the rise Interracial dating occurred among more than 50 % of African-American, Latino, and white study participants Interracial marriages in contrast, are quite rare—found to consist of 3.2 percent of marriages in 2001
Marriage and Health
It is generally believed that marriage is good for one's health Linked to a number of health benefits: Decreased mortality, Increased cardiovascular health, Increased immune system functioning, Increased psychological health
Three types of Marital Commitment
Johnson (1999) developed a model of commitment that distinguished between three types of commitment to a relationship: Personal commitment, Moral commitment, and Structural commitment
Main Differences upon Separation between cohabiting partners and married partners
Key differences upon separation between being married and being in common-law relationship: Division of property-- not the same as a marriage, when the relationship dissolves they do not get half of the difference between the two net worths change Possession of the matrimonial home--> not automatically divided Spousal support -- stricter rules like claim for support must be made within two years Orders restraining depletion of property--common law will not protect you from your partner going on spending spree before splitting assets inheritence- partner must bring a claim for unjust enrichment against deceased partners estate, doestnautomatically get the matrimonial home as you would in a marriage
Historical Families and Kinship Systems
Kinship systems represent basic assumptions about how we should behave (norms) and to whom we are related Kinship is dynamic in that it allows us to trace families over larger time frames such as centuries and even millennia Definitions in kinship systems: -The family one is born into is called your family of orientation -Family you form in adulthood is your family of procreation
Assigning Child Custody and cohabitation
Kunin and Davis (2009) if the union dissolves and the other partner still seeks right to parental authority - 5 criteria: 1)Couple has resided together for a significant period of time 2)A parental relationship has been established between the child and the individual with no parental rights 3)The parties have ended the relationship 4)There is not a traditional second legal parent 5)The parent without parental rights has been alienated from the child
Legal Definitions
Legal definitions relating to family law are about custody, maintenance, common law relationships and cohabitation, not a definition of the family per se Each Province and Territory also has legislation about families
Levels of Analysis : what are the major levels of analysis?
Levels of analysis influence one another The major levels of analysis are as follows: the individual, the two person relationship (dyad), the social group (family), and the institution (norms)
Lewis and Spanier's Four Types of Marriage
Lewis and Spanier (1979) proposed four types of marriage based on level of marital satisfaction and marital stability: Happy and stable Unhappy and stable Unhappy and unstable Happy and unstable
Simplified Lewis and Spanier Model
Life style satifcation--> Marital quality (influenced by premarital variables e.g. homogamy and interaction)---> marital stability (influenced by barriers and alternative attractors)
Selection effect Cohabitation
Lillard, Brian and Waite 1995 Characteristics of people who cohabit are correlated with divorce propensity, its not the experience itself Control the divorce proneness Effect for cohabitation on marital stability vanishes
Same-Sex Dating
Little research available Elze (2002) suggests it may be a more difficult process for gay and lesbian teens and young adults Harder to recognize potential partners Don't have access to enough potential partners
Theoretical Perspectives Examining the Family : feminist scholars
Lynne Casper, Suzanne Bianchi, Phlyllis Moen, Marty Blair-Loy, Anne Marie Ambert and Stephanie Coontz -they gave a More complete picture of the challenges and obstacles that both men and women have to navigate both with family and competing social structures
major critique of bio-ecological theories
Major critique have focused on the difficulty of predicting variation when the process (evolution) is a constant.
critique of life course and family development
Major critiques are that this theory does not address genetic theory such as how did norms come about
major critique of symbolic interaction
Majorcritique is that the concepts are to vague and broad to be of much use in explanation and prediction.
Heuveline and Timberlake (2004): typology for cohabitation
Marginal Prelude to marriage Stage in marriage process Alternative to being single Alternative to marriage Indistinguishable from marriage
Historical Context of cohabitation
Marriage as a significant life event has gained privileged status over other forms of union formation Latter half of the twentieth century gave rise to significant changes, including the rise in the prevalence and acceptance of non-marital cohabitation This change in the establishment of unions is linked to: -change inLabour market -Educational norms for higher education -Welfare state policies -The secularization of society -The feminist movement, availability of reliable birth control, sexual revolution, female labour force participation -The rapid rise in the divorce rate Marriage has historically been an institution that formed out of economic necessity Women relied on men to provide protection and provisions for themselves and their children Men relied on women for child care and meal preparation Children were economic assets who provided additional labour to meet household needs Ushered by the industrial revolution, that economic dependency is broken today--> children are now economic liabities and women can support their families w/o need of a husband
Mate Selection- what attributes are important here vs dating?
Mate selection - actively looking to find a life partner Dating tends to focus on choosing people we like and find attractive In mate selection, other attributes may become more important (e.g., potential stability) Mate selection leads to marriage or marriage-like cohabitation (with the intention of permanence)
Marriage Squeeze
Mid-life and older women commonly are squeezed out of opportunities to marry Why? Men marry younger women therefore the number of eligible men in a woman's age group decreases As we move into later life, women outlive men (Chappell et al., 2008)
early Cohabitation Effect on Children
Millennium Cohort Study: a study of almost 19,000 new births across the UK Measuring scores on social and emotional development and cognitive development Less positive outcomes for young children in a cohabiting home than those in a home in which the parents were married -children scored lower on social and emotional development and cog development than those from married homes -BUT Parental union formation is less important than socio-economic factors like parental education, family income, occupational measures
Marital Commitment: Moral commitment
Moral commitment refers to feelings of obligation to maintain the relationship Here, we feel we ought to stay. The feeling of obligation comes from A sense of social duty Personal feelings of obligation to the spouse We may also believe we are the type of person who honours their commitments (general consistency values)
Dark side: Interference
Most Canadians practice free choice dating Our family and friends have a large influence on who we ultimately choose People are more satisfied with a relationship if it was approved of by their social network -cross cultural study: examining influence of network members on commitment to a relationship and marriage intensions in china and the US -network influence predicted chinese relationship commitment and marital intentions , in the US the length of the relationship and feelings about support and care as well as network infleuce predicted relationship commitment and marital intentions
Rules of Inheritance
Most often follows rules of descent except there are often more specific rules such as: Primogeniture- first born Last born child- ultimogeniture, this would likely be chosen because the last born is likely to look after you in your old age Gender- often males Choice of parent - children will compete with eachother for inheritance, such as in the Habitant family.
In general, social science theories can be broken down into three sets of assumptions:
Motivational theories Normative theories Macro-historical theories
Rules of Descent: mutlineal descent
Multilineal descent Double descent reckons different type of power, property or prestige through each side. Bilateral reckons through both sides.
Research Definitions qualifications
Must be clearly and precisely stated Must be measurable Must be operationalized (measured) so that the dependent variable is not used in the measure of any other variables included in the research (independent)
What is the highest form of child maltreatment?
Neglect, then exposure to domestic violence, then physical abuse, then emotional maltreatment, then sexual abuse
Dark side: Getting a Date
New technologies are making it easier to find a date Allow shy individuals the opportunity to "talk" at their own pace (Baker & Oswald, 2008) Due to the visual nature of these sites, still some disadvantages for individuals who do not fit the norm for attractiveness Possible to be dishonest in the online context Often lie about age, weight, and relationship status (Ellison et al., 2006)
Definitions and Context, Important contexts for the study of the "family" Normative defintions:
Normative definitions where the context is the social norms in a society -what we consider normal, highly influenced by frequency e.g. divorce is relatively common now as compared to the 1950s but what is not normal? someone who has been divorced five times
Age Period and Cohort
Normative expectations depend on your age, the historical time period, and the birth cohort into which you were born Age = chronological age (e.g. a mid-life crisis is an event that a 45 year old individual might face, but not a 20 year old) Historical period = historical period in which you live is factor in the choices and social norms e.g. effects of great depression Birth cohort = other individuals raised with similar norms and understandings e.g. baby boomers generation
Socio-Cultural Factors influence on norms
Norms from other social institutions such as work and education influence the family A change in the norms and expectations in one institution such as education means that there will be consequent adaptations in the norms of work and family Anticipatory socialization = accounts for much of our ability to adapt to change. The choices an individual makes are determined by macroscopic factors and the more microscopic factors of individual values and preparation
Crude divorce rate
Number of divorces in year XXXX/ Midyear population in year XXXX
Refined divorce rate
Number of divorces in year XXXX/ Number of currently married in the population in year XXXX
Divorces per marriage
Number of divorces in year XXXX/ Number of marriages in year XXXX -this typically generates skewed number
Cohort ever married divorce rate
Number of first divorces of those born in year XXXX/ Number of ever married persons born in year XXXX (Calculated in a specified year )
Where are the most immigrants among seniors by province?
Ontario (1st) and BC (2nd)
What is the purpose of descent lines?
Original sources for social organization kinship systems organized marriage, social status, inheritance and property Structure of kinship maintained across successive generations by social norms regarding: Incest, Marriage (monogamy and polygamy), Authority (patriarchal or matriarchal), Residence (matrilocality-husband lives with wives comminity), patrilocality-wife lives in husbands community) or neolocality-living apart from both of their communities) and, Descent (matrilineal or patrilineal)
Parenting Techniques
Parental behaviors toward their children are constrained by laws about neglect, exposure to danger (failure to supervise), mandatory schooling, child abuse, abandonment, and use of physical force Also influenced by informal social norms Public inspection of parental behavior, e.g. spanking, leaving a child unattended in the car, etc.
Intergenerational Cohabitation
Parents do influence their offspring's union formation patterns and stability: Linked to parent's religiosity, education, SES, marriage stability, family structure E.g. adolescents who grew up in a cohabiting- parent family were more likely to expect to cohabit than those adolescents who were not part of a cohabiting parental environment (Manning, Longmore, & Giordano, 2007) Traditionally, marriage had an important social role in the transition to adulthood (Goldscheider & Goldscheider, 1999) For some societies, it was the only legitimate transition out of single status It also legitimized childbirth and established kinship connections that had the enduring impacts of inheritance and social identity Marriage no longer serves as the sole means to legitimize a committed relationships (Jeffrey Arnett, 1998, 2006). -children of divorced parents less likely to marry and if they do more likely to get divorced -religion is a huge factor that protects people from cohabitation because of its focus on marriage and no sex outside of marriage -peers cohabitation behaviour also influences your own likelihood to cohabit
Rules of Authority
Patriarchal Matriarchal Rules of authority must be viewed in relation to other sources of power in family and marriage (e.g.,wealth and status)
Potential Negatives Across the Life Course : Marital expectations
People with the highest expectations for married life are the least happy spouses later on
Marital Commitment: personal commitment
Personal commitment refers to being dedicated to continue with a course of action It consists of three components: attraction to one's partner, attraction to the relationship, and definition of the self in terms of the relationship Personal commitment relates to the phrase I want to stay
Types of Conflict
Peterson (2002) proposes four common types of relational conflict: Criticism -- verbal or non verbal demeaning acts Illegitimate demands - asking partner to do unjust things for you Cumulative annoyances - repetitive frustrating behvaiours Rebuffs-- fail to act on demand
Polygamy: polyandry
Polyandry - one woman has multiple husbands (rare but is practiced in parts of Africa and Southeast Asia) Occurs in conditions of extreme poverty A way to keep the population from growing too large (Harris, 1997) In Canada, new policy and laws around polygamy are being considered
Potential Negatives Across the Life Course: marital adjustment
Poor marital adjustment linked to an increased risk for partner physical aggression which is preceded by marital distress
Population Pyramids
Population pyramids - graphs that show the distribution of individuals in a population by age. Often these pyramids are also divided by gender
Teachman: Premarital Sex, Cohabitation, and Divorce: The Broken Link
Premarital sex and cohabitation, if limited to one's future husband, may not increase the risk of divorce for women according to this research. Dr. Jay Teachman's research adds a new dimension to the long-held belief that premarital sex and cohabitation are strong predictors of divorce for women. -Dr. Teachman's research shows that women who are committed to one relationship, who have either premarital sex and/or cohabit only with the man they eventually marry have no higher incidence of divorce than women who abstain from premarital sex and cohabitation
Variables to be Considered in cohabitation
Previous marriages First time marriage Duration of marriage Duration of relationship Selection attributes predisposing to divorce Cohort Period Age at cohabitation Duration of cohabitation Number of cohabitations not ending in marriage
Two Approaches for Legal Rights in cohabitation
Proactive approaches: strategies that an individual may take advantage of prior to dissolving of the union Reactive approaches: strategies that are available to individuals after they have already ended the union
Attraction: Psychological Reactance
Psychological reactance - we like people we cannot have (Brehm & Brehm, 1981) Example: playing hard to get (internal barrier) Example: parental disapproval (external barrier)
recommendations for people living in a cohabiting relationship
Recommended legal tools for asset protection and estate planning: Cohabitation agreements Power of attorney Living wills Health permission release forms (so medical professionals can talk about a patient to non-kin) Without formal arrangements the assets will not automatically go to the surviving partner--> do this in a will or look at financial accounts and designate a beneficiary
Definitions and Context, Important contexts for the study of the "family" Research definition:
Research definitions where the context is a specific research question tuned into measureable quantities, operationalize your variable
cohabitation Later Effect on Marriage
Research on premarital cohabitation has consistently shown the negative impact on later marital stability and quality Possible explanations for this: -Selection: the pre-existing characteristics and life course patterns of people who cohabit Include: religiosity, number of previous marriages, education level, income, presence of children, age -The actual experience of cohabitation lead to the poorer outcomes: there is something about cohabitation itself that increases the risk for distress, divorce, or both -Some researchers see this as inaccurate conclusions that are based on analysis of earlier cohorts of cohabiters who did so when cohabitation was not considered a normative pathway to marriage -As cohabitation becomes more normative, the traditional connection between cohabitation and negative consequences for marriage stability becomes less consistent -For instance, more recent cohort studies do not reflect the earlier findings
Conceptual Hypothesis
Scientific methods are founded on logic and probability A question cannot be true or false; a proposition can Every research question leads to a conceptual hypothesis A conceptual hypothesis is a statement that can have a truth value (true or false)
Feminist Theories
Second wave feminism beginning in he 1960's, started with the liberal enlightenment position that everyone should have the same rights and opportunities. By 1985 feminism had split into several "voices" including liberal feminism, cultural feminism, eco-feminism, radical feminism, socialist feminism and several other variants. Today, third wave feminism is most focused on the intersection of race, social class and gender on life chances. -flows from conflict theory, study of the family historically mainly from the male perspective -women are opressed by the patricarchy--> family is the central institution that reproduces social roles and mechanisms to maintain this opression
Assigning Child Custody and cohabitation: proactive strategies
Second-parent adoption: limited to only a few states, most states have laws that allow single adults or married couples to adopt but not a second parent Co-guardianship: keeps all responsibilities of a legal parent (e.g. medical issues of child), remain in place even if relationship dissolves unless biological parent petitions to have these rights removed Cohabitation agreement- may be superceeded by DOMA
Dating and Sex: 4 general patterns
Sex "de-linked" from marriage and family (Castells, 2004) Four general premarital sexual standards (Reiss, 1967) Abstinence - sex should occur only in the context of marriage Permissiveness with affection - sex is considered okay if the two people are not married but in love Permissiveness without affection - love does not have to exist for a person to have premarital sex Double standard - women should practice permissiveness with affection; men can practice permissiveness without affection.
Dark side: Violence and Coercion
Sexual coercion - "an experience of being pressured or forced by another person to have contact which involved touching of sexual parts or sexual intercourse—oral, anal, or vaginal" (Struckman-Johnson & Struckman-Johnson,1994, p. 96) Coerced females had a greater number of sexual partners Some evidence for low self-esteem and low assertiveness (Testa & Dermen, 1999) Research on male characteristics associated with being coerced is rare
Normative Definitions
Shared by the majority of people in a country or region A practice or action regarded as socially legitimate and approved Sometimes legal definitions are out of synchrony with social norms Normative definitions of family have broadened
Attraction: Similarity Theory
Similarity theory - "birds of a feather flock together" or "like attracts like" (McPherson, Smith-Lovin, & Cook, 2001) Assortative mating - we chose partners on the basis of certain traits Homogamy - we choose individuals with traits similar to ours-- age, education, social class Homogamy less important to same-sex couples (Jepsen & Jepsen, 2002)
Social Constructions of the family- when do they change?
Social constructions of the family gain power when adherents of a perspective increase in number This increase eventually changes normative definitions Example: Social construction of "marriage" now includes gay and lesbian marriages
Theoretical Perspectives Examining the Family: riley- direction of social influence
Social influence is not unidirectional--> family influences and is influenced by other institutions. Reciprocal nature of women's career aspirations and the social norms regarding women in paid work force. Historically, women proved themselves in the workforce and now it is a norm that all women should work.
Models of Parent-Child Effects: Socrates
Socrates (Meno, circa 500 BC) was concerned with the socialization and learning of children Empiricism - all learning depends on experience. Tied to the idea of tabula rasa. (positivitistic side to research today- smell it, see it, touch it, taste it) Experimentation. Rationalism - all individuals carry pre-existing forms of knowledge. Use our own cognition to figure out the truth -chomsky says were born with the capability of language
Polygamy: Polygny
Some areas of the country practice polygamy - marriage to several individuals at the same time Supported by the values of both genders and is often linked to religious beliefs Polygyny - one man has several wives (most common worldwide)
Coercion Versus Unwanted Sexual Activity
Sometimes studies on unwanted sexual activity equate unwanted activity and coerced activity Often college students have unwanted sex that is consensual (O'Sullivan & Allgeier, 1998) 38% reported having unwanted sex during a two-week period Motivations = satisfying a partner, avoiding relationship tension, promoting intimacy, feeling obligated, and feeling unable to refuse
Conclusion of chapter 2
Stage of the life course or family stage is a central concept Within each stage there is maturation and development until a transition is made to the next stage Transitions from one stage to another are central to the life course perspective Time is incredibly important in understanding change and development The duration of time spent in any one stage helps predict transitions and changes to another stage Time and duration can be further broken down by age, cohort and historical period Choices are determined by one's values but also how these values are "contextualized" by historical period, stages already traversed and your age and the duration in the current stage Social institutions all have timing and sequencing norms to stay organized and keep stress levels for individuals manageable which change over time
Example stages and events
Stage: single, following event: moving in, stage: cohabiting, following event: wedding day, stage: married, event: first birth
Attraction: SVR Theory
Stimulus-value-role (SVR) theory (Murstein, 1986, 1987) Initially attracted to external attributes (the stimulus stage)-- approval by the partner is the primary reward in the 1st encounter Focus on choosing someone who is attainable, not necessarily someone who is our ideal Second stage is the value stage Determine if our attitudes, interests, and beliefs match--> have to find right balance about how much to reveal Final stage is the role stage Role - a set of behaviours that are expected of a person who occupies a specific position in a group We evaluate a mate on two dimensions: How we actually function in the relationship compared to how we expected we would function in the relationship, How our partner functions in the relationship compared to how we expected him or her to function--> does your partner meet your needs/ how are we behaving as a result of the relationship?
marital commitment: structural commitment
Structural commitment - conditions that cause a person to continue on a course of action once he or she has initiated it regardless of whether or not he or she is personally committed to it Here, we feel we have to stay This category is composed of four parts: Irretrievable investments- investments you cant get back once the relationship ends e.g. getting joint custody of kids of half the value of the house Termination procedures- divorce is costly/ energy demanding and time consuming Social pressure-- pressure to stay in the relationship for familys benefit e.g. avoiding social stigma Attractiveness of available alternatives-- no other options except for being alone or options aren't very appealing
technological context of cohabitation
Technology increased freedom and autonomy from parental monitoring, making courtship and sexual exploration easier: In the 1920s, the automobile In 2010, the cellphone--> enhanced privacy, capability to send sexual content through messaging Technological advancement and access to reliable birth control has led to the rise of sexuality as a recreational activity Easier access to consenting sexual partners combined with the decline in social stigma for those sexually active outside of marriage appealed to some and but not others like conservative social groups
Psychological Approaches: Situational couple violence-- explanation for harmful family dysfunction
Term used to describe the less extreme forms of violence that are quite prevalent in relationships and are less gendered in their use
There are three common ways to measure dependency in a population: aged dependency ratio
The aged dependency ratio - the number of persons 65 years and older divided by the number of persons between 20 and 64 years old
Article: Examining Rowe and Kahn's Concept of Successful Aging: Importance of Taking a Life Course Perspective by James D. Stowe and Teresa M. Cooney
The authors argue that Rowe and Kahn's conceptualization relies too heavily on individual agency--> there is an importance of context- historical, cultural, and social. Not every individual has the same opportunities -their argument recognizes lifelong process e.g. developmental influences on the individual (ie Dutch famine birth cohort and these early effects predicting cardiovascular disease) -this article offers a balanced view of aging changing within context of structural constraints -choices affecting aging: smoking vs not smoking but there is also a window of agency- had to quit before 30 to escape negative effects of smoking on ultimate health and SA -social network influences extend up to three degrees (i.e., from friends of friends of friends) and that some health conditions are influenced more by friends than by closer relations such as spouses -marital interactions are known to influence health status, physical symptoms, and chronic conditions -->substancial congruence between partners physical and social functioning -drop in rates of SA from 1998 to 2004 using the U.S. Health and Retirement Study. The odds of older adults meeting the "successful" classification declined 25% over this period due largely to increased rates of chronic disease and physical impairment. This finding is disconcerting because of public health problems such as obesity in the United States and related warnings about chronic cardiovascular problems and other obesity-related diseases. Why? because of the fast food industry arising! -the socially constructed categories of race, gender, and social class are key influences on aging, as are institutional structures and policies that regulate behavior and provide resources when individuals encounter risks across the life course -income inequality means the SA is not available to all -Improvement in Rowe and Kahn's SA model is offered by a life course perspective's emphasis on aging as a lifelong process; contextual influences on development—primarily place (culture), historical time, and social structural/institutional forces; social-relational influences on health and development; and heterogeneity of lives due to complex pathways of development -agency is restricted by socially constructed opportunities and constraints
asset protection and cohabitation
The cohabiting couple must realize their rights as a couple apart from marriage law Every legal jurisdiction may have it own laws concerning cohabitation Defence of marriage act in US-- passed to establish definition of marriage as legal union between man and women (Excluding same sex) and to establish who was entitled to federal and state tax benefits Key Concepts: Cohabitation agreements: often not recognized since they attempt to circumvent the laws that aim to protect the distinctiveness of marriage civil unions: Domestic partnerships: have more legal recognition but their recognition is not universal, most follow: partners must be 18y, neither related by blood than what is permitted by state, committed exclusive relationship, financially indepedent
Cohabitation Among the Elderly
The fastest growing age segment among cohabiters is the elderly 10% (and growing) of cohabitants are over the age of 50 (Brown, Lee & Bulandra ,2006) Fewer incentives to marry: Less economic wealth makes marriage less attractive, especially for women
Beginnings of family formation
The first steps towards family formation (dating and mate selection) tend to occur during young adulthood These can occur at any age in the life-course but are most prevalent in young adulthood
Motivational Theories
The individual decides how and why they behave a certain way Rational choice theory (Coleman, 1990) : motivated to make the best/ right decision. How to maximizebenefit while minimizing cost e.g. divorce will cost money, if money is very important to you then divorce might not be the right decision Microeconomics (Becker, 1980) : It is concerned with the interaction between individual buyers and sellers and the factors that influence the choices made by buyers and sellers.
History, Kinship and Dynamics
The largest dynamic system for family is historical kinship while the smallest is the dyad ( parent-child, husband- wife, sibling, etc.). History has an affect on today's families in terms of kinship maps, moral judgements, and contracting marriage. Today, however, young couples are breaking new ground, such as cohabitation and single living, and these patterns are relatively unfamiliar to current scholars. -conjugal union: intimate couple, couple centred-- modernly parenting is a shorter time period of the life course than it was historically
critique of rational choice and exchange theory
The major critique is that this theory is circular- why did Joe do x because it was rewarding or less costly fails to address the question why it was so.
critique of functional theory
The major critique of functional theory is that they see social change as disrupting the equilibrium needed for maintenance and survival of the social system.
critique of conflict theory
The major critique of these theories is that they are to macroscopic to allow prediction and they fail to explain everyday life and deny human agency and choice.
critique of feminist theories
The major critiques of feminist theories are that they are not scientific and do not predict and explain.
Next step of Filter Model of Mate Selection
The next filter is whether your mate must be within or outside of your social group Exogamy is marriage outside a social group Endogamy is marriage inside one's group In Canada, homogamy is most common - marrying someone with similar characteristics Hetrogamy occurs when we choose an individual who is not like ourselves In the next filter we look for individuals who fit with our value system and are compatible with our role expectations For a relationship to become more permanent, it depends on shared beliefs (similarity/homogamy filter) but personality traits needed to be complementary (complementary role expectations) (Kerckhoff & Davis,1962)
Transition to Marriage
The time when a newly married couple must learn to integrate with each other and with their extended families Requires the couple to negotiate their roles as a married couple
Transition to Adulthood
The transition from adolescence to adulthood changes as the regularities of age graded institutions (education, workplace, marriage laws) change over time More people continuing their education for longer periods of time than in previous cohorts Passage to adulthood has been delayed, less linear, and subject to reversals
Definitions and Context, Important contexts for the study of the "family" Theoretical definitions:
Theoretical definitions where the context is the concepts and propositions of a social science theory theory is the basis of research, propositions form theories- how we concieve ideas about a concept EX) theory of happy marriages? Proposition: happy marriages are hard work
Post midterm 2***:Theoretical Perspectives Examining the Family AND define social institution
Theoretical perspectives examine labor, education, religion and government's impact on the family over the life course, Social institution: complex social forms that reproduce themselves e.g. government, human language, hospitals
Courtship Patterns & Pathways
There are a diversity of pathways into and out of a cohabiting relationship Deliberate cohabitating relationships: Cohabitation as a screening process that weed out potentially unsuccessful relationships before marriage "Decisionless" cohabitating relationships: Associated with longer cohabitation period Had significantly lower separation rate (DeVaus et al., 2005) -female serial cohabitors who eventually married inc their odds of divorce by 141 percent compared to those who only cohabited with their future husband -why are we finding the negative trend on premarital cohabitation? limitations: lack of theory, dearth of longitudinal methods with insesnitve measures, aging data set
Early feminist scholars view of society and gender inequity/ equity
There was a Simplistic nature of seeing all men and all women as homogenous groups with identical environments and roles
Bio-ecological Theories
These theories have emphasized macro processes such as evolution and inclusive fitness ( genes). The family has been seen as an organization compromising between women's quality strategy for reproduction and male quantitative strategy. -biological processes influence our behaviour: women have different reproductive strategies than men bc of reproduction capacities- women around 16 children, men unlimited Most recently theory in this area has moved to supply propositions across species ( Emlen, 1995). Another fruitful area of research is in regard to family behavior and the endocrine system ( especially testosterone and oxytocin). -mens primary concern when raising a child is parental certainty
Assigning Child Custody and cohabitation: reactive strategy
Third-party visitation rights: a "long shot" strategy because it needs proof that the legal parent is unfit in some capacity
Life Course and Family Development***
This book is guided by this theory, This approach recognizes the agency and choice of actors but also the force of social norms. e.g. you want to bring home a man to meet your parents but this is not accepted in your culture because you only date to marry This perspective sees actors as driven by choice that are constrained by the situtaion and by the social norms at any time in history. Typically social change is conceptualized as indivdiual agents practicing deviant non normative patterns that eventually become the new norm. -this theory is characterized by concepts of stages and transitions
critique of systems theory
This is a very abstract and linear modeling approach to theory and has not yet lived up to its promise for explanations.
Theoretical Perspectives Examining the Family: Engels
Thought family perpetuated inequality-- early feminist thought -whoever holds the money holds the power
Hypotheses (3) about why marriage leads to better health
Three common perspectives that explain the link between marriage and health: Selection: healthier people more likely to get married Protection: marriage protects you- particularly men less likely to engage in risky behaviours, more likely to get check ups, eat better, have life insurance Marital quality hypotheses: health is a result of being in a meaningful satisfying relationship
Duration and Transitions
Timing and sequencing norms also construct expected durations for how long to be in any stage before making a transition Example, How long would you expect to be engaged? Would six months be as appropriate as six years? For many transitions in our lives, we find expectations have an implicit duration expectation
Defining Marriage
Traditionally, marriage was defined as the voluntary union for life of one man to one woman to the exclusion of all others Implies: A lifelong commitment The marriage is heterosexual and monogamous On July 20, 2005, the Civil Marriage Act legalized same-sex marriage across Canada Research on same-sex marriage is extremely limited
