Sociology Family in the News
Sociological Perspective of Family
University of Washington
February 9, 2022
A family is the basis of a unit of a society composed of people related by blood, marriage, and adoption who live in a single household, communicating together in their relevant social positions. Siblings, parents, and children are examples of social positions. A larger family should be differentiated from a residence, including borders and roomers living in the same house. At its most basic, a family comprises a parent and their children. The role of the family in providing emotional and mental security, especially through the comfort, love, and friendship that living together fosters between partners and, by extension, between them and their kids. Various structure or family types include nuclear, single, and extended families. Every person wishes to have a family at some point in their lives. However, some end up delaying the process. The paper focuses on structural functionalism as a sociological perspective and private-public families.
"I'm scared I've left it too late to have kids': the men haunted by their biological clocks," by Sirin Kale, presents the worries that men feel when they delay in playing their biological function. The article explains the deepest anxieties that men feel on matters of procreation. An example is Connor, 38, who has no house and people to call his family. Connor looks at his future without something of his own and goes to the extent of worrying about the quality of his sperm at that time. The reasons for such worries include reducing the quality of sperms and DNA damage at that point (Kale, 2021). Like women, men should be aware of their fertility window despite being able to bear children at old ages.
A sociological perspective is a kind that examines society objectively and without bias. It generalizes personal reasons and actions into trends and categories. The functionalist, the conflict, and symbolic interactionism are the three main sociological perspectives in sociology (Mooney, Knox, & Schacht, 2012). The perspectives are theories in sociology that help explain why society works in a specific manner and phenomena. An example of a sociological theory is the structural functionalism theory, which focuses on various social institutions and their role in an individual's life. The theory assumes that society comprises interconnected parts in harmony to keep the whole in a delicate balance and social equilibrium. It stresses society's interdependency by concentrating on how each component is influenced and shaped by others.
A public family comprises one or two grown-ups who are distantly related, partnering, or shared parenthood and are caring for dependents, as well as the dependent family members themselves. A private family comprises more than two people who share an emotional bond that they expect to last indefinitely or, as in the particular instance of a parent and child, until the child turns adulthood and who usually share a home and share their earnings and residential labor. The private family is where we spend most of our personal lives, while the public family deals with larger societal issues like caring for the frail elderly, the rise in divorce, and childbirth outside marriage.
According to structural-functional theory, the worries of men like Connor in the article are important for a well-functioning society. The family as a social institute plays an important part in the reproduction, nurturing, and socialization of children (Mooney et al., 2012). From a sociological perspective, men have a biological role and function to reproduce and provide for their families. The provision area is what most men focus upon; hence end up giving birth very late. According to the theory, the purpose of reproduction is a social replacement for the members that have died (Harris et al., 2011). Therefore, these men have to fulfill their purpose and function of procreation in society.
The article presents both private and public family aspects of the participants' issues. The private family refers to an individual's personal life, which rotates mostly on their individual choices. In the case of Connor, the decision to wait for years to have a baby represents a private family issue he decides on with his girlfriend because of financial constraints. However, his life also demonstrates the idea of a public family, which is childbirth. Most of the men in the article are concerned about their age and viability to have children. Kale (2021) explains that men also experience the social pressures of aging and parenting. These are examples of public families that people are subjected to and the roles they have to play.
Family is the basic unit of society, and as an institution, it plays an important role in reinforcing societal norms and behaviors. A major sociological perspective that explains the functions of a family is the functionalism theory. The theory also expounds on the roles and positions of individuals, such as men, reproduction. The private family setup consists of the roles and choices of an individual, but a public family refers to the extended roles of an individual to society, such as child rearing.
Reference
Arruzza, C. (2016). Functionalist, Determinist, Reductionist: Social Reproduction Feminism and its Critics. Science and Society, 80(1). https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/pdf/10.1521/siso.2016.80.1.9
Harris, I. D., Fronczak, C., Roth, L., & Meacham, R. B. (2011). Fertility and the aging male. Reviews in urology, 13(4), e184–e190.
Kale, S. (2021, October 28). ‘I’m scared I’ve left it too late to have kids’: The men haunted by their biological clocks. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/oct/28/scared-late-kids-men-biological-clocks-ageing-procreation-anxieties
Mooney, L. A., Knox, D., & Schacht, C. (2012). Understanding social problems. Cengage Learning.
PLEASE LOOK AT THIS AND FIX I NEED A GRADE
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Paper 1 Assignment Family in the News |
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Criteria |
Ratings |
Pts |
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Introduces paper clearly by introducing topic, news article, theory, or some element of the paper, and also mentions paper's objective(s) view longer description |
10 pts Sophisticated 9 pts Developed 7 pts Emerging Minimum passing score=6 0 pts Absent or inadequate |
8 / 10 pts |
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Summarizes briefly the family phenomenon in the news article view longer description |
10 pts Sophisticated 9 pts Developed 7 pts Emerging Minimum passing score=6 0 pts Absent or inadequate |
8 / 10 pts |
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Defines theory and indicates understanding of theory's role in sociology view longer description |
10 pts Sophisticated 9 pts Developed 7 pts Emerging Minimum passing score=6 0 pts Absent or inadequate |
8 / 10 pts |
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Demonstrates understanding of one theory in sociology of family and applies it to illuminate the family phenomenon in the news article view longer description |
20 pts Sophisticated 18 pts Developed 15 pts Emerging Minimum passing score=12 0 pts Absent or inadequate |
17 / 20 pts |
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Explains the soc. idea of family as a public/private good and relates how this idea is reflected (or not) in the news article or by the phenomenon related in the news article. view longer description |
15 pts Sophisticated 13 pts Developed 10 pts Emerging Minimum passing score=9 0 pts Absent or inadequate |
12 / 15 pts |
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Effectively uses course materials to offer other points of discussion of the family phenomenon (minimum of 3 different sources, may occur throughout the paper) view longer description |
10 pts Sophisticated 9 pts Developed 7 pts Emerging Minimum passing score=6 0 pts Absent or inadequate |
6 / 10 pts |
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Concludes paper effectively by bringing the discussion back to the paper's beginnings, or by bringing together the paper's conclusions view longer description |
10 pts Sophisticated 9 pts Developed 7 pts Emerging Minimum passing score=6 0 pts Absent or inadequate |
8 / 10 pts |
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Organizes paper carefully (logic, transitions) view longer description |
5 pts Sophisticated 4 pts Developed 3 pts Emerging 0 pts Absent or inadequate |
4 / 5 pts |
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Edits paper carefully and other paper mechanics are sound (no typos, grammar mistakes) view longer description |
5 pts Sophisticated 4 pts Developed 3 pts Emerging 0 pts Absent or inadequate |
5 / 5 pts |
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Cites appropriately using APA format, both within the paper with in-text citations and in the corresponding References section view longer description |
5 pts Sophisticated 4 pts Developed 3 pts Emerging 0 pts Absent or inadequate Comments Seems like missing a lot of citations--where are your definitions coming from? |
4 / 5 pts |
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Total Points: 80 |