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ESSENTIALS OF SOCIOLOGY, 7TH EDITION

CHAPTER 11: FAMILIES AND INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS

Please review the entire chapter to gain a more comprehensive view and understanding of the subject matter. Do not rely solely on this chapter summary.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

How Do Sociological Theories Characterize Families?

• Kinship, family, and marriage are closely related terms of key significance for sociology

and anthropology. Kinship comprises either genetic ties or ties initiated by marriage. A

family is a group of kin having responsibility for the upbringing of children. Marriage is a

union of two persons living together in a socially approved sexual relationship.

• A nuclear family is a household in which a single parent or married couple live with their

children. Where kin in addition to parents and children live in the same household or are

involved in close and continuous relationships, we speak of the existence of an extended

family.

• Functionalists see society as a set of social institutions that perform specific functions to

ensure continuity and stability.

• In contrast to functionalist approaches, symbolic interactionism emphasizes the

contextual, and subjective nature of family relationships in which the behavior or

identities of individual family members mutually shape one another over time.

• Feminist theories have challenged the vision of the family as harmonious and

egalitarian, shining a light on it being a site or exploitation, loneliness, and inequality.

How Have Families Changed over Time?

• Traditional family forms take on an air of nostalgia, but this often masks the unequal and

stark reality – oppressed wives, child labor, high parent mortality rates, etc.

• In Western societies, marriage, and therefore families, are associated with monogamy (a

culturally approved sexual relationship between one man and one woman). Many other

cultures tolerate or encourage polygamy, in which an individual may be married to two

or more spouses at the same time. Polygyny, in which a man may marry more than one

wife, is far more common than polyandry, in which a woman may have more than one

husband.

• There are many types of families in the world, but while there is a trend toward the

Western norm of the nuclear family. Some reasons for this trend include the spread of

the Western ideal of romantic love, the growth of urbanization and of centralized

governments, and employment in organizations outside traditional family influence.

ESSENTIALS OF SOCIOLOGY, 7TH EDITION

CHAPTER 11: FAMILIES AND INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS

What Do Marriage and Family in the United States Look like Today?

• There have been major changes in patterns of family life in the United States during the

post–World War II period: A high percentage of women are in the paid labor force, there

are rising rates of divorce and remarriage, and substantial proportions of the population

are either in single-parent households or are living with stepfamilies.

• Family sociologists have detected considerable variations in family structure across racial

and ethnic groups; between the family lives of whites and Blacks; Asian American

families (which resemble white families in many ways), and Latino and Native American

family patterns (which are highly varied).

Why Does Family Violence Happen?

• Family life is by no means always a picture of harmony and happiness. The "dark side" of

family life is found in the patterns of abuse and family violence – child abuse, intimate

partner violence - that often occur within it.

• Although no social class is immune to intimate partner violence, studies do indicate that

it is more common among low-income couples.

How Do New Family Forms Affect Your Life?

• Cohabitation (in which a couple lives together in a sexual relationship outside of

marriage) has become increasingly common in many industrial countries; as has the

acceptance of homosexual relationships.

• It seems certain that alternative forms of social and sexual relationships – including

staying single and deciding to be child-free - to those prevalent in the past will flourish

still further. Yet marriage and family remain firmly established institutions.