Lacey Desper

Sociology of Family

SA: Chapter 1

Research the following: write an (SA) in which you compare nuclear family, and the post-modern family. How might each of these impact children?

First to define nuclear family which is essentially defined as parents and children; the post-modern family is a recognition that families today have many forms and continue to develop in new forms. Most people will probably conform or be more familiar with one type of family. Either they grew up in a nuclear family and that’s all that they currently know or they grew up in a family structure that would more suitably fall under the post-modern structure.

I think the way we grow up and the environment affects the way we view family. I would tend to think that people who grew up with a nuclear family and not much change outside of it would more often tend to fall under the belief of the family decline perspective. In my personal view’s people who view this perspective normally are religious in nature and believe that family is the center of existence and to alter the current form would cause a societal decline in values and morals. I would tend to believe people who have had to exist more with the post-modern family tend to believe in the family change perspective. These people either had bad home lives or lived with single parents or lived in non-normative living environments.

Personally, I have lived in and experienced both philosophies and family units. I started this world in a nuclear family environment but the birth of my two younger siblings led extreme stress on my family that would eventually lead to me being put into the foster care system at age 5; for the duration of 3 years I essentially had no family unit until I was adopted at age 8 into a new nuclear family. This situation though technically still defined as a nuclear family by my definition changed into a post-modern family. My adopted parents adopted 9 other children spawning children from 5 different sets of parents into one household. While legally we are still defined as a nuclear family. The structure of this environment and social structures and hierarches changed dramatically.

As I left high school, I attempted to leave my family behind and sought to make a family for myself. I found a few key friends who became my living companions and support system. Which would eventually turn itself into a full scale post-modern family? This family structure remained in this style of living until I married my husband at age 24 and started a family myself soon after; this life change has thrown me into a role that is completely unfamiliar to me in such a duration; right back into the nuclear role that I was born into.

After reading this story it would easy to understand why I would self-identify with the post-modern and family change perspective because unlike most roles in our life we are constantly changing, altering and modifying are roles in family and society. I think that more people are experiencing post-modern family styles with divorce, death, adoption ext. then previously experienced in the United States society; which is creating a separation from the public image of nuclear family that was established in the 50’s. This might also explain the outcry from the family decline crowd generally when a group starts to feel like a minority they start to speak louder in fear their needs and desires will no longer be heard. Generally in my experience it is the minority that is heard the loudest. It goes back to that old saying “the squeakiest wheel gets the oil.”

While, these are my personal experiences with the current definitions of family types this is not a phenomenon that is only being experienced in the United States. While, reading an article discussing post-modern families and their effects on society and family it described a change that has not yet hit in the United States I believe, “For many post-modern children there is dual socialization by family and day-care provider. For example, in the Nordic welfare states, the family has been described as an intimacy sanctuary and a zone of stability while daycare centers develop the child's capacity to exercise self-control with respect to affective behavior” It begs the question of if this is the future if post-modern family completely over takes the nuclear family. Do we return to sending our children off to schools and allow them to teach and raise our children, while being nothing more than a support system in the background.

This it also begs the question of the future of family, is this view of family the one we want? Does this far right view of what post-modern family what our future holds? I think the answer lies somewhere in-between. I think we all need a little of both. Once, we become old enough we all choose our family, we choose our spouse and our friends. I hold friendsgivings at my house because these are the people besides my spouse and children that I consider to be my family. The future of family is completely undetermined. It is a living breathing thing that is being influenced by society and the lives we live. Do we go back to complete nuclear family’s and leave education up to the individual or do we remand moral beliefs to moral and leave all of public education to the education system to subvert a break down in all post-modern families.

Like, the book said it all inevitably comes to individual decisions made by individuals, family is so far on the micro scale of society that one family does not normally affect the whole, but when extreme economic pressures lead to large numbers of divorce and more people living together it forces the choices available to the public and causes a large number of people to follow that path, inevitably affecting the whole and is no longer a micro influence.

References:

"family social health" and "family social wellness". (n.d.). . Retrieved June 3, 2014, from http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu13se/uu13se03.htm

Marriages, Families & Relationships: Making Choices In A Diverse Society (11th ed. / Lamanna & Riedmann / ISBN: 9781111301545)

Lacey Desper

Sociology of Family

SA: Chapter 2

Research the following: of the nine theoretical perspectives covered in this chapter, list any five and for each of the five present how the theory views families.

There are many different theoretical perspectives that cover the issues that affect and attempt to explain families in specific contexts. Which is what you would expect to find when the field of study affects and is part of every person’s existence. A theoretical perspective is essentially a way of viewing reality in context of science, observing, researching and deriving conclusions to add a better understanding of the specific topic.

The first theoretical perspective I would like to discuss is the perspective or family ecology which sets specifically to explain the influences that affect family by the surrounding environment. The book uses the example of the affects the work life could have on the family. I will stick with this example to keep things simplistic. What kind of constraints does this put on the family? What are the effects on the structure and health of the family life? Does your socioeconomic status affect the structure and life of family. For example do people that live in lower income housing share and make a better community then those considered to be well off.

In my specific life, this perspective I have had to have many arguments with parents and in-laws about the way my husband and I have built our family life. My husband woks overnights and in his line of work without a degree or putting in the years at work it’s almost impossible to move to days, moving to days would also come with a pay decrees in the form of losing his shift differential. I attempt to live during the days while my husband slept and vice versa; for us it just did not work. I did not marry to only see my husband 2 days a week and I did not have a child to have a part time father. We made the decision to move to the night schedule. We came

under constant critique and criticism, how does your child socialize or see family; well we do it in the afternoon. We get up at 1 eat breakfast and head out to playgrounds or events around town until around 9 or so, then head home for lunch and proceed with reading ,painting, learning, playing and dinner around the time dad gets home followed by family time and bed around 3 am. It has worked for us ad kept our marriage and family strong and my daughter has gotten to see her dad every day of her life. It was something that was important to me and if we had to take a nontraditional role to life to do it so be it. Dad was more important than a normal sleep cycle. Life is changing now, daughter is starting preschool and my husband having worked for his company for more than 6 years now is finally in the running for a day job, without the drop in pay in fact a raise. This is the kind of event that the family ecology theory researches and looks to explain.

The second theoretical perspective I would like to discuss is the family life course development theory which sets to look at the family as a unit that can be researched and set a timeline for. It reminds me of the age-graded influences (Events that are strongly related to age and therefore fairly predictable in when they occur and how long they last) we looked at during Human Development. This theory basically sets to lay out a map of stages and how they work and a time frame for these events. Then discussing what happens and what the different influences are within that category like developmental goals. I compare it to taking my daughter to her well child checkups, has your child reached this milestone or done this yet, essentially categorizing the family. The problem with this approach is it tries to set everything in family life into normative occurrences. All of us know that a family is unpredictable and while mostly reliable can still shake things up all the time. A perfect day can be brought to its knees by a call by a disliked cousin. It also only seems to include the nuclear family, and does not really include the post-modern family.

The third theoretical perspective I would like to discuss is the structure-functional perspective which looks to understand why and how social structures for fill societal needs. This theory attempts to explain how families compete the tasks that family is essentially founded for, raising children, providing economic support for the children and family and providing individual emotional security. If the family system fails these goals it is generally considered to be dysfunctional. Which means there is a kink in the chain it has become incapable of competing its purpose. There are many kinds of dysfunction and there are complete fields of study for most of them, domestic abuse, sexual abuse, divorce, depression, attachment disorder which is in itself a category in this field. Unlike the family life course development structure function does include the post-modern line of family thought evaluating what different family structures successfully perform the essentials of the family. Though while it does include the post-modern sector of family life it seems to stay close to the traditional family types.

The fourth theoretical perspective I would like to discuss is Exchange Theory which looks to the economic relationship in relation to the social relationship. It stops to say that we want to limit our costs and maximize our rewards. Which if you look at the American culture it fits right in with our Capitalist and Individualistic life styles. It stops to look at the social networks and how they affect our family life by the access to the social network we need. Since, peer networks are generally surrounded by people of similar socioeconomic status more opportunities and better social networks are available to people with higher incomes and assets. This affects the family in means of opportunity and creating a better future. The problem with this theory in relationship to family is it sets it into a purely statistical point of view and ignores emotion and irrationality.

The last theory I would like to discuss is attachment theory which is a field of study that looks at how our parents raised us and their parental styles and how that affected our abilities to interact and bond with other humans. There are set number of things that have to happen in order for adult to be considered to have a secure attachment, generally authoritative parenting styles seem to give the best results. According to researchers “Because authoritative parents act as role models and exhibit the same behaviors they expect from their children, kids are more likely to internalize these behaviors. Consistent rules and discipline allow children to know what to expect.” This is the perfect example it combines both Attachment theory and the structure-functional perspective. Adult attachment is the best example of the family environment you grew up on was successful. Are you a capable adult? Are you capable of having a healthy emotional attachment?

As with most things most of these theories can easily interact with each other and feed each other which is why sociology and psychology mostly work with cross-sectional research especially when working with a longitudinal study.

References:

Cherry, K. (n.d.). What Is Authoritative Parenting?. . Retrieved June 3, 2014, from http://psychology.about.com/od/childcare/f/authoritative-parenting.htm

Marriages, Families & Relationships: Making Choices In A Diverse Society (11th ed. / Lamanna & Riedmann / ISBN: 9781111301545)

Strobel, A. (2011, December 12). Age Graded Influences. . Retrieved June 3, 2014, from http://www.funnelbrain.com/c-1033438-age-graded-influences.html

Lacey Desper

Sociology of Family

Chapter 3

Research the following: how do social class differences affect the life chances of American families? Give some specific examples.

The book defines life chances as the “opportunity’s one has for education work, whether one can afford to marry, the schools that children attend, and a family’s health care—all of which depend on a family’s economic resources.” This is a basic outline of what a life chance is, when you are born you born into a specific life chance of, life expectancy, high school graduation and college chances. A person born in the inner city has lower life chances for high school graduation and college then those born in the suburbs simply because of community resources and tax provisioning.

This view point and word definition is not just a theory that people spout to support social services or political agendas. The idea of life chances is on the front mind of sociology and psychology in fact it is a topic of interest and discussion in many areas of these studies. According to Marie Berry Sociology major from UCLA, “There is tremendous evidence that the life chances of the poor in the US suffer in comparison to the wealthier strata of society. Wealthier individuals have increased educational opportunities, income earning potential, and employment prospects—all elements of living a successful life.”

While, yes each individual creates their own destiny and has free will, what happens when opportunity negates free will, what if life choices end up trumping life chances. I give a typical movie example of a teenage dropping out of high school to help support siblings and family when the parents have lack of opportunity in the work environment. These kinds of situations happen all the time.

There is even new evidence pointing out that your life chances can also have effects on your life expectancy, with new evidence arising on environmental racism and pollution in concentrated areas where the poor live. Can you go to college and get a decent job if you have cancer or poor lung development from the region in which you were raised. New studies are starting to point out this is the case. A good example of this would be the new phenomena of poor children having obesity because of the high calorie foods available to them. Good food is expensive and cheap food is normally not healthy for you; which explains why organizations like Harvesters are starting to gain ground and more significance.

References:

Barry, M. (2013, September 19). Environmental Inequality, Class, and Life Chances. . Retrieved June 10, 2014, from http://thesocietypages.org/teaching/2013/09/19/environmental-inequality-class-and-life-chances/

Marriages, Families & Relationships: Making Choices In A Diverse Society (11th ed. / Lamanna & Riedmann / ISBN: 9781111301545)

Lacey Desper

Sociology of Family

Chapter 4

Research the following: beginning in infancy and throughout childhood, identify several ways parents and teachers socialize their male and female children differently.

There is a new and surging debate in the United States centered on gender identification and gender stereotyping. If you do not have kids and have never looked at this issue you might think that this issues is made up but, as a parent who has a four year old daughter and is well aware of these issues it is an issue that appears every day. On the first day of your birth after you are determined to be male or female you are fitted with a blue or pink cap in the nursery. This is simply for the gallery viewers to know what gender each baby is.

I am not saying that I am not guilty of creating gender identification at a young age, but in the society that we live in it is almost required. Just this year, I remember being wired out when I was going to search for Toy Story supplies for my daughters 4th birthday party. I looked and I looked everywhere and I could not find them, I was confused Toy Story is a big deal, that’s when it dawned on me. I went searching through the websites boys party sections and there they were Toy Story was deemed a boys themed party. Which, of course meant Jessie was nowhere to be found on almost anything, it was not necessarily what I was looking for but, it is a girls birthday party after all she should be somewhere “ catching myself in my own argument there.”

It has been a frustrating thing to deal with on a personal level, I remember when my daughter was little like 4 months old the first thing people would say when they walked up aww, is it a boy or a girl? Why this question is necessary does the baby cease to be cute if it’s a boy? They would even ask this question when the baby was dressed in pink or a dress. They wanted to be sure not to offend. One, time when a woman asked me this question and it was the fourth time

in the past hour I had been asked I almost answered with the snottiest response that has ever been given. “It’s a little boy; I just wanted a little girl, so I dressed him up all in pink and pierced his ears. If I’m lucky he will at least be gay. We are aiming for transgendered though.” I bit my lip though but I would have laughed so hard at the look on her face if I had. It brought me a lot of joy just thinking about it; though this explains exactly the point that this text wants you to look at it in means of gender stratification.

The socialization of children in younger ages is very general and non-gender biased at least from what I have observed from my daughters preschools and daycares. They seem to ignore the topic all together which I believe is good, but could change rapidly as school starts to get more gender focused. We all can look back to our high school years and know exactly where our gender made a difference, I took woodshop in high school and I was almost always the only female in the class, home economics is required. It seemed to me the girls always got the dummy baby for the weekend and the boys for the one school night. Sex education is taught separately teaching that it is not a subject to be discussed with the other sex; if a school teaches sex education at all. Who can forget the big deal made out of the powder puff football games, and every school had the fight that ensued when one girl wanted to play on the football team. It is an idea and a game that cannot be ignored and once you look at it should shame and disgrace you. I was reading an article on Facebook the other day about a girl being suspended for her skirt being too short, mind you it was not even unreasonably short. The reason the school stated for suspending her is it was causing a distraction to the male students in the school and distracting them from their school work.

I could keep going on and on with the many issues in which women are socially treated different than men, and I do not even consider myself to be a feminist. I could mention the recent issues with abortion rights and the requirement for exams. I could write a 10 page paper of the medical necessity of birth control and the outrageous claims of it not being required to be covered by health insurance. I could rant and write an even longer paper on the religious zealots who refuse to cover it for their business. There are many topics that can fall under this category.

Currently worldwide there are 107 males being born for every female. Those numbers are different in the United States. It is a ratio of about 105 to 100 for the United States. Though it might beg the question if more men are born the why are more women going to college and graduating. Are women taking over the workforce and what future for gender relations and stratification when the workforce is taken over by women? According to the US, Census Bureau in white high school graduates going directly to college is 71% women and 61% for men, and the percentage gets higher when you speak about minorities, in ratios. If there are more college educated women, will this change the future? Might one say that it is already changing,

when a group is being overrun that’s when they are loudest, and the largest step on women’s rights and needs are currently happening. Does the squeakiest wheel get the oil, or does the roar sound the loudest before it becomes a whimper? All things to ask and ponder on if you ask me.

References:

Lopez, M. (2014, March 6). Women’s college enrollment gains leave men behind. . Retrieved June 10, 2014, from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/03/06/womens-college-enrollment-gains-leave-men-behind/

Marriages, Families & Relationships: Making Choices In A Diverse Society (11th ed. / Lamanna & Riedmann / ISBN: 9781111301545)

Wolchover, N. (2011, September 9). Why Are More Boys Born than Girls?. . Retrieved June 10, 2014, from http://www.livescience.com/33491-male-female-sex-ratio.html