The personal life persp

Question 1

PLP criticism of marxism, functionalism &feminism

Answer 1

-Tend to assume the traditional nuclear family is the dominant family type: ignores the increased diversity today, now more LPF, step fams ect
-They’re all structural theories: they assume that families & their members are passive puppets manipulated by the structure of society to perform functions. eg give economy a mobile workforce, capitalism, men ect

Question 2

What is the personal lifes perspective

Answer 2

-Strongly influenced by interactionists ideas & argues to understand families we must look from the point of view of the individual and the meanings they give to their relationships.
-Contrasts other persp- it’s a bottom-up approach of interactionism.

Question 3

Beyond ties of blood and marriage

Answer 3

-Takes a wider view of just traditional ‘family’ relationships
Eg Relationships w friends: ‘like a sister’
Fictive Kin: mums best friend-‘auntie’
Gay chosen family: supportive networks of close friends
Dead relatives: live on in memories & shape their identities
Pets: children frequently see pets as part of the family
-Raises question of what counts as family

Question 4

Nordqvist & Smart

Answer 4

Research on doner-conceived children
-Issues of blood and genes raised range of feelings-some emphasised social relationships over genetics when forming family bonds.
Eg A doner conceived child’s mother defined being a mum in terms of the time and effort she puts into raising her daughter. However…
-Difficult feelings if remarks are made abt not looking like them
-Do ‘doner siblings’ count as family?
-Where couples knew their donor: do doners parents count as grandp?
-Lesbians: problems of equality between genetic & non-genetic mother

Question 5

Strength of Nordqvist & smarts study

Answer 5

-Illustrates the value of the personal life persp, it helps understand how people themselves contruct & define their relationships as ‘family’ rather than imposing trad definitions of the family (blood, genes ect)

-Sees intimate relationships as performing the important function of providing us with a sense of belonging.
-Unlike functionalism, recognises that relatedness isn’t always positive. eg ppl may be trapped in violent relationships

Question 6

Critique of personal life perspective

Answer 6

-Taking too broad a view, by incl a wide range of different personal relationships, ignores what’s special about blood/marriage based relations
-PLP rejects top-down views eg functionalism

Question 7

Strength of PLP

Answer 7

-Sees intimate relationships as performing the important function of providing a sense of belonging and relatedness
-But does recognise (unlike F) that relatedness isn’t always positive- people may be trapped in violent, abusive relationships or unhappy