Theories on the family - Personal life perspective Flashcards
What approach does the personal life perspective take?
bottom up approach - focusing on the individual meanings members give to their family relationships
What 3 criticism does the personal life perspective have towards structural theories?
- argues structural therories out of date
- Assumption the families serve social structure
- their top down approach
Structural theories out of date - explain
- S theories based on nuclear family but family diversity is more widespread today → no longer make
- assumptions about families based on the nuclear
**However 60% of the families are still nuclear → the extent of diversity is still limited **
structural assume the families serve the social structure - explain
- Families and individuals have choice / freedom to determine what we see as family
- And that members are passive puppets manipulated by social structure to perform functions
- Unable to assume families perform ‘functions’ based on the social structure
Structuralist are top down - explain
The structuralist approach takes a broad theory and tries to apply it making generalisations.
- PL is a bottom up apprach focusing on what individuals see as important
How does the personal life perspective define family?
Family goes beyond blood and marriage it is whatever the individual defines
Smart
Argues family can beyond blood ties and marriage
- Relationships with friends
- Fictive kin - close friends who are treated as relatives ( mum bff)
- Gay and lesbian ‘chosen families’ → made up of supportive network of close friends, ex partners who not related by blood or marriage
- Relationships with dead relatives - live on in people’s memories continue to shape their identity and actions
- Pets - TIPPER found in study of children’s views they saw pets as part of the family
What did Tipper study find?
in study of children’s views they saw pets as part of the family
+ Evaluations
- N/S study helps to illustrate value of personal life perspective as helps to understand people construct and define their relationships → rather than imposing traditional sociological definitions ( based on blood)
- MASON and BECKY → highlight how children create their own definitions of who is who in the family - which may include people who are not biological but are ‘close’
→ children attach own meaning → structuralist theories ignore this - Understands the family that allows for multiple definitions of family life