Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Sociology > Families and Households > Flashcards

Families and Households Flashcards

1
Q

Define the Life Course

A

The life course is a postmodern theory.
It states that rather than looking at static family types we should look at rites of passage and different experiences as they better reflect our diverse, fast changing modern life.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Parsons - Industrialisation

A

Industrialisation changed the function of the family.
Nuclear families became more dominant in industrial society.
It is more geographical mobile.
Changed from extended family (in pre-industrial times) as the nuclear family is more suited to an industrial society.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Wilmott and Young - Industrialisation

A

They states that British families had developed in four stages:

  1. pre-industrial: family works together as an economic production unit. Work and home are combined.
  2. early-industrial: extended families are broken up as individuals leave home for work.
  3. symmetrical: family based on consumption not production. Nuclear family is focused on personal relationships and lifestyle. It is called the “symmetrical family” because husband and wife have joint roles.
  4. Asymmetrical: husband and wife roles become asymmetrical as men spend more time away from home.

They eventually dropped stage four as there is no reale evidence for it.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Which policy legalised abortion in the UK and made it available through the NHS?

A

1967 Abortion Act

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Which policy partially decriminalised male homosexuality in England and Wales?

A

1967 Sexual Offences Act

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Which policy reduced the high cost of divorce and made the process much simpler?

A

1969 Divorce Reform Act

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Which policy made it illegal for employers to pay women less than men employed in the same jobs?

A

1970 Equal Pay Act

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Which policy outlawed discrimination against women by employers in the workplace?

A

1975 Sex Discrimination Act

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

When was the contraceptive pill made available on the NHS?

A

It became available to married women in 1961.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Which policy was introduced to stop schools from “promoting” homosexuality?

A

Section 28

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Which policy ensured that absent fathers paid maintenance for the upbringing of their children?

A

1993 Child Support Agency

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Which policy meant that the amount of children you had reduced the amount of taxes you paid slightly?

A

Child Tax Credit Policy

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Which policy allowed same-sex couples to be legally recognised on the same terms as marriage?

A

2005 Civil Partnership Act

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Why have birth and fertility rates declined?

A
  • Changing role of women
  • Contraception
  • Childhood is commercialised and therefore expensive
  • Materialism and consumerism in post-industrial society
  • People staying younger for longer
  • Lower infant mortality rate
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Explanations for the fall in the death rate and the rise in the life expectancy across the 20th Century

A
  • Rising wages and living standards
  • 19th Century public health act
  • Provision of social housing for the poor
  • Maternity care improvements
  • Introduction of the welfare state after WW2
  • The creation of the NHS
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

What are some of the consequences of an ageing population?

A
  • More extended families living in the same household
  • More beanpole families
  • Grandparenting
  • Problematic for women
  • Creates a “pivot generation”
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

Hirsch - Demography

A

Hirsch notes that this ageing population will have to be paid for in social care and increased funding the health service in the west and is a drain on capitalist society.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

What are key push factors that influence migration?

A
  • Fleeing persecution
  • Torture
  • Religion
  • War
  • Poverty
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

What are key pull factors that influence migration?

A
  • Education
  • Relatives / friends that live their
  • Job opportunities
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

What are some different types of marriage?

A
  • Monogamy
  • Serial Monogamy
  • Polygamy
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

What are some key trends in marriage and marriage rates?

A
  • General marriage rate is decreasing at a stable rate and starting to curb at the end.
  • Rise in the age of those getting married.
  • Still older men on average marry slightly younger women.
  • Class elements: 66% professional class are married vs 44% of unskilled.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

What are some ethnic variations when it comes to marriage?

A

British Asian families:

  • less cohabitation before marriage
  • arranged marriage is more common
  • little intermarriage between different faiths/ethnicities
  • marry at a younger age
  • often have children at a younger age

British Afro-Caribbean families:

  • Less likely to be in a formal marriage
  • Greater number of lone parent families
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

Richard Bertroud - Marriage

A

Research in British Asian families:
- majority live in nuclear families but they are also much more likely to live in extended multigenerational families. This is largely sue to cultural and religious expectations.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

Why has the marriage rate changed over the last 50 years?

A 
Changing attitudes
Cost
Increasing secularisation
Changing roles of women
Increasing consumerism
Modern attitudes to dating/relationships
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Q

Patricia Morgan (2000) - Marriage

A

Argues that marriage is centrally important to society, morality and social order.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
26
Q

Why do the New Right argue that the decline in marriage is a major concern for society?

A

Married people make better parents, workers and citizens.

They blame the welfare state for replacing the economic responsibility of husbands.

27
Q

Why do others, particularly feminists, believe the fall in the marriage rate is a positive thing for society?

A

Marriage is now seen as a personal and intimate relationship.
People look for egalitarian relationships rather than patriarchal marriages.
Marriage is no longer seen as an obligatory ceremony for status.

28
Q

Why are the New Right so critical about the rising cohabitation over the last 30 years?

A

Morgan: Cohabitation is responsible for the decline in marriage and traditional nuclear family.

Less stable than marriage - therefore promiscuity and unfaithfulness is more common.

Murphy suggests that children’s parents who live together but don’t marry do worse in school.

29
Q

Beaujouan and Ni Bhrolchain (2011) - Cohabitation

A

Cohabitation has become normalised.
It acts as a pre-marriage test of “trial run”.
Screens out weaker relationships.

Evidence of this is that there has been a decline in marriages ending before 5th anniversary.

30
Q

Jon Bernardes (1997)

A

Divorce is less damaging than a negative marriage.

31
Q

What are the key trends in divorce rates in the last 50 years?

A

The divorce rate rose consistently between 1972 and 1993.

From 1993 onwards the general trend has been that divorce rates are dropping.

32
Q

What are some of the key reasons the divorce rate increased between 1972 and 1993?

A

The divorce reform act.

Changes in society:

  • women’s expectations of marriage have changed.
  • increasing secularisation of society.
  • marriage is more valued today.
  • declining influence of extended families.
33
Q

Beck and Beck Gernsheim - Reasons for Divorce rates increasing 1972-1993?

A

Increasing individualisation
Increasing choice
Increasing conflict

34
Q

What are some of the key reasons that the divorce rate has decreased between 1933 and present day?

A
  • Increasing education (people getting married older)
  • Increasing secularisation of society (leading to cohabitation)
  • Beaujouan and Ni Bhrolchain (2011)
35
Q

What are the new rights criticisms of lone parent families?

A

They are seen as second rate or “imperfect”.

Morgan argues that such families are caused by adults who put selfish needs before those of their kids.
They also suggest there is a large group of single mothers who are long term unemployed, less educated and become mothers to claim the welfare benefits.

The centre for social justice report “fractured families” reported that a child growing up with a single mother is more likely to:

  • grow up in poorer housing
  • experience behavioural problems
  • gain fewer educational qualifications
  • report more depressive symptoms and higher levels of smoking, drinking and drugs
36
Q

What are some of the criticisms of the new right view of single parent families?

A

A study of family breakdown on children’s wellbeing conducted by Mooney et al. (2009):
- suggests that parental conflict is more important than parental separation as an influence in producing negative outcomes in children.

Ford and Miller (1998): lone parents aren’t just after benefits as many of them still experience poverty and material deprivation despite receiving benefits.

Feminists argue that one-parent families are unfairly discriminated against because of familial ideology.

NR sociologists rarely consider that single parenthood may be preferable to domestic violence in some cases.

Many criticise their views for being classist and ethnocentric.

37
Q

What are consequences of marital breakdown on family types?

A
  • single parent households
  • reconstituted families
  • singlehood
  • LAT (living apart together) couples
38
Q

What is Parsons’ functionalist view of the division of labour and power dynamic within the family?

A

Distribution of labour stabilises because the nuclear unit gives men and women clear and distinct social roles.
The husband is responsible for economic welfare and protection.
The wife is responsible for emotional care and socialisation of children.
He said that the power relationship was equally balanced but roles were different.

39
Q

How does Wilmott and Young’s march of progress theory link to the power dynamics?

A

They theorised that conjugal roles and domestic labour were clearly segregated.

40
Q

Anne Oakley (1974) - Distribution of Power

A

She was the first to point out that many sociologists ignored domestic work. This was an example of malestream sociology.
She argues that patriarchy was still very much a major part of modern nuclear families and that women still occupied a subordinate and dependent role within family and wider society.

41
Q

Ben-Galim and Thompson (2013)

A

8/10 married women carried out more household chores than men.

42
Q

Stephen Edgell (1980) - Decision making in the family

A
  • very important decisions e.g. financial, were taken by men.
  • important decisions e.g. child’s school, were taken by both but the men had final say.
  • less important decisions e.g. shopping, clothing, etc. left to the women.
43
Q

Hardill (1997) - Decision making in the family

A 
Discovered that middle class wives generally deferred to their husbands in major decisions involving where to live, the size of the mortgage, buying cars, etc. 
They concluded that the men in their sample were able to demand that the interests of their wives and families should be subordinated to the man's career because he was the major breadwinner.
44
Q

Vogler and Pahl (2001) - Decision making in the family

A

More household decision-making was controlled by men because they earned the higher incomes.

45
Q

Craig (2007) - Childcare and domestic work

A

Women do between one-third and one-half more housework than men.

46
Q

Fisher (1999) - Childcare and domestic work

A

British fathers’ care of infants and young children rose 800% between 1975 and 1997, from 15 minutes to two hours on the average working day.

47
Q

Duncombe and Marsden (1995) - emotion work

A

Any measurement of equality within households must take account of “emotion work”.
Women take the major responsibility for the emotional wellbeing of their partners and children, in addition to paid work and responsibility for housework and childcare. In this sense, women actually work a “triple shift”.

48
Q

Gillian Dunne (1999) - Same sex couples and gender ideas

A

The traditional division of domestic labour continues today because of deeply ingrained “gender scripts”.
In her study of 37 cohabiting lesbian couples with dependent children, Dunne found that such gender scripts don’t operate to the same extent and were more egalitarian from the perspective of labour division, with both partners respecting each others career.

49
Q

Carrington (1999) - Same sex couples and gender ideas

A

Carried out a study of gay and lesbian couples. He found that there was tension in these relationships about inequalities in the distribution of household tasks which was no different from that experienced by heterosexual couples.

50
Q

What are the functionalists explanations for the inequalities in domestic labour and power?

A

Biology
Gender differences are brought about from “primary biological differences”
Men tend to be taller and stronger than women and can therefore complete more manual labour than women.

51
Q

What is gender socialisation?

A

Familial ideology influences the socialisation process and gender expectations (e.g. toxic masculinity).

52
Q

What is the relative resources theory?

A

The main cause of gender inequality in the home is economic.

Men dominate relationships because they dominate the workplace.

53
Q

What are some feminist criticisms of power dynamics within relationships?

A

Marxist feminist:
- domestic labour performed by women serves the needs of capitalism.
Radical feminist:
- all relationships between a man and a woman are inherently patriarchal and oppressive in some ways.

54
Q

Catherine Hakim (1996) - criticising feminist view of power dynamics in relationships

A
  • Feminists underestimate women’s ability to make rational choices.
  • Feminists devalue housebound mothers.
55
Q

What is a social construct?

A

A behaviour or practise which is produced by a society.

- gender, identity, age and childhood are examples of social constructs according to sociologists.

56
Q

What were the beliefs of Phillipe Aries (1962) when it comes to childhood?

A

Childhood as we know it today did not exist in the medieval period.
Children were an economic asset not a symbol of love.
Prior to that humans took on adult roles as soon as they were physically able: the became “little adults”.
Aries concluded that “the cult of the child” emerged with industrialisation.

57
Q

Linda Pollock (1983) - criticism of Aries

A

Just because children appeared to take adult roles is artwork does not mean that there was no such concept of childhood or that parents did not care for their children or see them as requiring care and nurturing.
People also dress for their best clothes in a portrait so paintings can’t be trusted as accurate sources of historical information.

58
Q

What is generally accepted by sociologists about the construct of childhood over time?

A

The concept of childhood has accelerated in our modern age. We now protect and nurture children more intensely than ever before.

59
Q

Chapman (2004) - childhood

A

“It was not until the nineteenth century that childhood became socially constructed as a significant life transition that required, in middle-class families at least, particular forms of nurturing, supervision, discipline and even different kinds of clothes, play and dedicated spaces in houses.”

60
Q

What are some differences when it comes to the global experience of childhood?

A
  1. They take responsibility at an early age
  2. Less value is placed on children showing obedience to adult authority
  3. Children’s sexual behaviour is often viewed differently
61
Q

How does social class affect childhood experiences in the UK?

A
  • children who live in poverty are more likely to have poor diet, poor housing, poor health, etc.
  • there are also higher instances of both abuse and neglect for children from families with the lowest incomes.
62
Q

How does ethnicity affect childhood experiences in the UK?

A
  • black and mixed race children are significantly more likely to be in care than white and asian children.
  • there is also the issue of intersectionality: some ethnic-minority groups are more likely to be in lower income brackets so both factors influence the experience of childhood.
63
Q

How does gender affect childhood experiences in the UK?

A
  • parents are often stricter with daughters than sons.

- Bonke (1999) argued that there were more expectations for girls to perform housework than there were no boys.

Sociology (7 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions