Personal life Perspective Flashcards
(17 cards)
What is the personal life perspective ?
Changes in the way people live
Traditional families often focused on marriage/blood relations. (Nuclear family)
Modern families look at meaningful relationships with others apart from the family.
(Extended - Friends - pets)
What did May (2011) say about personal life perspective ?
Changes in society led to people developing meaningful relationships outside of the family unit.
(Contrast to Functionalist ideas of the family)
PLP - There has been a decline of the nuclear family
Lone parent families - Will often look to friends for support with child care/emotional support.
People construct their own networks including friends/colleagues/neighbors/family members that fulfill their needs.
Children are also no longer the centre of lives. (Against child centered society) (A03)
What does Carol Smart (2007) say about the personal life perspective ?
Connectedness thesis
Sociological research into the family is often ethnocentric.
It focuses mainly on the white-middle class family.
People can develop meaningful relationships with others outside of the family. (Friends)
Sometimes the bonds/support networks can be stronger with these other people than their family members.
They can make choices about who can support them and who they support in return.
What are ‘Smarts’ concepts of personal life.
Connectedness thesis
What where her 5 key concepts that were interconnected/influenced by the personal relationship of the individuals ?
Smart examined different aspects of personal life that had been ignored by more traditional approaches. (Functionalists)
Focus on how people perceive relationship with others/strength.
Memory - relationship built on shared memories
Biography - The life history of the relationship
Embeddedness - Extent people are connected to each other.
Relationality - How healthy the relationship is
Imaginary - How the relationship is perceived by both parties.
What are Diblings?
Women that become pregnant from the same egg donor.
(Dotted around the world)
Children born from the same sperm donor must be 18 before they can search for the biological father but can look for their sibling from young.
Have to be careful as they could get in a relationship and never know they were siblings.
What about Donor Grandparents (Are they responsible for the child)?
Are pets seen as part of the family?
90% of pet owners see pet as part of the family.
33% prefer their pets over humans.
Some people dedicate their lives to their pets.
(1 in 10) set up a will for their pet.
Explain memory
The emotional memories that we share with others.
Some are shared with family
Some are shared moments of comfort
Some are sharing achievements (Milestones)
Different memories can help people to bond.
(Traumas/happy/sad/events)
This is why close bonds can be formed with people outside of the family.
Explain Biography
Life history can influence relationships we have with others.
(Education - Employment - living arrangements - migration)
External to the family
Times we share with people when the family is absent .
(Going to uni - school - moving out)
Explain embeddedness
Social networks that people find themselves in.
People we interact with on a regular basis.
Relationship can be based on who we know and how we are connected to them.
Opinions can be altered more by those in your network than your family who you may not interact with often.
(May be closer to a friend who you see loads than a sibling who you don’t see often).
Explain relationality
The nature of our relationship - How well we get on with that person.
Family can be a source of conflict - We often look for interactions with people similar to ourselves to reduce conflict. (Friends)
People may turn to friends for emotional support.
E.G. Victims of domestic violence who have been rejected by their family would find more comfort in their support networks.
What does Smart say about family processes?
(Relationality)
Other approaches see family as a harmonious process.
Smart says some people look to escape the family unit and want to look for people who can empathise with their experiences.
Explain Imaginary
How the relationship between people is perceived between the people in that relationship.
Importance
Potential
How will people react to certain behaviours.
How people will imagine others to think/act.
(Subjective).
(Smarts idea as a whole shows the processes of forming relationships/behaviours in modern society is complex than just the family shaping behaviours.)
What did Levin argue about the life course in traditional nuclear families?
The life course was compulsory
Nuclear family reinforces strong social norms (proper way of living).
The nuclear family is a socially approved format. (Cereal packet family)
Husband = Instrumental role
Wife = Expressive role
How have divorce rates created a shift in expected life course?
Marriage rates are declining
(Decrease in nuclear family)
(Norms no longer shared giving people more choice)
Women are freed from the expressive role having more access to education/work.
Meaning women are less likely to have children who will have them later in life.
Problem with connectedness thesis
Free-will/choice in relationships is dismissed as a middle class idea.
People are often tied down by relationships that can limit their choice.
What was wrong with Smart’s research ?
(Connectedness thesis)
Small scale
Problems with looking at a-typical people in society
However, the (Depth) of the research identified key processes in the formation of relationships.
(Better understanding of how people interact with one another).
Another criticism
Family structures do still have influence on people’s behaviour.
