The Meaning of Marriage and the Family

1. The Meaning of Marriage and the Family Chapter 1

2. The Meaning of Marriage and Family • As we study family patterns and issues, we need to understand that our attitudes and beliefs about families both affect and distort views. • Experience versus Expertise • Ongoing Social Controversy

3. Marriage in the United States

4. What is Marriage? • A marriage is a legally recognized union between two people • generally a man and a woman • united sexually • cooperate economically • may give birth to, adopt, or rear children. • The union is assumed to be permanent • may be dissolved by separation or divorce • As simple as such a definition may make marriage seem, it differs among cultures and has changed considerably in our society.

5. Shared Features of Marriage • Despite cultural and historical variation, the following characteristics seem to be shared among all marriages: • The establishment of rights and obligations connected to gender, sexuality, relationships with kin and in-laws, and legitimacy of children. • The establishment of specific roles within the wider community and society. • The orderly transfer of wealth and property from one generation to the next. • The assignment of the responsibility for caring for and socializing children to the spouses or their relatives

6. Same sex marriage is now legal in the United States but as of mid-2009 only in: Massachusetts Connecticut Iowa Vermont New Hampshire Maine. Who May Marry?

7. The Rights and Benefits of Marriage • The rights and benefits of marriage include but are not limited to: • Legal status with partner’s children • Partner medical decisions • Right to inherit property • Award of child custody in divorce proceedings • Control, division, acquisition, and disposition of community property • Division of property after dissolution of marriage • Payment of worker’s compensation benefits after death • Public assistance from the Department of Human Service

8. Forms of Marriage • Monogamy • The only legal form of marriage in the U.S. • Polygamy • The preferred marital arrangement worldwide • Polygyny - the practice of having two or more wives • Polyandry - the practice of having two or more husbands

9. Defining Family • Census Definitions: • Family • “a group of two or more persons related by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing together in a household” • Household • “one or more people—everyone living in a housing unit makes up a household”

10. Household Composition

11. Defining Family • In individuals’ perceptions of their own life experiences, family has a less precise definition • affiliated kin • best friend, lover, priest, boyfriend, minister, rabbi, girlfriend, neighbor, teacher, godchild, pet • There are also ethnic differences as to what constitutes family.

12. Four Functions of the Family • Provision of intimacy. • Formation of a cooperative economic unit. • Reproduction and socialization. • Assignment of social roles and status.

13. Types of Families • Family of orientation or Family of origin • the family in which we grow up • Family of procreation • the family formed through marriage and childbearing • Family of cohabitation • the family formed through living or cohabiting with another person

14. Why Live in Families? • Continuity as a result of emotional attachments, rights, and obligations. • Close proximity. • Intimate awareness of others. • Economic benefits.

15. Extended Families and Kinship • Extended Family • Consists of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and in-laws. • May be formed through marriage or birth. • Kinship System • Kin can be affiliated, as when a nonrelated person is considered “as kin.” • A relative may fulfill a different kin role, such as a grandmother’s taking the role of a child’s mother.

16. The Major Themes of This Text • Families Are Dynamic • The family is a dynamic social institution that has undergone considerable change in its structure and functions

17. The Major Themes of This Text • Families Are Diverse • Not all families experience things the same way • Outside Influences • Outside forces shape family experiences

18. Studying Marriages and Families Chapter 2

19. How Do We Know? • Social research is one way we can learn about things. • However, most of what we “know” about the social world we have “learned” elsewhere through other less systematic means • Tradition • Authority

20. How Popular Culture Misrepresents Family Life • As of 2008, more than 98% of U.S. households had television sets. • During the third quarter of 2008, the average person watched television four hours and 45 minutes per day • The average household was tuned in for eight hours and 18 minutes per day

21. Cumulatively, television, popular music, the Internet, magazines, newspapers, and movies help shape our attitudes and beliefs about the world in which we live. Popular Culture

22. The combined portrayal of family life on daytime television that results from soap operas and talk shows is unrealistic and highly negative. Daytime Television

23. Prime-time television, in both dramas and situation comedies, unrealistically depicts married life. “Reality Television” highlights extreme cases or introduces artificial circumstances and/or competitive goals, making these shows no more representative of familial reality than the daytime talk shows. Primetime Television

24. Researching the Family • The Importance of Objectivity • suspend the beliefs, biases, stereo types or prejudices we have about a subject until we understand what is being said • Objective statements vs. Value judgments • Value judgments usually includes words that mean “should” and imply that our way is the correct way

25. Fallacies • Fallacies are errors in reasoning • Egocentric fallacy • belief that everyone has the same experiences and values that we have and therefore should think as we do • Ethnocentric fallacy • belief that our ethnic group, nation, or culture is innately superior to others

26. Concepts and Theories • Theories • sets of general principles or concepts used to explain a phenomenon and to make predictions that may be tested and verified experimentally • Concepts • abstract ideas that we use to represent the reality in which we are interested.

27. Conceptualization and Operationalization • Conceptualization • the specification and definition of concepts used by the researcher • Operationalization • the identification and/or development of research strategies to observe or measure concepts

28. Theoretical Perspectives on Families • Macro-level theories • focus on the family as a social institution. • Micro-level theories • Emphasize what happens within families, looking at everyday behavior, interaction between family members, patterns of communication, and so on.

29. Family Ecology Theory • The emphasis of family ecology theory is on how families are influenced by and in turn influence the wider environment. • The core concepts in ecological theory include environment and adaptation. • Initially used to refer to the adaptation of plant and animal species to their physical environments, these concepts were later extended to humans and their physical, social, cultural, and economic environments

30. Family Ecology Theory • Critiques of Family Ecology Theory • not always clear which system best accounts for the behavior we attempt to explain or how the different systems influence each other. • has been more effectively applied to individual or familial development and growth • the theory may not apply as well to a range of diverse, especially nontraditional, families

31. Structural Functionalism Theory • When structural functionalists study the family, they look at three aspects: • What functions the family as an institution serves for society • What functional requirements family members perform for the family • What needs the family meets for its individual members • Structural functionalism treats society as if it were a living organism, like a person, animal, or tree.

32. Structural Functionalism Theory • Critiques of Structural Functionalism Theory • How do we know which family functions are vital? • Looks at the family abstractly and views the family in terms of functions and roles. • It is not always clear what function a particular structure serves

33. Conflict Theory • Conflict theory holds that life involves discord and competition. • Sources of Conflict in Families • Marriages and families are composed of individuals with different personalities, ideas, values, tastes, and goals. • Sources of Power • Family members have different resources and amounts of power. • There are four important sources of power: • legitimacy, • Money • physical coercion • love.

34. Conflict Theory • Critiques of Conflict Theory • Conflict theory derives from politics and economics, in which self-interest, egotism, and competition are dominant elements. • Conflict theorists do not often talk about the power of love or bonding, yet the presence of love and bonding may distinguish the family from all other groups in society. • conflict theorists assume that differences lead to conflict. Differences can also be accepted, tolerated, or appreciated

35. Feminist Perspectives • Feminists critically examine the ways in which family experience is shaped by gender. • Argue that gender and family are concepts created by society. • Feminists have an action orientation alongside their analytical one as they strive to raise society’s level of awareness regarding the oppression of women.

36. Feminist Perspectives • Critique of Feminist Perspectives • The feminist perspective is not a unified theory; rather, it represents thinking across the feminist movement. • Some family scholars who conceptualize family life and work as a “calling” have taken issue with feminists’ focus on power and economics as a description of family.

37. Symbolic Interaction Theory • Symbolic interaction theory looks at how people interact with one another. • We interpret or attach meanings to interactions, situations, roles, relationships and other individuals whenever we encounter them. • In marital and family relationships, our interactions are partly structured by social roles.

38. Symbolic Interaction Theory • Critiques of Symbolic Interaction Theory • The theory tends to minimize the role of power in relationships. • Does not fully account for the psychological aspects of human life • Does not place marriage or family within a larger social context

39. Social Exchange Theory • According to social exchange theory, we measure our actions and relationships on a cost–benefit basis, seeking to maximize rewards and minimize costs by employing our resources to gain the most favorable outcome. • We do much of this unconsciously

40. Social Exchange Theory • Critiques of Social Exchange Theory • Assumes that we are all rational, calculating individuals, weighing the costs and rewards of our relationships and making cost–benefit comparisons of all alternatives. • Difficulty ascertaining the value of costs, rewards, and resources, as such values may vary considerably from person to person or situation to situation

41. Family Development Theory • Family development theory is the only one exclusively directed at families, and it emphasizes the patterned changes that occur in families through stages and across time. • Family development theory looks at the changes in the family that typically commence in the formation of the premarital relationship, proceed through marriage, and continue through subsequent sequential stages.

42. Family Development Theory • Critiques of Family Development Theory • It assumes the sequential processes of intact, nuclear families. • Gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, and social class all create variations in how we experience family dynamics and the very sequence of stages may reflect a middle- to upper-class-family reality.

43. Family Systems Theory • Family systems theory combines structural functionalism and symbolic interaction. • Structure of related parts or subsystems each with specific boundaries. • The family is a purposeful system that seeks homeostasis.

44. Family Systems Theory • Critiques of Family Systems Theory • Can be so abstract that is loses meaning in the real world. • Applications are more relevant to dysfunctional rather than healthy families.

45. Conducting Research on Families • Quantitative research • deals with large quantities of information that is analyzed and presented statistically • Qualitative research • Is concerned with a detailed understanding of the object of study. • Secondary data analysis • reanalyzing data originally collected for another purpose.