A Level Sociology



A Level Sociology Families and Households Topic SixFamily DiversityObjectives:Identify a range of different sociological views on family diversity Understand the difference between modernist and postmodernist approaches to family diversityAnalyse and evaluate sociological explanations of the familyFamily Diversity:This is the idea that there is a range of different family types, rather than a single dominant one (such as the nuclear family). It is associated with the postmodernist idea that in today’s society, increasing choice about relationships is creating greater family diversity.-40924414655030030648158976300right993100-13898917490400304292018902700117698523764200Modernism and Postmodernism: Activity: AO1: Knowledge. Summarise each of the boxes below to describe the society/process:left9298900Modernism and the Nuclear Family:Modern perspectives (eg functionalism) believe that society has a fairly clear-cut, predictable structure and that it is possible to gain true and scientific knowledge of how society functions. This knowledge can be achieved to ensure progress to a better society.Functionalism Functionalists are modernist perspectives, in that they see modern society as having a fairly fixed, clear-cut and predictable structure. They see the best family type as the nuclear family as it helps to maintain the structure of society by carrying out particular functions. Parsons argues that there is a functional fit between the nuclear family and modern society. It meets the needs of modern society through providing a geographically mobile and socially mobile workforce. It also provides two irreducible functions:Primary socialisation of childrenStabilisation of adult personalitiesThey view the nuclear family, with its division of labour between husband and wife, as essential in performing these functions. All other family types are seen as abnormal and deviant.The New Right: RECAPWhat do you already know? The New Right have a conservative view on the family. They are firmly opposed to family diversity:There is only one correct and right family – this is the nuclear family, which includes a heterosexual couple (man and woman) and their biological/adopted childrenThis is similar to the functionalists idea of having expressive or instrumental rolesThey see the nuclear family as natural, based on fundamental biological differences – the man is the breadwinner and the woman is the homemakerThese roles are essential for the stability of society – the family is a place of refuge, contentment and harmonyFamily diversity creates social problems – these social problems include higher crime rates and educational failureLone parent families are unnatural and harmful, especially to children. They argue that lone parent mothers cannot discipline their children properly, they are a burden on the welfare state and they leave males without an adult male role model, resulting in higher rates of delinquencyThey disapprove of women doing paid work – they believe women should make caring for their family their priorityThey regard both cohabitation and divorce as creating family instability by making it easier for adults to avoid commitment and responsibility – this has negative effects on childrenFamily breakdown increases risk to children – children in these families face greater risks of poverty, educational failure, crime and health problems, as well as an increased chance of future family breakdown when they become an adult themselvesThey argue that family and subsequently society is broken – they want to return to ‘traditional values’ including the value of marriage to prevent damage to childrenOpposed to high levels of taxation that are spent on welfare benefits – they encourage a dependency cultureHigh levels of taxation and benefits create a perverse incentive – they punish responsible behaviour and reward irresponsible behaviour Benefits undermine the traditional family by discouraging men from working to support their familiesleft318491AO1: Summarise New Right views on family diversity below:00AO1: Summarise New Right views on family diversity below:367136716388100Chester – neo-conventional family In a strong attack upon the idea that fundamental changes are taking place in British family life, Chester argues that changes in the family have been only minor. He claims that the basic features of family life have remained unchanged for the vast majority of the British population since the Second World War. Most adults still marry and have children Most children are reared by their natural parentsMost people live in a household headed by a married coupleMost marriages continue until parted by death. Divorce has increased, but most divorces remarryCohabitation has increased, but for most couples it is a temporary phase before marryingAlthough births outside marriage has increased, more are jointly registered indicating their parents are still committed to bringing up children as a coupleChester believes that a snapshot of household types does not provide a valid picture of society. Life cycles make it inevitable that at any one time some people will not be a member of a nuclear family household. Many of those who live in other types of household will either have experience of living in a nuclear family in the past or will do so in the future. He argues that 8% of people living alone are mostly the elderly widowed, or else younger people who are likely to marry. He describes the parent-children household as ‘one which is normal and is still experienced by the vast majority’. The ‘neo-conventional family’ There is little evidence that people are choosing to live on a long-term basis in alternatives to the nuclear family. However, he does accept that some changes are taking place in family life. In particular many families are no longer conventional in the sense that the husband is the sole breadwinner. He accepts that women are increasingly making a contribution to household finances by taking paid employment outside the home. The neo-conventional family is a dual-earner family. Questions:Why is Chester opposed to family diversity?What reasons does Chester give that oppose family diversity?4226789734100What is the neo-conventional family?Activity: Draw your own life cycle identifying which family types you have lived in and also which ones you expect to live in in the future: The Rapoports – five types of diversity Unlike Chester, the Rapoports argue that diversity is of central importance in understanding family life today. They believe that we have moved away from the traditional nuclear family as the dominant family type, to a range of different types. Families in Britain have adapted to a pluralistic society – that is, one in which cultures and lifestyles are more diverse. In their view, family diversity reflects greater freedom of choice and the widespread acceptance of different cultures and ways of life in today’s society. Unlike the New Right, the Rapoports see diversity as a positive response to people’s different needs and wishes and not as abnormal or a deviation from the assumed norm of a proper nuclear family,The fact that the ‘conventional family’ no longer makes up a majority of households or families is only one aspect of diversity identified by the Rapoports. They identify five distinctive elements of family diversity in Britain:Organisational diversityThere are variations in the family structure, household type, patterns of kinship network and differences in the division of labour within the home. Many differences in the way families are organised. For example; one-parent families, dual-worker families. Increasing number of reconstituted families also shows this. Cultural diversityThere are differences in the lifestyle families of different ethnic origins and different religious beliefs. There are differences between families of Asian, West Indian and Cypriot origin, not to mention other ethnic groups. There is a higher proportion of female-headed families among African-Caribbean households. Black Caribbean and Black African people have a higher proportion of lone-parent households. Bangledeshi, Pakistani and Indian households tend to be larger than those of other ethnic groups. Social class diversityThere are differences in family structure as a result of differences between households of different classes. Likewise, there are class differences in child-rearing practices. Life-stage diversityThere are differences that result from the stage in the life cycle of the family. Newly married couples without children may have a different family life to those with dependent children and those whose children have achieved adult status.Generational diversityOlder and younger generations have different attitudes and experiences that reflect the historical periods in which they have lived. For example, they may have different views about the morality of divorce or cohabitation.Modernism Overview:Fill in the grid below to summarise each of the modern theory views. You need to include four key things for each theory/theorist:Functionalism New RightChester RapoportsPostmodernist Views of the Family:Post-modernists reject the idea that there is one ‘best’ family type or that the family’s structure shapes its members’ behaviour. They argue that modernist approaches ignore two key facts:As individual actors we make choices about our family life and relationships. Modernist approaches assume our actions are shaped by the needs of societyWe now have much greater choice about our personal relationships and this has increased family diversityWhile the Rapoports identify a range of types of family diversity, postmodernists such as Cheal (1993) go much further than this. Post-modernists argue that we no longer live in the ‘modern’ world, with its predictable, orderly structures, such as the nuclear family. Instead society has entered a new, chaotic postmodern stage. In post-modern society family structures are fragmented and individuals have much more choice in their lifestyles, personal relationships and family arrangements. Families have become more diverse. In today’s post-modern society there is no longer one single type of family that is dominant – only families plural. Greater diversity and choice brings advantages and disadvantages:Gives individuals freedom to plot their own life courseFreedom of choice leads to instability, relationships more likely to break upHeaven (1978) uses life course analysis to understand family life and to examine how family members make their choices. This starts from the idea that there is flexibility and variation in people’s family lives – in the choices they make and in the timing and sequence of events and turning points in their lives. Life course analysis therefore focuses on the meanings people give to these life events and choices. Heaven favours the use of unstructured and in-depth interviews with family members as the best way to uncover these meanings and understand their choices about family life and relationships. Life course analysis has two major strengths:1. It focuses on what family members themselves consider important, rather than what sociologists view as important2. It is particularly suitable for studying families in today’s society, where there is more choice about personal relationships and family diversity. Family structures are increasingly just the result of choices made by their membersStacey – the divorce extended family Judith Stacey (1998) argues that greater choice has empowered women and enabled them to free themselves from the patriarchal oppression that existed. Women are able to shape their family arrangements to meet their needs. She found, using life history interviews in California, that women were the main agents of changes in the family. Many of the women she interviewed rejected the traditional housewife-mother role. They had worked, returned to education as adults, improved their job prospects, divorced and re-married. These women had created new types of family that better suited their needs. One of these new types is the ‘divorce-extended’ family, whose members are connected by divorce rather than marriage. Post-modern families are diverse and their shape depends on active choices people make about how to live their lives.4384828952500AO2: Application: Stretch yourself….Why have women got more power in a postmodern society?Weeks – acceptance of diversity There has been a long term shift in attitudes since the 1950s:Sexual morality has become largely a matter of personal choiceThe church and state have lost much of their power to influence moralityGrowing acceptance of family diversityAttitudes are more favourable towards cohabitation and homosexualitySexual and family diversity is an undeniable and widely accepted fact. Although the New Right continue to oppose diversity Weeks sees the New Right as fighting a losing battle against diversity.3683101952500Questions What is secularisation? How has it impacted the family? The Individualisation Thesis:While not accepting everything postmodernism says about the nature of society today, sociologists such as Beck and Giddens have been influence by post-modern ideas about today’s society and have applied some of these to our understanding of family life. The individualisation thesis argues that traditional structures such as class, gender and family have lost much of their influence over us. In the past, people’s lives were defined by fixed roles that largely prevented them from choosing their own life course. By contrast, individuals in today’s society have fewer such certainties or fixed roles to follow.Giddens – pure relationshipsGiddens (1992) argues that in recent decades the family and marriage have been transformed by greater choice and a more equal relationship between men and women. This has occurred because:Contraception has allowed sex and intimacy rather than reproduction to become the main reason for the relationship’s existence – he calls this plastic sexuality (having sex for pleasure rather than reproduction)Women have gained independence as a result of feminism and because of greater opportunities in education and work As a result the basis of marriage and the family has changed into one in which the couple are free to define their relationship themselves, rather than act out roles that have been defined for them by law or tradition.Pure relationships develop which exist to solely to meet each partner’s needs. Couples stay together because of love, happiness or sexual attraction rather than a sense of duty. More choice inevitably leads to unstable personal relationships.392031215326400Give an example of this instability:How can we evaluate this theory using modern perspectives? Beck – risk society He argues we now live in a risk society where tradition has less influence and people have more choice. As a result we are more aware of risks. This is because making choices involves calculating the risks and rewards of the different courses of action. Today’s risk society contrasts with an earlier time when roles were more fixed and people had less choice. For example, people were expected to marry, once married they played a certain role. Although the traditional patriarchal family was unequal and oppressive it was stable and predictable. However, the patriarchal family has been undermined by:Greater gender equality – challenged male domination in all spheres of lifeGreater individualism – people’s actions are influenced more by calculations of their own self-interest rather than an obligation to othersA new type of family has replaced the patriarchal family, the negotiated family. Negotiated families do not conform to traditional family form, but vary according to wishes and expectations of its members. They enter the relationship on an equal basis. However, it is less stable.Although in today’s uncertain risk society people turn to the family in the hope of finding security, in reality family relationships are themselves subject to greater risk and uncertainty than ever before. For this reason, Beck describes the family as a ‘zombie category’; it appears to be alive but in reality it is dead. People want it to be a haven of security in an insecure world, but today’s family cannot provide this because of its own instability. Give an example of why people would live in this zombie family AO3: Evaluation How can we evaluate this theory?-146685396240Summarise the individualisation thesis below:00Summarise the individualisation thesis below:316296111696700Personal Life Perspective:Sociologists who take a personal life perspective, such as Smart and May agree that there is now much more diversity but they disagree with Beck and Giddens’ explanation of it. They make several criticisms of it:The individualisation thesis exaggerates how much choice people have about family relationships today – traditional norms that limit people’s relationship choices have not weakened as much as the thesis claimsThe thesis wrongly sees people as disembedded, ‘free-floating’, independent individuals. It ignores the fact that our decisions and choices about personal relationships are made within a social contextThe individualisation thesis ignores the importance of structural factors such as class inequalities and patriarchal gender norms in limiting and shaping our relationship choices – not everyone has the same ability to exercise choice about relationshipsThe connectedness thesisInstead of seeing us as disembedded, isolated individuals with limitless choice about personal relationships, Smart argues that we are fundamentally social beings whose choices are always made within a web of connectedness. We live within networks of existing relationships and interwoven personal histories, and these strongly influence our range of options and choices in relationships. Finch and Mason’s study of extended families found that, although some individuals can to some extent negotiate the relationships they want, they are also embedded within family connections and obligations that restrict their freedom of choice. Such findings challenge the notion of the pure relationship. Families usually include more than just couples and we cannot always walk away from them at will. It becomes impossible for relationships to simply end. Class and gender also limits our choices about the kinds of relationships, identities and families we can create for ourselves. For example:After a divorce, gender norms usually dictate that women should have custody of the children, which may limit their ability to form a new relationshipMen are generally better paid than women and this gives them greater freedom and choiceThe power of structuresMay argues that structures such as class and gender are not disappearing they are simply being re-structured. For example, while women have now gained important rights in relation to voting, divorce and education and employment, they do not now have it all. They are still expected to be heterosexual. Thus although there is a trend towards greater diversity and choice, the personal life perspective emphasises the importance of structural factors such as patriarchy in restricting people’s choices and shaping their family lives.Glossary of Key Terms to Learn:Concept Definition DiversityModernity New RightNeo-conventional familyOrganisational diversityCultural diversity Social class diversity Life stage diversity Generational diversity Post-modernity Divorce extended family Individualisation thesisNegotiated familiesConnectedness thesisPure relationship Topic Summary:_______________such as _______________and the New Right see only the nuclear family as normal and other types as deviant. _____________sees only one major change –– __________________________________________whereas the ______________identify five different types of diversity. Sociologists influenced by ______________________believe that in today’s postmodern society, individuals have more _____________in their relationships and family practices. ______________________________________argues that traditional structures have lost their influence, leading to more choice and diversity but also more_____________________________. Individuals now seek the___________________, based solely on satisfying their own needs. The ____________________________________argues that people are not simply isolated individuals and that wider structures still limit choice and diversity. Modernists connectedness thesis pure relationshipFunctionalists the neo conventional nuclear family Rapoports choice Chester The individualisation thesis postmodernism risk and instabilityQuick Check Questions:Why do the New Right see cohabitation as a problem? State two criticism of the New Right view of the family. What is the difference between the conventional nuclear family and the neo conventional nuclear family? What is the divorce extended family? What is the individualisation thesis? Name two features of a postmodern world that make the family more diverseWhat is a ‘pure relationship?’ Exam Questions:Outline and explain two ways in which women’s involvement in paid work has affected family structures (10 marks) POINT ONEPOINT TWOItem Society has changed significantly in the past 50 years; the government have been involved in shaping family life. We also now live in a multicultural society, creating many differing views of the ideal family type. Some argue that these changes have contributed to greater family diversity.Applying material from the item, analyse two changes in society that have contributed to greater family diversity (10 marks)POINT ONEPOINT TWOItem Recent decades have seen a move to a more diverse range of family arrangements. Whilst some sociologists see this as harmful for society, others welcome it because they bring greater individual choice about relationships. Other sociologists argue that the extent of change should not be exaggerated, most people live in something resembling a conventional nuclear family.Applying material from item and your own knowledge, evaluate sociological contributions to our understanding of family diversity. (20 marks)P1 Introduction P2P3P4P5Conclusion Introductory sentence/paragraph? Used the item x 3 5 Sociologists names? Sociological theories/Perspectives?Conceptually detailed? Evaluation? Examples? Conclusions?Independent Study Checklist:Activity Tick when doneComplete an A3 revision sheet for this topicCreate revision cards/key cards for the concepts in this topic Choose which modern theory is the strongest and write a series of statements outlining the theory and justify why this theory is the strongest (choose from functionalism, New Right, Chester, Rapoport’s). Do the same for post-modern theories (choose from Beck, Giddens, Stacey, Weeks)Make a quiz on Kahoot or quizlet for this topic Create a poster summarising what a postmodern society looks like just using pictures (hint you could include pictures of phones/websites/social media to outline how a postmodern society is media saturated)Make a wordsearch using the website free-puzzlemaker/ Use the key concepts or key words in this topic For more resources and articles see: aqusociology. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download