“Marriages and Families” and “Diversity and Change” by: Schwartz and Scott
What does marriage in the United States and other countries around the world mean? Debunking has five myths about marriage 1- The Universal Nuclear Family, 2-The Self-Reliant Traditional Family, 3- The Naturalness of Different spheres for Wives and Husbands, 4- The Unstable African American Family, and 5- The Idealized Nuclear family of the 1950’s. The Universal Nuclear Family is basically everything under the sun. It is everything and anything describing family from monogamy to permanence. Having one spouse, two spouses, or even more, even just living together under the same roof is considered family. Basically regardless of race, gender, social status,
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Mother’s Day was birthed in the twentieth century and medical advances were made with life expectancy increased. The Great Depression took place in this century; thus came the hard economic times for many families. Thousands of jobs were lost and families that were once well off were then struggling to survive.
The studies of methodological techniques involve surveys, observations, case studies, and ethnography. It is also a tool in sociological inquiry. Surveys can be done by asking people in person or questionnaire was given to the family to fill out. Observation is just that observing people to see how the interaction takes place. Case studies are a single unit of study. Ethnography it is a view point of a group.
There are seven theoretical perspectives which consist of: structural functionalism, conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, social-exchange theory, developmental family life cycle model, and feminist theories. All theories are based upon how we look and portray human behavior. Theoretical perspectives are important because assumptions provide framework for interpreting what we observe.
Structural functionalisms are societies that are organic being of interrelated parts that work together in harmony like a human system. Talcott Parsons was the father of structural functionalism and Robert Merton expanded Parsons understanding of structural functionalism. Structural functionalisms are more concentrated on the position individuals
Structural Functionalism is defined as, “a society which is a whole unit made up of interrelated parts that work together” and “ its society as a living organism/ machine that has multiple organs and parts and people to fulfill their individual functions; working together to make it happen ” (Henslin 2015, Smith 2017).
In Andrew J. Cherlin’s essay “American Marriage In Transition”, he discusses how marriage in America is evolving from the universal marriage. Cherlin’s definition of the universal marriage in his essay is the man is the breadwinner of the household and the woman is the homemaker. In the 20th century according to Cherlin, the meaning of marriage has been altered such as the changing division of labor, childbearing outside of marriage, cohabitation, gay marriage and the result of long- term cultural and material trends (1154). During the first transition of marriage, Cherlin discusses how in America, Europe, and Canada the only socially accepted way to have sexual relations with a person and to have children is to be married (1154). The second change in marriage occurred in 2000, where the median age of marriage in the United States for men is 27 and women is 25 (1155). Many young adults stayed single during this time and focused on their education and starting their careers. During the second change, the role of law increasingly changed, especially in the role of law in divorce (1155). It is proven in today’s research marriage has a different definition than what it did back in the 1950’s. Today marriage can be defined as getting married to the same gender or getting remarried to someone who already has kids. The roles in a marriage are evolving to be a little more flexible and negotiable. However, women still do a lot of the basic household chores and taking care of the
Structural functionalism is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. Essentially, structural functionalism is how every part of society fits and works together to keep everyone involved, united and to support the process of moving our nation forward. The colony that Flik lives in and that encounters an issue is its own small part of the world that follows structural functionalism; however, when Flik ventures off into the bug world to find warrior bugs it is easy to see ways that structural functionalism works outside of the colony. In the ant colony, the audience can see structural functionalism because each ant has a job that they do to ensure the success of the colony. The ants collect food together and follow orders from people who are higher in position like Princess Atta or The Queen. Through following orders and working together, the colony is able to find a balance and accept what they must do to become successful in fulfilling the needs of not only themselves but also the demanding grass hoppers.
Marriage has changed dramatically over time in the many years it has been around. What do think Marriage was like 100 years ago? The article, “American Marriage in Transition”, describes how many different types of marriage there are and how people have changed their view on it. Andrew Cherlin (the sociologist of the article) does a great job going in depth explaining American marriage. He arranges the different marriages in three different categories; Institutionalized which was the earliest type of marriage, then Companionship around World War II, and currently we are considered Individualized.
What important changes in family patterns do you see today? Today I see family patterns change in many perspectives ways. Families are more independent. They form their own opinions in their decision making. Do you see positive changes, negative changes, or both? I would have to say that I see both positive and negative changes in families. The positive that I see is that many husbands are more involved with their children and even some are now stay home dads taking care of the children while women go to work, the negative that I see is that there are many people filing for divorce and children being raised by single parents. What do they mean for families, in your opinion? My opinion is that most people are
The Structural-Functional perspective is the theory that sees society as a complex system. Each of these complex parts work together to create stability and solidarity.
Structural Functionalism as defined by Functionolists such as Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer, believe that society is a whole unit made up of many related parts, each having its own function. In order for society to maintain equilibrium or balance all parts must fulfill their function. If their function is not performed society is in an
According to the text, structural functionalism is a macro-theory. Now let’s keep in mind what a theory is and continue. Structural functionalism views society as a complete unit, just as you can view the human body as one complete unit or organism. The human body may have many small intricate aspects of it such as organ and cells but it uses all those small parts to function as a complete human body. This theory views society in the same way, it has many small parts called structures but works as a whole. The term structures can be broken down into something even smaller and they have labeled this role. Roles are performed by people who occupy them, the structures work together to accomplish a greater goal. A great
When we are young we play house and we play doctor, we pretend we are husbands and wives to the kids we play with. Marriage is imbedded into our minds at a young age and we value marriage as we get older. We see examples of marriages through personal experience, the TV, and through the media, but how much has marriage changed now compared to the 1950’s? The idea of marriage has been altered and improved since the 1950’s because of feminism, views about individualism, and views of same-sex marriage.
What are the three major sociology perspectives in regards to social issues? They are Symbolic Interactionism perspectives, Functionalism perspectives, and Conflict Theory perspectives. These perspectives offer sociologists abstract examples for explaining how society affects people, and vice versa. Each perspective individually theorizes society, social forces, and human behavior.
The definition of American family is based on the idea that a legally married couple shares a household, which has been considered as a male that provides the income and a female who is responsible for taking care of the husband, household and children. Even though, Maggie Gallagher in her essay the benefits of marriage in “Why marriage is good for you,” states that she is trying to promote the return to more traditional view of marriage within the society. However, there is a controversy that American family is experiencing changes in every aspect, being on decline as a consequence of three factors. First, more babies are born in extramarital relations, second, individualism of men and women including same sex couples, and third, the high
The functionalism theory is also known as structural functionalism and lays claim on the fact that the society is composed of interdependent portions each of which adds to the functioning of the whole society. Functionalists break
Structural Functionalism aims to understand society in an objective way. It views society as an entity that is “objectively real”. It emphasizes the unity of society, and how individuals perform roles and how these roles are vital in meeting the needs of the collective whole. For instance, because every society has stratification, stratification must have certain functions and these functions can contribute to the survival of the social system as a whole. Furthermore, structural
On the other hands, the structural functionalism, which is also called as simply functionalism, it is a framework for building theory or perspectives that sees or seek the society as a complex system and whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability for the betterment of society. There are two theorists are well known including Herbert Spencer and Robert Merton, who were major contributors to this perspective or theory.
Structural Functionalism is “A major sociological perspective that views society as an interdependent system of parts (structures) and purposes (functions) that work together to make a society operate (Larkin, 2015)”. In order for a society to work all parts of the same society must work together. In structural functionalism society nearly depends on one another to stay afloat. If Something changes it can causes a disruption in society and begins to make things become unbalanced. Functionalism focuses on many groups that make up society, for example Government, Judiciary, and religion are some of the key groups that benefits in society strengthening their social relationships and the very world humans live in.