...usually a group of people related by marriage or blood. A household is a person living alone or a group of people living together who may or may not be related. Theories of the family From the specification: The relationship of the family to the social structure and social change * Functionalist views: the importance of the nuclear family, the universality of the family, changing functions, how the nuclear family ‘fits’ modern society. * Marxist views: the family as part of the ideological state apparatus, as an agent of social control. * Feminist views: patriarchy; liberal, radical and Marxist feminism. Consensus/Positive views of the family | Conflict/critical views of the family | * Functionalist theories: the family performs positive functions for individuals and society * New Right theories: the family is the cornerstone of society, but it is under threat | * Marxist theories: the family provides important functions for capitalism * Feminist theories: the family reinforces gender inequality and patriarchy | Functionalist theories GP Murdock | Evaluation | Murdock argues that the family is a universal institution (it exists everywhere) that performs four major functions: * Stable satisfaction of the sex drive with the same partner, preventing the social disruption caused by sexual ‘free-for-all’. * Reproduction of the next generation, without which society would not be able to continue. * Socialisation of the young into society’s shared...
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...suggesting for young adults still living at home. This new phenomenon—young adults still living in their parent's home well into their late 20's to early 30's—is proposed to be a result of many different reasons. Spend some time reading what experts suggest about this trend and address at least 2 reasons suggested. Contrary to popular belief “boomerang kids “or kids who fail to leave home, as they are called did not start during the “great recession” as numbers show. Research shows that this phenomenon has been increasing in number between the years of 1980 to 2008 (Adams, 2012). There can be several reasons that can be attributes to this. The go to reason as of late has been the bad economy and often a lack of jobs that provide substantial income, but research shows that there are often other reasons that contribute to the failure to launch. Two key reasons are the high rate of divorce and increase in single parenting in the last quarter of the twentieth century that also changed the parent/child dynamic, furthering the mutual emotional dependence of boomers and their offspring (Adams, 2012). In many other cultures its commonplace for children to live at home even after marriage. However it has not always been commonplace in America. Our custom has been to raise the kids and send them off to college, work or military. There has been a large shift in our culture and it points to other reasons as to why children fail to leave home. There seems to be a need for people to stay also...
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...education has been rapidly growing, especially over the past couple of years, there has been a sharp increase. “College tuition and fees today are 559 percent of their cost in 1985” (Rampell). In 2005, the average tuition cost at a public four-year college was approximately $5,000. Today, the average tuition at four-year state schools nationwide rose “faster than inflation…..4.8% increase” (Gordon). This brought tuition at public four-year schools to $8,655. This is happening because of many factors including schools raising tuition to pay for more remedial classes and extra counseling services, to make up for cuts in state funds, and to make up for reductions in the per-student subsidy state taxpayers sent colleges. These in turn have several effects that have an impact on society as a whole, these effects include international students going to schools in other countries because school here is too expensive, young college graduates not being able to afford to buy a home or have children due to their massive debt, parents not being well prepared for retirement since lots of graduates are moving back with their parents and parents are taking money out of their 401K to pay their children’s college loans, but most importantly low income students not being able to go to college because they cannot afford it. The rising cost of college tuition does not just affect the individual; it affects society as a whole since society is very dependent upon the college graduates taking it on from their...
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...right to judge people by the color of their skin? Is treating people equally regardless of race somehow a paragon of inequality? Unfortunately, in today’s society we are judging people by the color of their skin, and not from their country of origin, ethnicity or biological. The American dream is based on the idea that; America where no matter who you are, no matter what you look like, no matter where you come from, no matter what your last name is, no matter who you love, you can make it here if you try. While the United States was built on this idea, it is becoming harder and harder for people to move up in social status...
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...has been a major decline among many of them. Family values have changed dramatically in the past few decades, producing a crop of undisciplined teenagers and children who lack morals and manners as a result of poor training. Good manners were once the norm with young people very much aware the older generation. Saying "please" and "thank you", giving up a seat on the bus and holding open doors were all considered normal mannerly behavior. Times have changed and we now live in a predominantly me-first society which is reflected in many young people. If good manners are taught at an early age, they will generally continue to be part of the personality of the young child all the way into adulthood. The lack of good manners observed in society in general is no doubt a reflection of the situation found within the home. Without parental example and training the area of manners, it is likely the children will sadly lack in displaying them. The same can be said of the lack of morals we find in many of today's youth. A large proportion of children have grown up with little or no respect for authority, for property, for family or even themselves. Living a life of immorality is considered normal behavior today and has produced a bumper crop of young people with venereal disease, unwanted pregnancies and a feeling of emptiness in their lives. Lacking in moral stability, we find young people involved in crime, violence and drug abuse. The so-called freedom they have has actually brought...
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...development. After all, doesn't every society that's ever existed have some people identified as "children"? As obvious as the answer to this question may seem, variations in culture and over time are dramatic. People in modern Western societies have a widely held, unquestioned belief that children are fundamentally different from adults. We take for granted that children areóand have always beenóinnocent and entitled to nurturing and protection. However, in other cultures (for example, Japan) children are viewed as much more independent creatures who can act willfully from the earliest moments of life.1 We tend to base our Western beliefs about the nature of childhood on biological considerations. Young children are thoroughly dependent on adults for their survival. Infants cannot feed themselves or take care of themselves in any way. A 10-month-old child, left on its own, will surely die within days. A human may remain dependent on his or her parents for several decades. By contrast, other animal babies are much more self-sufficient. A newborn horse, for example, is able to gallop around when it is only a few minutes old. To us, then, laws protecting innocent and defenseless children from dangers like exploitation at work, pornography, neglect, and abuse make sense. It seems inconceivable to us that the protection of innocent children is not a fundamental value in all societies, present and past. But as you will see, childhood is not simply a biological stage of development...
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...Examine the reasons for the divorce rate in Britain today. Divorce is the legal separation of married couples. A divorce rate is the number of divorces occurring among the population of a given area during a given year. Since the 1960s there has been a great increase in the number of divorces in the United Kingdom. In Britain today, the numbers have fallen somewhat, but still stood at around 157,000 in 2001. This rate shows that about 40% of marriages will end in divorce. Some couples are more likely to divorce than others – couples such as those who marry young, those who have a child or cohabit before marriage and those where one or both partners have been married before. Functionalists are interested in divorce because they argue that a high divorce rate does not necessarily prove that marriage as a social institution is under threat. One reason for the changing rates in divorce is due to changes in the law. In previous centuries divorce was very hard to obtain, especially for women. Gradually changes in the law have made it easier for divorce to be achieved. Law changes such as equalising rights for men and women in the area of divorce, widening the grounds for divorce and making divorce cheaper are all factors which are changing the rates of divorce. Although divorce legally ends a marriage, couples find other solutions to solve the problem of an unhappy marriage; one partner leaving the other although they remain legally married (desertion); legal separation of the financial...
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...substance, norms and morality from individual to individual and from relationship to relationship.” (Beck, U and Beck-Gernsheim, E. 1995:p5). Through history there has been a varied view on the family, with changes in the functions, roles and relationships within the family being widely debated. There has been a major development with the types of family that exist in Britain today, with influences from the widening ethnicity of Britain it has adapted to many different cultures. Functionalism is considered the consensus view of the family. They see the family as a vital organ and the cornerstone of society. George Peter Murdock conducted a study entitled “social structure” (1949), in which he studied 250 societies both small and large. He claimed the findings of this was that some sort of family existed in every society which means the family is universal. (Haralambos, Holborn. 2008). According to Murdock the family is an institution which fulfils the functions essential for a harmonious society. He believed the family provided a stable environment hence strengthening the emotional bond between parents and children. Murdock believed that the family performed four essential functions sexual, reproductive, economic and educational. (Taylor. 1995). However Talcott Parson suggested that the family lost most of its main functions through industrialisation. He believed that through industrialisation the agrarian extended family was replaced by the ‘nuclear family’ to best fit...
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...and the middle-aged people that are involved in social networking and texting. I feel that the issue can be narrowed down to a past, present, and future where the middle-age is the past, my generation is the present, and the youth is the future. Each of these age groups have a different stake in the issue, but are all connected together within our society through the extended use of technology. As our society evolves, so does our technology. These technologies are made to make our lives easier and more enjoyable, but are they really just making us socially inept? While the advance in technology has been proven to be a benefit in communication, medicines, law, and education, maybe it is a curse within itself. Social media and texting offer ways for people to communicate globally, practically simultaneously, but our society is becoming completely dependent on these technologies, struggling to communicate outside of them, and it is ruining the social capabilities of the youth. Younger Generations The youth may have the most to gain or lose with the advance in technology. Their lives are beginning much different than those of their parents or older siblings. Kids are getting cell phones, social media websites such as Facebook, and video game consoles with internet capability at a much younger age. When used for education, the advancing technology is a huge positive influence on the brains of kids. While these are all ways that people communicate with each...
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...American Scavengers Antonio Felix English 102 Section #27058 May 11, 2015 “This empire, unlike any other in the history of the world, has been built primarily through economic manipulation, through cheating, through fraud, through seducing people into our way of life, through the economic hit men. I was very much a part of that” John Perkins. In the past decade the government has been pushing for a welfare reform time and time again. This reform is disliked by many politician, complaining that federal law is overly prescriptive and are willing to take less federal money in return for more flexibility. The public thinks that the current reform is anti-work and anti-family and is keeping the public under poverty line. However welfare programs are set in place by the government in order to ensure a certain quality and standard of living for everyone in the country. These programs are mainly focused on children, making sure that their parents are able to feed and clothe them properly. The truth is that in today’s society The Welfare system creates more problems than it solves, creating a sense of welfare dependency, a feature of advanced industrial societies with developed welfare states, whose citizens enjoy specific “social” rights (e.g., to social security, health care, social support, and education). Bill Clinton said: “I used to get up in the morning and watch my mother get ready to go to work. And we had a lot of trouble in my home when I was a kid, and she still...
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...instrumental role. However, this traditional arrangement may have changed as families have changed, and many feminists use the term ‘dual burden’ to describe the woman’s role in the family today. Item 2B Government policies and laws include tax and benefit policies as well as legislation such as relating to divorce and marriage. Sociologists have different views on the impact of these policies and laws on families. For example, feminists argue that social policies assume that the ideal family is a patriarchal nuclear family, and that government policies and laws therefore favour this sort of family. On the other hand, the New Right argue that the benefit system undermines traditional nuclear families by actively encouraging lone parents. 0 6 Explain what is meant by the ‘dual burden’ (Item 2A). (2 marks) 0 7 Explain the difference between the expressive role and the instrumental role (Item 2A). (4 marks) 0 8 Suggest three ways in which the differences between children and adults are becoming less clear in society today. (6 marks) 0 9 Examine the reasons for, and the effects of, changes in family size over the past 100 years or so. (24 marks) 1 0 Using material from Item 2B and elsewhere, assess sociological views of the impact of government policies and laws on family life. Item 2A Over the past 40 years or so, there has been a decline in the number of first marriages in the United Kingdom. One of the reasons for this decline is the change in the role of women in society....
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...Executive Summary One thing we know for sure, the young generations today has greater risk from certain drinking habits. They are more prone to peer pressure among their group of friends or even within the family. They are more likely to drink alcohol and develop bad drinking behaviors. The cultural background also has had a huge impact on the young Marshallese kids. Parents, nowadays, are not that strict as they used to be back in the days. Even though there is an age limit on when a person can drink, that doesn’t stop the kids from experimenting. Curiosity and their surroundings lead them to wanting to try alcohol consumption. Vendors, clerks, stores and even parents should be educated on what danger alcohol can do to one’s body. We, the Marshallese people, can stop this cycle if we just stop, look and listen to our surroundings and not be in denial that alcohol has crept and destroyed our lives. We should face it and shouldn’t be afraid to fight alcoholism. Introduction: We may not be aware of the dangers alcohol can do to our bodies. I believe, us, the Marshallese people are blinded by the effects it has on us, simply because we weren’t educated about it and because mostly everyone drinks. As I was doing my research and my observations on the young Marshallese people under the influence of alcohol, I realized, I too, didn’t know anything about alcohol, except that I didn’t want to try it because I’ve seen how stupid people can get. I didn’t know, it can affect your health...
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...Please evaluate each comment carefully to ensure that the suggested change is appropriate for your paper, but remember that your instructor's preferences for style and format prevail. You will also need to review your own citations and references since WritePoint capability in this area is limited. Thank you for using WritePoint. Technology has revolution the way we engage in the world today. Internet popularity and explosion of social networking sites have drastically alter people’s social interactions. At any given time, millions of people are engaged in texting, sending e-mails, surfing the web, social networking, or watching video in front of computer screens technology addicts’ nightmare, 2011. There is growing alienation between individuals, between families, and between humankind and nature. This is especially worse in children, who are [Writing suggestion: rewrite the sentence to remove "who are"] highly impressionable and still developing their social skills. From a young age, children are constantly exposed to technology in the form of animated shows in television, interactive computer software and cell phones (Brunt field, 2010). There is no more quiet time to simple relaxed and bond with family members. The human brain is overwhelmed with different sensory stimuli and yet it is not developed to its full potential. Children have lost their imagination. They no longer read and imagine scenarios as described by...
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...My Growth Trajectory: My Past: I would like to start talking about me only after detailing my family background because family is that made me what I am today. I have a beautiful family who always supports me in what I do and have trust in me. My father is an inspiration to me. My mom and sister are my strength. My parents put our needs first than theirs. They did not let any financial or family issues affect our growth. I was put into a boarding school in Ooty a hill station in India known for its educational institutions when I was three years old . It was a hard decision made by my parents to mould me. I was very mischievous though. I had many complaints on me all the time that I fought with someone or broke this, etc. My sister was often called for my mischief’s. Later when I was back at home the mischief continued. I was found of animals and had lot of pets. At a point of time our house was filled with pets where we had dogs, rabbits, pigeons, love birds, hens, turkeys and a big aquarium. I grew up with to be even more mischievous. I dint want to go to school and always wanted to play with my pets. It became difficult for my parents to look after all these. After my schooling, I wanted to pursue engineering. The first two years of my engineering I was not responsible. I was only interested in roaming. I used to do work only because I was supposed to but not out of passion. At that point of time, my dad had a conversation with me. He told me how I was and what he expected...
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...generation to generation. Parents pass it down to their kids, and they received it from their parents. A vicious cycle can only be broken by raising above the current situation. In order to rise one must work and gain a greater income, if any, than what is currently being dealt with. It is a common truth that you can work yourself out of poverty. As easy as that sounds, many times this is almost impossible to achieve. Personal barriers that may harm success are stress, low self-esteem, isolation, and inadequate parenting competence. One can go into urban cities, rural areas, and ghettos and see the impoverished or underprivileged situations that many people live in today. The question often asked is; why do people live and think the way they do? Can they not move or get a better job? The sad truth is that for many people moving on does not come with ease. The factors for which many stay in the situation they are in is endless and often quite complex. Many times people face poverty because they lack the means to move up in life. This barrier often times comes from lack of education. In many areas instances, children never even make it out of high school because their presence is needed to work and help the family survive. Seniors are often faced with many challenges which lead them to fall into poverty. Companies are known to let seniors over 50 go from their jobs. It is more convenient to hire a younger person, with less experience, and pay them less. This population has an extremely...
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