...Examine the reasons for the changing patterns of marriage and divorce over the last 50 years Sude Dramali Families in Britain are continually changing over time, but over the last 50 years there have been major changes. There has been a huge increase in the numbers of divorce, and a decrease in the number of marriages. The divorce rate has especially increased, as now one-half of new marriages today are likely to end in divorce. New forms of the family are rising, such as lone parents, same sex marriages and cohabitation. These changes mean that families and households today bear little resemblance to those of fifty years ago, and the "typical family" no longer seems to exists. One of the reasons for the changing pattern of marriage and divorce is the changing role of women. Feminists might argue that women's expectations of life and the quality of their relationship have risen during the last century, and so are less likely to accept a traditional housewife role. Around three quarters of divorce petitions are initiated by women, which would imply that more women are unhappy with they're marriages than men are. On top of this; the employment of married women has dramatically increased, and now it is the norm for married women with children to also be in employment. This change is reflected in TV shows and films, as the mother role is no longer portrayed as only being a housewife, but also as a working mother with her own career. Being employed increases women's financial...
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...Sociology Homework: Marriage, Divorce and Family Diversity • Explain what sociologists mean by 'serial monogamy'. (2 marks) When sociologists use the term 'serial monogamy' they mean the practice of having a number of long-term romantic or sexual partners in succession. • Suggest two reasons for the growth of one-parent families. (4 marks) One reason in which one parent families have grown is due to the fact that only half the amount of people are currently getting married. This effects the lifestyle children are growing up in as they may not see a set of adults being completely committed, also it may give the children the idea that they do not necessarily need to get married when they're older. This is jeopardising the traditional family. Another reason may be divorce has risen enormously. More and more people are becoming divorced which draws a division between children and their parents. It is statistically proven that divorce/ separation of parents has resulted in children having behaviour problems and being more involved in crime. Maybe it's a cry for help, it is obvious that the child(ren) is emotionally scarred due to the separation of their parents. • Suggest three reasons for increase in the divorce rate. (6 marks) There are many reason why the the increase rate in divorce has risen. The most crucial and common one is money. The stress of finance can make or break a relationship. Money is the most important and talked about thing in society. Therefore...
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...* The essays will consist 4 paragraphs and a conclusion containing new information. How to use this document: * Use the extract from the mark scheme and examiners’ advice to create essay plans of the questions. * You may not have heard of all of the concepts in the mark scheme but there should be at least some that are familiar to you. * The examiner’s advice usually outlines bad, moderate and good answers to the question so pick out the ways in which you can achieve top band and incorporate this into your plan. June 2015 Examine the impact of government policies and laws on family life. [24 marks] From the mark scheme: Concepts and issues such as the following may appear: patriarchy; familism; surveillance; ideological control; gender regimes; marital breakdown; family structure; family diversity; welfare dependency; underclass; reserve army of labour Policies/laws on abortion; divorce; contraception; reproductive technology; marriage; adoption; pensions; benefits; taxes; education; childcare; child protection; sexuality; immigration may be discussed Analysis and evaluation may be developed, for instance by comparing the impact of different policies/laws or by discussing perspectives on social policy and the family (eg New Right, feminist, functionalist etc) From the examiner’s report: The most successful answers were able to identify relevant policies...
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...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. In order to develop their careers, women may be rejecting the notion of marriage altogether and remaining single. Over the same period, there...
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...Examine the reasons for the changes in the patterns of marriage In the last 30 years, the British society has experienced many changes affecting the family. There have been changes in attitudes to and expectations of family life, as well as official changes such as government legislation. Society has been affected by feminism, which has led to increased awareness of women’s rights and freedoms, as well as postmodernism and secularisation. The changes resulting have affected marriage rates, which are decreasing, and more people are now marrying later in life and more than once. More people are choosing to cohabit, either before or instead of marrying, and this is becoming increasingly common in young couples. Divorce rates have also increased in the last 30 years, following changes in legislation and attitudes. As society’s view of a ‘conventional family’ has changed over the last 30 years, the acceptable norms have widened. In the past, an unmarried woman would be looked down on, as it was expected that women would marry and invest their time in raising a family. If they didn’t, it could be presumed that could they couldn’t find a willing partner, or that there was something wrong with them. Although 95.1% of British women still marry before they are 49, it has become more acceptable to choose not to get married, and rather than being looked down on, single women are more likely to be viewed as strong, focussed, and independent. This means there is less pressure on...
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...Examine the reasons for changes in the patterns of marriage and co-habitation in the last 40 years. [24] Marriage is traditionally conceived to be a legally recognized relationship between two consenting adults that carries certain rights and obligations. Cohabitation is an arrangement whereby couples who are not legally married live together in partnership within the common law. Cohabitation has now become a very common way of living. The patterns of marriage have varied quite significantly. Statistics show that in 1972, the number of couples (480,000) near the Second World War got married. The reason for this was because of the baby boom generated in 1950s reaching the marriageable age and these people choosing to marry at a younger age. Women were getting married at the age of 22 and men at the age of 24. Recently, the trend of getting married went into decline, in 2005, only 284,000 couples got married. Also, in comparison to 1972, men were getting married at the age of 31 and women at the age of 29 in 2004, showing that the trend was decreasing and the age of marriage was slowly increasing. Wilkinson (1994) suggests reasons as to why the trend in marriage has dropped so significantly. He notes that women are going through a ‘genderquake’ suggesting a radical change to the female attitude towards marriage and family life. She argues that young females no longer prioritize marriage and children; this could be due to there being more opportunities for women within education...
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...WORKBOOK ANSWERS AQA AS Sociology Unit 1 Families and Households This Answers book provides some possible answers that might be given for the questions asked in the workbook. They are not exhaustive and other answers may well be acceptable, but they are intended as a guide to give teachers and students feedback. The responses for the longer essay-style questions are intended to give some idea about how the exam questions might be answered. Again, these are not the only ways to answer such questions but they can be treated as one way of approaching questions of these types. Topic 1 Functionalist and New Right views of the family How have functionalist and New Right thinkers explained family life and the relationship between families and social change? 1 The organic analogy refers to the extended comparison made by functionalists between the human or other living body and society, with the organs of the body equivalent to institutions and structures in society. 2 Primary socialisation refers to the first and most important stage of the socialisation process by which young children absorb the norms and values of their culture, mainly from their parents. Note: make sure your answer explains both ‘primary’ and ‘socialisation’. 3 One way in which the nuclear family is more suited than other types of family to modern industrial society is that it allows for geographical mobility; it is easier to move a nuclear family to a new area for, say, a...
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...Name: SCLY 1: Families and Households Revision Notes 2011-12 By the end of this unit you should be able to * answer any question on families and households ! Key definitions: A family is 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...
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...UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Background of the Study Parental separation is the ending of a marriage before the death of either spouse. In many developed countries, separation rates have increased markedly during the previous century. It is reported that more than 1 million children each year experience their parents’ separation. Divorce or separation is a critical event happening to about 54% of young families; however nobody really is prepared for the difficulties that follow. Parental separation has been reported in the literature as being associated with a wide range of adverse effects on children’s wellbeing, both as a short-term consequence of the transition and in the form of more enduring effects that persist into adulthood. Both parental marital status and the parent-adolescent relationship have been found to be related to adolescent well-being (Forehand, Middleton, & Long, 1987; Buchanan, Maccoby, & Dombusch 1991). There is a wide diversity of outcomes among both groups of children from divorced and intact families, and the adjustment of children following divorce depends on a wide range of other factors. Pryor and Rodgers (2001) show that the risk of poor social adjustment is twice as great for children whose parents are separated or divorced (Amato, 2000; Simons, Lin, Gordon, Conger, and Lorenz, 1999; Emery, 1999; Kelly, 2000; Hetherington and Kelly, 2002). Among other things, children from divorced families...
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...GENDER RELATIONS AND DIVORCE AMONG THE ELITES A CASE STUDY OF GULU MUNICIPALITY BY HENRY EGYEYU ABSTRACT This study is aimed at establishing the relationship between Gender relations and Divorce such that possible approaches are sought to mitigate them. The study set out to assess the sex-differentiated impact of divorce, which are normally part of family life. These include changes in residences by children to accommodate changes in their relationships with their parents, changes in parental employment, remarriage, and stepfamily formation still; most children suffer from declining father. The study found that such changes affect individuals within households differently. Some lose while others gain. Women, however, have been singled out as the most affected. Changes in marriage and divorce laws and policies have further affected individual household members in different ways that is, children live in many different family forms, but the most common pattern is that they live with their mothers and have less contact with their fathers. As a result, a common alteration that children are forced to make is an adjustment to life without their father at home. Most children share time between the mother's household and the father's household, and families are creative in finding ways for children to maintain meaningful relationships with both parents involvement after divorce The conflicts over ownership of...
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...treatment: Look for; 1) strengths in the marriage as well as 2) areas that need improvement. Assessment takes three sessions- a conjoint session that lasts an hour and a half, and two individual sessions, one with each spouse, each a half-hour long. Investigate 7 different questions; - Overall, where is each in the marriage? - Martial satisfaction - Divorce potential - Each person’s commitment to the marriage - Their hopes and expectations for the marriage (including potentially getting out of their marriage) - Their hopes, expectations and theory of the therapy - Their big cost/benefit analysis of the marriage. Discrepancies between spouses? - Pattern of emotional abuse? Therapist to confront this. - Marital Therapy Contraindicated? - An ongoing extramarital or disengagement? - Ongoing physical abuse? - Other betrayals? - What is the nature of their marital friendship? - Is there emotional engagement or disengagement? - Lifestyle needs similar or different? - Passion and romance in the marriage? - Sexual satisfaction and intimacy? - Fun? - Spiritual connection? - Loneliness - Parallel lives? - Other salient areas? (eg. Finances) - Positive affect? - The Fondness and Admiration System? - Phsycial affection - We-ness versus me-ness? - Cognitive room (Love Maps)? - How do they talk to each other in a nonconflict context? - What do they see as the strengths of this marriage? - Feeling one’s personality is...
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... There is no correct definition on the family, Sociologists do not agree on a definition, broadly there are two types of definition; • Exclusive definitions – These focus on the specific relationships within the family unit i.e. marriage • Inclusive definitions – These focus on the functions of the unit e.g. support. The Cereal Packet Family A popular image of the family in Britain in the late twentieth century has been described as the cereal packet family. The ‘happy family’ image gives the impression that most people live in a typical family and these images reinforce the dominant ideology of the traditional nuclear family. Functionalists Roles of the Family – Parsons The Functionalist Talcott Parsons sees two main functions that the family performs these are: • The primary socialisation of children Parson argues that every individual must internalise the norms and values of society. He said it is the family that moulds the child’s personality to fit the needs of society, producing children who are committed to shared norms and values and who have a strong sense of belonging to society • The stabilisation of adult personalities Adults need emotional security, which is given by partners in a marriage, and they also need a source of release from the stresses and strains of daily life, which they get from being able to indulge in childish behaviour when playing with their children. This ‘stabilisation’ is often referred to...
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... There is no correct definition on the family, Sociologists do not agree on a definition, broadly there are two types of definition; • Exclusive definitions – These focus on the specific relationships within the family unit i.e. marriage • Inclusive definitions – These focus on the functions of the unit e.g. support. The Cereal Packet Family A popular image of the family in Britain in the late twentieth century has been described as the cereal packet family. The ‘happy family’ image gives the impression that most people live in a typical family and these images reinforce the dominant ideology of the traditional nuclear family. Functionalists Roles of the Family – Parsons The Functionalist Talcott Parsons sees two main functions that the family performs these are: • The primary socialisation of children Parson argues that every individual must internalise the norms and values of society. He said it is the family that moulds the child’s personality to fit the needs of society, producing children who are committed to shared norms and values and who have a strong sense of belonging to society • The stabilisation of adult personalities Adults need emotional security, which is given by partners in a marriage, and they also need a source of release from the stresses and strains of daily life, which they get from being able to indulge in childish behaviour when playing with their children. This ‘stabilisation’ is often referred to...
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...University of Rhode Island DigitalCommons@URI Senior Honors Projects Honors Program at the University of Rhode Island 5-2011 Love: A Biological, Psychological and Philosophical Study Heather M. Chapman heather_chapman@my.uri.edu Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/srhonorsprog Part of the Biology Commons, Philosophy Commons, and the Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Chapman, Heather M., "Love: A Biological, Psychological and Philosophical Study" (2011). Senior Honors Projects. Paper 254. http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/srhonorsprog/254 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors Program at the University of Rhode Island at DigitalCommons@URI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Senior Honors Projects by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@URI. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@etal.uri.edu. 1 Running head: LOVE Love: A biological, psychological and philosophical study. Heather Chapman University of Rhode Island 2 LOVE Dedication This paper is dedicated to the love of my life Jason Matthew Nye October 4,1973 - January 26, 2011 3 LOVE Abstract The concept of love has been an eternally elusive subject. It is a definition and meaning that philosophers, psychologists, and biologists have been seeking since the beginning of time. Wars have been waged and fought over it, while friendships have been initiated and have ended because of...
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...cutiepieBroken families are breaking youth By Tshikululu Social Investments on 12 May 2011 Categories: Social Development We argue that the fact that two thirds of children do not live with their parents is damaging our future workers, entrepreneurs and leaders. Written by Lucy Holborn for the South African Institute of Race Relations. This article is an executive summary of the second report on research conducted by the Institute into the state of South African families and youth. Unemployment, teenage pregnancy, crime and drug and alcohol abuse all affect South Africa’s youth. Family breakdown and the absence of fathers in particular, may contribute to these social ills. “œNine million kids with no dads” was the headline on the front page of The Sowetanon 5 April 2011. It was based on the Institute’s Research into family breakdown and its harmful consequences for children. The following week Ms Phumla Matjila cited our research in her column in The Times, but argued that being brought up by her grandmother had been good for her. There are exceptions, but in general the odds are stacked against South Africa’s young people succeeding. Only 68% of candidates passed their matric in 2010 and to pass a subject they only had to get 30% right anyway. Of those who enrolled in university in 2002, more than half dropped out. One in two young people who want a job cannot find one, and a third of 15-24 year olds are not in education, employment or training. In other words, they...
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