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Lesson 1 - Introduction to
Intimate Relationships and
Family
Robert Wonser
WHAT DO WE THINK OF WHEN WE THINK OF
“FAMILY”?
Why do we
see the
patterns to the
right that we
see?
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WHAT IS A FAMILY?
Family is defined as a social group whose
members are bound by legal, biological, or
emotional ties, or a combination of all three.
 No one type of family
 ‘families’
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FAMILY STRUCTURES
Nuclear Family is a family group consisting of
parents and their biological or adopted
children.
Single-parent family is a family group
consisting of one parent and his or her
biological or adopted children.
Blended Family is a family group created by
remarriage and includes at least one child
from a prior relationship.
Extended family one’s relatives beyond the
nuclear and extended family level.
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U.S. Family Types, 2008.
 Type
Percentage
 Married
Number
123,671,000
52
 Widowed
14,314,000
6
 Divorced
23,346,000
10
 Separated
5,1 83,000
2
 Never Married -Single
30
 Total Families
100
71 ,479,000
237,993,000
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US Trends in Family Types (1950 – 2008)
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FAMILY FUNCTIONS
According to the Functionalists, families
provide:
Economic support things like food, shelter,
etc.
Emotional support feelings of belonging
 Including
 Intimacy (social, emotional, spiritual, intellectual and
physical trust that is mutually shared between family
members)
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SOCIALIZATION
 Socialization
 Including the social construction of reality what
people define as real because of their background
assumptions and life experiences with others
 Primary socialization all the ways that a newborn is
molded into a social being capable of interacting in
and meeting the expectations of society and later
secondary socialization (occurs in later childhood
and adolescence when children go to school and
come under the influence of non-family members)
 Adult socialization occurs as we assume adult roles
and responsibilities such as wife/husband/employee
etc.
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WHAT THE FAMILY PROVIDES ACCORIDNG TO
THE FUNCTIONALISTS (CONTINUED)
Sexuality and Reproductive Control when the
family traditionally controls sexuality and
reproduction (including mate selection)
Unwed mothers
 Percentage of All Births that were to Unwed Teens and
Mothers of All Ages Years 2000 and 2006.
 Year
Bir ths to Unwed Teens
Mothers
 2000
11 .8%
 2006
10.4%
Bir ths to All Unwed
33.2%
35.8%
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THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
C Wright Mills’ term for the ability to shift your
perspective from one that emphasizes the
experiences of the individual to one that
understands the broader social context in
which that individual lives.
It is an awareness that we are a part of
something larger than ourselves and that our
position and personal problems are rooted in
the larger workings of society.
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SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
Personal troubles (private problems
experienced within the character of the
individual and the range of their immediate
relation to others) and
Public issues (lie beyond one’s personal
control and the range of one’s inner life)
“neither the life of an individual nor the
history of a society can be understood without
understanding both” - Mills
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THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND THE
FAMILY
How did the Industrial Revolution alter the
family?
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THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION PROFOUNDLY
CHANGED SOCIET Y (AND THE FAMILY)
 Pre-Industrial and Post -Industrial Revolution Social Patterns








Pre-Industrial Revolution
Farm/ Cottage
Family Work
Small Towns
Large Families
Homogamous Towns
Lower Standards of Living
People Died Younger
Post-Industrial Revolution
Factories
Breadwinners /Homemakers
Large Cities
Small Families
Heterogamous Cities
Higher Standards of Living
People Die Older
 Changed the family, how it operated and the value
(or lack thereof) of labor (paid labor > unpaid labor)
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FAMILY RESEARCH
Why is research into the family important?
There is a section of ASA members that
focuses its studies specifically on the family.
Here is an excerpt from their mission
statement:
Many of society's most pressing problems -teenage childbearing, juvenile delinquency,
substance abuse, domestic violence, child and
elder abuse, divorce -- are related to or rooted
in the family. The Section on Family was
founded to provide a home for sociologists
who are interested in exploring these issues in
greater depth.
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FAMILY CULTURE
 Culture
 When studying others’ it is important to be use
cultural relativism, not ethnocentrism.
 Opportunity and social class.
 Life chances access to basic opportunities and
resources in the marketplace.
 Important Distinction:
 Family of origin the family into which you were
born and
 family of procreation which is the family you
create by marriage, child birth or adoption.
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DEMOGRAPHY
Demography is the scientific study of
population growth and change.
Baby Boom Generation (children born 19461964; 78 million alive today)
 (Births – Deaths) +/- ((In-migration – out- migration)) =
Population Change
 (Births – Deaths) is called natural increase which is all
births minus all deaths in a given population over a given
time period.
 ((In-Migration)-(Out Migration)) is called net migration,
which is all in-migration minus all out-migration in a given
population over a given time period.
 How many people are born each year? How many die?
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