Download Sociological Theories

Theoretical Frameworks Sociologists Use
to Understand Marriages and Families
Free Write:
A. Ask/write a question about any marriage and family behavior of interest to you.
B. Develop a “minitheory” to explain the behavior or event.
C. What are some of the assumptions you make about human beings, society, marriages,
families, women and men?
D. Which theoretical perspective or theory model does your theory most resemble?
Mainstream Perspectives:
Research Questions Asked:
Functionalist
$
$
$
What do families contribute to the maintenance of society?
How does the structure of society affect families?
How do families mesh with other institutions in society?
Conflict
$
How is social inequality built into the structure of marriages
and families?
What is the role of a marital partner or family member in
promoting family disintegration/change?
When conflict occurs in marriage, who wins? Who loses?
How are racial, ethnic, gender, class and other inequalities
perpetuated through the operation of family?
$
$
$
Symbolic Interaction
$
$
$
$
How are marriages and families experienced?
How do individual family members interact to create,
sustain, and change marriages and families?
How do family members attempt to shape the reality
perceived by other family members?
How do the behaviors of family members change from one
situation to another?
Alternative Perspectives:
Social-Constructionist
Social Exchange
Developmental Family Life Cycle
Feminist Theoretical Perspectives
I. Functionalist
A. View society as a system
– institutions having functions
– functions of family?
B. View Family as a System
– family functions historically divided by gender
– manifest or latent functions
– manifest – intended function – ex. Have children to carry on family
lineage
– latent – unintended function – ex. Decrease in marital satisfaction with
birth of first child
– dysfunctions – disrupts system’s balance
– ex. – women in the paid labor force changes the division of labor in the
home.
C. Key Contributor
– Talcott Parsons
– Nuclear Family
– became the benchmark against which all other families began to be
judged
II. Conflict Theory
A. Key Contributor – Karl Marx
– every aspect of social life is based on economic relationships
– meaningful social change comes about only as a result of the struggle between
competing groups
B. View conflict as natural and inevitable in all human interaction – including family
systems
– fight over scarce resources
– family as a microcosm of the macrocosm
– dominance of men; subordination of women ==> family perpetuates this
III. Symbolic Interactionism
A. Read * p. 47-48 – definition of symbolic interactionist perspective
B. Key Contributors to SI & Family
– Ernest Burgess
– “the family represents a unified set of interacting individuals. That is,
unity in family life comes about as a result of interactions among various
family members.” P. 48
– concern with marriages and families as processes more so than being
concerned with their structure
– so the reality of marriage life is dynamic – it is socially constructed and
constructed differently by various family members with different roles,
privileges, and responsibilities.
– Jessie Bernard –
– taking an SI perspective, has argued that women and men are likely to
view their marriages differently – a “his” and “her” marriages
phenomenon
– suggests that the psychological costs of marriage are much greater for
wives than husbands, and the benefits are far less.
– Why?
– because women have less power in marriages (a function of sex
role socialization and expectations) than men and this requires that
women make certain accommodations within marriages that may
not necessarily be positive for their mental health.
IV. Social Constructionist
A. Extension of the SI perspective
– entire framework couched in the social construction of reality
B. Guiding Principle
– “is that human experience is not uniform and cannot be generalized to all
people” p. 48
– human beings are not mere biological products – we are developed through
complex processes of human interaction
– we learn appropriate roles, behaviors, attitudes from our culture but are
active actors and are capable of changing this “cultural script” to make it
more suitable to ourselves
C. Fundamental Assumptions of the Social Constructionism and SI
– read four bullets on p. 48
V. Social Exchange
– very popular theory in marriage and family literature/research
– sometimes referred to as Rational-choice theory
A. What is it?
– this theory adopts an economic model of human behavior based on costs,
benefits, and the expectation of reciprocity
– underlying premise – is that social exchange forms the basis of all social
interaction.
– social interaction is an exchange of goods and services, ranging from
money or physical labor to social recognition, love and respect
– assuming humans are rational beings, they weigh the costs against the
benefits before making a decision – a decision about entering a
relationship, for example.
– people only engage in behavior that is “profitable” for them == benefits
outweigh the costs
– shares many of the fundamental assumptions of SI so can be seen as another
extension of SI theory
B. Key Contributors
– George Homans and Peter Blau
– Homans – focused on the actual behavior of individuals – suggested that
in exchange relationships, the rewards will usually be proportional to the
costs.
– Blau – not disagreeing with Homans, extends his ideas a bit to consider
the effects of social structure.
– not all exchange is explained by actual behavior
– our relationship choices and decisions are not made purely on the
basis of the perceived rewards but are affected by various social
influences, such as family and friends.
– ex. in book – interracial couple see their relationship as
very satisfying. Social approval is important to the couple.
Family and friends strongly disapprove. Couple decides to
terminate the relationship.
– another example: Couple gets along but not completely a
“fair exchange” relationship. Family and friends really
supportive of their relationship. Approval is important.
Couple decides to stay together/marry.
VI. Developmental Family Life Cycle
A. What is it?
– a theory/model that describes changes in families over time and attempts to
explain family life in terms of an unfolding process.
– families change over time in terms of the members and the roles that they play
– each new stage in family life cycle is brought on by a change in the composition
of the family
B. Key Contributors:
– Paul Glick –
1) Family formation (first marriage)
2) start of childbearing (birth of first child)
3) end of childbearing (birth of last child)
4) “empty nest” (when the last child leaves home)
5) dissolution of family (death of one spouse)
– Evelyn Duvall –
stages summarized on p. 51
VII. Feminist Theoretical Perspectives
A. Broad Framework
– many theories and perspectives are represented here under this broad umbrella
B. Commonalities between the theories in this broad framework
– Woman centered perspective
1) the starting point of all its investigations is the situations and
experiences of women
2) it treats women as the main subjects in the research process, that is, it
attempts to view the world from the distinctive vantage points of women
3) it is critical and activist on behalf of women
– woman centered perspective is important because prior to feminism,
men and men’s experiences (particular men at that) were the central focus
of inquiry regarding human behavior in general. Feminist theorist have
changed, not only the focus of inquiry to women, but also the issues then
that get studied and how they are studied.
C. What makes it a feminist theory or perspective?
– it is not enough to deal with gender, in order to be consider a feminist theory,
the theory must possess an awareness rooted in a commitment to activist goals.
– and it should adopt three philosophical approaches:
1 – gender is the central focus
2 – status quo gender relations are viewed as problematic tin that women
are defined as subordinate to men
3 – gender relations are viewed as the result of social, not natural , factors.
– you make the personal political
– feminist theories are very explicitly political in their advocacy for social
change.
D. Many Faces of Feminist Theory
– there is no one feminist approach
– your text outlines 7 different feminist perspectives
– I would like to talk about a few of them and add a Conservative Feminist
approach to the list as well.
1. Conservative Feminism
– agree with a d of l between men and women (even in its traditional
sense)
– disagree with the value that gets placed on women’s work as opposed to
men’s work
– call for social change ==> women become educated to do their work
within the home and have that work be equally valued as men’s
2. Liberal Feminism
– assumes sexism is the basis of women’s inequality
– disagree with conservatives in that women should be able to do whatever
they want. They should not have a prescribed set of roles made available
to them (neither should men for that matter).
– call for social change ==> in terms of providing women with equal
opportunities as men and give women individual choice
3. Socialist Feminist
– disagree with liberals
– they critique liberals for describing the experiences of middle class
women only.
– they argue that gender and social class are the important characteristics
to focus on because inequality is based on these characteristics.
– basically, adding social class to the focus to more accurately explain the
experiences of women than the liberals do.
4. Women-of-color Feminism
– takes the Socialist Feminist perspective on step further to include
race/ethnicity as important social locators influencing women’s
experiences.
– brings women-of-color from the margins to the center of analysis
– recognizes that there is no one unified female experience. Rather, each
individual woman is shaped not only by her experiences of gender and
sexuality but also by her particular experiences of the intersection of race,
social class, and culture.
– emphasis on the intersection of race, social class, and gender
5. Radical Feminism
– focuses on patriarchy as the basic cause of women’s oppression
– men and male dominated institutions practice psychological and
physical violence against women, therefore oppressing them
– disagree with the liberal feminist – you can’t just add women and stir
because our institutions are still patriarchal and women will still be
oppressed within them
– down plays social class, race/ethnicity factors
$
$
$
$
$
$
E. Macro and Micro-level analyses
– asks both sets of questions:
MACROWhat are the causes of women’s inequality in marriages and
families?
How does the structure of marriages and families maintain gender
inequality?
How can change toward greater equality in marriages and families
be brought about?
MICROWhat social and interpersonal processes occur in families to
generate gender differences and inequality?
What roles do various family members play in perpetuating gender
inequality?
What kind of power structures exist within marriages and families,
and how do they affect the distribution of tasks and resources in marriages
and families?
– in either set of questions – feminist perspectives take the position that
women’s subordination is based in the social relationships within
marriages and families.
VIII. Men’s Studies (in many ways comes out of feminism)
A. What is it?
– not just about men and centering men in research and theory.
– it specifically challenges the patriarchal male bias in traditional scholarship, the
existing sexist norms in society, and like women’s studies, it combines theory and
practice to create a more just society.
– I argue that men’s studies is fundamentally feminist – men’s studies scholars are
indeed focusing on gender as a central organizing principle in human life, they are
just focusing on it’s effects for men first, then on women and children.
– men’s studies scholars take many of the same positions as feminist
scholars in terms of the importance of diversity and the intersection of
race, social class, and gender.
– they recognize that some of these social locators carry more privilege
with them than do others. Not all men are in the privileged position,
however, as a group, men have more privilege than do women as a group.
$
$
B. Central Question
Why are men the way they are?
Recognizing that gender an sexism impact men’s as well as women’s
lives, mens’s studies encompasses a critical examination of the functional and
dysfunctional aspects of the traditional male gender role for men, women, and
children, and society at large.
C. Men’s Studies and Marriage & Family
– men’s oppression in marriages and families has been overlooked
– I would argue that men’s experiences in marriages and families have been left
out of the literature for far too long. When we say family we think mother. We
often times do not recognize the importance of fathers.
$
$
$
$
– Men’s studies is bringing men’s experiences in marriages and families to the
forefront:
what does it really mean to be a man, a father, a friend , a lover in
contemporary U.S. society?
How do men actively construct masculinity within a social and
historical context? What are their experiences in marriage and
fatherhood?
What are men’s emotional and sexual relationships like with
women and with other men?
With regards to fatherhood, are men becoming more nurturing and
caring fathers and developing parenting skills such as those we routinely
expect from women?