Sociology Of Family

The Sociology of Family and Households

Key terms and words:

Roles - an initial definition of a role is that it represents the way that someone is expected to behave in a particular social situation. Roles, therefore, are the parts that we play in our relationships with others and this idea is similar to that of an actor playing a part in a play.

Conjugal roles - the tasks typically taken up by husband and wife in the household.

Primary socialisation - a primary relationship is one in which the individual has a close, personal, intimate and face-to-face relationship with the people that are responsible for the socialisation process.

Secondary socialisation - a secondary relationship is one in which the individual does not have a close, personal, intimate or face-to-face relationship with the people that are responsible for the socialisation process.

Familist ideology - the dominant or traditional notion of family is supported by a familist ideology which suggests that this type of family is not only appropriate, but also "natural". The familist ideology also tends to promote an "ideal" image of the conventional family, in which families function well together, communicate effectively, and provide an ideal place for children's physical, social and emotional growth and development.

Patriarchy - unequal structures of power, with male dominance within the family

Diversity - when applied to family and households, we can offer lots of different ways of thinking about how families might be different to each other.

Family - primary social group; consisting of parents and children.

Kinship - being part of a family; state of relatedness or connection by blood or marriage or adoption.

Households - where you live, the dwelling you live in, and its size and structure.

Crisis - an unstable situation of the family.

State overload - idea used by the new right to refer to the crisis point welfare spending has reached because of the fact that some people are taking money from the state.

Class diversity - the income that the family has and the 'cultural capital' of the class background of a family may dramatically affect the lifestyle of the family members.

Life cycle diversity - where different families are along different stages of their life.

Cohort diversity - those born at the same time represent a 'cohort': a group of people who have common experiences of the world as they have lived through common historical events.

Organisational diversity - families might have different structures and different roles within them.

Geographical diversity - where you live in the country will affect the sort of family you are more likely to have.

Plastic identity - deciding who we are and how we wish to live our lives; who we think we are is mouldable.

Democratisation - the action of making something democratic.

Social order - when society is 'stable', functionalist think social order is 'vital' and without it there will be 'instability'.

Social control - at its most basic, social control involves all of the things that we do or have done to us that are designed to maintain or change people's behaviour.

Value consensus - when society seems better that it really is