Why Do Sociologist Find the Study of Family

The modernistic concept of family unit is far more encompassing than in past decades. What do you think constitutes a family? (Photo (a) courtesy Gareth Williams/flickr; photo (b) courtesy Guillaume Paumier/ Wikimedia Commons)

Marriage and family are key structures in near societies. While the two institutions have historically been closely linked in U.S. culture, their connection is becoming more circuitous. The relationship between marriage and family unit is an interesting topic of study to sociologists.

What is marriage? Different people define information technology in unlike ways. Not even sociologists are able to agree on a single meaning. For our purposes, we'll define marriage every bit a legally recognized social contract betwixt two people, traditionally based on a sexual relationship and implying a permanence of the union. In practicing cultural relativism, we should also consider variations, such equally whether a legal matrimony is required (think of "common law" marriage and its equivalents), or whether more than two people tin can exist involved (consider polygamy). Other variations on the definition of union might include whether spouses are of opposite sexes or the aforementioned sex activity and how one of the traditional expectations of union (to produce children) is understood today.

Sociologists are interested in the relationship between the institution of marriage and the institution of family considering, historically, marriages are what create a family, and families are the about basic social unit upon which society is congenital. Both wedlock and family unit create status roles that are sanctioned past society.

So what is a family? A married man, a wife, and two children—maybe even a pet—has served as the model for the traditional U.S. family unit for well-nigh of the twentieth century. But what about families that deviate from this model, such as a unmarried-parent household or a homosexual couple without children? Should they be considered families too?

The question of what constitutes a family is a prime area of debate in family sociology, likewise equally in politics and religion. Social conservatives tend to ascertain the family in terms of structure with each family unit member filling a certain role (similar father, mother, or child). Sociologists, on the other mitt, tend to define family more in terms of the mode in which members relate to one another than on a strict configuration of status roles. Here, nosotros'll ascertain family unit as a socially recognized group (commonly joined by blood, marriage, cohabitation, or adoption) that forms an emotional connectedness and serves equally an economic unit of order. Sociologists identify different types of families based on how i enters into them. A family unit of orientation refers to the family into which a person is born. A family of procreation describes one that is formed through matrimony. These distinctions have cultural significance related to problems of lineage.

Drawing on ii sociological paradigms, the sociological understanding of what constitutes a family tin be explained by symbolic interactionism every bit well every bit functionalism. These two theories indicate that families are groups in which participants view themselves equally family members and act accordingly. In other words, families are groups in which people come together to class a strong main group connection and maintain emotional ties to ane another over a long period of time. Such families may include groups of close friends or teammates. In addition, the functionalist perspective views families as groups that perform vital roles for society—both internally (for the family itself) and externally (for society as a whole). Families provide for i another'south physical, emotional, and social well-being. Parents intendance for and socialize children. Afterwards in life, adult children often care for elderly parents. While interactionism helps us understand the subjective experience of belonging to a "family," functionalism illuminates the many purposes of families and their roles in the maintenance of a balanced gild (Parsons and Bales 1956).

Challenges Families Face

People in the United States every bit a whole are somewhat divided when it comes to determining what does and what does not constitute a family. In a 2010 survey conducted by professors at the University of Indiana, nigh all participants (99.8 per centum) agreed that a husband, wife, and children found a family. Ninety-ii percentage stated that a husband and a wife without children still plant a family. The numbers drop for less traditional structures: unmarried couples with children (83 percent), single couples without children (39.6 percent), gay male couples with children (64 percent), and gay male person couples without children (33 percent) (Powell et al. 2010). This survey revealed that children tend to be the primal indicator in establishing "family" condition: the percent of individuals who agreed that unmarried couples and gay couples constitute a family nearly doubled when children were added.

The study also revealed that lx per centum of U.S. respondents agreed that if you consider yourself a family, you lot are a family (a concept that reinforces an interactionist perspective) (Powell 2010). The authorities, nevertheless, is non so flexible in its definition of "family." The U.S. Census Bureau defines a family unit as "a grouping of two people or more (i of whom is the householder) related by nascence, marriage, or adoption and residing together" (U.S. Census Bureau 2010). While this structured definition can be used as a means to consistently track family unit-related patterns over several years, it excludes individuals such as cohabitating unmarried heterosexual and homosexual couples. Legality aside, sociologists would fence that the full general concept of family unit is more various and less structured than in years past. Gild has given more leeway to the blueprint of a family making room for what works for its members (Jayson 2010).

Family is, indeed, a subjective concept, but information technology is a fairly objective fact that family (any one's concept of it may be) is very important to people in the Usa. In a 2010 survey by Pew Research Middle in Washington, DC, 76 percent of adults surveyed stated that family is "the most of import" element of their life—just one percent said it was "not important" (Pew Inquiry Center 2010). It is likewise very of import to club. President Ronald Regan notably stated, "The family has always been the cornerstone of American society. Our families nurture, preserve, and pass on to each succeeding generation the values we share and cherish, values that are the foundation of our freedoms" (Lee 2009). While the design of the family may have changed in recent years, the fundamentals of emotional closeness and back up are even so present. Most responders to the Pew survey stated that their family unit today is at to the lowest degree as close (45 percent) or closer (40 per centum) than the family unit with which they grew up (Pew Enquiry Middle).

Think It Over

Co-ordinate to inquiry, what are people's general thoughts on family in the U.s.a.? How exercise they view nontraditional family structures? How do y'all call back these views might modify in 20 years?

Practice

1. Sociologists tend to ascertain family in terms of

1. how a given society sanctions the relationships of people who are connected through blood, marriage, or adoption
2. the connection of bloodlines
3. the status roles that exist in a family unit construction
4. how closely members adhere to social norms

ii. Enquiry suggests that people generally feel that their electric current family is _______ than the family unit they grew up with.

1. less close
2. more close
3. at least as shut
4. none of the higher up

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/alamo-sociology/chapter/reading-what-is-marriage-what-is-a-family/

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