The document provides an overview of sociology as a science and discusses various sociological perspectives on the family, including functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. It also outlines different research methods used in family studies, such as surveys, experiments, and content analysis, and covers macro-level topics like gender roles and micro-level issues like conflict resolution. The document serves as supplemental material for a textbook on sociological perspectives of families.

1. Designed by Karen Saucier Lundy to supplement the textbook Families
in Context: Sociological Perspectives, by Gene H. Starbuck and Karen
Saucier Lundy. For publication information about the text:
http://www.paradigmpublishers.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID
=409768

2. What Is Sociology?
 Sociology as science
▪ Objectivity
▪ Replication
▪ Testability CWright Mills
▪ Precision of definition and measurement
▪ Positivist approach

4. Family Images in the Media

5. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/fashion/23THISLI
FE.html?pagewanted=all
“Modern Family” has been a successful family
‘mockumentary’ which has experienced surging
viewership and multiple Emmys, including
outstanding comedy series. In a rare concurrence, the
darling of the critics is one of the highest
rated comedies on television.This unusual success for
a family comedy raises questions:What aspects of
contemporary life has it tapped into?What does
“Modern Family” say about modern families?

6. How do you
define sociology?
Based on what you have learned from this
book or elsewhere, make up a definition of
“sociology.”
•What do sociologists study?
•What methods do they use to gather their
information?
•How do you expect a college-level social
science course about the family to
be different from more popular
sources of information such as
television talk shows?

7. 1. Because these social influences are real.They
are complex and they do affect us in many
different ways.
2.To be human is to be social.The social is like
the air we breathe. It is all around us. It goes
largely unquestioned because it feels natural to
us.
3. Because there is in the American culture, an
anti-social bias, that is, a rejection of sociological
explanations. Individualism prevails as cultural
value

8. 4.To not understand the significance of social
processes is to live one’s life blind.
5.To understand the different layers of social
determination also helps us understand that systems,
institutions and processes are not neutral.
6.The extension of this is that in order to be a
competent player, wouldn’t you want to see the entire
game and understand the entire set of rules? And
wouldn’t it be interesting to be able to tell, when you
are watching the news, whether you are being told
the complete story, or when there is more that is not
told to you?

9.  Sociology as humanistic studies
▪ Post-positivist approach
▪ Value aware
 Other fields in family studies
▪ Psychology
▪ Anthropology
▪ Human development
▪ Political science

11. Methods of Family Research
 Controlled experiments
 Survey research
 Field research
 Unobtrusive research
▪ Analysis of existing statistics
▪ Content analysis
 Program evaluation
 Searching for regularities

12. Macro-SociologicalAnalysis
 Functionalism, family functions
▪ Regulation of reproduction
▪ Socialization
▪ Status location and sense of belonging
▪ Economic cooperation
 Critique of functionalism
 The conflict paradigm
▪ Economic determinism
▪ Praxis

14.  Feminist thought
▪ Centrality of gender
▪ Gynocentric
▪ Vulnerability and oppression
▪ Praxis
▪ Distrust of objective science
 Critique of the conflict paradigm and feminist thought
 Ecological evolutionary theory
▪ Modes of production
▪ Technology
▪ Comparison of macro theories

15. Microsociological Perspectives
 Symbolic interactionism
 Critique of symbolic interactionism
Other Family Studies Perspectives
 Social exchange theory
 The developmental perspective
 Family systems theory

16. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR-
qQcNT_fY
Stages of a family’s life in song.

17. Micro-Macro Synthesis:The Scripting Model
 Societal scripts
 Personal/individual scripts
 Scenes
 Mutual scripts

18. Think of spouse as best friend
Like their spouse as a person
Think of marriage as long term commitment
Believe marriage is sacred
Agree with their spouse on goals.
Believe their spouse has grown more interesting
over the years.
Strongly want the marriage to succeed.
Laugh together.
Lauer and Lauer (1992). “Made to Last.”

19. “A good relationship has a pattern like a
dance and is built on some of the same
rules.”
Ann Morrow Lindbergh

21. Which research method might be most useful
in addressing the each question below. How
would this research be conducted?
 How much physical abuse is occurring among
dating couples on campus? Nationally?
 What impression of men is given by conversations
and activities at all-women bridal showers?What
impression of women is given by conversation and
activities at bachelor parties?

22. Of conflict theory, functionalism, and
symbolic interactionism, which provides a
better explanation for gender-role
differences?

23. How do married couples usually resolve
disagreements about spending money?
Do students whose parents are divorced have
the same kind of college experience as
students whose parents never divorced?
Do “abstinence only” sex education programs
reduce unwanted pregnancy?

24. The assumption of objectivity in science
implies that
 A. Every scientific study will reveal unchanging
truth.
 B. Truth is whatever people think it is.
 C. Scientists can prove whether or not God
exists.
 D. There is a truth to be discovered.
 E. Self-reflection is the route to discovering
truth.

25. “Should people cohabit
before marriage?”