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Lecture notes Family and Households
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AQA sociology Family and Households unit notes
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Family andHousehold
Introduction to Family and Households
Nature vs Nurture – doNotes
we as humans, engage in behaviour that we have not
previously learned from somewhere? All evidence seems to suggest that the
answer to this is no!
It seems that humans have to be taught by other humans
This can be clearly seen by looking at examples of feral children
Feral children are children that has had either no or very limited contact with
other humans from a very young age
If humans had instincts these children would have retained human behaviour
rather than taking on the behaviour of other species around them
The key point here is that human behaviour is socially constructed rather than
biologically determined
The research of Margret Mead;
Mead travelled to Papau New Guinea in the 1930s to study three distinct native
tribes
What she found was that the gender relations and characteristics of these
peoples differed widly from Western gender relations at the time
Mead also found that Gender roles differed significantly between each society:
Among the Arapesh people she found that both men and women were largely
peaceful and displayed a strong sense of nurturing
Among the Mundugomor people Mead found that both men and women were
prone to aggression with a weak sense of nurturing
Among the tchambuli people she found that men were largely passive with
interests in looking good and gossip. Women were much more aggressive, were
unadorned and made most major decisions
Mead’s research suggests that the social roles of men and women are not
biologically determined but are socially constructed
What does this mean?
Humans are socially constructed beings.
We do not rely on instincts for our behaviour.
Humans are products of our environments, we learn everything we know from
those around us.
Socialisation and Social Control
What is socialisation?
As our earlier discussions highlighted, we all learn our behaviour from the
environment and people around us.
Sociologists refer to this process as Socialisation.
,Socialisation is the process by which we learn all the things that are necessary to
be full and accepted members of society, to a point where we ‘internalise’ them.
Socialisation is broken down into two stages – Primary & Secondary Socialisation
Primary Socialisation takes place early in life, and largely occurs within your
immediate family. We learn the very basic skills, norms & language we need to
move out into the wider world.
Secondary Socialisation takes place later in life, through a wide range of social
institutions (peers, education, media etc) as we continue to learn different norms
and values.
What do we learn via socialisation?
In broad terms we learn the culture of our particular society
But what does culture consist of?
A culture consists of a set of values, norms, customs, roles and statuses
Values are general beliefs about what is right and wrong
Also refers to the important standards which are worth maintaining and
achieving in a society or social group
Consider the following examples, these are all good examples of values in British
society:-
Norms and values can changer over time, and change in different societies
Norms = social rules which define the correct and acceptable behaviour to which
people are expected to conform
Norms are specific courses of action derived from values
E.g. the norm of shutting a bathroom door derives from the value of privacy
Customs = norms that have lasted for a long time and have become a part of a
society’s traditions
Roles = the patterns of behaviour which are expected from people in different
positions in society
E.g. the role of a police officer requires a certain type of behaviour
We all fulfil different roles throughout our lives, e.g. student, member of a family,
employee, etc
Sometimes these roles can clash with each other creating ROLE CONFLICT
This is where the successful performance of two or more roles is compromised
Some roles are very influential and can shape the behaviour of a wider group of
people
People in such roles are referred to as ROLE MODELS
Role models can be positive or negative
,People may not always agree which role models are positive or negative
Status = the amount of prestige or social importance a person has in the eyes of
other members of a group or society
Ascribed status = given by birth or family background, e.g. The Queen
Achieved status = earned through individual effort and ability, e.g. Michael Owen
Social control = the term given to various methods used to persuade or force
individuals to conform to the dominant norms and values of a society
Socialisation and social control can be seen as two sides of the same coin
Socialisation should prepare people with the appropriate values and behaviour
required to fit in with the rest of society
However if socialisation fails and people do not fit in with society then social
control is used to try and ensure that they do fit in
Deviance = the failure to conform to the dominant social norms and values
Sanctions = the rewards and punishments by which social control Is achieved
Positive sanctions = rewards of various kinds
Negative sanctions = various types of punishment
We can identify two types of social control
Formal control = official sanctions employed by specific social agencies to
encourage or enforce conformity.
E.g. police, probation service, school staff
Informal control = relies on the force of public or peer opinion to ensure
compliance
E.g. Peers informing a colleague that they have an unpleasant body odour and
may need to wash or use deodorant
TOPIC 1: COUPLES
A household is a person living alone or a group of people living together (sharing
meals, bills, housework). This group may or may not be related to one another.
A group of students are a household but not a family. All families are households
but not all households are families.
A family is a group of people who are related by ‘kinship’ ties: relations of blood,
marriage, or adoption. The family unit is one of the most important social
institutions, which is found in some form in nearly all known societies. It is a
basic unit of social organization.
The conventional or traditional definition of ‘family’ involves a married couple
with one or more children (this is often referred to as the ‘cereal packet’ or
Nuclear family).
The Domestic Division of Labour
, Domestic division of labour = the roles that men and women play in relation to
housework, childcare and paid work
Parsons: instrumental and expressive roles;
Talcott Parsons: Functionalist model of the family- argued that there is a clear
division of labour which is NATURAL (biological differences) and BENEFICIAL to
society
Husband = instrumental role = success at work providing finance (breadwinner)
Wife = Expressive role = primary socialisation of children and caring for the
family (homemaker)
Criticisms
The division of labour is becoming blurred (Young and Willmott)
=Feminists reject the idea that this division is natural (Ann Oakley). They argue
that gender is socially constructed (for who’s benefit?!)
Joint and Segregated conjugal roles;
Elizabeth Bott distinguishes between:-
Segregated conjugal roles = separate roles (instrumental and expressive) and
separate leisure activities
Joint conjugal roles = couples share tasks and leisure activities
Willmott and Young – Symmetrical family;
This is a ‘march of progress’ view – i.e things are gradually improving for all.
There has been a long term trend away from separated conjugal roles.
They argue that the roles of husbands and wives are now much more similar:
Women now go out to work (often part time)
Men now help with housework and childcare
Couples now tend to spend their leisure time together.
1950s: Traditional working class 1970s
families in Bethnal Green East London
Young and Willmott’s (1950s) study in MARCH OF PROGRESS- family life
Bethnal Green in the 1950’s becoming more democratic and equal
suggested that most couples HAD Roles between men and women more
segregated conjugal roles similar:
Men = work and pubs, clubs and sport WOMEN WORK, MEN DOING MORE
Women = housework, childcare and CHILDCARE AND HOUSEWORK,
relaxing with female kin COUPLES SPEND MORE TIME
TOGETHER (PRIVATISED)
Symmetrical families more common
among young couples and the more
affluent
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