Cambridge International AS and A Level Sociology Coursebook
These thorough A grade notes examine diversity in family forms according to class, ethnicity, religion, family size, marital status, age and family life cycle. They are beautifully presented and go into lots of details, using presenting the views of various sociologists. I really hope they're of h...
Structuralist perspective to studying human behaviour.
Topic 1.Perspectives in Sociology notes.Zimsec A level sociology
CIE A-Level Sociology: Religion, Education and Media
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Sociology
Unit 1 - The Family
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Diversity in family forms according to class, ethnicity, religion, family size,
marital status, age and family life cycle.
The cereal packet image of the family.
Leach calls the image of the happily married couple – a male breadwinner and a female housewife
with two children – the ‘cereal packet image’ of the family. This image remains prominent in
advertising.
Recent research suggests, however, that contemporary societies are characterized by a
plurality of household and family types, so this idea of a ‘typical’ family is misleading.
Family Diversity – Changing Family Patterns:
Official Social Trends clearly show that the variety of family types have increased in Britain
since the mid-20th century.
Robert and Rhona Rapoport attack this idea of a typical Family by pointing out that for
instance the popular image of a nuclear family consisting of a married couples with children in
which there was a single breadwinner only constituted 20% of families in Britain in 1978.
Data from the Office for National Statistics, London shows that since the 1960s there has been
a steady decline in the proportion of households consisting of married couples with dependent
children (nuclear families) from 38% in 1961 to just 21% in 2010. There has been a
corresponding increase in the proportion of single-person households in the same period, rising
from 12% in 1961 to 29% in 2010.
There’s also been an increase in reconstituted families. In 2001-2, 8% of all households were
reconstituted families.
Weeks, Donovan et al (1999) found that there has been an increase in the number of gay or
lesbian households since the 1980s. This is due to changes in attitudes and legislation.
There’s also been an increase in the number of people cohabiting without marrying – it’s
estimated that this will reach 3 million couples by 2020.
There is a strong body of evidence which suggests that are a variety of family types to be found
today and that it is this DIVERSITY which stands out when analysing the modern family structure.
Robert and Rhona Rapoport identified 5 types of family diversity in Britain…
Organizational Diversity 1. Organizational Diversity means there are variations
in family structures, in household type, kindship
network, and differences in the division of labour
within the home. For instance, there are differences in
between conventional families, one-parent families and
dual-worker families, in which the husband and the wife
both work.
Cultural Diversity 2. Cultural Diversity refers to differences/ the diversity
that arises in the lifestyles of families as a result of
different ethnic and religious origins. For instance, there
are differences between families of Asian, West Indian
and Cypriot origin.
Class Diversity 3. Class Diversity refers do differences between middle
class and working classes in terms of relationships
between adults and the way in which children are
socialised. For instance, some believe that middle class
parents are more child centred.
Life-Course Diversity 4. Life - Course Diversity refers to diversity caused by
the different stages in the family life cycle which
generate different patterns of structures. For instance,
family structure and lifestyle tends to be different for
newly-weds without children and those with children.
Cohort Diversity 5. Cohort Diversity refers to historical periods the
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