Flashcards · 9690 · AS Topic 1

Unit 1 – Introducing Sociology (AS Level) flashcards

31 cards on AS Topic 1, subtopics 3.1.1.1 to 3.1.3. Pick a subtopic or study them all.

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3.1.1.1 Families, marriage and kinship

Vertically vs horizontally extended families: Vertically extended: several generations, such as grandparents, parents and children. Horizontally extended: relatives of the same generation, such as brothers and their wives, living or working together.
Name three alternatives to families in the specification: Communes, living alone, and foster care or children's homes.
What are Therborn's types of family system?: Therborn grouped the world's families into a few major family systems linked to region and religion (e.g. European, West Asian/North African, South Asian, East Asian, Sub-Saharan African), which differ in patriarchy, marriage and sexuality.
Matriarchal vs patriarchal families: In a matriarchal family, women (often the mother) hold authority and descent may pass through the female line. In a patriarchal family, men hold authority.
Arranged vs love marriage: In an arranged marriage, families play the main part in choosing the partner. In a love marriage, the couple choose each other on the basis of romantic attraction. Monogamy is marriage to one partner at a time.

3.1.1.2 Perspectives on families and the relationship between families and society

How does functionalism see the family's relationship to society?: The family performs essential functions, and the nuclear family "fits" modern industrial society: Parsons argued it is geographically mobile and specialises in primary socialisation and stabilising adult personalities.
What did Engels argue about the family?: A Marxist view: the monogamous nuclear family developed with private property, so men could pass wealth to their legitimate heirs; the family serves capitalism as an agent of social control.
How do Marxists see families as agents of social control?: Families pass on ruling-class ideology, teach obedience to authority and act as units of consumption, so they help keep capitalism stable.
What did Oakley argue about the family?: A feminist view: gender roles are socially constructed, and the conventional family socialises women into a housewife role that keeps them unequal to men.
Liberal vs radical vs Marxist feminist views of the family: Liberal: gradual progress towards equality is possible. Radical: the family is a key site of patriarchy and male power. Marxist: women's unpaid labour in the family benefits capitalism.

3.1.1.3 Social change and changing families

Name the demographic changes in the specification: Family size, birth and death rates, infant and child mortality, internal and international migration, and ageing populations.
What is the pivot (sandwich) generation?: People, often in middle age, who care for both their own children and their ageing parents.
Living apart together vs beanpole family: Living apart together: a committed couple who keep separate homes. Beanpole family: several generations alive at once with few members in each.
What is personal life (Smart)?: An approach that studies the relationships people themselves find meaningful, such as friends as family or pets as family members, rather than starting from a fixed definition of the family.
What did Stacey argue about family diversity?: Women have been the main agents of change in family life, creating new, more diverse "postmodern" family forms such as families stretched across divorce and remarriage.
What are transnational families?: Families whose members live in different countries but keep close ties, often linked to diasporas and migration.

3.1.1.4 Gender, age and the experience of family life

Instrumental vs expressive roles: The instrumental (male "breadwinner") role is earning income. The expressive (female) role is caring and giving emotional support. Parsons saw them as natural; feminists see them as socially constructed and unequal.
What is the triple shift?: Women doing paid work, domestic work and emotional work.
How might power and decision-making be unequal in families?: Men may control money and major decisions, and violence against women and children is an extreme form of male power in families.
What is child-centredness?: Family life organised around children's needs and interests, with more time and money spent on fewer children.
What are boomerang families?: Families in which adult children return to live with their parents, e.g. because of housing costs or after study.
How do the status and roles of older people vary?: In some societies older people have high status as sources of wisdom and authority; in others they are marginalised. Grandparents often provide childcare and support.

3.1.3 Research methods and theory (Section B – Research methods)

Positivist vs interpretivist approaches: Positivist: objective, quantitative, reliable data to find causal patterns, modelled on natural science. Interpretivist: verstehen, understanding meanings through qualitative, valid data.
Primary vs secondary data: Primary data are collected by the researcher. Secondary data already exist: qualitative (diaries, letters, personal documents) or quantitative (official statistics).
Formal (structured) vs informal (unstructured) interviews: Structured: set questions in a set order, comparable and reliable but subject to interviewer effect. Unstructured: a flexible conversation, valid and detailed but slow and hard to repeat.
Participant observation: strength and weakness: Strength: very valid, as behaviour is seen in its natural setting. Weakness: cannot be replicated, uses small samples, and the researcher may "go native"; covert work raises consent issues.
Multistage vs stratified random vs quota sampling: Multistage: sampling in stages, e.g. regions, then schools, then pupils. Stratified random: random selection within groups in proportion to the population. Quota: the researcher fills set numbers in each category.
What is the Hawthorne effect?: People change their behaviour because they know they are being studied, reducing validity.
Causation vs correlation: Correlation: two variables change together. Causation: one variable causes the other. A correlation alone does not prove cause.
What does PET stand for when evaluating a method?: Practical, Ethical and Theoretical issues; the theoretical ones include reliability, validity and representativeness.
Name the ethical issues in the specification: Informed consent, confidentiality, anonymity and participant wellbeing.