Family

Adolescence - time in ones life between childhood adolescence

•Agency of socialisation- a group resposible for undertaking socialisation

•Arranged marriage- a marriage in where the family finds a partner for them

•Attitude survey- a social survey that measures views on particular issues

•Bias - being one sided against a group or point of view

•Bigamy- offence of marrying someone else while already married

•Blended (reconstituted) family- one or both of the partners have children from
previous relationships

•Canalisation- parents give children gender appropriate toys and games

•Case study- detailed study of a particular institution or related events, like a school

•Census - a questionare conducted every 10 years in UK to collect information

•Child rearing- bringing up children

•Childhood- time in a persons view life between birth and becoming an adult

•Class deal (working-class women)- ‘deal’ that offers women material rewards
like customer goods in return for working
for a wage

•Closed question- a choice question that requires to choose between a number of

given answers

•Cohabitation- living with a partner outside marriage or civil partnership

•Commune - people which live together, share possessions. Communes may be bias

•Competition (in a variety of contexts)- a struggle between individuals to obtain

something desirable

•Confidentiality- agreement information will be accessed by those with athority only

•Conformity- behaviour that agrees with society’s norms and values

•Conjugal relationships- relationship between a married/cohabitating couple

•Conjugal role - domestic roles roles of married or cohabitating partners

•Consensus - broad agreementon norms or values

•Content analysis - the analysis of documents and images by constructing a set of

categories then counting number of times a theme appears

•Continuity- lack of social change, norms, values remain the same over time

•Conventional family- a traditional nuclear family

•Covert observation- researcher observes/reaserches a group without informing

them

•Crisis of masculinity- males view their masculine identity under threat within
society

•Data- information collected during the research process

•Data analysis - interpretating information of the research, summarising main results

•Data protection- research participants have legal protection and can ask to see data

•Dependent family members - depend on family due to their age/lack of money

•Discrimination- unfair treatment for an example age, gender, ethnicity

•Divorce - legal termination of a marriage

•Domestic division of labour- the division of tasks between men/women in the home

•Double shift (women in marriage)- married women do two shifts as a paid job and
most of the housework/caring for family

•Double standard- a rule of behaviour that is unfairlyapplied to one group and not
another

•Dual career family- a family where two adults have careers

•Dysfunctional families - functions, such as emotional support, is not being carried

out, causing problems like domestic violence/child abuse

•Economic function (of families)- family carries out by providing its members with
financial support, food and shelter

•Economy- a system where goods/service in produced/consumed in a country

•Egalitarian- idea that people are equal

•Empty nest family- mature couple who live together after children have left house

•Empty shell marriage - couple continue to live together despite marriage breaking
down for sake of children

•Ethical considerations- issues, such as confidentiality, sociologists must consider to

conduct morally acceptable research

•Ethnic diversity- range of ethnic groups within society

•Ethnic group- a group who share an identity based on cultural traditions

•Ethnic minority- a group in a particular society that has differnt traditions
than the ethnic majority

•Ethnicity- norms and values which distinguish the members of a social group
from another

•Ethnography- the study of peoples culture

•Expectations - hopes or beleifs of what something should be like

•Expressive role (functions of the family)- the caring, emotional role in the family

•Extended family- group of relatives extending beyond the nuclear family

•Family- a couple based on marriage with or without dependent children

•Family diversity- the different types of families such as nuclear of single parent

•Feminism- wanting equality and power within a society between men and women

•Feminists -sociologist who explores the way gender operates/wants gender equality

•Focus group- group interview that focuses of one specific topic/explores how
people interact within the group

•Functionalism- examines society’s structures in terms of the functions they perform

•Functionalists- all aspects of society are resposible and serve a purpose

•Functionally important roles- the positions in society that provide essential service

•Gender- relates to the socially constructed differences between men and women

•Gender deal (working class women)- deal that offers women emotional/material
rewards for living with a breadwinner
•Gender roles- behaviour expected of people based on their gender

•Glass ceiling (women in employment)- invisable barrier to promotion at work

•Hypothesis- an infromed guess that can be tested and/or proved wrong or evidenced

•Idealisation- nuclear family being the ideal type of family

•Image- a representaion of a social group, for an example in the mass media

•Immigrant- person who has migrated to another country to live/work

•Immigration- process of moving to another country to live/work there

•Income- flow of resources that individuals recieve over a specific period of time

•Informed consent- obtain permission from potential research participants

•Instrumental role (functions of the family)- the breadwinner’s role in the family

•Integrated conjugal roles - roles shared equaly between married/ cohabitating

•Interactionism- perspective that focuses on how people interact on a daily basis

•Intergenerational- between the generations

•Interview- method used to collect data in as study where interviewer asks

questions and the interviewee responds

•Isolation (social and family)- nuclear family has become more separated from
the wider family

•Kibbutz- people who live communally in settlements in Isreal who value equality

•Kin- relatives
•Kinship- links between people based on ties of blood, marriage or adoption

•Life chances - individual’s chance of achieveing positive or negative outcomes as

they progress throughout life

•Life expectancy- the average number of years a person can expect to live

•Lifestyle- way which people live, including leisure and work patterns

•Lone parent family- family consisting of one parent and a child/children

•Longitudinal study- study on same group of people conducted over a period of time

•Male domination (of society)- the excersice of power and control of men over
women within society

•Marriage- the legal union between two people

•Marxism- sociological approach that draws on the ideas of Karl Marx and applies
to modern capitalist societies

•Marxist- ideas from Karl Mark that sociologists have applied to a contemporary
society

•Mass media- forms of communication that reach large audiences

•Matriarch- a woman who holds power and authority

•Matriarchal family- family in which woman has the power and authority

•Middle class- social class made of people who work in maegerial/professional

occupation

•Mixed methods research- use of different methods to generate both qual/quan data
within one project
•Monogamy- the practise of being married to one person at a time

•New man- man who rejects sexist attitudes, e.g sharing domestic tasks/childcare

•News value- media professionals’ ideas about issues seen as topical or important

•Non-participant observation- research method where sociologist observes group

but does not take part in its activities

•Norms- rules that defines appropriate and expected behaviour in social settings

•Nuclear family- family containing father, mother and child/children

•Observation- research method where sociologist observes group/community

•Open question- question that allows respondents to put forward their own answers

•Participant observation- researcher joins a group/takes part in the activities to

study it

•Particularistic standards- children are judged against rules of their prticular family

•Patriarchal family- families where men hold all the power and authority

•Patriarchy- male power, authority and dominance over women

•Pluralism- argues range of views exist within society, no one dominates the other

•Polyandry- type of polygamy where a woman has more than one husband at one
time

•Polygamy- an individual has more that one husband/wife at a time

•Polygyny- type of polygamy where a man has more tha one wife at a time
•Popular press- the daily newspapers that get large readerships

•Population- the particular group under study from where the sample is selected

•Primary data- information that is generated/collected first hand, such as

questionnares, interviews, observation

Primary socialisation- process of early child learing where children get basic skills
needed in later social life

•Principle of stratified diffusion- social changed start at top of social

stratifictaion, spread downwards

•Privatised (nuclear family)- nuclear family that is cut off from the extended family

•Privatised instrumentalism- social relationships centered in the home rather than

work

•Propaganda- information that is used to promote a particular viewpoint

•Qualitative data- information presented as words

•Quality press- newspapers that cover serious news issues, such as politics/business

•Quantitative data- information presented as numbers

•Questionnaire - set of structured questions delivered to respondents

•Quota sample - technique where an exact number of people from categories in

proportion to their numbers in the wider population

•Racial discrimination- peeople are treated differently based on their ethnicity

•Racism- people are treated less favourably due to their ethnicity

•Random sample - each member of the population has a chance of being included
•Reconstituted (or blended) family- one or both partners have a child from previous
relationships

•Reliability- refers to consistancy. If research is repeated a second time it is reliable

•Representative data/sample - reflects the characteristics of the population

•Research- collection of data by methods such as questionnares and interviews

•Respondent- the person from whom information is sought

•Role conflict- the demands of one role clash with those of another

•Roles- the pattern of acceptable behaviour of those who occupy a particular status

•Rural- related to country life

•Sample – subgroup of the population selected to study

•Sampling frame - list of all members of the population where a sample is drawn

•Secondary data- information that already exists/has been previously collected

•Secondary socialisation- begins during later childhood, continues throughout

our adult lives

•Secularisation- process where the influence of religion in a society declines

•Segregated conjugal roles – domestic tasks are shared out between partners in an
unequal way

•Selective use of data- being selective in what you use in the data

• Separate spheres (the role of women) – split between priviate world of home
and public world of work
•Serial monogamy- practice of divorcing, remarring, divorcing, remarrying e.c.t

•Sex (gender) discrimination- treating someone differently due to their gender

•Sex (gender) equality- treating both genders equally

•Sexism- discrimination based on gender

•Snowball sample - one member in researched and they identify the others in the
population

•Social change – an alteration is social structures, attitudes, behaviours, values e.g

•Social class – stratification based on economic factors such a income

•Social cohesion- people in society should have a shared set of values to unite society

•Social construct- a product of society and culture

•Social control (formal and informal)- control over people’s behaviour/ actions
from society or groups

•Social convention- the norms/accepted ways to behave in certain situations

•Social exclusion- being excluded from participation in society’s social, economic,

political and cultrual life

•Social inequality- uneven distribution of resorces or opportunities

•Social mobility- movement up and down the layers of society

•Social network- network of relatives and friends

•Social order - when society is stable and does not have continual distruption
•Social stigma- the shame or disgrace attached to something

•Social stratification- the way society is structured and divided in a hierachy

•Socialisation- people learn the culture and values of the society they were born into

•Socially defined behaviour- behaviour that is defined due to what setting it occured

•Society- group of people who share the same way of life/culture

•Status- refer to social positions/ amount of prestige an individual has/social standing

•Step parent- one who is a social parent for their partners child but is not their
biological parent

•Stereotype- a fixed view of the characteristic of a particular group, e.g women

•Survey- research based on self-administered questionnares or structured interviews

•Symmetrical family-

•Systematic sample-

•Technological change- developments in technology

•Theoretical perspective

•Traditional family roles

•Trend (in relation to data)- the general direction in which statistics moves

•Triangulation (in relation to social research)

•Unrepresentative data/sample- a sample that does not reflect the characteristics

of its population
•Unstructured interview

•Universal standards

•Urban

•Validity

•Value consensus

•Values

•Welfare state

•Work life balance

•Working class

•World view

•Youth culture.