TELANGANA MAHILA VISWAVIDYALAYAM

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
PG DIPLOMA IN FAMILY AND MARRIAGE COUNSELLING
PAPER II: MARRIAGE, RELATIONS, AND FAMILY LIFE
ASSIGNMENT

Date of Submission: 30th April, 2024 Marks: 5x4 = 20 Marks

Please write the answers to following questions in about 350-400 words. Each question carries
4 marks

1. Explain about Family Life Cycle with a brief note on marital bonds and its components.

The family life cycle is the process of different development stages or changing processes that
every family experiences. The family may go through different stages of life where they face
stressful life and sometimes periods of joy such as the marriage as well as the arrival of their
first child and like illness of any family member or demise. The family learns to accept the
changing situation as well as grow and prepare themselves for future change. The family learns
to adapt to the different changing situations effectively, especially the two stages of life. Family
Life Cycle: Independence and Coupling (marriage), where an individual learns to develop and
build a new relationship.

The family life cycle stages depend on the effects of marriage and divorce and the births of a
child and deaths on families, as well as changing the situation in the financial condition of a
family-like income and expenses and assets. An individual goes through different stages of life
where they not only grow but experience many changes, so this is necessary to understand the
emotional as well as intellectual changes at a certain stage. The different family life cycle stages
are mentioned here.

· Independence-Career and schooling age

In this stage, a person learns to develop physically and socially as well as emotionally and
financially. People see themselves individually in a family as a member and build external peer
relationships with others.
· Coupling or marriage

This stage of life is very important as a member of a family is connecting with another member
to start a new family process. In this process, both the people share ideas and experiences from
their own cultures. It has been believed that Family Life Cycle: Independence and Coupling
(marriage) are the most efficient stages in the family where a person learns to deal with the
situation.

· Parental stages

In this stage, a person experiences a drastic change as they are the adult members of a family,
now converting to the parental stage where they need to protect their child and develop their
social environment.

· Taking care of adult children.

In these stages, the child becomes an adult,and then establishes new relationships as new in-
laws and with their grandparents, so their child experiences parental stages.

· Retirement and old years.

In this stage, a person becomes a grandparent of their child, establishes emotional support to
the adult children, and experiences a change in financial as well as social status.

Marital Bonds – Marital bonds refers to developing a Secure Attachment in Marriage and the
Behavior of each family member is interrelated.

Components of Marital Bonds:

• Connection and Commitment

• Giving and Intimacy
• Respect and Trust
• Intimacy and sexual faithfulness
• Emotional and ceremonial
• Legal
• Parenting
 2. Discuss the relationship between culture, food and social behaviour

The current global food policy discourse on sustainability and health views healthy diets as key
for preventing malnutrition in all its forms. Individual food choices that result in dietary
patterns are considered important for achieving sustainability targets. Scientists are calling for
dietary transformations, urging diverse, coherent actions from governments and institutions.

From a policy perspective, orchestrating dietary change requires considerable effort. While
large dietary transformations have happened, they have occurred alongside dramatic shifts in
livelihood, food production, and distribution. In Latin America, for example, rapid economic
development that led to changes in urbanization, livelihoods, and food systems was
accompanied by the “nutrition transition” (ie, significant shift from plant-based diets to diets
with a higher proportion of energy from animal-source foods, more vegetable oils and fats, and
more added sugars). More often, dietary change has been slower, more subtle, and dependent
on sociocultural food practices.

Cultural Food Practices

Cultural food practices refer to material and ideational (cognitive) elements that give rise to
specific dietary patterns within a geographic region or social group. Material elements include
food production systems that grow, transport, and distribute food; financial resources to acquire
food; and meal preparation (acquisition, cooking, storage) and eating location. Ideational
aspects include cuisine, “rules” for meals, the ritualistic uses of foods, prestige and status
attributed to foods, and social organization (roles, status) around food production, preparation,
and consumption. In this article, we focus on ideational aspects of culture as an entry point to
shifting norms on how we grow, procure, and prepare our foods.

Food practices are learned mainly through transmission from parents to children. The structure
and timing of meals, where food can be consumed (at table, with others, etc), and how to eat
(eg, food manners, eating pleasure) are learned from social groups (eg, families, schools, and
peers). The learning process is both explicit, such as verbal communication about what to eat
and exposure to information, and implicit, such as in daily routines structured for children and
in modeling of food behaviour. Cuisine (food combinations, flavors, and seasonings) is a major
influence in food acceptance and helps shape food preferences among children. Experiences
that shape learning also transmit information about values and attitudes for food and eating.
This transmission is partly responsible for the relative stability of food practices over time.
Cultural food practices change in the process of acculturation when immigrants are exposed to
new foods and to different culinary and food acquisition practices.

Personal System of Food Choice

The personal food system is important in understanding the many factors that influence food
choice at the individual level and the role of culture in driving those choices. Food choice is
about why people eat the foods they do, and decisions about food are the outcome of processes
that are complex, influenced by biological, psychological, economic, social, cultural, physical,
and political factors. Food choice behaviors are connected to social and economic expression
of identities, preferences, and cultural meanings and are an important determinant of nutritional
status and health.

Decisions about individual food choice involve multiple behaviors including acquiring,
preparing, storing, giving away, serving, eating, and cleaning up. These complex decisions
involve many considerations about what to eat and when, where, and with whom to engage in
food behavior. Decisions are dynamic in both historical time and within an individual’s life
course in both short- and long-term time frames.

There are 3 dominant perspectives for analyzing food choice. The rationalist perspective
assumes that individuals make decisions to maximize benefits and minimize costs. The
structuralist perspective assumes that social institutions and environmental factors determine
(ie, enhance or constrain) decisions of individuals. The constructionist perspective assumes that
in the process of decision-making, individuals experience, define, interpret, negotiate, manage,
and symbolize the world around them. In this section, we use a structuralist perspective to
understand the determinants of individual food choice and a constructionist perspective to
understand the processes through which food choice occurs.
 3. Elaborate on problems of women and highlight the preventive measures

In the ancient Indian society women were adored and worshiped as goddesses. However in the
middle age, the status of women got down to a great extent. Women are considered in the
society only to perform duties like bring up children, caring every family member, and other
household activities. There is old and traditional faith of people coming out for years that men
are for thy field whereas women are only for the home. Now-a-days, women are breaking all
the barriers of social issues and problems against them in the society.

Issues and Problems faced by Women in India

There are various issues and problems which women generally face in the society in India.
Some of the problems are mentioned and described below:

1. Selective abortion and female infanticide

It is the most common practice for years in India in which abortion of female fetus is performed
in the womb of mother after the fetal sex determination and sex selective abortion by the
medical professionals.

2. Sexual harassment

It is the form of sexual exploitation of a girl child at home, streets, public places, transports,
offices, etc by the family members, neighbors, friends or relatives.

3. Dowry and Bride burning

It is another problem generally faced by women of low or middle class family during or after
the marriage. Parents of boys demand a lot of money from the bride’s family to be rich in one
time.

4. Disparity in education

The level of women education is less than men still in the modern age. Female illiteracy id
higher in the rural areas. Where over 63% or more women remain unlettered.

5. Domestic violence

It is like endemic and widespread disease affects almost 70% of Indian women according to
the women and child development official. It is performed by the husband, relative or other
family member.
6. Child Marriages

Early marriage of the girls by their parents in order to be escaped from dowry. It is highly
practiced in the rural India.

7. Inadequate Nutrition

Inadequate nutrition in the childhood affects women in their later life especially women
belonging to the lower middle class and poor families.

8. Low status in the family

It is the abuse or violence against women.

9. Women are considered as inferior to men

So they are not allowed to join military services.

10. Status of widows

Widows are considered as worthless in the Indian society. They are treated poorly and forced
to wear white clothes.

Preventive measures:

There are many constitutional provisions and Acts to protect the rights of the women and their
safety. Some of them are as follows: The United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 In 1970s the global feminist movement started changing
the world. Important steps towards the realization of women’ s and girls’ rights were made at”
the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo in 1994.
Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, and the so-called Beijing +5
conference (five-year review of the Beijing conference) in New York in 2000. The United
Nations recognised that women and girls also have human rights in early 1990s. The United
Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW), 1980 ensures that all women have the right to equal opportunities in political and
public life, including the right to vote, education, health:’ care and Employment. The United
Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (DEVAW), 1993
recognizes violence against women as an obstacle to equality, development, and peace.
 4. Write about the concept of Population Control. Discuss about Family Planning and
Family Welfare

Concept of Population Control: Population control is the methodology or the practice used to
control and maintain the type, location and number of people that inhabit the earth. Quality and
status of life have undergone a drastic change over a century. One of the impacts of advanced
technology on the economy is reduced mortality rate and increased the birth rate. This has led
to one of the most dangerous problems crippling the world today viz. population explosion.

Family Planning: Family planning means planning by individual or couples to have only the
children they want, when they want them, this is responsible parenthood. Family welfare
includes not only planning of birth, but the welfare of whole family by means of total family
health care. Family planning emphasizes the fact that birth control is a scientific method by
which a couple can control the size of family. The birth of a child is not the matter of fate but
a matter under human control. India was the first country in the world to have launched a
National Programme for Family Planning in 1952 Over the decades, the programme has
undergone transformation in terms of policy and actual programme implementation and
currently being repositioned to not only achieve population stabilization goals but also promote
reproductive health and reduce maternal, infant & child mortality and morbidity.

Family Welfare: It includes Family planning information, counselling and services to women
for healthy reproduction. Education about safe delivery and post-delivery of the mother and
the baby and the treatment of women before pregnancy. Some of the programmes are: Mission
Parivar Vikas (2017) has been launched in 146 high fertility Districts of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh,
Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan & Jharkhand, with an aim to ensure
availability of contraceptive products to the clients at all the levels of Health Systems.
Providing more choices through newly introduced contraceptives : Injectable Contraceptive
MPA (Antara Programme) and Centchroman (Centchroman is a birth control pill. It acts by
preventing the implantation of the fertilized ovum to the womb (uterus). Emphasis on Spacing
methods like IUCD. Revitalizing Postpartum Family Planning including Postpartum
intrauterine contraceptive devices (PPIUCD) in order to capitalise on the opportunity provided
by increased institutional deliveries. Appointment of counsellors at high institutional delivery
facilities is a key activity.
 5. Write in detail about major steps in social research along with the importance of
research

Steps in Research

• Identification and selection of a research problem

• Review of Literature

• Preliminary review prior to the problem selection, systematic review after selection, notes
taking.

• Formulation of the selected Problem

• Definition of the problem, conceptual mode, delimitation of the study,

• Formulation of the objectives and hypothesis

• Operationalization of Concepts

• Identifying the variables of the study

• Deciding the sample size and method

• Construction of tools of data collection

• Data Collection (PILOT STUDY BEFORE ACTUAL RESEARCH)

• Processing of the data- editing, coding, tabulation, construction of tables and charts

• Analysis of data: Statistical treatment, testing hypothesis, interpretation of findings

• Report Writing

Importance of research

• Extends knowledge of social life and environment

• Brings to light information that might never be discovered fully
• Establishes generalizations and general laws and contributes to theory building in
various fields of knowledge
• Verifies and tests existing facts and theory and these help in improving knowledge and
ability
• General laws developed through research may enable to make reliable predictions of
events yet to happen