Lisa recently posted about a woman who was denied health insurance due to having a C-section in the past; the health care plan would cover her only if she agreed to be sterilized. Mackenzie I.-T. sent in this clip from Anderson Cooper 360 about a woman who was dropped by her insurance company after she was raped, due to her doctors putting her on antibiotics […]
The Houston Chronicle recenly reported on the efforts of social scientists to understand whether the death penalty deters potential murderers. According to the article, research on the issue has historically produced mixed results: In 1967, sociologist Thorsten Sellin found no significant impact when he studied murder rates in adjacent states with differing […]
Questions about Meb Keflezighi's 'American' identity after winning the New York City Marathon is the latest example of anti-immigrant and anti-minority backlash among many White Americans.
Questions about Meb Keflezighi's 'American' identity after winning the New York City Marathon is the latest example of anti-immigrant and anti-minority backlash among many White Americans.
Peter Hessler, at the New Yorker, discusses the practice of outsourcing art to China. According to Hessler, Chinese people, mostly from the countryside, are trained to paint copies of photographs or paintings en masse and those paintings are sold to tourists elsewhere in the world. Painters pose in their workspace: Paintings to be sold as souvenirs somewhere […]
Welcome back guest blogger, Adina Nack. Adina is an associate professor of Sociology at California Lutheran University specializing in medical sociology, gender inequality and sexual health. You can visit her online here. We are pleased to feature a post she wrote for us reflecting on recent FDA decisions and a video released by the Oral Cancer Foundation. […]
Notes from North of 49ºN Toronto Mayor David Miller recently unveiled the opening of city datasets on the OpenTO website, ushering in the city’s new era of Gov 2.0. In less than an hour, the above map of the city’s wards was generated from the shapefiles. According to Now Magazine:: “Basically, OpenTO amounts to the city offering [...] […]
Cate M. emailed us about the promo for the movie “The Killer Inside Me,” saying, The level of violence is at NSFW levels and quite possibly one of the most ‘trigger warning’ vids I’ve ever seen used to promote a non-horror film. We get a lot of submissions about sexualized violence toward women, so I thought, “well, ok, we […]
The D.C. Council’s Committee on Health released a report after surveying D.C. high school students about sex education (discovered via Feministing). One of their questions was about the source of sexual health information. The pie chart below shows that students name, in order, their parents or guardians, health workers, teachers, friends, and boyfriends o […]
Kay, a student at a University in Munich, sent along an invitation for a Corps Isaria fraternity, or or “Burschenschafts,” party. The cover for the invitation reads “Isarias Gute Kinderstube” which, she explains, “translates literally to good nursery and means something like being well raised, knowing how to behave.” When […]
The Learning Objectives for Chapter 8 of the textbook
Define a social institution and give several examples.
Explain why the family is a social institution and what purposes it serves for society.
Define the term “cultural universal” and explain why marriage is one.
Describe the current practice of marriage, and how it has changed over time. Relate the practice of marriage in earlier times to other aspects of that time period.
Describe how marriage is lived and experienced in cultures other than the U.S.
List and explain the benefits of marriage. For each benefit, how is it affected by gender? by race/ethnicity? by social class?
Explain the difference between marital stability and marital quality.
Describe the factors that contribute to marital stability. How are they affected by social class, by race/ethnicity, by gender.
Describe the factors that contribute to marital quality. How are they affected by social class, by race/ethnicity, by gender.
Following are Learning Objectives for Chapter 6 on Race and Ethnicity
In what ways is the United States becoming increasingly diverse?
What are current trends in immigration to the United States?
What is the difference in the terms race, ethnicity, and minority group?
Be able to discuss the social construction of race and ethnicity
Be able to explain the difference between racial prejudice, racial discrimination, and racism?
About what proportion of the U.S. population is Hispanic? African-American? Asian? Native American? Is the proportion of each group growing or shrinking?
What are some of the salient characteristics of each of these groups, according to recent data and research?
How does race and ethnicity influence family relationships?
Be able to explain the “doll research” seen in the video “A Girl Like Me”
Use your old quizzes to improve your comprehension. Check the textbook or slides for each question you got wrong – then figure out whether you had a problem understanding the material to begin with, or whether you had a problem remembering.
Study with another person. Ask each other the Study Guide questions to see if you can produce an answer without looking at the book. Then look up the answer to add in anything you missed.
Vocabulary is more than memory
memory: knowing the definition
comprehension: being able to give an example or know related terms
application: being able to recognize which term applies to a situation, or to explain a particular situation using the ideas in the concept
analysis: being able to describe the specific differences and similarities highlighted by the terms
analysis: finding the pattern in a situation by examining its parts and their relationships.
[The image is Memory, from the bronze door at the main entrance to the Library of Congress - Thomas Jefferson Building. It was done in 1896 by Olin Warner.]
For each narrative, you will have at least 3 choices of questions
At least one of the choices will be very similar to one of the study questions
Your narrative answers need to be written in complete sentences and paragraphs
If your answer is just a few words or a sentence, you probably have not grasped the question
or answered it well.
Exam 1 Study Questions
Describe three specific ways that have families have changed over time, including the time frame in which the change occurred and the general location (e.g., Medieval Europe, Japan in the 20th century)
Compare and contrast the ways that families from different parts of the world have carried out three of the universal functions of the family.
Compare and contrast the private life in families today with that of a specific time in the past.
Describe the ways in which families fulfilled the role of public social institution in the past.
Describe three specific political, social, economic, or cultural forces which have contributed to changes in family life.
Describe three ways that inequality affected family life in the past, making sure to state which culture you are describing (e.g., colonial America)
Describe two common myths about families in the “good old days?”What are the realities about those myths?
Describe two methods and two sources of data that sociologists use to research families from a historical perspective.
Describe in depth the changes in family life at two of the historical transition points of Society Type (use Table 3.1 and the table handed out in class)
Describe four of the universal functions of the family?
What are the various marriage structures around the world?
What are the different patterns of power and authority found in marriage?
What are the different patterns of kinship and residence found around the world?
Explain Modernization Theory, and how the process of modernization affected family life.
What is the U.S. Census Bureau’s definition of “family?” How does this definition differ from the author’s definition? Why does it matter?
Explain what is meant by the “sociological imagination” and how it differs from our common sense approach to looking at the world.
What is meant by the empirical approach?
What is a theory and how do social theories help us understand families?
Name two major theoretical perspectives, and be able to define them.
What are the three competing ideological perspectives identified by the author?
What are the four themes of this textbook? Be able to explain each one, and give an example.
Describe the three social shifts that have affected the way people go about choosing a life partner, and the impact that John Van Epp says those changes have had on the process.
Name the five bonding dynamics presented by John Van Epp, put them in the same order that he does, and explain the principle that defines the “Safe Zone” for building loving relationships.
Name and describe the three unhealthy patterns that get people into unhappy relationships and bad break-ups over and over again, according to John Van Epp.
Name and describe the traits or characteristics that describe a bad choice for a life-long partner, what John Van Epp calls a “jerk” or “jerkette.”
After reading this chapter, you should understand the following:
How have families changed over time?
What are the various ways that families have carried out their functions in the past?
What was the private life of the family like in the past?
What were the functions of the family as a public social institution in the past?
What are the political, social, economic, and cultural forces that have contributed to changes in family life?
How did inequality affect family life in the past?
What are the most common myths about families in the “good old days?”
What are the realities about those myths?
How can families be researched from a historical perspective?
How can we uncover the impact of historical, political, cultural, and social forces from times past?
How has the progression of society and of economic systems affected family life?
These are the Learning Objectives defined by Karen Seccombe, your textbooks author. Note that they are quite similar to the areas you studied in groups – the summaries of which are posted on the blog.
After reading this chapter, you should understand the following:
1. How has the nature and location of “work” changed?
2. What is the history of child labor?
3. What are the trends in women’s labor force participation?
4. What are recent trends in employment, unemployment, and underemployment?
5. What is meant by the “work-family interface?”
6. How is household labor defined and measured?
7. What are the primary sources of child care in the United States today?
What are current trends in childrearing found in both industrial and nonindustrial societies?
What similarities and differences do you see between industrial and nonindustrial socieities?
What is meant by socialization and what are the primary agents of socialization?
What are the most prominent theories in child development and socialization?
Be able to compare and contrast the theories with each other?
What are the most common parenting styles?
Be able to identify the characteristics of children raised by particular parenting styles.
What are the similarities and differences between mothering and fathering?
After studying Chapter 6, you should understand the following:
In what ways is the United States becoming increasingly diverse?
What are current trends in immigration to the United States?
What is the difference in the terms race, ethnicity, and minority group?
What is racial prejudice, racial discrimination, and racism?
About what proportion of the U.S. population is Hispanic? African-American? Asian? Native American? Is the proportion of each group growing or shrinking?
What are some of the salient characteristics of each of these groups, according to recent data and research?
How does race and ethnicity influence family relationships?
(From class discussion) What is meant by privilege, and what are some examples?