Macro Level Theory

658 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Parenting styles and how they affect children

As a society to better understand our own families and families around the world we pose questions to start the process of research. As research becomes available they either challenge or confirm developed grounded theories. Grounded theories as explained in the textbook, The Marriage and Family Experience: Intimate Relationships In a Changing Society twelfth edition, as inductive observations of specific, concrete details.(Strong, B, & Cohen,2014,39) There is two levels of theories macro-level theories and micro-level theories. This essay will discuss the meaning of each level of theory and theories that fall under the levels scope, compare and contrast the positive and negative reactions and identify my favorite theory and how the information …show more content…

Instead of looking at each member of the family but how each individual affects the family as a working system. Because of this overall idea it explains that each member has tasks and responsibilities to help the family function and survive. Also a key belief is that men develop instrumental traits like being competitive, self confidence and rationality which help them be the breadwinner in the household. As for the women develop expressive traits like emotional nurturing to better suit being the house maker.((Strong, B, & Cohen,2014,43)This idea fits with traditional nuclear family. The positive reactions is that each member is working for the common good of the household which creates strength within the home. Some critique of this theory is that it does not account for other influences of socialization for instance education. Another is that with looking at it as a construct you miss the struggles of the daily life and functions of the members may become unclear. (Strong, B, & Cohen,2014,43) A theory in contrast to the formality of Structural Functionism theory is the Feminist Perspective. The Feminist Perspective focus on women’s family perspective, family diversity and gender-based imbalances of power.(Strong, B, & Cohen,2014,45) In contrast to each other the Structural Functionism identifies the roles each gender plays to make a functioning household as for …show more content…

The reason being is the focus is on the interactions of the family. And that the parent and children relationship is a huge value in this theory. Growing up with divorced parents gave me the insight of different parenting styles. My father was more old school with his interactions with his children which caused feelings of not being loved because my mom was more like Symbolic Interaction theory. I felt at my mom’s house I had value and importance which built a strong bond between our new blended family. Some things that I am going to incorporate with my own family is time available parenting.(Strong, B, &

Show More
Related

  • Applying the Sociological Imagination to Sole-parent Familes

    1346 Words  | 3 Pages

    Families are becoming more diverse and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some people consider families to be strictly biological, while others consider people they love to be their family. Although two-parent families, also known as a nuclear family are the majority, one-parent families are becoming more common in today’s society. A sole-parent is considered to be a parent without a partner or spouse who is the primary care giver of one or more children in a household (Ministry of Social Development, 2010). From the age of 14 onward I was raised by m...

    Read More

  • Family Structure In Post-War Britian

    1218 Words  | 3 Pages

    There appears to be widespread agreement that family and home life have been changing dramatically over the last 40 years or so. According to Talcott Parsons, the change in family structure is due to industrialization. The concept that had emerged is a new version of the domestic ideal that encapsulates changed expectations of family relations and housing conditions. The family life in the postwar period was highly affected. The concept of companionate marriage emerged in the post war era just to build a better life and build a future in which marriage would be the foundation of better life. Equality of sexes came into being after...

    Read More

  • Changes in the American Family

    3385 Words  | 7 Pages

    As we have learned through Skolnick’s book, as well as Rubin’s research, the make up of the family is influenced by many factors. The economy, culture, education, ethnicity/race, and tradition all help to create the modern family. The last few decades have heavily influenced the family structure, and while some try to preserve the past, others embrace the future. Through it all, we find you can have both.

    Read More

  • Canadian Family Case Study

    1621 Words  | 4 Pages

    Families that adopt the Marxism point of view, have as a goal to identify power relations within their homes and the economic relations outside of it (Albanese, 15) . while Marxists focused more on the economic forces acting on families, According to George Herbert Mead, assumed that individuals active agents of social life ( Albanese 15). Symbolic interaction theory focuses more on the relationship or interaction that exist between families. How a parent-child relationship works since that relationship is what shapes the organization of a family. As it was stated before, Canadian families exist in very diverse forms and how their relationship with each other is what concludes what type of family is it. For example, if a marriage couple disagrees frequently, then their relationship decrease over time and mostly end up in divorce. In the other hand, there is the feminist theory which typically seek to determine who is in charge and for whom is going to be done. Feminists believe that gender differences should not exist. Most females with a feminist point of view question themselves about marriage and the roles that are going to play. Over the years, things have changed, and sociological theories have been changing to fit the perspective of every diverse

    Read More

  • Structural Family Theory Case Study

    717 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fred, Wilma, and Rose present an interesting perspective when looking at their family through a Structural Family Systems Theory. When trying to work with the family a social worker will utilize Functional Family Therapy in order to understand their structure and maybe ameliorate some of the family’s problems. Using Rose and her family as the clients it will be able explain what interventions we can use when we learn the constructs of the theory.

    Read More

  • The Family Systems Theory And The Family-Development Theory

    964 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since the 20th century, researchers have sought out solutions to help assist families and the individual components that make up family systems overcome the challenges and schisms that can inhibit individuation and stability. Two theoretical perspectives, the family-systems theory and the family-development theory, were conceived to gain as Balswick & Balswick (2014) noted, gain “a wide-angle view of family life” (p. 22). Though these two theories have merit, one I found to be more advantageous in gaining a better understanding of the family as an actively metastasizing organism, which needs to be approached more adaptively.

    Read More

  • Society Must Redefine the Meaning of Family

    1195 Words  | 3 Pages

    Society seems to have many different opinions when it comes to relationships and families and what is ideal. The ideal family may not exist anymore. We now have in our society families that are complete that do not necessarily contain the traditional material. The traditional family, as society would see it; usually consist of a married, mother and father and usually children. Moms are supposed to stay at home while dads work the forty-hour a week job. However, in our 2003 world, families exist in a lot of non-traditional ways. A lot of families now consist of single parent families, or same sex parents and their children, or even couples that are unmarried but live together. And even now, if a family contains what society sees as traditional as far as having a mom, dad, and kids, other aspects are not traditional anymore. Women now have more opportunity in the workplace than they have ever had, therefore, many moms are career moms and dads are sometimes staying at home. Years ago, these types of families were given labels for being dysfunctional or abnormal, however, this label is not holding up as well as it did years ago. There are many non-traditional families that are raising children in a loving, nurturing home with a substantial amount of quality love. Quality is the key in any relationship between anyone. Society is finding out that it is not the traditional image that makes a loving family, but the quality of a relationship that people give to each other is what really makes a family. In the essay "The Myth of the "Normal" Family", written by Lousie B. Silverstein and Carl F. Auerbach, they make references to the cultural idea of what a "normal" family should be and what i...

    Read More

  • Essay On The Feminist Movement

    867 Words  | 2 Pages

    Men were in control of almost everything a woman did. Women were seen to be second best compared to men, therefore, they were treated as such. Osmond and Thorne (1993) stated that “historically male experts have controlled women’s bodies, denying them the access to birth control and abortion; the large males dominated medical field established alienation conditions for childbearing. Most of the major professions were occupied by men” (p. 613). Feminist leaders also challenged the structural functionalism theory’s concept of the nuclear families. Feminists believe that following the traditional way of having a family would continue to lead to their oppression. Smith and Hamon (2012) stated “limiting families to the traditional nuclear definition restricts women’s roles to a subordinate position and discounts the experiences of women in diverse family forms” (p. 297). Feminists believed that men and women could perform just as well as men on tasks within society, therefore they felt that there should be no division or superior/inferior rank among

    Read More

  • Gender And Gender Inequality In The Workplace

    1452 Words  | 3 Pages

    For example, males are identified as the head of the household and the provider for the family. This concept affects society because women are told that they should be nurtures and should be dedicated to their children. This shows that women were told that they shouldn’t work and should instead focus on being a housewife. This results in the mother and children being dependent on the father. Men are told that they should provide financial support for the family. Also, men are the authority in the household because they discipline their children. Ridgeway says” Gender beliefs are a continual referent for people’s own behavior and sense of identity in the home, and because household tasks themselves carry a gendered connotation, the performance or non-performance of those tasks can be a symbolic gender display for the person “(135).So, gender beliefs effect on how we view gender in the household because it is based on expectations of gender roles. Moreover, gender in household affects household division because women spend more time in the household. For example, since males are the providers they are rarely at home. They are not able to help with household duties. The mother does all the housework in the household. Also .the mother spends her whole time attending to the children and doing chores. Ridgeway says “One way to see the power of gender as an organizing force in the household division of is to examine that extent to which people sex category alone predicts the amount and nature of the household work they do in comparison to their other identities” (139) .Household division the results would show that the women do more household chores than

    Read More

  • Gender And Gender Inequality

    1924 Words  | 4 Pages

    By the 1980s, Marxism, the economics forces define the political and cultural realities in society, mixed with feminism claimed “that gender is not class but a driving force of history.” This created the notion that “when women are subordinate men benefit” and that women had a disadvantage to men in the workforce (Conley 2013). Marxist feminist would called this gender conflict. The nuclear family has gender roles which are “set of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one’s status as a male or female.Gender roles is more general term,but Parson’s sex roles is more of an ambiguous term. Sex roles theory states that men are work oriented, while women are domestic oriented to form the ideal nuclear family. “Sex roles created by society was formed for structuralism functionalism, which is the theoretical tradition claiming that every society has certain structures that exist in order to fulfill some set of necessary functions(2013). Even though functionalist supported this theory in the 1960s, it was flawed. Sex role theory only provided one way of how a family could function. Essentialist would describe Parson’s theory as the social phenomena of the nuclear family based on the biological factor of sex. R.W. Connell described the condition in which men are dominant and privileged and that it is invisible, which is Hegemonic masculinity. Even though hegemonic masculinity is what some theorist impose, it clarifies

    Read More

  • Sociology of Family

    1149 Words  | 3 Pages

    "A family is a small social group of people related by ancestry or affection, who share common values and goals, who may live together in the same dwelling, and who may participate in the bearing and raising of children. They have a physical or emotional connection with each other that is ongoing" (Vissing, 2011) and is the foundation of all societies. They can be formed by a grouping of father-mother-children or even more complicated combination of relatives. In the primary stage of family life in the United States, everyone from every generation lived together in one house. Subsequently, the idea of traditional family evolved and a married couple with children is at present, often called the traditional family. There are many types of families; however, this paper will focus on the traditional family. It will describe how the functionalist perspective, conflict perspective, and the interactionism theory apply to the sociological institution known as a family. It will explain some of the similarities and differences between the sociological theories in regards to families and how they affect the family members.

    Read More

  • Should parents assume equal responsibilities when raising a child?

    1318 Words  | 3 Pages

    For thousands of years until today, the best way to officially be the partner of someone is through marriage. People have practiced marriage for thousands of years. Many cultures see marriage as the best method to celebrate the love of a couple until death tears them apart. “Marriage establishes and maintains family, creates and sustains the ties of kinship, and is the basis of community” (Rowe 2). Marriage is a concept bigger than ones happiness and it is the basic for creating a peaceful home for the family. According to Rowe, “This sense of home requires the dynamic participation of both women and men--the women to mother and the men to father--to fulfill the daily roles of teaching, nurturing and protecting children” ( 2). Parents have an obligation to take care for children, so that when they grow up they are able to become a person who is strong enough to support himself. But there are different opinions whether raising a child should be shared equally between parents. One group thinks that it is essential for a child to grow up with the love and care of both parents. Meanwhile, others believe that child raising should be shared in a way that suits the family. While single parents argue that even without one parent they can give their children the needed love and care.

    Read More

  • The Function of the Nuclear Family

    1571 Words  | 4 Pages

    A criticism is that it focuses on the nuclear family to the exclusion of other family types that can be just as successful. Feminists Dobash & Dobash (????) and Bryson (1992) criticise functionalism for ignoring negative aspects of the nuclear family and the ‘dark side’ - domestic violence, child abuse and mental illness occurring as a consequence of unequal power relationships within the home and how the ‘housewife’ role wa...

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In The Family

    1624 Words  | 4 Pages

    Gender roles are extremely important to the functioning of families. The family is one of the most important institutions. It can be nurturing, empowering, and strong. Some families are still very traditional. The woman or mother of the family stays at home to take care of the children and household duties. The man or father figure goes to work so that he can provide for his family. Many people believe that this is the way that things should be. Gender determines the expectations for the family. This review will explain those expectations and how it affects the family.

    Read More

  • The Family As A Social Institution

    3202 Words  | 7 Pages

    Sociologists look at society from either a macro or micro view and the theories that define their work are based on those perspectives. There are several family theories that we learned about this semester. Briefly, Structural-Functionalism and Conflict Theory are “macro” theories in sociology. Structural-Functionalism sees society as a living machine made up of different parts which work together for the good of society. Individuals, as well as Institutions work together, and the family is the key to the well-functioning machine. Emile Durkheim, considered the Father of Sociology argues social solidarity, where people do the right thing, create harmony and have shared values. According to Durkheim the nuclear family is the only type of institution that can achieve that. Conflict Theory sees society as a pyramid with those at the top having more power and influence than those at the bottom. Males in society have more power than females. There is a power imbalance, which could lead to oppression o...

    Read More

More about Macro Level Theory

Open Document