Sociology 352: Sociology of the Family

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Sociology 352 Sociology of the Family

• Contact Information
• Procedural matters
• Requirements
• Materials
• Grading Policy
• Why study family?

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Contact Information

• Professor
• Becky Pettit
• Savery 206J
• 616-1173
• bpettit_at_u.washington.edu
• Office Hours Wednesday 300-500
• Teaching Assistants
• Jenni Holsinger
• Virginia Rutter
• Course Webpage
• http//www.soc.washington.edu/courses/classpage.as
  p?cid856

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Procedural Matters (1)

• Requirements
• Participation in discussion section, periodic
  quizzes, and short assignments (10)
• Two mid-term exams (15 each)
• Review essay (20)
• Op-ed essay (10)
• Final exam (30)

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Procedural Matters (2)

• Materials
• Coontz, Stephanie. The Way We Never Were.
• Cherlin, Andrew. Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage.
• Furstenberg, Frank F. and Andrew Cherlin.
  Divided Families.
• Sociology 352 Reader. Available at the
  Communications copy center and on-line at
  http//www.lib.washington.edu

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Procedural Matters (3)

• Grading Policy
• 93-100 A 4.0
• 90-92 A- 3.7
• 88-89 B 3.3
• 83-87 B 3.0
• 80-82 B- 2.7
• 78-79 C 2.3
• 73-77 C 2.0
• 70-72 C- 1.7
• 60-69 D 1.0
• lt60 F 0.0

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Procedural Matters (4)

• Sections will meet once a week
• 7218 AA Tue 1030-1120 SAV 209
• 7219 AB Tue 1030-1120 SAV 146 (This week Thurs)
• 7220 AC Tue 1230-120 SAV 151
• 7221 AD Tue 1230-120 RAI 116 (This week Thurs)
• 7222 AE Wed 930-1020 SAV 209
• 7223 AF Wed 930-1020 BLM 203
• 7224 AG Wed 1230-120 SMI 311
• 7225 AH Wed 1230-120 BLM 212
• Late Paper Policy
• Plagiarism

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• Who belongs in the family?
• What does the family do?
• What is a traditional family?
• Where and when does/did a traditional family
  exist?

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Origin of the term family

• Romans
• familia meant household property the fields,
  house, money, and slaves famulus means servant
• Greeks
• oikos is translated as family, but it meant
  property or domicile oikos is, in fact, the
  greek root for the words economy or economic
• Arabia (at the time of Mohammed)
• nikah was the word for marriage, which literally
  meant sexual intercourse. In the Koran it was
  also used to mean a contract. Marriage thus was
  conceived of as a contract for sexual intercourse
• medieval Europe, peasants who lived on feudal
  estates were considered part of the lords
  family and he was called their father (pater)

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Sociological Methods

• Large-scale surveys
• Systematic observation of the ethnographer
• Historical methods

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Sociological Theory

• Functionalist
• Documented roles, relations, and practices of
  particular societies and then explained how these
  systems were able to maintain their societies
  existences
• Conflict
• Focuses on inequality, power, and social exchange
• Exchange
• Focuses on costs/benefits of family members
  behaviors
• Symbolic interactionist
• Interpretation of symbols
• Feminist
• Focus on domination of women by men central
  concept is gender defined as the social and
  cultural characteristics that distinguish men and
  women in a society