Option 1 - Families and Culture

The family is the key agency of primary socialisation and as such is central to our understanding of how culture is transmitted between the generations. Families set norms and values and as such are central to our understanding of how culture is transmitted between the generations.

Specification content: Defining family, families and households, generation, kinship and
family structures
Definitions: Key concepts and processes of family analysis such as: nuclear families, extended families, households,
singlehood, beanpole family, reconstituted family, family diversity and new family forms as they emerge
Families in Contemporary Society in relation to gender, ethnicity and class
Debates:
Debates, Patterns and Trends with reference to social profile such as:
changing marriage rates, gender roles; single-hood, birth rates, divorce, cohabitation, changing family forms
Relationships within families such as:
those between couples, parent/s, children and the elderly
Sexual and social diversity and new family forms
Power relationships within the family including gender roles, social control, decision making and domestic labour
Changing identity, status, roles and functions of the family in a late modern or post-modern society
Understanding the Family
Explanations:
This will include explanations for the patterns and trends identified above.
These may refer to theoretical understandings and discussions such as Marxism, Functionalism, feminism and
contemporary views of family structure and change