Transcript Social Creation Of Illness

Negative Views Of The Family
In the 1960's Edmund Leach likened the
family to an 'over loaded electrical circuit
waiting to blow a fuse'
his main argument was that we had become
too privatised and isolated in our nuclear
family settings and this was causing too
much pressure on relationships.
He advocates breaking out from these
insular units and getting in touch with our
fellow human beings.
Laing 1970 –
Parents and children are linked by a
complex web of emotions and tensions.
These can cause a ‘breakdown’ - a sort
of identity crisis for certain individuals.
As a result Laing advocated treating the
‘whole’ family.
Hence family therapy sessions
Cooper 1972
Working in the same field as Laing,
Cooper attacks family life for curbing
the freedom of children and
suppressing their individuality.
As a result subservience and obedience
are promoted within society.
Cooper is in tune with Marxists when
he says that the family is 'an
ideological conditioning device in an
exploitive society'
Perspectives On The Family
Foucault 1975 – Critical theory
Foucault maintained that agencies such as
the law, social workers, welfare services,
the tax system etc are controlling family
life.
The stereotypical nuclear family model of
parents + kids is held up as the norm
Perspectives On The Family
Foucault 1975 - Themes of his work:1. Conventional motherhood is reinforced
Mothers who want to work are restricted by
difficulties arranging childcare.
Working for women is portrayed as not
‘normal’
Women experience guilt and stress as a result
2. Emphasis on discipline and conformity in
modern society
Confession of inadequacies to ‘experts’
eg doctors, counsellors, psychologists etc
Perspectives On The Family
Morgan 1980
agrees with Foucault from a Marxist
perspective in that the family is an institution
under siege in the modern world.
The supposedly private world of family life is
kept in check via agencies of the state
Marriage & Marital breakdown
Fewer people are getting married
than at any other time in the
last 40 years.
However:
1. People are delaying marriage
rather than rejecting it
2. Most people still see marriage
as desirable
Marriage & Marital breakdown
Types Of Marital Breakdown
Divorce – legal ending of a marriage
freeing partners to marry again
Separation – live apart
Desertion – where one partner doesn’t
know where the other has gone
Empty –shell -where marriage exists in
name only – ‘staying together for
sake of children etc
Marriage & Marital breakdown
Explanations for increasing divorce rate
1. Divorce laws
1969 Divorce Reform Act (became law in 1971)
introduced ‘irretrievable breakdown’ as a
no fault reason for divorce.
After 2 years separation if both agreed
5 years if only one agreed
Essentially made divorce easier to obtain!
Marriage & Marital breakdown
Explanations for increasing divorce rate
1. Divorce laws cont
1984 Act – allowed couples to get divorced
after 1 yr of marriage.
1996 Act (came in in 1999) increased this to 18
months
Marriage & Marital breakdown
2. Less stigma
As divorce became more common it
became more acceptable and part of
every day life.
Marriage & Marital breakdown
3. Changing role of women
About 75% of petitions for divorce are
made by women.
Women now are :• Educated to higher levels.
• Work more and have independent
finance.
• Less likely to stay in an ‘empty shell’
marriage.
Marriage & Marital breakdown
4. People Live Longer
People spend more time together and
therefore have more chance of
falling out
Plus people in unhappy relationships
now feel there is time to leave and
start again with someone else
Marriage & Marital breakdown
5. Secularisation
The decline in the religious
significance of marriage
Less church weddings
Promises made ‘before God’ not seen
as binding
Marriage & Marital breakdown
6. Privatisation Of Family Life
Rather than a ‘haven in a heartless world’
some see the family as the source of
discontents
Search for intimacy creates tensions within
relationships
People expect too much from each other.
Less pressures from wider kin to stay
together
Marriage & Marital breakdown
7. The value of marriage
Functionalists like Fletcher & Parsons
argue that people place a higher value
on marriage now than in the past
People expect more from a partner and
will no longer put up with second-rate
relationships
Gibson 1994 says that the modern
emphasis on individual achievement
and consumerism has extended to
relationships
Factors likely to cause divorce
Age
Lower the age at marriage = HCD
(higher chance divorce)
Teens more likely to grow apart
Economic pressures etc
Factors likely to cause divorce
Class
MC have lower rates than WC
Highest rates among unemployed
Factors likely to cause divorce
Social & Status Differences
The greater the differences between
partners - class, age, ethnicity,,
religion
= HCD
Factors likely to cause divorce
Ethnicity
Divorce rates low amongst Asian
groups
Factors likely to cause divorce
Family History
If your parents divorced - you have
a higher chance of divorce
Less opposition from parents
when seeking a divorce
Factors likely to cause divorce
Duration
HCD in first 5 years of marriage
Older people now divorce more
30+ yrs marrieds are 2x more likely to
divorce now than 10 yrs ago
Consequences Of Divorce
Recent studies suggest that kids from
divorced backgrounds are more
likely to
Get divorced themselves
Underachieve at school
Be unemployed
Suffer poor health
Become criminals
Exeter Study 1994 - Cockett & Tripp
children in ‘reordered families’ (step)
suffered problems of adjustment
until later in life.
Children wanted to stay with both
natural parents even with the
tensions involved
Norwegian Study 1994 - Moxnes
Sees positive side of divorce
Creation of a new ‘bi-nuclear’ family
with good relations between old and
new partners and children
Could be seen as an over optimistic
view!
Define The Following Terms
Monogamy
Serial Monogamy
Polygamy
Polyandry
Polygyny
Cohabitation
Coleman & Salt 1992
Suggest that the popularity of marriage
has declined because traditional
assumptions have changed.
New ideas, the changing role of
women and more reliable methods of
birth control are all contributory
factors
Cohabitation
Reasons For The Increase In Cohabitation
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Marriage is less fashionable.
Marriage is expensive.
Decline in religious beliefs.
Economic and employment insecurity.
High divorce rates make people wary of
commitment
Family Diversity
The image of the ‘cereal packet
family’ (Leach) is promoted as
the basic family model
i.e. married adults plus kids.
However others argue that a
plurality of forms now exist
Civil Partnerships
What is a Civil Partnership?
The Civil Partnership Bill was passed on the 17th November 2004,
becoming the Civil Partnership Act 2004.
It is official acknowledgement that same-sex relationships, with the
requirements of commitment and recognition, exist.
Registered couples will have new legal status as "registered Civil
Partners" and will be protected by a package of rights similar to those of
married couples.
The Act gives registered gay couples the right to apply for joint state
pensions, shared parental responsibility and recognition under
inheritance laws.
This brings the UK into line with other European countries that
recognise same sex couples, including Belgium, Denmark, Germany,
Norway, and Sweden.
Family Diversity
Ron & Rhona Rapoport 1982
Give 5 types of diversity
1.
Organisational Diversity
Variations in family structure
e.g. single parents
Reconstituted families etc
Family Diversity
2. Cultural Diversity
There are differences based on
ethnic origins and religious beliefs
Family Diversity
3. Class Diversity
There are many differences between
MC and WC families.
Higher divorce rates among WC
Family Diversity
4. Life-cycle Diversity
Newly marrieds without children have
a different life style to those with
children
Family Diversity
5. Cohort Diversity
This refers to the periods at which
groups of families have lived
through specific things together
e.g. war
Family Diversity
Eversley & Bonnerjea 1982 – Regional Diversity
They argue that different areas of Britain
have different patterns of family
organisation.
In rural areas extended kinship is
important, inner cities have higher
percentages of single parents and the
southern ‘sun belt’ has more 2 parent
upwardly mobile families.
Family Diversity
Weekes, Donovan & Heaphey 1999 –
Homosexual Families
Say that Gay and Lesbian households have
become more common since the 1980’s.
They describe such units as ‘chosen’ families –
they choose whom to include as ‘family’
members.
Family Diversity
New Reproductive Technologies
Surrogacy provides the potential for a whole
new way of forming families.
Family Diversity
Modhood et al 1997 - Ethnicity
Whites and Caribbean’s have highest rates of
divorce in UK
Asians and Africans have highest marriage rates
and highest rates of children living with both
natural parents – 90% (75% for whites, 50%
Caribbean’s)
Caribbean’s have highest single parent rate in UK
Family Diversity
Single Person Households
25% of households are occupied by one person
and this proportion is rising.
A significant number are elderly women and
divorced and separated. However more
people, particularly young professionals, are
choosing to live alone.
LATs
Ducan And Phillips 2008
Simon Duncan and Miranda Phillips found that
1 in 10 adults are LATs – i.e. they are in a
‘significant relationship’ but do not actually
live together
LATs
Why People Live Apart Together
• Choice – Gives couples a feeling of
space still
• Circumstance – Sometimes
separated/divorced couples with their
own children do not want to upset their
lifestyles
• Houses – couples do not want to give up
their own homes
Single Parents
25% of families in the UK are single parents
90% are female headed
60% are ex married (divorced, separated or
widowed)
Single Parents
Consequences
Murray 1993
A New Right thinker
Claims single parenting has helped to
create an anti-social underclass
Single Parents
McIntosh 1996
Disagrees and says that Lone mothers
have been used as scapegoats for
problems such as youth crime and
unemployment
Single Parents
McLanahan & Booth 1991
Say children from single parents are more
likely to suffer poverty, become
delinquent and abuse drugs.
But more a result of low income than lack
of 2 parents
Single Parents
Cashmore 1985
Best for children to live with one caring
adult than 2 fighting ones.
Women become more independent in
single parent units
Reasons For Increase In Single Parents
1. Divorce
Since 1971 Divorce has been easier to
obtain
Reasons For Increase In Single Parents
2 Social Acceptance
Less stigma attached to being a single
parent today
Links to secularisation – less religious
practice and thinking
Media portrays single parents more
positively today
Reasons For Increase In Single Parents
3. Welfare State
Some like the New Right feel that it is too
easy to rely on benefits etc
Feminists and others point to the fact that
women are no longer tied to a man
financially and therefore can leave unhappy
relationships.v
Reasons For Increase In Single Parents
4. Increase In Never Marrieds
40% of single mums are in this category
Average age of a lone mum is 34
Why are 90% Of Single
Parents Women?
When couples divorce women are more likely to be
given custody of the children by the courts – much
to the disappointment of many father support
groups.
Men are more likely to have better paid jobs/careers
and don’t want to interrupt these to take on
childcare full time.
Some men feel that their masculinity is threatened if
they become child carers.
It is more socially acceptable still for mothers to be
single parents than men – despite many mothers
and toddler groups becoming ‘parents and toddlers’
there are not many men joining in up and down the
Reconstituted Families
Effects
• Children often find themselves pulled in
2 directions
• feelings of disloyalty to one parent
• Sometimes tensions with step parent
• Complications arise when the new
couple have their own children
Family Diversity?
The above evidence is taken by many to suggest
that there is a plurality of family forms in the
UK today. Post Modernists say that there is
diversification, variation and instability.
Others argue that the diversity angle is
exaggerated, most children live with their
natural parents, most people do get married
and while 4 in 10 marriages end in divorce 6 in
10 do not.
Family Diversity?
Chester 1985 – The Neo- Conventional Nuclear Family
Says that changes in family life have been
minor
• If one looks at the % of people rather
than households1/2 the population of UK
live in nuclear families
• Many who aren’t will form nuclear
families in the future
• The only big change is that many more
women now work
• Most people do get married
• Most divorcees remarry
Family Diversity?
However since Chester’s writing there has
been a slow but steady drift away from
nuclear families in the UK.
Nuclear families are still very common but
other family types (particularly single
parents and reconstituted families) are
becoming more common.
Choice And Equality – Giddens 1992
Anthony Giddens has argued that family and marriage have
been transformed since the war by choice and equality:
Contraception has allowed sex and intimacy to
become more important than reproduction in a
relationship
Women have gained greater equality and
independence in the last 50 years
Giddens talks about ‘pure relationships’ being
created couples get together for’love’ rather than a
sense of duty
Giddens concedes that this means a less stable
relationship is formed.
Beck 1992 - Risk Society and Negotiated Families
Ulrich Beck has made much of the concept of a ‘risk society’ He argues that
in earlier times roles were more fixed and we had few choices – e.g. where
we lived, worked, played and married.
Today such ‘fixed things’ are rare and we are faced with more choices –
and consequently more risks!
We now have ‘negotiated families’ i.e. where members decide for
themselves what they want. Such families may have broken away from the
inequality and patriarchy of the past but are now more unstable
Postmodernism
Beck (as a postmodernist himself) illustrates the effect of 2 key
postmodernist concepts
1 Diversity/Fragmentaion – A pick’n’mix of family types
2 Rapid Social Change – new technology, new inventions, new
work patterns have all added to the feeling of uncertainty
for people.
Divorced Extended Family – Stacey 1998
Judith Stacey in research in California has found that the
increase in divorce has led to an increase in ‘divorced
extended families’
Stacey used life history interviews
Many women had divorced and remarried
but stayed in touch with the children’s
grandparents and made relationships
with new step grandparents.
Help was often given financially and
domestically
For Diversity
Postmodernists, and
Feminists
Diversity = choice
No one family from
should be held up as a
superior model
Variety = liberty
Against Diversity
For Diversity
Postmodernists, and
Feminists
Diversity = choice
No one family form
should be held up as a
superior model
Variety = liberty
Against Diversity
Functionalists and The
New Right
Nuclear Family is the
best unit
It best meets the need of
society
A key socialising unit for
the young
Other family forms are
seen as dysfunctional