SOC 352

The Family

Course Introduction

An estimated 40 percent to 60 percent of all marriages end in divorce today. While most young people are delaying marriage, cohabitation is becoming more commonplace before marriage and as an alternative to marriage. Single parenthood is on the rise, while birthrates are on the decline. As women increasingly enter the labor force and break from traditional gender roles, relationships between home and work are constantly changing, negotiated, and redefined. Our definition of "the family" is thus constantly in a state of flux.

To help you understand these shifts in definitions of "the family," this course will examine the trends, issues, and debates regarding the American family. We will look at both how the family as a social institution constitutes and is constituted by its members, and how the family interacts with other social institutions. From a sociological perspective, we will study how changes in the family have reciprocal relations to other social, economic, and political changes in the larger social structure.

By adopting a sociological perspective on the family, this course will help you develop critical thinking and analytic skills, as well as promote creative expression and exploration. To that end, we will draw on empirical research, personal histories, current events, and public policy issues.

The first part of the course provides an historical overview of the evolution and development of the modern American family and explores different approaches to the study of the family; it provides a framework for analyzing and discussing the topics covered in the rest of the course. Next, we will turn to analyses of substantive topics as we explore specific family forms, and how the family intersects with other social, economic, and political institutions.

Maintaining a Sociological Perspective

Throughout this course, you should maintain a distinctively sociological perspective in your analysis of the family as a social institution. That is, rather than focusing on individual, interpersonal family dynamics, this course is concerned with the relationship between personal troubles and public issues affecting the society at large.

For instance, I was talking to a friend the other day about her decision to have a child. She and her partner have been cohabiting for seven years. Their decision to have a child has also brought about a decision to wed. While this may seem like a very personal conversation and decision, if we consider the broader social factors that have shaped these decisions, we may begin to understand the insight provided by a sociological perspective.

First, consider that we were having this discussion at all. Perhaps a generation ago, having children would have been considered more of a duty than a topic up for discussion. Large-scale social changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution, changes in the meanings and functions of religious institutions, developments in technology (e.g., birth control, artificial insemination), and social movements (e.g., feminism, men's movements) have all contributed to the changing social meaning, structure, and function of the American family. These social and economic changes prompt changes in the meaning of childbirth, depending on the social context.

Second, my friend's decision to have children led to her decision to marry. Again, perhaps a generation ago, marriage would have been a foregone conclusion if a couple wished to raise children. Today, there is greater acceptance for alternative lifestyles. Although this couple has been cohabiting for years, they felt that having children out of wedlock would be too much for their parents to handle. One set of parents is of mixed western European descent and Protestant; the other set of parents are second-generation Chinese American atheists. Both sets of parents maintain "traditional" values that require marriage before childbirth. The social norms and values their parents hold reflect a different set of social and political realities than they faced growing up.

Add to this the religious and ethnic differences this family will need to negotiate as they raise their children, we can appreciate how the very personal choice of marriage and childbearing is shaped by social context. The issues this couple will face in regards to starting a family are a product of a long process of socio-cultural and historical changes that have led them to understand the world and their role in it in ways that are determined by their social position in it. This is how you should be thinking about the concepts and issues raised in this course. This is a sociological perspective, and this course challenges you to adopt such a perspective and exercise your sociological imagination.

Course Goals

My goals for you in this course are that you:

• develop a sociological perspective on diverse family forms;
• understand major trends in the family from a sociological perspective, integrating social, demographic, and economic perspectives;
• recognize the interrelations between individual family experience and larger social institutions; and
• develop a conscious and critical awareness of contemporary social and political issues and how they relate to the family.

The primary course objective is to develop critical thinking skills in understanding the family from a sociological perspective. This is a sociology course; we are concerned with the larger social context and the interdependence between individual and social experience. This course requires that you step outside of your own individual experience and distinguish between personal troubles and public issues, and to draw connections between the two.

About the Online Environment

Your online course offers several advantages to the traditional classroom, including the comprehensive Online Student Handbook, the ability to communicate electronically with students and with your instructor, and links to a rich array of online resources.

Online Student Handbook

This handbook answers questions about your online learning course, such as how to purchase your text, schedule an exam, obtain a transcript, and get technical help if you need it. The handbook also provides additional resources, such as how to order books or journals from the library and how to study for an online course.

Communication with Your Instructor and Student Peers

• Online Discussion Forums, designed by the University of Washington award winning Catalyst team, allow you to communicate with other currently enrolled students and with your instructor. We encourage you to use the forum to exchange ideas, resources, and comments about your course work with other students in this course. This unstructured forum is monitored by your instructor.
• You can use e-mail to ask me a question or preferably post your question on the forum. I will reply on the same forum.

Online Resources

As an online student, you have access to a wealth of Web resources compiled to provide fast, easy access to information that supports your online learning experience. Organized by subjects, Online Resources link you to sites with help for writing and research, study skills, language learning, and library reference materials. All links have been assessed for credibility and reliability, and they are regularly monitored to ensure their usability.

Course Plan

This course is organized into twelve lessons, including two review lessons (Lesson Six and Lesson Twelve) in preparation for the midterm and final exams. Each lesson consists of four parts:

• Reading assignments from required texts. The required readings are very important to this course, because they will ground us in theory and in the empirical research in this area of study.
• Lesson objectives, which outline what you are expected to learn after completing the lesson. Keep these objectives in mind as you read the assigned material, to help you frame the readings to maximize efficiency in your approach. It is important to keep these objectives in mind while you complete written assignments as well. As you prepare for the exams, make sure you are able to complete each lesson objective.
• Discussion of topics covered in the readings, that supplement and complement the required readings. The discussions may also include a review of some of the key points of the readings. These will be helpful to you in preparing for exams, but you should not rely solely on discussions for thorough coverage of course content. Success on exams and assignments requires a close, critical, and thorough reading of required texts.
• Questions for further thought, intended to pique your interest in the topics covered in that lesson. Use these to help you prepare for exams, and to help you to think critically about the issues raised in the lesson.

Required Readings

The readings are drawn from the following required texts, plus these online course materials.

• Strong, Bryan, Christine DeVault, and Theodore F. Cohen. The Marriage and Family Experience: Intimate Relationships in a Changing Society, 9th edition. 2005. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Thomson Learning. ISBN: 0-534-60930-9
• Skolnick, Arlene S. and Jerome H. Skolnick. Family in Transition, 13th edition. 2005. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. ISBN: 0-205-41823-6.

The Strong, DeVault, and Cohen text is a general overview and introduction to the sociology of the family; it provides a beginning point of entry into this area of academic study. This text lays the basic groundwork for the theories and issues that will be built upon through the pieces selected from the Skolnick and Skolnick text, as well as through the lessons in these online course materials.

The Skolnick and Skolnick reader provides more specific practical applications of the broader issues and theories introduced in the Strong, et al. text.

These online course materials provide further analyses to complement the texts and often brings in alternative theories and explanations of social phenomena discussed in the texts; it also reinforces theories and issues raised in the texts.

Electronic Discussion Forum

Participating in the discussion forum is a required part of this course. See the "About the Online Environment" section earlier in this syllabus for information about using the forum.

Given the nature of the material discussed in Sociology 352, you will find it worthwhile to exchange ideas with other students. Taking part in this discussion group is useful for this course, because issues related to family are often covered in the media: marriage, divorce, gender roles, love, sexuality, pregnancy, parenting, children, and family economics are all discussed.

The discussion forum will allow members of the class to express their opinions about subjects covered in the course and developments covered by the media. We can also use the forum to alert each other to television programs, newspaper and magazine articles, and meetings that deal with topics covered by the course. I will occasionally suggest topics to watch for in the news or I might pose a question or two. My involvement in the discussion forum will vary with the size of the course. If there are enough students to keep the discussion going, I'll remain in the background of the discussion. If enrollment is low at a given point, then I'll participate more actively.

You will be required to participate a minimum of three times throughout the course. Although your contributions will not be graded, failure to participate will negatively affect your overall course grade (between a 0.1 and 0.3 deduction. The quality of your participation, however, is more important than the frequency (provided that you participate at least three times).

Written Assignments

In this course, you will complete seven required writing assignments: five papers (assignments 1, 2, 3, 5, 6) and two reading reviews (assignments 4 and 7).

The paper assignments ask you to demonstrate your understanding of theories and concepts you have learned in the course. Several assignments give you the opportunity to illustrate the theoretical concepts with your own accounts of your own experiences or observations, while others ask you to find relevant news articles as illustrations or points of analysis.

The reading review assignments require you to summarize important points from course readings. You are to use your own words to answer questions about particular sociological concepts, findings, or theories.

Your writing assignments, particularly the paper assignments, will be evaluated on the following (for the reading reviews, style will be less important than content and substance):

• Content: How well is the course material represented in the paper? How well are illustrations explained and applied?
• Substance: How much do you contribute to the analysis? Are key concepts/theories summarized in such a way to reflect your understanding? Does the paper demonstrate what you have learned?
• Style: How well is your paper packaged? Is the paper carefully edited? Are there distracting grammatical and spelling errors? Does the paper have an introduction and conclusion? Is it guided by a main idea/concept/argument? Does the paper have a logical and organized structure? Does the paper have appropriate and thorough citations? (This is where your grade can most easily be improved, so edit, edit, edit!)

Please see the "About Your Instructor" page on your syllabus for assignment submission guidelines.

Examinations

There are two exams in this course: a midterm and final exam. The final only covers material that follows the midterm. It is not cumulative, but it does assume that you will apply appropriately the concepts you learned in the first part of the course.

The goal of the exams is to test your ability to critically analyze readings and to appropriately apply theories to your analyses; to integrate topics and concepts; and to be conversant with the subject matter. You will have 90 minutes to complete each exam.

Both exams have some short answer and long essay questions. Answer the short questions briefly and concisely; one to three sentences (one paragraph at most) is sufficient. In the long essay, you will be required to integrate and apply course material. You will be graded on your ability to demonstrate facility in handling course readings and lessons in your critical analyses. Each essay includes three to four questions on a topic. Be sure to answer each part of the question; allow about one paragraph for each part of the question.

You'll find more information about the exams in Lessons Six and Twelve.

Grading

Your grade for the course is determined as shown in the following table.

Course Component	Points	Percentage of Final Grade
Reading reviews	50 points each (100 total)	33.3
Exams	50 points each (100 total)	33.3
Papers	20 points each (100 total)	33.3

To calculate your grade point average, your instructor will add up the total number of points you received during the course and divide by 75.

For example, if you receive the following points during the course:

Reading reviews	=	86 points
Exams	=	87 points
Papers	=	90 points

you would have a total of 263 points. Your final grade would be 263/75, or 3.5.

Also, your course grade can be affected slightly by your participation in the electronic discussion forum (see above).

Contacting Your Instructor

You are encouraged to contact your instructor with any questions or comments about this course. E-mail is probably the most efficient method of communication. Your instructor will make every effort to respond to your inquiries as soon as possible.

Please see "About Your Instructor" for all contact information.

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