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Module 9 Journal (•Is your family more or less diverse than the image of…

Module 9 Journal (

•Is your family more or less diverse than the image of the ideal?

•Describe the idea of the ideal family that you learned about when you were growing up.

•Identify kinship patterns, relationships, successes and problems.

•Who do you think is more liberal about family ideals, your own generation, your parents’ generation, or your grandparents’ generation?

•Has the pattern changed in recent generations?

•What kinds of diversity exist in your family?

•How closely does your real (nuclear or extended) family match the ideal we are taught?

•Then describe the features and experiences of your actual family.

, Explain how sociologists define family, and what is meant by the family as a social institution, Differentiate between ideal family types and real family structures, Describe the kinship system in the U.S.; include number of partners and mate selection., Define kinship systems; list the characteristics used to categorize kinship systems.,

The family is defined by sociologists as the primary group of people- usually related by ancestry, marriage, or adoption- who form a cooperative economic unit to care for offspring and each other and who are committed to maintaining the group over time. The ideal family that I learned when growing up was one with a mother and father, that have not divorced, and their kids. The family for me was basically a unit that showed respect for each other and supported each other in difficult situations. The ideal family has equal respect for members within it. Conflict is inevitable but the ideal family resolves their conflicts peacefully.

The features of my actual family were different then those of the ideal family. My family was not ideal mostly because my parents are divorced and my mother is remarried. My experience with my family is also not like the ideal family. They argue occasionally and they often avoid one another for short periods of time as a way to resolve tension. The ideal family also loved and treated each member equally which doesn't always happen in a real family. Unlike the ideal family many the members in the family are distant and dysfunctional giving only very minor contact with the other members. Certain situations in the past have split my family up unlike the ideal family that resolves most of the problems that may split them up.

Kinship is the pattern of relationships that define people's relationships to one another within a family. They are generally categorized by how many married partners are permitted at one time, who is permitted to marry whom, how descent is determined, how property is passed on, where the family resides, and how power is distributed. The system of kinship in the United States consists of normative expectations like the practice of monogamy and the idea that people should marry others with similar social characteristics such as race, religion, class, and educational background. In my family there is patrilineal kinship where the descent is traced through the males and the females assume the last name of the males when married. My parents follow the normative kinship expectations and marry only one person at a time and this person has similar social characteristics. Property is passed equally to each son and daughter and the family resides in a house purchased by both my mother and step-father.

My family including my extended family does not match the description of the ideal family that I have learned through socializing. We posses some matching characteristics like monogamy and respect for one another but we lack others. Parts of the family are dysfunctional and I rarely see some of them and others I have never met. My family doesn't handle its issues in a peaceful way, most of the time. Disputes usually end in one member feeling angry and this results in a short term period where they leave or ignore the other members. Many members of my family even hold grudges due to past disputes and they never decide to resolve it. Many of the members of my family do not feel confident that other members will support them emotionally or economically in hard times.

There are many kinds of diversity in my family. We have an assortment of ethnicities like Mexican American, American Indian, and African American. Each ethnicity also brings their cultural ideas and practices that give the younger generations a large amount of good information about other places in the world. The wide range of ages gives us a diverse amount of experiences that can be shared and improved upon. We have a very diverse collection of educational backgrounds and careers that have resulted in a large and diverse accumulation of knowledge. We have a more diverse grouping of social classes within my family.

My family is more diverse than the ideal family. We differ from my image if the ideal family in ways like size, living arrangements, age differences, and socialization. I have a very large number of siblings and extended family that live across the United States. The living arrangements are different from the ideal family because the children do not live under the same roof and we never have, even when the adult children were young. Many members of my family live extremely far from other members while the ideal family lives in close proximity with each member. The age difference in between my youngest sibling and oldest sibling is very large compared to the ideal family. My family also has little socialization between many of the members. They often refuse to participate in social gatherings like members of the ideal family would.

Some of the kinship patterns have changed over time not just in the United States but across the world. In marriage there has been many changes like the legalization of same sex marriage which was highly frowned upon in the past. Other patterns like gender roles in a marriage have changed. There is an increasing number of stay at home fathers which was considered to be a women's job in the past. Women are also working more hours at their jobs and at home and they have much les free time in a marriage than in the past. Patterns of divorce have changed over time with more divorce in the United States than any other country which was not the case in the early 1970s. The number of unmarried people has increased substantially since the 1970s. A pattern that has developed over time is the increasing number of families that stay together during difficult economic times like a depression or recession. On a global scale patterns of work and migration have created the transitional family where one parent lives and works in one country while the other remains in the country of origin.

I believe that my generation is more liberal than my parents or my grandparents generation. The ideas within my generation like who makes up a family and what actions keep it together have become more lenient. Unlike some of the people in the older generations same sex marriage is accepted and there is little thought about negative effects that could rise from raising a child in a same sex relationship. My generation has greater acceptance of families that are spread out over large areas and greater trust in those families to provide for their children. Advances in technology have made transitional families easier and more successful which greatly influences my generations liberal views. My generation has become more liberal in aspects like social gatherings in a family by putting a spin on old ideas and even creating new ones that bring a family together.

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