Definition Of Family And Sociology: The Changing American Family

For this assignment I chose a newspaper entry from The New York Times with the title “The Changing American Family”. I learned in lesson 1 that there is no true “definition” of family until you come to the political part of it that has to do with rights, benefits, taxes and so on, instead it’s really to each is own. A family could be two parents, one child and a dog, or it could be a mother and her child, in this day in age having one parent or even an unrelated guardian is almost “common”. Many people are considered lucky to have their biological parents still together growing up. Twenty to thirty years ago, though, it was very much looked down upon to have divorced or separated parents, in fact some people today still look down on it whether …show more content…
In lesson one I understood that sociological imagination is the understanding that social outcomes are based on what we do. For example, the things we do are shaped the way they are for reasons, like how people around us act, situations we are in and what we think is right or wrong, which results in some sort of outcome, it’s basically seeing things socially and how they interact. It’s a complex concept that I’ve tried to read into and understand; yet I’m still not clear on it. The sociological perspective of this is really focusing on human behavior and connecting that to the society as a whole, which this “The Changing American Family” really does, it’s taking all types of behavior and situations and looking at our society as a whole to see how these behaviors are affecting it society itself. Another way of understanding both of these concepts is thinking about a couple from the 50’s and how things were back then, wives stayed home cooked, cleaned and took care of the family while the husband worked all day and took care of the “manly” jobs around the house in their free time. The times were different then and what they saw around them growing up like the roles of the husband and wife stuck and it is what they did when it was time for them to have their own family. In the article there’s a section labeled “The Wedding Will Have to Wait” Ana Perez, a women that was once married with children, but it ended badly after she found out that he had been having an affair. Ana now hesitates to remarry a man she has yet another child with, has been a great father to all of her children, faithful, and works hard to keep the income steady. Why? It’s due to experience and what Ana sees happening in society, she has very high