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205 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
Choosing by default
Making semiconscious or unconscious choices when one is not aware of all the possible alternatives or when one pursues the path of least resistance. From this perspective, doing nothing about a problem or issue, or making no choice, is making a choice— the choice to do nothing.
Choosing knowledgeably
Making choices and decisions after (1) recognizing as many options or alternatives as possible, (2) recognizing the social pressures that can influence personal choices, (3) considering the consequences of each alternative, and (4) becoming aware of one's own values.
Extended family
Family including relatives besides parents and children, such as aunts or uncles. See also nuclear family.
Familistic (communal) values
Values that focus on the family group as a whole and on maintaining family identity and cohesiveness.
Family
Any sexually expressive or parent child or other kin relationship in which people live together with a commitment in an intimate interpersonal relationship. Family members see their identity as importantly attached to the group, which has an identity of its own. Families today take several forms: single-parent, remarried, dual-career, communal, homosexual, traditional, and so forth. See also extended family, nuclear family.
Household
As a Census Bureau category, any group of people residing together.
Individualistic (self-fulfillment) values
Values that encourage self-fulfillment, personal growth, autonomy, and independence over commitment to family or other communal needs.
Nuclear family
A family group comprising only the wife, the husband, and their children. See also extended family.
Primary group
A group, usually relatively small, in which there are close, face-to-face relationships or equivalent ties that are technologically mediated.
Secondary group
A group, often large and geographically dispersed, characterized by distant, practical relationships.
Family decline, family change perspectives
Some family scholars and policy makers characterize late-twentieth-century developments in the family as decline, while others describe change. Those who take the family decline perspective view such changes as increases in the age at first marriage, divorce, cohabitation, and nonmarital births and the decline in fertility as disastrous for the family as a major social institution. Family change scholars and policy makers consider that the family has varied over time. They argue that the family can adapt to recent changes and continue to play a strong role in society.
The text observes that we remain hopeful about family commitment because:
Families are central to society as an institution and to our everyday lives.
As families have become less traditional, the legal definition of a family has:
Become much more flexible.
The Census Bureau uses which term to describe a group residing together?
Household
The definition of family adopted by the authors of this text includes those which share which elements?
1) Commit to maintaining that group over time.
2) Consider their identity to be significantly attached to the group.
3) Form an economic unit and care for any young.
Choices made ________ are ones that people make when they are not aware of all the alternatives or when they pursue the proverbial path of least resistance.
By default
The emotional dimension of decision making is referred to in the text as the:
Gut factor.
Life in American families reflects a tension in American culture between family solidarity and:
Individual freedom.
Families create, store, preserve, and pass on particular objects, events, or rituals that members consider relevant to their personal identities and to maintaining the family as a unique experiential reality or group. This refers to which function of the family?
Archival
A person who believed in the "family decline" theory might say the following:
"There has been a serious breakdown in marriage and family values."
The text points out that shifts in the balance of individuality and familism have meant that family lives have become:
Less predictable.
Agreement reality
Knowledge based on agreement about what is true.
Biosocial perspective
Theoretical perspective based on concepts linking psychosocial factors to anatomy, physiology, genetics, and/or hormones as shaped by evolution.
Boundary ambiguity
When applied to a family, a situation in which it is unclear who is in and who is out of the family.
Case study
A written summary and analysis of data obtained by psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, and social workers when working directly with individuals and families in clinical practice. Case studies may be used as sources in scientific investigation and have played a role in the development of certain family theories.
Conflict perspective
Theoretical perspective that emphasizes social conflict in a society and within families. Power and dominance are important themes.
Developmental task
A challenge that must be mastered in one stage of the family life cycle for a successful transition to the next.
Emerging adulthood
The youth and young adult stage of life, which is a period of frequent change and exploration.
Equilibrium
The balanced state of a system. If one part of a system changes, other elements must change in order to restore balance in the system.
Evolutionary heritage
In the biosocial perspective, human behavior is encoded in genetic or other biological features that come to us as members of a species.
Exchange balance
Balance of rewards and costs in a relationship.
Experiential reality
Knowledge based on personal experience.
Experiment
One tool of scientific investigation, in which behaviors are carefully monitored or measured under controlled conditions. Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups.
Extended family
Family including relatives besides parents and children, such as aunts or uncles. See also nuclear family.
Family boundaries
Family members' understandings of who is and who is not in the family. Markers, whether material (e.g., doors, fences, communication devices) or social (e.g., symbols of identity, conversational styles and content, time spent together), indicate the boundaries of the family.
Family development perspective
Theoretical perspective that gives attention to changes in the family over time.
Family ecology perspective
Theoretical perspective that explores how a family influences and is influenced by the environments that surround it. A family is interdependent first with its neighborhood, then with its socialcultural environment, and ultimately with the human-built and physicalbiological environments. All parts of the model are interrelated and influence one another.
Family function
Activities performed by families for the benefit of society and of family members.
Family life cycle
Stages of family development defined by the addition and subtraction of family members, children's ages, and changes in the family's connection with other social systems.
Family policy
All the actions, procedures, regulations, attitudes, and goals of government that affect families.
Family structure
The form a family takes, such as nuclear family, extended family, single-parent family, stepfamily, and the like.
Family systems theory
An umbrella term for a wide range of specific theories. This theoretical perspective examines the family as a whole. It looks to the patterns of behavior and relationships within the family, in which each member is affected by the behavior of others. Systems tend toward equilibrium and will react to change in one part by seeking equilibrium either by restoring the old system or by creating a new one.
Feminist perspective
Feminist theories are conflict theories. The primary focus of the feminist perspective is male dominance in families and society as oppressive to women. The mission of this perspective is to end this oppression of women (or related pattern of subordination based on social class, race/ethnicity, age, or sexual orientation) by developing knowledge and action that confront this disparity. See also conflict perspective.
Identity
A sense of inner sameness developed by individuals throughout their lives. They know who they are throughout their various endeavors and pursuits, no matter how different these may be.
Inclusive fitness
In evolutionary theories of human behavior, the propensity to advance preservation of one's genes either through direct reproduction (one's own offspring) or through facilitating the survival and reproduction of close relatives.
Informed consent
A requirement of research involving human subjects; before agreeing to participate, subjects are told the purpose of the research and the procedure and whether any risk is involved in participation. The process of obtaining informed consent is supervised by an institutional review board.
Institutional review board (IRB)
A local body of experts and community representatives established by a university or research organization to scrutinize research proposals for adherence to professional ethical standards for the protection of human subjects.
Interaction
The exchange of conversation, gestures, expressions, and so on as two or more people are engaged with each other face-to-face.
Interactionist perspective
Theoretical perspective that focuses on internal family dynamics; the ongoing action among and response to one another of family members.
Internalize
Make a part of oneself. Often refers to the socialization process by which children learn their parents' norms and values to the point that they become the child's own views.
Laboratory observation
Observation of behavior, including verbal behavior, in an environment controlled by the researcher. For example, a researcher may ask a father, a mother, and an adolescent to discuss an issue, solve a problem, or play a game and observe their responses and interactions, which may be audio- or video-recorded.
Longitudinal study
One technique of scientific investigation in which researchers study the same individuals or groups over an extended period, usually with periodic surveys.
Looking-glass self
The concept that people gradually come to accept and adopt as their own the evaluations, definitions, and judgments of themselves that they see reflected in the faces, words, and gestures of those around them.
Meaning
What a given activity or statement conveys symbolically. For example, a woman's domestic work may symbolize love and family caring, or it may symbolize a subservient social status. Meanings can be culturally agreed upon or be the attributions of individuals.
Naturalistic observation
A technique of scientific investigation in which a researcher lives with a family or social group or spends extensive time with them, carefully recording their activities, conversations, gestures, and other aspects of everyday life.
Normative order
The culturally approved sequencing of education, work, marriage, and parenthood in an individual's life.
Normative order hypothesis
The thesis that to proceed through the family life cycle on time provides the best chance for a good adjustment in each family stage. Applies as well to the sequencing of education, job, marriage, and parenthood.
Nuclear family
A family group comprising only the wife, the husband, and their children.
Patriarchy
A social system in which males are dominant.
Principle of least interest
The postulate that the partner with the least interest in the relationship is the one who is more apt to control the relationship and to exploit the other.
Resources
In exchange theory or intimate partner power analysis, the assets an individual can bring to the relationship. Resources can be material (e.g., income, gifts) or nonmaterial (e.g., emotional support, practical assistance, personality qualities).
Rewards and costs
In exchange theory or related theoretical analyses, the benefits and disadvantages of a relationship.
Role
The expectations associated with a particular position in society or in a family. The mother role, for example, calls for its occupant to provide physical care, emotional nurturance, social guidance, and the like to her children.
Role sequencing
Assuming and enacting roles in sequence rather than trying to perform what may be competing roles at the same time. For example, a woman may first adopt a work role, then a domestic role, and then return to educational or career activities.
Role-taking
It can mean playing a role associated with a status one occupies, such as taking the mother role when one has a child. It can also mean acting out a role that is not, or not yet, one's own, as when children play mommy or daddy or police officer.
Science
A logical system that bases knowledge on . . . systematic observation, empirical evidence, facts we verify with our senses.
Scientific investigation
In social science, the systematic gathering of information— using surveys, experiments, naturalistic observation, archival historical material, and case studies—from which it is often possible to generalize with a significant degree of predictability. Data collection and analysis are usually guided by theory or earlier scientific observations. They point to theory modification and a greater understanding of the phenomenon being studied.
Self-concept
The basic feelings people have about themselves, their characteristics and abilities, and their worth; how people think of or view themselves.
Sex ratio
The number of men per 100 women in a society. If the sex ratio is above 100, there are more men than women; if it is below 100, there are more women than men.
Structure functional perspective
Theoretical perspective that looks to the functions that institutions perform for society and the structural form of the institution.
Survey
A technique of scientific investigation using questionnaires or brief face-to-face interviews or both. An example is the U.S. census.
System
A combination of elements or components that are interrelated and organized as a whole. The human body is a system, as is a family.
Theoretical perspective
A way of viewing reality, or a lens through which analysts organize and interpret what they observe. Researchers on the family identify those aspects of families that are of interest to them, based on their own theoretical perspective.
On-time transition
Moving from one family life cycle stage to another according to the most common cultural pattern.
What are the environments surrounding a typical family, according to the family ecology perspective?
1) Natural physical-biological
2) Social-cultural
3) Human-built
A strength of the ________ perspective is that it sensitizes us to significant political-economic and social-cultural issues that may not be addressed in other theories.
Family ecology
The view that the family is an enduring social institution because of the important tasks it performs for society -- reproduction, emotional support, socialization of children is the ________ perspective.
Structure-functional
The process whereby many people get a view of who and what they are from relationships with family members, and that the self-concept in large part emerges in a family context, is an important part of which perspective?
Interactionist
A photograph in the text depicts a family waiting patiently for medical attention in a neighborhood clinic. Which group of scholars might remark on the quality of the facilities or speculate about the home that these people live in?
Family ecologists
A photograph in the text depicts a mother and her children waiting patiently for medical attention in a neighborhood clinic. Which group of scholars would likely note that the woman is in the child-rearing stage of the family life cycle?
Family developmentalists
A photograph in the text depicts a mother and her children waiting patiently for medical attention in a neighborhood clinic. Which group of scholars would be inclined to explore the mother's body language and speculate on what the child is saying nonverbally to the mother?
Interactionists
A photograph in the text depicts a mother and her children waiting patiently for medical attention in a neighborhood clinic. Which group of scholars might speculate about the woman's personal power and resources relative to others in her family?
Exchange theorists
A photograph in the text depicts a mother and her children waiting patiently for medical attention in a neighborhood clinic. Which group of scholars might point out that, typically, it is mothers and not fathers who are primarily responsible for their children's health - and ask why?
Feminists
The text points out that all research tools:
Represent compromise.
Binational family
An immigrant family in which some members are citizens or legal residents of the country they migrate to, while others are undocumented—that is, they are not legal residents.
Cultural deviant perspective
A theoretical framework that emphasizes those features of racial/ethnic minority families that distinguish them from white, usually middle-class, families. In the cultural deviant perspective, those different qualities of minority families are viewed negatively.
Cultural equivalent perspective
A theoretical framework that emphasizes those features that racial/ethnic minority families have in common with white families.
Cultural variant perspective
A theoretical approach that calls for making contextually relevant interpretations of racial/ethnic minority families. Those families are studied on their own terms, as opposed to making comparisons, favorable or unfavorable, to white families. Instead, within-group comparisons are explored.
Ethnicity
A group's identity based on a sense of a common culture and language.
Euro-American families
Families whose members are of European ethnic background.
Globalization
The interdependency of people, organizations, economies, or governments across national borders.
Life chances
The opportunities that exist for a social group or an individual to pursue education and economic advancement, to secure medical care and preserve health, to marry and have children, to have material goods and housing of desired quality, and so forth.
Miller's typology of urban Native American families: bicultural
Families that develop a successful blend of native beliefs and practices with those adaptive to living in urban settings.
Miller's typology of urban Native American families: marginal
Urban families that have become alienated from both Indian and mainstream American cultures.
Miller's typology of urban Native American families: traditional
Families that retain primarily Indian ways in their urban environment.
Miller's typology of urban Native American families: transitional
Families that are tending to assimilate to the white working class.
Race
A group or category thought of as representing a distinct biological heritage. In reality, there is only one human race. Racial categories are social constructs; the so-called races do not differ significantly in terms of basic biological makeup. But racial designations nevertheless have social and economic effects and cultural meanings.
Segmented assimilation
Assimilation may vary within an immigrant stream. Immigrants with professional education and skills or from favored national origin groups or both may do very well economically and socially and become culturally integrated. Other immigrants may not have the educational background or other human capital necessary to advance in the new environment and may even experience downward mobility.
Social class
Position in the social hierarchy, such as upper class, middle class, working class, or lower class. Can be viewed in terms of such indicators as education, occupation, and income or analyzed in terms of status, respect, and lifestyle.
Transnational family
A family of immigrants or immigrant stock that maintains close ties with the sending country. Identity and behavior connect the immigrant family to the new country and the old, and their social networks cross national boundaries.
Undocumented immigrant
The preferred term for illegal immigrants, those who are present in a country but are not citizens or legal residents. The implication of the term undocumented (compared to illegal) is that immigrants may or should have legitimate claims to asylum or residence even if these have not been formally recognized.
The social context in which today's families live out their opportunities and choices includes the following:
1) Race/ethnicity.
2) Our nation's recent history.
3) The economy.
Historical events and conditions affect:
Options, choices, and the everyday lives of families.
The text identifies which of the following as one of the most dramatic developments of the twentieth century?
The increased longevity of our population
According to the text, the military is a more "family friendly" setting (at least in peacetime) than the civilian world, and has several benefits and support systems for families, including . . .
1) Family housing
2) Day care and school-age activity centers for older children
3) Extensive health insurance
One in ________ children in the United States is in poverty.
6
According to the text's discussion of social class differences among marriages:
Working-class couples tend to emphasize values associated with parenthood and job stability and may be more traditional in gender role ideology.
The cultural ________ approach emphasizes those features that racial/ethnic minority families have in common with mainstream white families.
Equivalent
Which group reflects the largest racial/ethnic minority?
Hispanics
The text points out that marriages of recent immigrants seem ________ than do those of couples of similar ethnic background whose families have been in the United States longer.
Less egalitarian
For Muslims, dating, marital choice, childrearing, the employment of women, dress, and marital decision-making are all ________ issues.
Religious
Family consists of people. . .
1) Related by blood
2) Marriage
3) Adoption
U.S. Census Bureau definition of family
"A group of two or more persons related by blood, marriage, or adoption and residing together in a household."
The unique 50's
1) Married at younger ages
2) Bore children earlier & closer together (2 children in diapers)
3) Completed their families by their late 20s
4) More buying power
Today, _% of families fit the 1950s nuclear family ideal of married couple and children.
7
Fewer people are currently married. __% of adults married in 2005, __% in 1990.
52, 62
What is the median age at first marriage for women? For men?
25.8, 27.1
In 1990 to 2000--__% increase in the number of unmarried-couple households.
72
More than __% of first marriages were preceded by cohabitation.
50
Almost ______ same-sex couple households were reported to the 2000 Census.
600,000
Percentage of male same-sex partners with kids? Percentage of female same-sex partners?
22%, 34%
Single-person households account for ____ 1/4 of American households.
Over
T/F: The avg. size of a U.S. household has dropped.
TRUE
Of young adults ages 18-24, __% of men and __% of women lived with their parents in 2003.
56, 46
Of adults ages 25-34, __% live with spouses, but __% of men and _% of women live with parents.
52, 14, 7
Why are more kids moving back home than ever before?
1) Bc of the economy & extended education
2) Delayed marriage
3) High housing costs, among other financial pressures (EX: student loans)
__% of households are multigenerational.
3.7
Multigenerational households are more likely to be found in areas. . .
1) Of new immigration
2) W/ housing shortages
3) W/ a high proportion of unwed mothers
__% of multigenerational households consist of a grandparent providing a home for an adult child and grandchildren.
65
Parenthood is increasingly postponed and fertility has declined; the total fertility rate dropped to __ in 1976 from __ in 1957.
1.7, 3.6
Today, on average, women of child-bearing age have _ children.
2
T/F: The nonmarital birth rate is declining.
FALSE; The nonmarital birth rate is increasing again after a period of stability.
Births to unmarried mothers accounted for __% of all births in 2005.
37
Almost half of nonmarital births occur to . . .
cohabitating couples.
Between __ and __% of recent first marriages are likely to end in divorce.
40, 50
Remarriage rates have ________ but remain high.
declined
T/F: 3/4 of divorced women remarry within 10 years.
TRUE; Remarriage rates of men are higher.
A much higher proportion of older men that older women are married: __% of men and __% of women.
71, 41
Functions of the Family:
1) Socialization of the children
2) Emotional support
3) Economic function
4) Protection
5) Education
6) Affection
7) Procreation
8) Prestige & status
9) Religion
10) Recreation
There are now _____ children and ____ elderly.
fewer, more
Children under 18 composed __% of the U.S. population in 2005--a substantial drop from 1964 when __% of the population were children.
25, 36
_____ than half of all married-couple households contained children in 2005, and only __% of family households.
Fewer, 47
A majority of children live in . . .
2-parent households.
2005: __% of children under 18 lived with two married parents, __% of children lived with only one of their parents, and _% lived with neither parent.
67, 28, 4
T/F: Over the last five years, the proportion of children living with a single parent has increased.
FALSE; stabilized
There are _x as many single-mother households as single-father households.
4
There is considerable variation in children's living arrangements. A 2001 study on the living arrangements of children in two-parent households found:
1) 88% live with their biological parents
2) 6% with biological mother and stepfather
3) 1% with biological father and stepmother
4) 1% with adoptive mother and father
5) 1% with adoptive father and biological mother
Children are more likely to live with a grandparent than in the recent past: In 1970, _% of children lived in a household containing a grandparent. By 2001, that rate had more than doubled to _%.
3, 9
T/F: Most parents are working parents.
TRUE; Almost 2/3 of children in married-couple households have two working parents, and children in single parent households are even more likely to be living with employed parents.
________ are more likely than the general population or the elderly to be living in poverty.
Children
In 2005, the poverty rate of children stood at ___% whereas that of the general adult population was __% and that of the elderly __%.
17.6, 11, 10
A good theory can:
1) Explain the nature of some phenomenon
2) Make predictions
3) Look at the relationships btwn things
Stages & Developmental Tasks:
1) Newly married couple (b4 children)
2) Childbearing (transition to parenthood)
3) Preschool
4) School age
5) Teenage
6) Middle-aged parents
7) Aging family members
Great Depression
Delayed marriage & parenthood (fewer children), very similar to today
WWII
Women encouraged to work for outside pay bc men 17+ were @ war; daycare prominent
1960s and 70s
Marriage rates declined & divorce rates increased.
Present
Education's particularly important (need HS & college diploma bc of international economy), more education = stable job w/ benefits
__% of money earned by top __%, _% earned by bottom 5th, __% earned by 2nd top 5th
48, 20, 4, 23
Income over $75K
1) 9 out of 10 have a computer
2) 8 out of 10 have internet access
Income less than $75K
1) 40% have a computer
2) 30% have internet access
People are living longer & baby boomers are aging. What does this mean?
1) More years invested in education
2) Longer marriages
3) Longer & changing retirements
4) Increased need for elderly care
Mean age of mother at first birth: Japan = __, total = ___, American Indian = ___
31, 25.1, 21.8
2000 Census categories (5):
1) White
2) Black or African American
3) Asian
4) American Indian or Alaska Native
5) Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
2 major categories of ethnicity:
1) Hispanic
2) non-Hispanic
In 2005, the United States was __% non-Hispanic, ___% black, ___% Hispanic, ___% Asian, _% American Indian/Alaska Native, and less than _% Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander.
66, 12.8, 14.4, 4.2, 1, 1
T/F: The adult population is more racially & ethnically diver than the child population.
FALSE
__% of African American couples earned $50,000 or more in 2005.
30
Black women are _x as likely as whites to suffer the death of an infant.
2
Only __% of African American children are living with married parents, compared to 76% of white and 65% of Hispanic children.
35
In 1960, more than __% of black families were headed by married couples--only __% in 2004.
70, 46
T/F: A majority of U.S. Latinos were born in this country.
TRUE; 40% were foreign born.
__% of Latino children are poor compared to __% of all children.
28, 18
Only __% of Lations graduate from HS and __% from college.
57, 11
Hispanics are most likely to be employed in _______ _____ ___________ and to have higher rates of ___________.
service level occupations, unemployment
Fastest growing of all racial/ethnic groups?
Asians
______ have the highest proportion of college graduates, high representation in managerial & professional occupations, & family incomes that are the highest of all racial/ethnic groups.
Asians
What are the major Pacific Islander groups?
1) Native Hawaiians
2) Samoans
3) Guamians
Pacific Islanders are ____ likely to reside in family households than the U.S. population.
More
Pacific Islanders' median household income is slightly ______ and poverty slightly _____ than for the total US.
higher, lower
How many federally recognized tribes?
Over 500
Assimilation policies led to the creation of . . .
boarding schools.
______ _________ are one of the poorest racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. (25% poverty rate).
Native Americans
American Indians have high rates of adolescent births; __% of births are to unmarried women.
62
T/F: Native Americans are more likely to live in family household than the U.S. average.
TRUE
Majority in the US (66% of the population)?
Non-Hispanic whites
The non-Hispanic white family appears ____ likely to be a married couple and ____ likely to have extended family members residing with it.
More, less
_% of married-couple households include spouses whose racial/ethnic identities differ.
7
__% of opposite-sex partners and male same-sex partners and __% of female partners report different racial/ethnic identities.
15, 13
Between 1977 and 1997, the percentage of babies born to people of different races . . .
more than doubled.
Multiracial families are formed through:
1) Interracial marriage
2) Nonmarital partnership
3) Adoption of children across racial lines
__% of American adults surveyed in 2001 indicated a religious identification.
80
T/F: "Born Again" Christians are more likely to cohabitate.
FALSE; Less likely to cohabitate, but their divorce rates do not differ.
More than __ of Jews do not have Jewish spouses, and in those marriages, more than __ of children are not being raised as Jews.
1/2, 2/3
T/F: Islamic families maintain a religious family life in a culture that doesn't share their beliefs.
TRUE
Families differ according to . . .
social context--religion, race/ethnicity, social class, age structure, and the historical time in which they live.
The many kinds of American households, 2004:
1) Married-couple famlies with children under 18 (23%)
2) Child-free or post-child rearing married couples (28.5%)
3) Female-headed single-parent families (7.3%)
4) Male-headed single-parent families (1.7%)
5) Other nonfamily households (.4%)
6) Unmarried-couple households (5.3%)
7) People living alone (26.4%)
8) Other male- or female-headed family households (relatives other than spouses or children) (7.5%)
Family Ecology
1) Theme: The ecological context of the family affects family life and children's outcomes.
2) Key Concepts: Natural physical-biological environment; Human-built environment; Social-cultural environment
3) Current research: Family policy; Neighborhood effects
Family Development
1) Theme: Families experience predictable changes overtime.
2) Key concepts: Family life cycle; Developmental tasks; "On-time" transitions; Role-sequencing
3) Current research: Emerging adulthood; Timing of employment, marriage, and parenthood
Structure-Functional
1) Theme: The family performs essential functions for society.
2) Key concepts: Social institution; Family structure; Family functions; Extended family; Nuclear family
3) Current research: Cross-cultural and historical comparisons; Critique of contemporary family
Interactionists
1) Theme: The internal dynamics of a group of interacting individuals construct the family.
2) Key concepts: Interaction; Self-concept; Identity; Meaning; Roles; Role-taking; Internalization; Role-making
3) Current research: Meaning assigned to domestic work
Exchange Theory
1) Theme: The resources that individuals bring to a relationship or family affect formation, continuation, nature, and power dynamics of a relationship.
2) Key concepts: Resources; Rewards and costs; Family power and decision making; Exchange balance
3) Current research: Family power; Entry and exit from marriage; Family violence
Systems Theory
1) Theme: The family as a whole is more than the sum of its parts.
2) System: Equilibrium; Boundaries; Family therapy
3) Current research: Family efficacy and crisis management; Family boundaries
Conflict
1) Theme: Social and economic relations are not equally beneficial to the parties; conflict and exploitation characterize relations of inequality.
2) Key concepts: Inequality; Power; Class
3) Current research: Family efficacy and crisis management; Family boundaries

Effect on families of economic inequality in the U.S.; Racial/ethnic and immigration status variations; Effect on families of the changing global economy.
Feminists
1) Theme: Gender is central to the analysis of the family; male dominance in society and in the family is oppressive of women.
2) Key concepts: Male dominance; Power and inequality
3) Current research: Work and family; Family power; Domestic violence; Advocacy of women's issues
Biosocial
1) Theme: Evolution of the human species has put its place certain biological endowments that shape and limit family choices.
2) Key concepts: Evolutionary heritage; Genes, hormones, and brain processes; Inclusive fitness
3) Current research: Connections between biological markets and family behavior; Evolutionary heritage explanations for gender differences, sexuality and reproduction, and parenting behavior; Development of research methods that can explore the respective influences of "nature" and "nurture"