Chapter 1

1.) Since we all read the chapter, I’m going to just quickly summarize it, instead of reiterating everything we read. Chapter 1 is all about “The Changing Family.” To begin, the chapter defines the term family, including both traditional and current definitions of the word. The chapter also discusses the variations in the family form; ranging from the nuclear family, that is “made up of married parents and their biological or adopted children” to polygamy in which “a man or woman has two or more spouses.” The chapter examines the five main important functions of a family: (1) regulation of sexual activity, (2) procreation and socialization, (3) economic security, (4) emotional support, and (5) social class placement. The institution of marriage is also discussed, the requirements to become married are included along with the difference between ceremonial marriages and nonceremonial marriages. The myths of families follow the functions, and this section was most interesting to me, I will discuss this later. Afterwards, the three perspectives on the changing family are elaborated on, those perspectives are: (1) the family is deteriorating, (2) the family is changing, not deteriorating, and (3) the family is stronger than ever. Finally, the chapter discusses the trends in changing families and the reasons why families are changing.

2.) I found the myths of the families to be very interesting. In the small section called “Myths Can Be Dysfunctional,” the chapter says that “the myth of the perfect family can make us miserable.” I firmly agree with this statement. The idea of the perfect family can cause healthy families to believe that something is wrong with them. The pursuit of being the perfect family and the pressure to live up to an ideal image can actually drive a family apart and deteriorate a perfectly healthy family.

3.) The book states that “about 12% of Americans are currently in their second, third, or fourth marriage.” I’m wondering if these are families in which, the couple was married, got divorced and remarried different people or if they polled situations in which a couple is married, gets divorced and later down the line falls back in love and remarries each other (the same people get remarried after divorce). Are these just rare situations? How would that percentage change if these possibly rare situations were included?