3.9: Going Deeper

Elizabeth B. Pearce

Now that you have started reading about the importance of love and community, this page has some resources for you.

First, there are some resources that the authors used but could not fit into the chapter. If there was something that really piqued your interest and made you want to learn more, it may be listed in this table. This is also a resource for students who may have an assignment to research a particular topic or who need to identify a topic for a final project. Scan through “Want to Learn More?” if you are interested.

Next, you will see a set of reflective questions. You may be assigned these questions as a chapter review, or perhaps you will be using them as discussion questions in class. These questions are designed to help you apply the chapter concepts, develop your sociological imagination, reflect, and use an equity lens. Look over the “Reflective Questions” if you’d like to explore your own thinking more thoroughly.

After that, you will see the same list of key terms that appeared at the start of the chapter. They may help you with your additional exploration or research.

Finally, some chapters include activities that the instructor may use in the classroom.

Want to Learn More?

• If you would like to read more about the separation of immigrant families from the Global South, there is a deep dive on this Human Rights Watch webpage, and there are links to detailed fact sheets and descriptions of visits to the facilities where parents, babies, toddlers, and children are being held.
• To learn more about platonic life partnerships (PLPs) from April Lee, visit her TikTok page.
• To read more about digital media and relationships, read the article “From Online Dating to Online Divorce: An Overview of Couple and Family Relationships Shaped through Digital Media” (2017).
• If you’d like to listen to Rachel Lindsay and Becca Kufrin, listen to “Race, Diversity, and Bachelor Nation,” the June 9, 2020, episode of Bachelor Happy Hour. It is also available on most podcast platforms.
• To read about how to qualify for Medicare or Medicaid, review these government websites:
  • Medicare.gov
  • Medicaid.gov

Reflective Questions

1. How are community and connection important to individuals? What theory best helps you understand this idea?
2. How are kinship and family similar and different? What is the role of social structure?
3. How do changes in the social constructions of gender and sexuality affect family and intimate relationships?
4. What are the factors that contribute to union formation? Which ones have influenced you the most personally?
5. In what ways does the government influence partnerships, marriages, and breakups?
6. What are the most likely contributing factors to the increase in divorce from the 1960s forward? What are the disproven factors that are still cited by many?
7. How does societal stigma influence union formations?
8. What are the issues related to equity when it comes to partnerships (including marriage)?

Key Terms

• Assortative mating: the tendency to choose intimate mates who are more like oneself.
• Binary: a social construct composed of two parts that are framed as absolute and unchanging opposites.
• Chosen families: nonbiological kinship bonds, whether legally recognized or not, deliberately chosen for the purpose of mutual support and love.
• Cisgender: a person who identifies in accordance with their gender assignment.
• Companionate marriage: in addition to economic stability, these marriages also have an expectation of love, affection, friendship, and sexual fidelity and satisfaction.
• Gender: a socially constructed expression of a person’s sexual identity that influences the status, roles, and norms for their behavior.
• Hierarchy of needs theories: a framework articulated by multiple Indigenous groups that emphasizes self-actualization not just of the individual but of the community as the most primary of needs.
• Homophobia: fear, hatred, or prejudice toward gay people.
• Individualized marriage: responsibilities and roles are more fluid, and the enhancement of individual well-being and psychological growth is added to expectations.
• Polyamory: having intimate relationships with more than one person at a time.
• Sexuality: the pattern of romantic and/or sexual attraction to others in relation to one’s own gender identity.
• Stigma: a negative or discriminatory attitude based on a social characteristic or behavior.
• Transgender people: individuals who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth.
• Union formation: an intimate relationship in which two or more people commit to some kind of union, including marriage.

Activity: How Do Theories and Your Ideas about Marriage Connect?

Earlier in the chapter, you matched the following statements about marriage with the core theories discussed in this text (figure 3.12, reproduced below):

1. Marriage is a social construction: something that people have agreed is a unit of importance that has changed in meaning and function over time and location.
2. Marriage is a status symbol: Even though people are marrying less, it is still important.
3. Although individuals may not realize it, the way that world events have shaped their birth cohort impacts the timing and likelihood of marriage for them.
4. Marriage is a partnership that individuals form considering the costs and benefits of pairing up with another person.
5. Marriage is another function in which the power of men over women is emphasized in a binary structure.
6. Marriage is impacted by the social structure in our country—the institutions and processes that privilege some and oppress others.
7. When examining an individual’s circles of support, marriage can be an important part of the innermost circle.
8. People marry for so many reasons and in so many different ways that it is difficult to say what it means or why people marry.

Discussion questions

1. Do you agree with some of these statements? Which ones and why?
2. If you wrote your own statement about marriage and society, what would it say?
3. Consider the theories below. Which theories are closest to your understanding of marriage, and how do they help you understand how marriage works?

Theory/ Perspective	Major Principles
Ecological Systems	Individuals are part of a group of concentric systems that impact their development and growth.
Exchange (aka Social Exchange)	Individuals have different strengths, resources, and weaknesses and enter into relationships via the evaluation of benefits and costs.
Feminist (aka Feminism)	Society is structured in a way that privileges men over women; this theory works to understand and to transform inequalities.
Life Course	This theory pays attention to time, including significant social and historical events and life transitions, and how it shapes the trajectories of birth cohorts and the individuals in them.
Postmodernism (aka Modernity)	Choice and individuality are emphasized in the postmodern era. Humans are able to act in the way they choose within society and institutions.
Structural Diversity	This approach examines the close connections between the inner workings of families and the social structures that shape all families, but in different ways.
Symbolic Interaction	This theory focuses on the changing nature of symbols and the ways we interact with one another based on those symbols. Humans see themselves through the eyes of others, and this affects the roles they play.

This table shows some of the foundational theories related to the study of families.

Licenses and Attributions for Going Deeper

Open Content, Original

“Going Deeper” by Elizabeth B. Pearce. License: CC BY 4.0.