HDF Notes - Family Relationships Important ideas/terms to...

Family Relationships
1/17/17
Important ideas/terms to remember:
 Fact: a statement that can be verified and is established w/ overwhelming evidence
(Opposite could be thought of as a myth)
 Value / Opinion / Belief: a statement that is not possible to prove or disprove
through scientific evidence
Sample Selection
 Population
o All individuals in a group that share a particular characteristic
o Often impossible to find and survey all individuals in the group
 Sample
o A group of individuals who represent the entire population
Methods: Surveys
 Used to systematically collect information
 Predetermined questions
 Questionnaires
 Interviews
 Focus groups
Methods: Field Research
 Systematic observation of people in their natural surroundings
 Participant observers
o Researchers interact naturally, but do not reveal their identities as
researchers
Methods: Secondary Analysis
 Use of data that was collected by someone else
o Historical documents
o Public records
o Official statistics
o Surveys obtained by other researchers
Methods: Experiments
 Examination of cause and effect relationships under controlled conditions
 Individuals assigned by experimenter into one of two or more groups
The Ethics and Politics of Family Research
 Codes of Ethics
o Helps protect human research subjects

 Data is confidential
 Protect participant’s identity
o Helps keep research “honest”
 Prevents biased researched
 Political issues can affect both research agendas and reporting procedures
o Grant funding targeted toward specific diseases
1/24/17
The Ethics and Politics of Family Research
 Political issues can affect both research agendas and reporting procedures
o Grant funding targeted toward specific diseases
o Criticism from Congress on use of funds (The Wastebook)
o Having healthy relationships lead to a more healthy, developed society
Liberals
 More concerned with social problems
 More likely to be left-winged than right
What is Family?
 A family is
o A group of related people living together: share genetic material, are married,
adopted
 A household is
o The person(s) who live in a housing unit
Sociological Perspective
 “The family deals with reproduction and care and support for children and adults”
(Skolnick & Skolnick, 2009)
Historical Perspectives
 Love as a requirement for marriage is a more recent development
o Still not necessary in arranged marriages
o Pre-industrial families – love and commitment not related
 Role of children has changed
o Pre-industrial children were producers
o Transformation to economic dependents
 Children now play more than work
o Rates of childbirth have decreased with this change
 Function of family has changed
o Shift from public to private
o No longer the same contract for production as part of society
 Gender Roles