Goals and Objectives
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There will be 4 tests each semester: Test one covers chapters 1,2,3,4.
Test two covers chapters 5,6,7,8. Test three covers chapters 9, 10, 11, 12. The final is comprehensive. Test one and the final are proctored. Your goals and objectives for each chapter are located on this page.
CHAPTER ONE
At the end of this chapter,you should be able to do the following:
- Address the complexities of defining the word family in our postmodern society.
- Understand the concept of family as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.
- Discuss whether we are in an era of “family decline” or “family change.”
- Explain the importance of current societal trends and their impact on the family.
- Discuss the importance of making choices in relationships.
- Address the difference between active, knowledgeable choices and choice by default.
- Recognize that people's decisions are both influenced by social constraint and at the same time can be sources of change in the social structure.
- Know the tension between individual and communal values, and how this tension affects families.
- Explain how change and development are a part of both individual and family life.
- Understand the importance of the family in providing members a place of personal identity.
CHAPTER TWOLEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this chapter, the student should be able to do the following:1. Be familiar with the “blinders of personal experience” in family science research.
2. Understand theoretical perspectives, starting with the family ecology perspective.
3. Define and understand the family life course development framework.
4. Explain the structure-functional perspective in family science.
5. Discuss interaction-constructionist views of the family.
6. Be familiar with the exchange theory and its contributions to family science.
7. Explain family systems theory and how the family is viewed through this lens.
8. Define conflict, feminist and biosocial theoretical perspectives in family science.
CHAPTER 3
Learning ObjectivesAt the end of this chapter, the student should be able to do the following:
- Understand that families exist in a social context.
- Be familiar with historical events and trends that have affected family life over the last century in the United States.
- Discuss how age structure and increasing longevity changes the family.
- Explain how wartime impacts the family.
- Define social class and understand different economic pressures on the family.
- Know the difference between blue-collar, pink-collar and white-collar families.
- Define race, ethnicity, minority and multiracial as terms related to the family.
- Be familiar with the variations in family life due to race and ethnicity, and note similarities and differences between African American, Latino, Asian, American Indian, Pacific Islander, Arab American and white families in the United States.
- Discuss how immigration has contributed to the diversity of family life.
- Explain how religious beliefs and traditions impact family norms.
CHAPTER 4
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Define gender, sex, gender identity and gender roles.
2. Be familiar with traditional masculine expectations in our culture.
3. Be familiar with traditional feminine expectations in our culture.
4. Discuss how actual men and women may differ in their gender identity and roles.
5. Understand the prevalence of male dominance in politics, religion and the economy.
6. Explain differences in racial/ethnic stereotypes where gender is concerned.
7. Discuss how socialization affects children in terms of gender identity and roles.
8. Be familiar with the social constraints that shape men’s and women’s choices, and the
advance of social change in the U.S. through the women’s and men’s movements.
9. Discuss how men and women negotiate gendered expectations within the family.
10. Explore the possibilities for future gender equality within marriage and family.
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Test 2 covers chapter 5,6,7,8
CHAPTER 5
OUR SEXUAL SELVES
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this chapter, the student should be able to do the following:- Be familiar with the concepts of sexual development and sexual orientation.
- Differentiate between several theoretical perspectives on human sexuality.
- Understand how sexuality is affected by changing cultural scripts.
- Discuss the four standards of nonmarital sex.
- Explore issues of sexuality throughout married life.
- Know the differences in sexual expression due to race and ethnicity.
- Define sex as a pleasure bond.
- Discuss the impact of HIV/AIDS on sexual expression.
- Be familiar with the politics of sex.
10. Understand the importance of individual sexual responsibility.
CHAPTER 6
Learning Objectives
At the end of this chapter, the student should be able to do the following:
- Discuss the concept of love as it has to do with committed love relationships.
- Understand how attachment theory applies to choosing a life partner.
- Discuss the intergenerational transmission of divorce risk, and mate selection risk.
- Be familiar with the concept of the marriage market, both in the U.S. and internationally.
- Define homogamy and know how it affects mate selection.
- Know how heterogamy affects marital stability, and what it has to do with human values.
- Recognize a developing relationship as it moves toward commitment.
- Explain dating violence, date rape, and the issues involved with breaking up.
- Be able to explain the effects of cohabitation on marital quality and stability.
- Understand how marital satisfaction is determined by life-long choices in the relationship.
CHAPTER 7
MARRIAGE: FROM SOCIAL INSTITUTION TO PRIVATE RELATIONSHIP
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this chapter, the student should be able to do the following:- Be familiar with the changing picture of marital status in the United States.
- Understand the “marriage premise” as expectations of permanence and exclusivity.
- Recognize alternative marriage options such as polygamy, polyamory and swinging.
- Differentiate between kinship authority and individual choice in finding a mate.
- Define the concept of institutional marriage.
- Define the cultural phenomenon of companionate marriage.
- Define the current understanding of individualized marriages.
- Understand the concept and consequences of deinstitutionalizing marriage, and know the variations in marriage according to racial/ethnic traditions.
- Be able to explain family policy from both the family change and family decline perspectives.
10. Debate the issues of whether marriage increases happiness and life satisfaction
CHAPTER 8
LIVING ALONE, COHABITING, SAME-SEX UNIONS,
AND OTHER INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this chapter, the student should be able to do the following:- Be familiar with the reasons for the increasing proportion of unmarrieds in the U.S.
- Understand the various choices associated with living alone.
- Differentiate between living alone and ‘living alone together’ according to the text.
- Discuss why more and more singles are living with their parents.
- Define group or communal living as a nonmarital living arrangement.
- Discuss cohabitation as an acceptable living arrangement.
- Recognize the issues that come with cohabiting families and raising children.
- Know the similarities and differences in a same-sex couple’s relationship.
- Be familiar with the debate over legal marriage for same-sex couples.
10. Understand the unmarried and overall life satisfaction.
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Test 3 covers chapters 9, 10, 11, 12
TO PARENT OR NOT TO PARENT
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this chapter, the student should be able to do the following:- Be familiar with fertility trends in the U.S., including differences in race/ethnicity.
- Understand the social pressures to have children, and discuss whether America is anti- or pronatalist.
- Weigh the costs and benefits of having children, and how children affect marital bliss.
- Define voluntary childlessness, and the costs and benefits of remaining child-free.
- Recognize the options available for timing parenthood, and understand the one-child family.
- Discuss the statistics on nonmarital births; explore stepfamilies and multipartnered fertility.
- Know some common ways of preventing pregnancy.
- Define abortion and be able to debate the facts, statistics and politics surrounding this issue.
- Discuss involuntary infertility and the reproductive technology available today.
10. Understand the adoption process and be able to define the different types of adoption.
CHAPTER 10
RAISING CHILDREN IN A DIVERSE SOCIETY
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this chapter, the student should be able to do the following:- Discuss what it means to be parents in America today.
- Understand the difficulties in transitioning to parenthood.
- Be familiar with the images and reality of what it means to be a mother or a father; including a single mother or father.
- Recognize the three parenting styles discussed by the text: authoritarian, laissez-faire, and authoritative. Which is the best style of parenting, according to psychologists?
- Discuss the effect that social class has on parenting in our culture.
- Be familiar with some racial/ethnic and religious differences and similarities in parenting.
- Know the concept of grandparents who are parenting their grandchildren.
- Define foster care, and know the various types of foster parenting in the United States.
- Discuss the issues we face today in parenting adult children.
10. Understand the tools needed for improved parent-child relationships.
CHAPTER 11
WORK AND FAMILY
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this chapter, the student should be able to do the following:- Understand the origins of the labor force in the U.S., and the increasing movement of women into the labor force in recent years.
- Be familiar with women who “opt out” of work to be stay-at-home moms, and the emergence of neotraditional families as a new style of work/family balance.
- Discuss men’s market work, moving from the role of “provider” to more egalitarian work.
- Recognize the differences between two-earner marriages and dual-career marriages.
- Define “unpaid family work,” and the impact this has on a marriage.
- Discuss how work and family issues differ according to racial/ethnic diversity.
- Understand the concept of “juggling” employment and family work, and its effect on both parents and children.
- Be familiar with options for child care in marriages where both parents are in the labor force.
- Discuss the need for social policy to support families when it comes to employment.
10. Understand the gender strategies involved in negotiating roles in a two-earner marriage.
CHAPTER 12
COMMUNICATION IN RELATIONSHIPS, MARRIAGES, AND FAMILIES
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
At the end of this chapter, the student should be able to do the following:- Understand the importance of positive communication in overall couple satisfaction.
- Define “cohesive family,” and be familiar with the six characteristics that create cohesion.
- Discuss the components of healthy communication.
- Recognize the negative results of unhealthy communication in a relationship.
- Understand the concepts of supportive couple communication and conflict management.
- Discuss gender differences in communication.
- Be familiar with Gottman’s “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” and how to avoid them.
- Recognize the guidelines to positively working through conflicts in relationship.
- Understand the goal of working together towards better communication as a couple.
10. Be familiar with the myth of conflict-free conflict