Blog 8

Assignment 6

1. What is the “Second Shift?” The “Second Shift” is the end of one’s day when a person is finished working their “First Shift”, typically at one’s full-time job or just the time of their day during which they are away from home. A “Second Shift” consists of various different tasks that one still has left to do after completing their “First Shift” of the day. These tasks and responsibilities include jobs such as “shopping, cooking, paying bills; taking care of the car, the garden, and yard” (Hochschild,1989) The second shift can also involve keeping healthy relationships with relatives, friends, neighbors, and most important with each other. 2. Name and describe the family MYTH created by Nancy and Evan Holt. The Family myth between Nancy and Evan Holt the Upstairs downstairs myth. “The upstairs includes the Living room, the dining room, the kitchen, two bedrooms, and baths. The downstairs meant the garage, a place for storage and hobbies – Evans’s hobbies.” (Hochschild, 1989). This is separating the household work depending on what they should be doing. Even though Evan and Nancy divided the household work in some ways due to gender. 3. According to Hochschild, what is the purpose of family myths? “Not all couples need or have family myths” (Hochschild, 1989). Family myths are created in order to allow couples to believe that there are no problems or conflicts in their family. Although technically, family myths cannot permanently erase difficulties presented within a family, they provide a strategy which makes individuals believe that all of their problems have been resolved and that they are truly “happy”. 4. How do you expect to divide household labor and child care when you start a family? Please note whether you intend to work full-time, part-time, or stay at home when married and/or when you have young children. I intend to have a full time job with at least three children, I have thought that maybe when I have children I would think about going to a part-time job so that I will be able to be home with my children when they need me. Everything is subject to change. I wouldn’t mind cleaning the house as long as my husband takes on all of the outside jobs, and cleans up after himself in the house. I do not like to cook so it might be best to change up who cooks and what nights. Maybe even cooking together. I want my children to be involved with housework and cooking as well even from a young age, this is because I know I will be working and I have household responsibilities and this would be how I can spend time with them.

Assignment 5

1:Two different types of single are voluntary temporary single where someone is not opposed to being in a relationship, but has other responsibilities in their life that make finding a partner low on their priority list. Another is involuntary stable single these are people that are older and have divorced or have been widowed. People who are involuntary stable single do not want to get married again and are very content with their life being single. 2:The data has changed in the census for this report because they decided that thy wanted to look at 1st births instead of the most recent births. The census not recognizes cohabiting families as families instead of being married people are able to live together and have children without being married. They also like to avoid missing information so they included every culture separately. 3:Two out of the four types of cohabiting are dating cohabitation which is when where people spend a lot of time together while they are dating and feel that it is best to live together. Another type would be trial marriage, before a couple decides to get married they live together to see how everything would work out for them when they get married. 4:I don’t think that there is any problem with two people that are in a serious relationship to live together before they get married. I most likely would be someone who cohabits because school and starting your career is more important than spending money on a wedding so that the state and the government can recognize that you are officially marred. I also think that you don’t truly know someone until you are around them all the time when they are in a good or bad mood so that you see how they act all the time. 5:I think that if a heterosexual couple wants to get married, but is not allowed in their state they should have the same rights as married couples because there is a law preventing them and that is something that they personally cannot fix it is the state. If they are serious enough to get married then they should get the benefits. That follow with the married couples.

Assignment 4

1. According to the slides how do we define power, prestige, and privilege and give an example of each. Power: ability to force another person to do something even against their will, and example would be if you have a boss and they want you to clean the bathroom even if it is something that you don’t want to do you have to because your boss has power over you. Prestige: respect and status in society, an example is people who own companies, and run business are more likely to be given more respect. The more money that you have the higher up in a social class you are which makes more people under you have more respect for you. Privilege: special advantage or benefit enjoyed by individuals, but not all, if you have more money than it is easier to get what you want. Sometimes people can pay their way to get a table at a restaurant or cut a line because they paid for it. 2. Also, what three variables do Sociologists use to define social class. When Sociologist define social class they use three variable they are income, occupation and Education. 3. After reading the textbook and reviewing the lecture slides, how would you define your social class (using terms from the lecture and textbook) and why? There are two ways to look at my social class if I was just looking at me apart from my family I would probably be in the lower class because I have a part time job, cannot support myself, having college loans, but If I was looking at my families social class then I would be middle class. My mom owns her own house, three cars, works, can support a family, a college education, a job. There are different ways to look at social class in my option. 4. Briefly describe what is happening to the upper class (the rich), the middle class, and the working and lower classes according to Chapter 13 in the Benokraitis textbook. The upper class are making more and more money, there are not a lot of people that are being added to the upper-class but the people there are taking more and more of the wealth. The middle class is shrinking because of the way it is defined. Many people just place themselves in the middle class because they aren’t rich and they aren’t poor. The lower is barely able to service the rich has so much money and are constantly taking more of the overall wealth that there is very little lift for the poor. 5. Lastly, your importance in U.S. society is often linked to race/ethnicity, education, age, income, and gender. Think about how your race/ethnicity or gender or age has blocked your from an opportunity or given you an advantage. Please identify your age, education, gender of race/ethnicity and then tell me your story of an opportunity or disadvantage you have experienced in your life. I am a 19 year old white American female, in college getting my undergraduate degree. When getting my job in retail now my boss hired me because I was white. My boss is in some ways races when it comes to blacks or African Americans because she says they never work out. This was beneficial for me.

blog 3

I am an American I was born and raised her and so were both of my parents and their parents. I was born and raised in NJ and my Mother’s family was born and raised in Philadelphia and in Delaware. I don’t have any ties to where my family comes from because they have been here since 1620 when the Mayflower came over. Which is why my family have Americanized our self because there is nothing else that we know. On the census questions 8 and 9 are not hard for me at all in white. So for 8 I am not of any Hispanic background, and for 9 I’m white nothing else. I do not think much about race and ethnicity much before, I grew up in Bloomfield, NJ and was always open to learning about other people race and ethnic background being that don’t have one I wanted to learn others. I was never judgmental I had friends from every background when I was little even till now. For me on the census what am I is so easy I am white nothing else and nothing more. The video is not shocking to me being a psychology major I have seen multiple studies that have been done this way. I think at the same time that even though there are many people who feel as though blacks are bad and whites are good. I think that black families should try to build their children especially women’s confidence. The younger children who picked the dolls were taught that white people were better than the black people, they were not born knowing that being racisim, sexisms, and everything else is taught to children. So I think that even though everything is not perfect in the world when dealing with race and ethnicity people need to stand up for themselves. Everyone is beautiful and special in their own way and color should not effect that. From a sociological point the children could be influenced by the media and what they see on TV or what people tell them that they should know. Children are able to absorb so much knowledge that they remember that one incident on TV where there was an issue with a black and white person. They will remember what their family said while watching it and the well remember what was said on TV and that all plays a huge role in how they feel about themselves and also other people around them

Assignment two

1. According to the structural functionalism perspective, what was the definition of the "instrumental leader" and what was the definition of an "expressive leader." What family roles were connected to each of these leader definitions? The structural functionalism perspective defines the “Instrumental leader” also known as the “breadwinner” of the family, their role is to provide the family with food and shelter. They are characterized as hard working, tough and competitive. The “instrumental role” are usually connected with the husband, father, or the male in charge of the household. On the other hand the “expressive leader” or known as the “homemaker”, is in charge of providing emotional support and nurturing that sustains the families unit. They are usually the mother or the wife. 2. What is the main criticism of the functionalist perspective? The main criticism of the functionalist perspective is that they are very conservative in order and stability. Functionalist ignore the social changes that are occurring which is why their perspectives do not change. They see families as being men are “breadwinners” and are in charge, and women stay home and take care of the family and that is how it should be. 3. In contrast to functionalist theorists, in your own words, what is the main theme of conflict theory? The main theme of the conflict theory has to do with who will work harder to get what they want. People compete for specific things that are not easy to get so the more you work for it the further you will get to achieving what you want. The conflict theory does not state that only men can do this like the functionalist theorists would suggests, this is usually when someone who does not have power tries to get power and that is where the different conflicts come in. 4. According to conflict theorists, where do family problems come from? According to conflict theorists, family problems come from money, they say that many people are losing their jobs and that is where the main problems start from. This also sets up the issues with health services, education, and employment. Which are problems for families. 5. Gender/Feminist theory is based on what main idea? Describe one way that feminist theory has led to more diverse understanding of families. The Gender/Feminist theory is based on the main idea of social, economic, and political inequality between women and men in society. This theory has help families be more diverse because they informed people of different types of families assigned from the nuclear traditional family type. They showed, single parent families, same sex families, step parents and even more. 6. Social exchange theorists is based on ideas from economics. What is the main argument of social exchange perspective? Give two examples of "resources" people bring to a relationship? Social exchange theorists argue that people seek through their interaction to maximize their rewards and minimize their cost. Two different resources that people bring to relationships are money and talent.

About Me

My name is Melyssa, that’s right with a Y not and I, I try and get people to spell my name right, but I have accepted that most people do not spell it correctly. I do not let it bother me anymore. I am not a FCST major yet, but I am interested in double majoring in it along with my current major of Psychology. I am interested in becoming a Dance Movement therapist and work with a wide range of different types of children. I am interesting in working with children with special needs, children who have depression, also children dealing with life threatening diseases. I picked psychology as my major because I have always had an interest in why people do what they do, and helping people overcome emotional and psychological problems. It just so happens that psychology is also what is needed before getting a masters in Dance Movement Therapy. For my masters I want to go to Pratt in NY. When I am done with that I want to open up my own business. My family consists of my mom, and two brother Bryan(23) and Scott(17). My parent’s separated about nine years ago and he ended up passing away four years ago from a heart attack. My family enjoys watching movies together, going to chipotle, and also shopping. I was interested about learning about is the different types of families because after just looking at the first chapter I was able to see that many different groups of people are considered families and I can't wait to see the change in families. I also was interested in learning about relationships and mate selection. I have learned a lot about love and how people are attracted to each other in a psychological aspect, but I am interested in seeing it from a different point of view. Quiz of syllabus: A) Class meets face to face on Tuesdays from 1:00 to 2:15, the other part of the class is online and is due by Monday at 10:00. B) Six out of seven blog posts need to be completed to receive full credit. C) Blogs are due by 10:00am Monday. D) Before Face to Face classes emails should be checked. E) During week threes face to face we look at Methods of research on families, and during our online class we look at the theoretical perspectives on families. F) Chapter 10 is the chapter that focuses on Marriage but that is not located on the syllabus, but when looking at the other chapters talking about marriage week 4 while listening to an audio. The syllabus as of right now only goes up to week six so I am thinking that maybe marriage is past that week. I also noticed that part 3 talks about relationships that is when marriage should be talking about.