sociology family essay questions

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15.2 Sociological Perspectives on the Family

Learning objective.

• Summarize understandings of the family as presented by functional, conflict, and social interactionist theories.

Sociological views on today’s families generally fall into the functional, conflict, and social interactionist approaches introduced earlier in this book. Let’s review these views, which are summarized in Table 15.1 “Theory Snapshot” .

Table 15.1 Theory Snapshot

Social Functions of the Family

Recall that the functional perspective emphasizes that social institutions perform several important functions to help preserve social stability and otherwise keep a society working. A functional understanding of the family thus stresses the ways in which the family as a social institution helps make society possible. As such, the family performs several important functions.

First, the family is the primary unit for socializing children . As previous chapters indicated, no society is possible without adequate socialization of its young. In most societies, the family is the major unit in which socialization happens. Parents, siblings, and, if the family is extended rather than nuclear, other relatives all help socialize children from the time they are born.

One of the most important functions of the family is the socialization of children. In most societies the family is the major unit through which socialization occurs.

Colleen Kelly – Kids Playing Monopoly Chicago – CC BY 2.0.

Second, the family is ideally a major source of practical and emotional support for its members. It provides them food, clothing, shelter, and other essentials, and it also provides them love, comfort, help in times of emotional distress, and other types of intangible support that we all need.

Third, the family helps regulate sexual activity and sexual reproduction . All societies have norms governing with whom and how often a person should have sex. The family is the major unit for teaching these norms and the major unit through which sexual reproduction occurs. One reason for this is to ensure that infants have adequate emotional and practical care when they are born. The incest taboo that most societies have, which prohibits sex between certain relatives, helps minimize conflict within the family if sex occurred among its members and to establish social ties among different families and thus among society as a whole.

Fourth, the family provides its members with a social identity . Children are born into their parents’ social class, race and ethnicity, religion, and so forth. As we have seen in earlier chapters, social identity is important for our life chances. Some children have advantages throughout life because of the social identity they acquire from their parents, while others face many obstacles because the social class or race/ethnicity into which they are born is at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

Beyond discussing the family’s functions, the functional perspective on the family maintains that sudden or far-reaching changes in conventional family structure and processes threaten the family’s stability and thus that of society. For example, most sociology and marriage-and-family textbooks during the 1950s maintained that the male breadwinner–female homemaker nuclear family was the best arrangement for children, as it provided for a family’s economic and child-rearing needs. Any shift in this arrangement, they warned, would harm children and by extension the family as a social institution and even society itself. Textbooks no longer contain this warning, but many conservative observers continue to worry about the impact on children of working mothers and one-parent families. We return to their concerns shortly.

The Family and Conflict

Conflict theorists agree that the family serves the important functions just listed, but they also point to problems within the family that the functional perspective minimizes or overlooks altogether.

First, the family as a social institution contributes to social inequality in several ways. The social identity it gives to its children does affect their life chances, but it also reinforces a society’s system of stratification. Because families pass along their wealth to their children, and because families differ greatly in the amount of wealth they have, the family helps reinforce existing inequality. As it developed through the centuries, and especially during industrialization, the family also became more and more of a patriarchal unit (see earlier discussion), helping to ensure men’s status at the top of the social hierarchy.

Second, the family can also be a source of conflict for its own members. Although the functional perspective assumes the family provides its members emotional comfort and support, many families do just the opposite and are far from the harmonious, happy groups depicted in the 1950s television shows. Instead, and as the news story that began this chapter tragically illustrated, they argue, shout, and use emotional cruelty and physical violence. We return to family violence later in this chapter.

Families and Social Interaction

Social interactionist perspectives on the family examine how family members and intimate couples interact on a daily basis and arrive at shared understandings of their situations. Studies grounded in social interactionism give us a keen understanding of how and why families operate the way they do.

Some studies, for example, focus on how husbands and wives communicate and the degree to which they communicate successfully (Tannen, 2001). A classic study by Mirra Komarovsky (1964) found that wives in blue-collar marriages liked to talk with their husbands about problems they were having, while husbands tended to be quiet when problems occurred. Such gender differences seem less common in middle-class families, where men are better educated and more emotionally expressive than their working-class counterparts. Another classic study by Lillian Rubin (1976) found that wives in middle-class families say that ideal husbands are ones who communicate well and share their feelings, while wives in working-class families are more apt to say that ideal husbands are ones who do not drink too much and who go to work every day.

Other studies explore the role played by romantic love in courtship and marriage. Romantic love , the feeling of deep emotional and sexual passion for someone, is the basis for many American marriages and dating relationships, but it is actually uncommon in many parts of the contemporary world today and in many of the societies anthropologists and historians have studied. In these societies, marriages are arranged by parents and other kin for economic reasons or to build alliances, and young people are simply expected to marry whoever is chosen for them. This is the situation today in parts of India, Pakistan, and other developing nations and was the norm for much of the Western world until the late 18th and early 19th centuries (Lystra, 1989).

Key Takeaways

• The family ideally serves several functions for society. It socializes children, provides practical and emotional support for its members, regulates sexual reproduction, and provides its members with a social identity.
• Reflecting conflict theory’s emphases, the family may also produce several problems. In particular, it may contribute for several reasons to social inequality, and it may subject its members to violence, arguments, and other forms of conflict.
• Social interactionist understandings of the family emphasize how family members interact on a daily basis. In this regard, several studies find that husbands and wives communicate differently in certain ways that sometimes impede effective communication.

For Your Review

• As you think how best to understand the family, do you favor the views and assumptions of functional theory, conflict theory, or social interactionist theory? Explain your answer.
• Do you think the family continues to serve the function of regulating sexual behavior and sexual reproduction? Why or why not?

Komarovsky, M. (1964). Blue-collar marriage . New York, NY: Random House.

Lystra, K. (1989). Searching the heart: Women, men, and romantic love in nineteenth-century America . New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Rubin, L. B. (1976). Worlds of pain: Life in the working-class family . New York, NY: Basic Books.

Tannen, D. (2001). You just don’t understand: Women and men in conversation . New York, NY: Quill.

Sociology Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

14.1 What Is Marriage? What Is a Family?

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you should be able to:

• Describe society’s current understanding of family
• Recognize changes in marriage and family patterns
• Differentiate between lines of descent and residence

Marriage and family are key structures in many societies. Many of us learn from a young age that finding and joining the right person is a key to happiness and security. We’re told that children need two parents. Many of the tax laws, medical laws, retirement benefit laws, and banking and loan processes seem to favor or assume marriage. Should those assumptions be changed? Is marriage still the foundation of the family and our society?

In 1960, 66 percent of households in America were headed by a married couple. That meant that most children grew up in such households, as did their friends and extended families. Marriage could certainly be seen as the foundation of the culture. By 2010, that number of households headed by married couples had dropped to 45 percent (Luscombe 2014). The approximately 20 percent drop is more than just a statistic; it has significant practical effects. It means that nearly every child in most parts of America is either in or is close to a family that is not headed by a married couple. It means that teachers and counselors and even people who meet children in a restaurant can’t assume they live with two married parents. Some view this decline as a problem with outcomes related to values, crime, financial strength, and mental health. Sociologists may study that viewpoint to determine if it is actually true.

What is marriage? Not even sociologists are able to agree on a single meaning. For our purposes, we’ll define marriage as a legally recognized social contract between two people, traditionally based on a sexual relationship and implying a permanence of the union. In practicing cultural relativism, we should also consider variations, such as whether a legal union is required, whether more than two people can be involved, or whether the marriage is a religious one or a civil one.

Sociologists are interested in the relationship between the institution of marriage and the institution of family because, historically, marriages are what create a family, and families are the most basic social unit upon which society is built. Both marriage and family create status roles that are sanctioned by society.

The question of what constitutes a family may be an even more difficult one to answer; it’s a prime area of debate in family sociology, as well as in politics and religion. Social conservatives tend to define the family in terms of structure with each family member filling a certain role (like father, mother, or child). Sociologists, on the other hand, tend to define family more in terms of the manner in which members relate to one another than on a strict configuration of status roles. Here, we’ll define family as a socially recognized group (usually joined by blood, marriage, cohabitation, or adoption) that forms an emotional connection and serves as an economic unit of society. Sociologists identify different types of families based on how one enters into them. A family of orientation refers to the family into which a person is born. A family of procreation describes one that is formed through marriage. These distinctions have cultural significance related to issues of lineage.

Drawing on two sociological paradigms, the sociological understanding of what constitutes a family can be explained by symbolic interactionism as well as functionalism. These two theories indicate that families are groups in which participants view themselves as family members and act accordingly. In other words, families are groups in which people come together to form a strong primary group connection and maintain emotional ties to one another over a long period of time. Such families may include groups of close friends or teammates. In addition, the functionalist perspective views families as groups that perform vital roles for society—both internally (for the family itself) and externally (for society as a whole). Families provide for one another’s physical, emotional, and social well-being. Parents care for and socialize children. Later in life, adult children often care for elderly parents. While interactionism helps us understand the subjective experience of belonging to a “family,” functionalism illuminates the many purposes of families and their roles in the maintenance of a balanced society (Parsons and Bales 1956). We will go into more detail about how these theories apply to family in the following pages.

Challenges Families Face

People in the United States as a whole are somewhat divided when it comes to determining what does and what does not constitute a family. In a 2010 survey conducted by professors at the University of Indiana, nearly all participants (99.8 percent) agreed that a husband, wife, and children constitute a family. Ninety-two percent stated that a husband and a wife without children still constitute a family. The numbers drop for less traditional structures: unmarried couples with children (83 percent), unmarried couples without children (39.6 percent), gay male couples with children (64 percent), and gay male couples without children (33 percent) (Powell et al. 2010). This survey revealed that children tend to be the key indicator in establishing “family” status: the percentage of individuals who agreed that unmarried couples and gay couples constitute a family nearly doubled when children were added.

The study also revealed that 60 percent of U.S. respondents agreed that if you consider yourself a family, you are a family (a concept that reinforces an interactionist perspective) (Powell 2010). The government, however, is not so flexible in its definition of “family.” The U.S. Census Bureau defines a family as “a group of two people or more (one of whom is the householder) related by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing together” (U.S. Census Bureau 2010). While this structured definition can be used as a means to consistently track family-related patterns over several years, it excludes individuals such as cohabitating unmarried couples. Legality aside, sociologists would argue that the general concept of family is more diverse and less structured than in years past. Society has given more leeway to the design of a family making room for what works for its members (Jayson 2010).

Family is, indeed, a subjective concept, but it is a fairly objective fact that family (whatever one’s concept of it may be) is very important to people in the United States. In a 2010 survey by Pew Research Center in Washington, DC, 76 percent of adults surveyed stated that family is “the most important” element of their life—just one percent said it was “not important” (Pew Research Center 2010). It is also very important to society. President Ronald Reagan notably stated, “The family has always been the cornerstone of American society. Our families nurture, preserve, and pass on to each succeeding generation the values we share and cherish, values that are the foundation of our freedoms” (Lee 2009). While the design of the family may have changed in recent years, the fundamentals of emotional closeness and support are still present. Most responders to the Pew survey stated that their family today is at least as close (45 percent) or closer (40 percent) than the family with which they grew up (Pew Research Center 2010).

As you may have seen in the chapter on Aging and the Elderly, different generations have varying living situations and views on aging. The same goes for living situations with family. The Pew Research Center analyzed living situation of 40-year-olds from different generations. At that age, Millennials indicated that 45 percent of them were not living in a family of their own. In contrast, when Gen Xers and Baby Boomers were about 40 years old (around 2003 and 1987, respectively), an average of 33 percent of them lived outside of a family (Barroso 2020). The dynamic of nearly a 50-50 split between family/non-family for Millennials is very different from a two-third/one third split of Boomers and Gen X.

The data also show that women are having children later in life and that men are much less likely to live in a household with their own children. In 2019, 32 percent of Millennial men were living in a household with their children, compared to 41 percent of Gen X men in 2003 and 44 percent of Boomer men in 1987 (Barroso 2020). Again, the significant drop off in parenting roles likely has an impact on attitudes toward family.

Alongside the debate surrounding what constitutes a family is the question of what people in the United States believe constitutes a marriage. Many religious and social conservatives believe that marriage can only exist between a man and a woman, citing religious scripture and the basics of human reproduction as support. Social liberals and progressives, on the other hand, believe that marriage can exist between two consenting adults—be they a man and a woman, or a woman and a woman—and that it would be discriminatory to deny such a couple the civil, social, and economic benefits of marriage.

Marriage Patterns

With single parenting and cohabitation (when a couple shares a residence but not a marriage) becoming more acceptable in recent years, people may be less motivated to get married. In a recent survey, 39 percent of respondents answered “yes” when asked whether marriage is becoming obsolete (Pew Research Center 2010). The institution of marriage is likely to continue, but some previous patterns of marriage will become outdated as new patterns emerge. In this context, cohabitation contributes to the phenomenon of people getting married for the first time at a later age than was typical in earlier generations (Glezer 1991). Furthermore, marriage will continue to be delayed as more people place education and career ahead of “settling down.”

One Partner or Many?

People in the United States typically equate marriage with monogamy , when someone is married to only one person at a time. In many countries and cultures around the world, however, having one spouse is not the only form of accepted marriage, even if it is the most common. Polygamy , or being married to more than one person at a time, is accepted to varying degrees around the world, with most polygamous societies existing in northern Africa and east Asia (OECD 2019). Instances of polygamy are almost exclusively in the form of a man being married to more than one woman at the same time, rather than a woman being married to more than one man (Altman and Ginat 1996).

While the majority of societies accept polygamy, the majority of people do not practice it. Even in the regions where it is most common, only an average of 11 percent of the population lives in arrangements that include more than one spouse (Kramer 2020). In these relationships, the husbands are often older, wealthy, high-status men (Altman and Ginat 1996). The average plural marriage involves no more than three wives. Negev Bedouin men in Israel, for example, typically have two wives, although it is acceptable to have up to four (Griver 2008). As urbanization increases in these cultures, polygamy is likely to decrease as a result of greater access to mass media, technology, and education (Altman and Ginat 1996).

In the United States, polygamy is illegal. A recent Gallup poll showed that 21 percent of people believe polygamy is morally acceptable, which is a major increase since earlier versions of the same poll. But the poll also found that polygamy was among the least acceptable behaviors considered in the study; for example, polygamy was far less acceptable than consensual sex between teenagers, though it was more acceptable than a married person having an affair (Brenan 2020). The act of entering into marriage while still married to another person is referred to as bigamy and is considered a felony in most states.

Residency and Lines of Descent

When considering one’s lineage, most people in the United States look to both their father’s and mother’s sides. Both paternal and maternal ancestors are considered part of one’s family. This pattern of tracing kinship is called bilateral descent . Note that kinship , or one’s traceable ancestry, can be based on blood or marriage or adoption. Sixty percent of societies, mostly modernized nations, follow a bilateral descent pattern. Unilateral descent (the tracing of kinship through one parent only) is practiced in the other 40 percent of the world’s societies, with high concentration in pastoral cultures (O’Neal 2006).

There are three types of unilateral descent: patrilineal , which follows the father’s line only; matrilineal , which follows the mother’s side only; and ambilineal , which follows either the father’s only or the mother’s side only, depending on the situation. In patrilineal societies, such as those in rural China and India, only males carry on the family surname. This gives males the prestige of permanent family membership while females are seen as only temporary members (Harrell 2001). U.S. society assumes some aspects of patrilineal decent. For instance, most children assume their father’s last name even if the mother retains her birth name.

In matrilineal societies, inheritance and family ties are traced to women. Matrilineal descent is common in Native American societies, notably the Crow and Cherokee tribes. In these societies, children are seen as belonging to the women and, therefore, one’s kinship is traced to one’s mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and so on (Mails 1996). In ambilineal societies, which are most common in Southeast Asian countries, parents may choose to associate their children with the kinship of either the mother or the father. This choice may be based on the desire to follow stronger or more prestigious kinship lines or on cultural customs such as men following their father’s side and women following their mother’s side (Lambert 2009).

Tracing one’s line of descent to one parent rather than the other can be relevant to the issue of residence. In many cultures, newly married couples move in with, or near to, family members. In a patrilocal residence system it is customary for the wife to live with (or near) her husband’s blood relatives (or family of orientation). Patrilocal systems can be traced back thousands of years. In a DNA analysis of 4,600-year-old bones found in Germany, scientists found indicators of patrilocal living arrangements (Haak et al 2008). Patrilocal residence is thought to be disadvantageous to women because it makes them outsiders in the home and community; it also keeps them disconnected from their own blood relatives. In China, where patrilocal and patrilineal customs are common, the written symbols for maternal grandmother ( wáipá ) are separately translated to mean “outsider” and “women” (Cohen 2011).

Similarly, in matrilocal residence systems, where it is customary for the husband to live with his wife’s blood relatives (or her family of orientation), the husband can feel disconnected and can be labeled as an outsider. The Minangkabau people, a matrilocal society that is indigenous to the highlands of West Sumatra in Indonesia, believe that home is the place of women and they give men little power in issues relating to the home or family (Joseph and Najmabadi 2003). Most societies that use patrilocal and patrilineal systems are patriarchal, but very few societies that use matrilocal and matrilineal systems are matriarchal, as family life is often considered an important part of the culture for women, regardless of their power relative to men.

Stages of Family Life

As we’ve established, the concept of family has changed greatly in recent decades. Historically, it was often thought that many families evolved through a series of predictable stages. Developmental or “stage” theories used to play a prominent role in family sociology (Strong and DeVault 1992). Today, however, these models have been criticized for their linear and conventional assumptions as well as for their failure to capture the diversity of family forms. While reviewing some of these once-popular theories, it is important to identify their strengths and weaknesses.

The set of predictable steps and patterns families experience over time is referred to as the family life cycle . One of the first designs of the family life cycle was developed by Paul Glick in 1955. In Glick’s original design, he asserted that most people will grow up, establish families, rear and launch their children, experience an “empty nest” period, and come to the end of their lives. This cycle will then continue with each subsequent generation (Glick 1989). Glick’s colleague, Evelyn Duvall, elaborated on the family life cycle by developing these classic stages of family (Strong and DeVault 1992):

The family life cycle was used to explain the different processes that occur in families over time. Sociologists view each stage as having its own structure with different challenges, achievements, and accomplishments that transition the family from one stage to the next. For example, the problems and challenges that a family experiences in Stage 1 as a married couple with no children are likely much different than those experienced in Stage 5 as a married couple with teenagers. The success of a family can be measured by how well they adapt to these challenges and transition into each stage. While sociologists use the family life cycle to study the dynamics of family over time, consumer and marketing researchers have used it to determine what goods and services families need as they progress through each stage (Murphy and Staples 1979).

As early “stage” theories have been criticized for generalizing family life and not accounting for differences in gender, ethnicity, culture, and lifestyle, less rigid models of the family life cycle have been developed. One example is the family life course , which recognizes the events that occur in the lives of families but views them as parting terms of a fluid course rather than in consecutive stages (Strong and DeVault 1992). This type of model accounts for changes in family development, such as the fact that in today’s society, childbearing does not always occur with marriage. It also sheds light on other shifts in the way family life is practiced. Society’s modern understanding of family rejects rigid “stage” theories and is more accepting of new, fluid models.

Sociology in the Real World

The evolution of television families.

Whether you grew up watching the Huxtables, the Simpsons, the Kardashians, or the Johnsons, most of the drama or comedy you saw involved the relationships, tensions, challenges, and sometimes ridiculousness of family life. You may have also seen a great deal of change. The 1960s was the height of the suburban U.S. nuclear family on television with shows such as The Donna Reed Show and Father Knows Best . While some shows of this era portrayed single parents ( My Three Sons and Bonanza , for instance), the single status almost always resulted from being widowed—not divorced or unwed.

Although family dynamics in real U.S. homes were changing, the expectations for families portrayed on television were not. The United States’ first reality show, An American Family aired on PBS in 1973. The show chronicled Bill and Pat Loud and their children. During the series, the oldest son, Lance, announced to the family that he was gay, and at the series’ conclusion, Bill and Pat decided to divorce. Although the Loud’s union was among the 30 percent of marriages that ended in divorce in 1973, the family was featured on the cover of the March 12 issue of Newsweek with the title “The Broken Family” (Ruoff 2002).

Less traditional family structures in sitcoms gained popularity in the 1980s with shows such as Diff’rent Strokes (a widowed man with two adopted African American sons) and One Day at a Time (a divorced woman with two teenage daughters). Still, traditional families such as those in Family Ties and The Cosby Show dominated the ratings. The late 1980s and the 1990s saw the introduction of the dysfunctional family. Shows such as Roseanne , Married with Children , and The Simpsons portrayed traditional nuclear families, but in a much less flattering light than those from the 1960s did (Museum of Broadcast Communications 2011).

In the early 2000s, the nontraditional family has become somewhat of a tradition in television. While many situation comedies focus on single men and women without children, those that do portray families often stray from the classic structure: they include unmarried and divorced parents, adopted children, gay or lesbian couples, and multigenerational households.

In 2009, ABC emphasized the changes in family dynamics with their choice of title for Modern Family . The show follows an extended family—which is a household that includes at least one parent and child as well as other relatives like grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins—that consists of a divorced and remarried father with one stepchild and his biological adult children, one of whom is in a traditional two-parent household and the other who is a gay man in a committed relationship raising an adopted daughter. Black-ish , which portrays an extended family of African Americans, has at many times dealt with the issue implied by its name: That sometimes what it means to be Black can bring issues of interpretation conflict, especially across generations. For example, the children of the central family have shown interest in “blending in” with their White friends, which brings negative reactions from their grandparents.

Other shows, such as Shameless , interweave family diversity with complex and painful issues such as addiction. The series has a large cast of characters representing different groups, and central to the series are the roles of children, rather than parents, as family leaders. “The families on shows like this one aren’t as idealistic, but they remain relatable,” states television critic Maureen Ryan. “The most successful shows, comedies especially, have families that you can look at and see parts of your family in them” (Respers France 2010).

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Our Social World: Introduction to Sociology

Student resources, discussion questions.

1. What do you believe is the ideal makeup of a fam­ily? Why? How does your description relate to the functions the family performs in society?

2. Which of the main theoretical perspectives dis­cussed in this chapter (functionalist, conflict, rational choice, and feminist) is most useful when examining the families with which you are famil­iar? Why?

3. A majority of Americans and a strong majority of young Americans (those below 30) now support same-sex marriages. What are some cultural and structural changes that have led to this increase in support for marriage equality over the past decade?

4. Does (or did) your family expect you to marry someone of a particular (a) race or ethnicity, (b) social class, (c) educational background, or (d) religion? Why or why not? How do you think endogamous norms impact (a) individual mar­riages and (b) society?

5. How does your family’s income influence the (a) amount and (b) quality of the time family members spend together? How might more or less money influence your family members’ relationships with one another? Why?

6. Do you think the establishment of no-fault divorce laws have been good or bad for (a) the institution of the family in the United States, (b) married cou­ples, and (c) children? Explain your answers.

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Example Answers for AQA GCSE Sociology Paper 1 - Family (2019)

Last updated 28 May 2019

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Here are some example answers to the written questions on Family in AQA GCSE Sociology Paper 1 (2019).

According to Functionalists, such as Parsons one function of the family would be act as an agent of primary socialisation, so the children understand the social norms and values. This could include teaching their children manners so they know how to behave in society and maintain social cohesion.

Marxists, such as Zareksy believes the family fails to meet the psychological and social needs of the individual. In fact, the family instead supports the needs of capitalism by supporting capitalism, as women act as free domestic labour and reproduce the next generation of exploited workers.

Structured interviews – the respondents will all be ask the same set questions in a structured which will make the research both fair and reliable. The data produced is reliable because the same set of questions are repeated to a large sample; as a result, the research is representative and trends can be drawn.

The table shows that women do most of the laundry, housework and the slight majority of the expressive roles. According to feminists, such as Oakley, women are socialised into these gender stereotyped roles by their own experience of primary socialisation, e.g. girls may traditionally help their mum with housework and boys will help their dad with DIY. In addition, through primary socialisation, the toys children play with, such as girls playing with babies, will further reinforce gender stereotypical roles, such as the expressive role in girls.

Structured interviews are at risk of being slightly insensitive and impersonal in their design, as they are straightforward closed questions, where respondents have little room to elaborate or build a rapport with the researcher. The disadvantage could be, respondents may feel they would not like to fully participate with the research, as they would not want to open up about their personal relationship in a structured interview, as they may have not developed a rapport with the researcher.

According to Item B, feminist Oakley used a review of previous research, known as secondary research. Her research found that the conventional nuclear family – mum, dad, married, children living together performing traditional conjugal roles - tended to be a unit of social control, strain and oppression. She found this was an outdated way for families to live and she saw signs that there was a move away from the conventional nuclear family, such as living in different family types such as cohabiting and living alone. Her work pre-dates civil partnerships and same-sex marriages.

It is important that a researcher provides the respondent with the right to withdraw, as investigating arranged marriage might be a sensitive and personal subject. Some respondents may feel the researcher is prying into their personal life and making a judgement, as arranged marriage is still not fully understood by many in society as there are assumptions around arranged marriage and is wrongly often confused with forced marriage, so the sociologist needs to be sensitive to this.

Functionalists, such as Parsons would agree the family is the main agent of primary socialisation and stabilisation of adult personality. The family is responsible for teaching norms and values, such as manners and preparing children to leave the home to go to school where secondary socialisation takes place through the hidden curriculum. Arguably, the family is the main agent of socialisation, as this is the first place children will learn and is where the foundations of learning social norms and values will take place. Feminists would also agree, although they would suggest this has a negative outcome, as gendered parenting would set the basis for gender socialisation, for example, parents act as gendered role models. However, it could also be argued in both cases that secondary socialisation at school has a bigger impact on socialisation, as peers / hidden curriculum are able to change / adapt children’s norms and values. This is because secondary socialisation happens on a bigger scale and some children will want to conform to the majority, so family is less significant as an agent of socialisation compared with schools.

Alternatively, arguably the media is now the main agent of socialisation, as social media is more influential on children’s norms and values, as it is constantly accessible and many children will look at celebrities as role models. Media is also at children’s control as they may have their own phones and they may feel it is more up-to-date than their parents / family. This can be supported by the rise of digital parenting, where parents may use websites / videos online / TV to babysit their children rather than parents themselves. In criticism of the media being the main agent of socialisation, families still are the foundations of any further secondary socialisation and control media usage.

To conclude, arguably the family is still important, but it depends on the dynamics and the relationships children might have with their parents. However, it is evident there are many agents of socialisation, not just the family, but also schools, media and religion.

Functionalists, such as Parsons, as well as New Right theorists, would argue that the nuclear family is still important for performing conjugal roles and primary socialisation of children, as this is the most stable family type. This type of family, according to these theories, can offer emotional and economic support, as the dad would act as the breadwinner and the mum would act as the care giver. For functionalists and the New Right, this can only happen successfully with married parents. Many sociologists such as feminist Oakley, and Rapoport and Rapoport would suggest this is outdated, as there is an increase in family diversity and that increasingly families are moving away from the conventional nuclear family, as it is perceived to be more controlled for women, due to stereotypical gender divisions.

It could be argued that marriage is no longer important but the nuclear family is important, with the rise of cohabitation, this due to the increased securlarisation, confluent love, change of stigma around not marrying and couples preferring to spend their savings on a house. It is argued that a cohabiting family have the same rights over children and ownership as married couple, so marriage is less important. However, it might be that marriage is still important as many religious families still value marriage; also same-sex marriage is on the increase. Also marriage might be seen as important, it is just that people are choosing to marry later.

Overall, marriage is on the decline, so it would suggest heterosexual marriage in the UK is on decline but many counties, such as Russia, still have a high marriage rate, and same-sex marriage in the UK has increased, so it not a universal pattern.

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Sociology of Family Research Paper Topics

Sociology of family is the area devoted to the study of family as an institution central to social life. The basic assumptions of the area include the universality of family, the inevitable variation of family forms, and the necessity of family for integrating individuals into social worlds. Family sociology is generally concerned with the formation, maintenance, growth, and dissolution of kinship ties and is commonly expressed in research on courtship and marriage, childrearing, marital adjustment, and divorce. These areas of research expanded in the twentieth century to encompass an endless diversity of topics related to  gender , sexuality, intimacy, affection, and anything that can be considered to be family related.

70 Sociology of Family Research Paper Topics

• American families
• Child custody and child support
• Cohabitation
• Conjugal roles and social networks
• Couples living apart together
• Divisions of household labor
• Dual earner couples
• Earner-carer model
• Families and childhood disabilities
• Family and community
• Family and household structure
• Family and population
• Family and religion
• Family conflict
• Family demography
• Family diversity
• Family migration
• Family planning
• Family planning, abortion, and reproductive health
• Family policy in Western societies
• Family size
• Family structure
• Family structure and child outcomes
• Family theory
• Family therapy
• Family violence
• History of family
• Men’s involvement in family
• Filial responsibility
• Grandparenthood
• Immigrant families
• Inequalities in marriage
• Infidelity and marital affairs
• Intermarriage
• Intimate union formation and dissolution
• Kinship systems and family types
• Later life marriage
• Lesbian and gay families
• Life course and family
• Lone parent families
• Love and commitment
• Marital adjustment
• Marital power/resource theory
• Marital quality
• Marriage and divorce rates
• Marriage, sex, and childbirth
• Maternalism
• Money management in families
• Non-resident parents
• Parental roles
• Same sex marriage/civil unions
• Sibling relationships during old age
• Sibling ties
• Stepfamilies
• Stepfathering
• Stepmothering
• Youth/adolescence

A recognizable, modern sociology of family emerged from several different family studies efforts of the nineteenth century. Early anthropologists speculated that family was a necessary step from savagery to civilization in human evolution. Concentrating on marital regulation of sexual encounters, and debating matriarchy versus patriarchy as the first enduring family forms, these explanations framed family studies in terms of kinship and defined comprehensive categories of family relations. In consideration of endogamy, exogamy, polygamy, polyandry, and monogamy, these efforts also fostered discussion of the best or most evolved family forms, with most commentators settling on patriarchy and monogamy as the high points of family evolution.

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Nineteenth century sociologists such as Herbert Spencer and William Sumner adopted evolutionary views of family and made use of anthropological terms, but discussions of best family types gave way to considering the customs, conventions, and traditions of family life. The evolutionary view of family pushed sociology toward the pragmatic vision of the family as adaptable to surrounding social conditions. And sociology’s emphases on populations, societies, and the institutions embedded within them allowed the observation that American and European families were rapidly changing in response to the challenges of modern society.

Family and Household Structure

The family system of the United States is often characterized as consisting of nuclear-family households—that is, households consisting of no more than the parent(s) and dependent children, if any (Lee 1999). This is certainly true of the great majority of family households. In fact, there has never been a point in American history in which extended-family households predominated statistically (Ruggles 1994a; Seward 1978). In 1997 only about 4.1 percent of all families in the United States were ”related subfamilies”—a married couple or single parent with children living with a related householder (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1998, Table 69). However, an analysis of census data from 1970 through 1990 by Glick and colleagues (1997) showed that the percentage of all households containing nonnuclear kin increased from 9.9 percent in 1980 to 12.2 percent in 1990, reversing a nearly century-long pattern of decline. In 1910 about 20 percent of the households of white families and 24 percent of those of black families contained nonnuclear kin (Ruggles 1994b). Apparently we have seen a long-term decline in the prevalence of extended-family households, very slightly counterbalanced by an increase in the 1980s; what happened in the 1990s is not yet known.

Not all of the of the households that do not contain extended families consist of the stereotypical nuclear family of two parents and their dependent children, however. There is great diversity among American families and households, and this diversity is increasing. Even over the relatively brief period from 1960 to 1998, substantial changes are apparent. The average size of both households and families decreased dramatically from 1960 to 1990, although they have both been stable in the 1990s. Many fewer households contain families and married couples in the late 1990s than in 1960, while the proportion of nonfamily households has more than doubled and the proportion of single-person households has nearly doubled. Female householders have increased substantially as a proportion of both all households and all families.

There are many factors responsible for these changes. To understand them, changes in marriage rates and age at marriage, divorce and remarriage rates, rates of nonmarital cohabitation, the departure of children from their parents’ homes, and the predilection of unmarried persons to live alone will be briefly examined. Each of these factors has affected family and household structure.

Marriage rates have declined considerably since 1960. This is not readily apparent from the ”crude” marriage rate (the number of marriages per 1,000 population) because this rate does not take the marital status or age distributions of the population into account. The crude marriage rate was artificially low in 1960 because, as a result of the postwar baby boom, a large proportion of the population consisted of children too young to marry. The rates per 1,000 unmarried women (for both ages 15 and over and ages 15 to 44) show the frequency of occurrence of marriage for persons exposed to the risk of marriage, and here there is clear evidence of decline. Some of this, however, is attributable to increases in the median age at first marriage, which declined throughout the twentieth century until about 1960, but has been increasing rapidly since 1970. As age at marriage increases, more and more people temporarily remain unmarried each year, thus driving the marriage rate down. The best evidence (Oppenheimer et al. 1997) indicates that a major cause of delayed marriage is the deteriorating economic circumstances of young men since the 1970s. Perhaps the improving economy of the later 1990s will eventually produce some change in this trend.

The rising divorce rate has also contributed greatly to the declining proportion of married-couple households and the increases in female householders and single-person households. The crude divorce rate rose from 2.2 per 1,000 in 1960 to 5.2 in 1980 (reaching peaks of 5.3 in both 1979 and 1981) but has declined modestly since then to 4.3 in 1996. The rate of divorce per 1,000 married women 15 and older followed a similar pattern, reaching a high of 22.6 in 1980 and declining to 19.5 in 1996. Some of this decline is illusory, because the large baby boom cohorts are aging out of the most divorce-prone years (Martin and Bumpass 1989). However, although the divorce rate remains high, it has not been increasing since 1980.

Sweeney (1997) notes that, for recent cohorts, about half of all marriages have involved at least one previously married partner. However, rates of remarriage after divorce have been declining steadily. Annual remarriage rates were 204.5 per 1,000 divorced men and 123.3 per 1,000 divorced women in 1970; by 1990 they had decreased to 105.9 for men and 76.2 for women (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1998).

Decreasing marriage and remarriage rates and increasing divorce rates have combined to produce increases in single-person and single-parent households. This trend is mitigated, however, by the increasing prevalence of nonmarital heterosexual cohabitation. Evidence from the National Survey of Families and Households (Bumpass 1994; Waite 1995) shows that, in the early 1990s, nearly one-quarter of all unmarried adults aged 25 to 29 were cohabiting. This percentage declines with age, but still exceeded 20 percent for those in their late thirties. The National Survey of Family Growth found that, in 1995, more than 41 percent of all women aged 15 to 44 had cohabited or were currently cohabiting (National Center for Health Statistics 1997). Of course many of the women who had not cohabited at the time of the survey will do so in the future. The best estimates suggest that more than half of all couples who marry now cohabit prior to marriage; further, about 60 percent of all cohabiting unions eventuate in marriage (Bumpass 1994; Bumpass et al. 1991).

To a considerable extent the increase in cohabitation has offset the decline in marriage. This is particularly the case among blacks, for whom the decrease in marriage rates over the past several decades has been much more precipitous than it has been for whites (Raley 1996; Waite 1995). Although cohabiting unions are less stable than marriages, ignoring cohabitation results in substantial underestimates of the prevalence of heterosexual unions in the United States.

In spite of the increase in cohabitation, changes in marriage and divorce behavior have had substantial effects on household and family structure in the United States over the past four decades. Fewer people are marrying, those who marry are doing so at later ages, more married people are divorcing, and fewer divorced people are remarrying. This means that Americans are living in smaller households than they did in 1960, but there are more of them. The rate of growth in the number of households has substantially exceeded the rate of growth in the number of families. From 1960 to 1998 the number of households increased by more than 94 percent, while the increase in the number of families was only about 57 percent. Over the same time period, the total population of the United States increased by just under 50 percent (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1998). Our population, therefore, is distributed in a larger number of smaller households than was the case in 1960.

One cause of the decline in household size is decreased fertility. The fertility rate (number of births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44) was 118.0 in 1960; by 1997 it had decreased to 65.0, although most of the decrease occurred prior to 1980 (National Center for Health Statistics 1999). The trend toward smaller households and families is reflective to some extent of decreases in the number of children per family.

A larger cause of the decrease in household size, however, is the proliferation of single-person households. Single-person households consist of three types of persons: the never-married, who are primarily young adults; the divorced and separated without coresident children, who are primarily young and middle-aged; and the widowed who live alone, who are primarily elderly. Each of these types has increased, but for somewhat different reasons. Each must therefore be examined separately.

Average ages at marriage have risen markedly since 1960, and the percentage of young adults who have never married has increased proportionately (Waite 1995). This has been accompanied by a long-term decline (since prior to World War II) in the average age of leaving the parental home (Goldscheider 1997). Prior to 1970 most of this decline was driven by decreasing ages at marriage, but since then it has reflected an increasing gap between leaving the family of orientation and beginning the family of procreation. More young adults are living independently of both parents and spouses. Some of them are cohabiting, of course, but increasing numbers are residing in either single-person or other nonfamily households (Goldscheider 1997; White 1994).

Since about 1970 there has been some increase in the proportion of young adults who live with their parents. This marks the reversal of a long-term decline in age at leaving home (White 1994). This is, in part, a by-product of increasing age at marriage. However, decreases in exits from parental homes to marriage have been largely offset by increases in exits to independent living, so this recent increase in young adults living with parents is actually very small (Goldscheider 1997). On the other hand, there is increasing evidence that the process of launching children has become much more complex than in previous years. Goldscheider (1997) also shows that the proportion of young adults who return to their parents’ homes after an initial exit has more than doubled from the 1930s to the 1990s; increases have been particularly striking since the early 1960s. This is a response, in part, to the rising divorce rate, but also an indication that it has gotten increasingly difficult for young adults, particularly young men, to make a living (Oppenheimer et al. 1997). Nonetheless, the proportion of young adults living independently of both parents and spouses continues to increase, contributing to the prevalence of nonfamily households.

The increase in divorce and decrease in remarriage have contributed to the rise in single-person households, as formerly married persons establish their own residences and, increasingly, maintain them for longer periods of time. They have also contributed to the rise in family households that do not contain married couples. Families headed by females (without husband present) increased from 10 percent of all families in 1960 to nearly 18 percent in 1998. Families headed by males (without wife present) also increased, from 2.8 percent of all families in 1960 to 5.5 percent in 1998. Among families with children under 18 in 1998, 20 percent were headed by women without spouses and 5 percent by men without spouses (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1998, Table 70).

As a consequence of these changes plus the rise in nonmarital childbearing, the proportion of children under 18 living with both parents decreased from 88 percent in 1960 to 68 percent in 1997 (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1998, Table 84). In addition, there is a large race difference in the living arrangements of children. Only 35 percent of black children lived with both parents in 1997, compared to 75 percent of white children. More than half (52 percent) of all black children lived with their mothers only, as did 18 percent of white children. Further, 8 percent of black children and 3 percent of white children lived with neither parent. Some of these children are living with, and being cared for by, their grandparents (Pebley and Rudkin 1999). This raises the issue of the living arrangements of older persons.

A somewhat longer perspective is necessary to observe changes in the living arrangements of older persons. Ruggles (1994a) has shown that, in 1880, nearly 65 percent of all elderly whites and more than 57 percent of all elderly nonwhites lived with a child. Since about 18 percent of all older persons had no living children, Ruggles estimates that about 78 percent of whites and 70 percent of nonwhites who had children lived with a child. By 1980 the percentages living with children had decreased to 16 for whites and 29 for nonwhites. There is little evidence of major changes in the proportion living with children since 1980. Further, Ruggles (1996) found that only 6 percent of all elderly women and 3 percent of elderly men lived alone in 1880. By 1997 the percentages living alone had increased to 41 for women and 17 for men (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1998, Table 50). The growth of single-person households among older people has been particularly rapid since about 1940.

Two sets of factors appear to be primarily responsible for the ”migration” of older people from typically sharing households with their children in the late nineteenth century to living alone (or with their spouses only) in the late twentieth century. First, the family life cycle was quite different in 1900 than today. People married a bit later (and markedly later than in the 1960s and early 1970s), had more children, and had children later in life. Consequently, a significant proportion of people in their sixties had unmarried children who simply had not yet left the parental home. Ruggles (1994a) shows that, in 1880, about 32 percent of all unmarried elders and 57 percent of the married resided with a never-married child. Of course many of these children may have remained home precisely in order to care for their aging parents. Unmarried elders were more likely to live with married children.

Second, economic factors played a major role. Social Security did not exist until 1940. In 1900, 85 percent of all men between the ages of 65 and 69 were in the labor force, as were 49 percent of all men 85 and over (Smith 1979). However, this option was much less available to women; the comparable proportions in the labor force were 12 and 6 percent. Many older persons, particularly women, had no means of support other than their children. Rates of coresidence of aging parents with their adult children have decreased as the prosperity of the elderly has increased; more can now afford to live independently.

However, Ruggles (1994a) found that wealthier older people were more likely to share a household with children than were poorer elders in the nineteenth century, and the majority of multigenerational families lived in households headed by the elderly parent(s). These facts suggest that adult children benefited economically from coresidence and that the possibility of inheriting a farm or business from aging parents may have motivated many adults to coreside with parents. Today coresidence is more common among poorer than wealthier people (Ruggles 1994a, 1996).

As of March 1998, 41 percent of all women aged 65 and older lived alone, as did 17 percent of all older men. These percentages increase to 53 percent and 22 percent for women and men, respectively, for those age 75 and over (U.S. Bureau of the Census Web site). The reason for this large gender difference, of course, is the difference in marital status between men and women. Among men 75 and over, nearly two-thirds are married and less than one-quarter are widowed; among women these figures are almost exactly reversed. According to 1980 census data, the proportion of all elderly persons living alone increases from 22 percent among those 65 to 69 to more than 41 percent in the 85-89 age category, then drops to 33 percent for those 90 and over (Coward et al. 1989), after which the modal category becomes living with children. Older persons who have lost their spouses through death are clearly exhibiting a tendency to live alone as long as possible, which for many of them extends into the latest years of life.

Older persons now constitute nearly 13 percent of the total population of the United States, compared to about 4 percent in 1900. With so many of them maintaining their own residences, either with their spouses or alone following widowhood, their contribution to the proliferation of small and single-person households is substantial.

If so many older persons lived with their children in the late nineteenth century, why were there so few extended-family households? Ruggles (1994a) shows that just under 20 percent of the households of whites contained extended families in both 1880 and 1900; this compares to less than 7 percent in 1980, but it was still very much a minority statistical pattern. There were three primary reasons. First, because of more limited life expectancies and relatively high fertility rates, there were proportionally few older people in the population, so where they lived made less difference to the nation’s household structure. Second, as noted above, many older persons lived with an unmarried child; unless other relatives are present, this arrangement constitutes a nuclear-family household regardless of the age of the parent. Third, while these cohorts of older persons typically had many children (an average of 5.4 per woman in 1880), these children did not live together as adults, so older persons could live with only one; their remaining children lived in nuclear families. Ruggles (1994a) estimates that more than 70 percent of all elders who could have lived with a child actually did so in 1880; the comparable percentage in 1980 was 16. In comparison to the last century, older persons today are much less likely to live with children and much more likely to live alone, contributing to the proliferation of small and single-person households.

To this point, factors that have contributed to long-term decreases in household and family size, and consequent increases in the numbers of households and families, have been elucidated. There is evidence of changes in these directions in all age segments of the population. These trends do not mean, however, that more complex family households are not part of the contemporary American experience.

As noted at the beginning of this entry, the United States has never been characterized by a statistical predominance of extended-family households, although it appears that the preference was for intergenerational coresidence in the form of stem families (families containing an older parent or parents and one of their married children) until the early years of the twentieth century. But extended family households do occur today. At any single point in time, they constitute less than 10 percent of all households (Glick et al. 1997; Ruggles 1994a). However, a dynamic perspective presents a somewhat different picture.

Beck and Beck (1989) analyzed the household compositions of a large sample of middle-aged women who were followed from 1969 to 1984. The presence of nonnuclear kin in their households was noted for specific years and was also calculated for the entire fifteen-year period. In 1984, when these women were between the ages of 47 and 61, only 8 percent of white married women and 20 percent of white unmarried women lived in households containing their parents, grandchildren, or other nonnuclear kin. The proportions were higher for comparable black women: 27 percent of the married and 34 percent of the unmarried. However, over the fifteen years covered by the survey, about one-third of all white women and fully two-thirds of the black women lived in a household containing extended kin at some point.

These and other data (Ruggles 1994a, 1994b) show that today blacks are more likely than whites to live in extended-family households. This was not the case until about 1940. What has happened is that the decrease in intergenerational coresidence since the late nineteenth century has been much steeper for whites than for blacks. This is probably connected to much lower rates of marriage among blacks; living in multigenerational households is much more common for unmarried than for married persons. It may also reflect the shift in the distribution of extended families from the wealthier to the poorer segments of the economic structure. Rather than serving as a means of ensuring inheritance and keeping wealth in the family, extended family living today is more likely to be motivated by a need to share and conserve resources.

The family and household structure of the United States has changed dramatically over the past century, in spite of the fact that our family system has remained nuclear in at least the statistical sense. More and more Americans are living in single-person households before, between, and after marriages. More are living in single-parent households. Collectively Americans are spending smaller proportions of their lives in families of any description than they did in the past (Watkins et al. 1987). However, they are more likely than ever before to live in nonmarital heterosexual unions, and many of them live in households that contain nonnuclear kin at some point in their lives. In fact, there is evidence (Glick et al. 1997) that the proportion of extended-family households increased between 1980 and 1990.

The growth of small and single-person households is in many ways indicative of the fact that more Americans can now afford to remain unmarried, leave unhappy marriages, and maintain their own residences in later life. The proliferation of households represents the proliferation of choices. The consequences of these choices remain to be seen.

References:

• Beck, Rubye W., and Scott H. Beck 1989 ‘‘The Incidence of Extended Households Among Middle-Aged Black and White Women: Estimates from a 15-Year Panel Study.’’ Journal of Family Issues 10:147–168.
• Bumpass, Larry L. 1994. ‘‘The Declining Significance of Marriage: Changing Family Life in the United States.’’ Paper presented at the Potsdam International Conference, ‘‘Changing Families and Childhood.’’
• Bumpass, Larry L., James A. Sweet, and Andrew J. Cherlin 1991 ‘‘The Role of Cohabitation in Declining Rates of Marriage.’’ Journal of Marriage and the Family 53:913–927.
• Coward, Raymond T., Stephen Cutler, and Frederick Schmidt 1989 ‘‘Differences in the Household Composition of Elders by Age, Gender, and Area of Residence.’’ The Gerontologist 29:814–821.
• Glick, Jennifer E., Frank D. Bean, and Jennifer V. W. Van Hook 1997 ‘‘Immigration and Changing Patterns of Extended Family Household Structure in the United States: 1970–1990.’’ Journal of Marriage and the Family 59:177–191.
• Goldscheider, Frances 1997 ‘‘Recent Changes in U.S. Young Adult Living Arrangements in Comparative Perspective.’’ Journal of Family Issues 18:708–724.
• Lee, Gary R. 1999 ‘‘Comparative Perspectives.’’ In Marvin B. Sussman, Suzanne K. Steinmetz, and Gary W. Peterson, eds., Handbook of Marriage and the Family, 2nd ed. New York: Plenum.
• Martin, Teresa Castro, and Larry L. Bumpass 1989 ‘‘Recent Trends in Marital Disruption.’’ Demography 26:37–51.
• National Center for Health Statistics 1997 ‘‘Fertility, Family Planning, and Women’s Health: New Data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth.’’ Vital and Health Statistics, Series 23, No. 19. Hyattsville, Md.: Public Health Service.
• National Center for Health Statistics 1999 ‘‘Births: Final Data for 1997.’’ National Vital Statistics Reports, series 47, no. 18. Hyattsville, Md.: National Center for Health Statistics.
• Oppenheimer, Valerie K., Matthijs Kalmijn, and Nelson Lim 1997 ‘‘Men’s Career Development and Marriage Timing During a Period of Rising Inequality.’’ Demography 34:311–330.
• Pebley, Anne R., and Laura L. Rudkin 1999 ‘‘Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren: What Do We Know?’’ Journal of Family Issues 20:218–242.
• Raley, R. Kelly 1996 ‘‘A Shortage of Marriageable Men? A Note on the Role of Cohabitation in Black–White Differences in Marriage Rates.’’ American Sociological Review 61:973–983.
• Ruggles, Steven 1994a ‘‘The Transformation of American Family Structure.’’ American Historical Review 99:103–128.
• Ruggles, Steven 1994b ‘‘The Origins of African American Family Structure.’’ American Sociological Review 59:136–151.
• Ruggles, Steven 1996 ‘‘Living Arrangements of the Elderly in the United States.’’ In Tamara K. Hareven, ed., Aging and Intergenerational Relations: Historical and Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Berlin, Germany: de Gruyter.
• Seward, Rudy R. 1978 The American Family: A Demographic History. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage.
• Smith, Daniel Scott 1979 ‘‘Life Course, Norms, and the Family System of Older Americans in 1900.’’ Journal of Family History 4:285–298.
• Sweeney, Megan M. 1997 ‘‘Remarriage of Women and Men After Divorce.’’ Journal of Family Issues 18:479–502.
• S. Bureau of the Census 1998 Statistical Abstract of the United States, 118th ed. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
• S. Bureau of the Census 1998 ‘‘Marital Status and Living Arrangements: March 1998.’’ https://www.census.gov/prod/99pubs/p20-514.pdf
• Waite, Linda J. 1995 ‘‘Does Marriage Matter?’’ Demography 32:483–507.
• Watkins, Susan Cotts, Jane A. Menken, and Jon Bongaarts 1987 ‘‘Demographic Foundations of Family Change.’’ American Sociological Review 52:346–358.
• White, Lynn 1994 ‘‘Coresidence and Leaving Home: Young Adults and Their Parents.’’ Annual Review of Sociology 20:81–102.

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Data which is presented as statistical data or numerical is described as  being a Quantitative method . Sociologist, among others will contend that  quantitative method , like questionnaire and others would better be suited to  undergo the rigours of sociological research. This is so because of the  advantages that they hold. However, in contrast sociologist would disagree  with this statement.                 Quantitative methods , such as questionnaires, structured interviews and  official statistics has advantages that would prove to be more efficient. In  sociology, for a research to be valid r carried out effectively, the data  collected must be objective. This view is supported by the positivist, Emile  Durkheim and auguste Comte. Quantitative methods collect empirical data which  further means that data being collected is objective. Empirical data is  statistical, anything dealing with numbers and if the data being collected is  numerical it suggest that the method used was unbiased. Also quantitative  methods are nothing cognitive, as cognitive information cannot be measured or  understood. Also cognitive data would be studying the perception and not  exactly what is happening.                 It is argued that in quantitative methods , the researcher is detached from  the study and is not influenced by his personal belief. Therefore the  information would not be flawed, because the researcher would just say  what’s happening and would not have his personal views. This would have  resulted from the empirical data collected. For example, a researcher who is  doing a research on: why are students in Jane brown High school prone to  violence. The research her would practice observable phenomena and report  what she sees and not what she thinks the individual is thinking.                 Furthermore, quantitative research methods are easily replicable. This  means that the data/information collected will always be the same years after  the research was conducted. However, new information or knowledge can be  added to what is already there because it is accumulative. No matter how long  the research was conducted it will always remain the same because numbers  cannot change, but an explanation can. This makes quantitative methods one of  the preferred methods . In coherence, quantitative research methods   facilitates theory formulation, this is so as a large amount of data is  collected that the researcher is used to formulate theories that seek to  explain social phenomena.                 Other reasons why quantitative methods would be better suited is that it  saves the researcher time and money, which means that the researcher would  not have to spend a lot of time on the research as it will directly get to  the point.                 Nevertheless, some sociologist would disagree with the fact that  quantitative methods would be best suited because no method in sociology,  they say can be objective. One disadvantage of using quantitative method is  that there is no indication about the respondents’ personal state of mind,  for example, mood, attitude or feelings. Weber in his theory contend that in  sociology, any research being conducted the researcher must practice  verstehen. Verstehen is subjective, this, there is no objectivity in  sociology researchers. This would therefore mean that quantitative methods   are not best suited for sociological research. Weber contends that a  researcher must be attached to the research such that verstehen is practiced;  this would involve the placing of oneself in the respondents’ shoes. He  further states that through thus process, the researcher will be able to  understand the actions and the meaning behind them.                 Additionally, Atkinson and Cicourel believe that other methods such as  qualitative research methods would have a better advantage over quantitative  methods . This is so because they also believe like Weber that there is no  objectivity in any sociological research. Atkinson and Cicourel posit this  view because even with the statistical data collected through the  quantitative method the information gathered id subjective. The statistical  data is influence by the perception of the person collating and analyzing the  data.                 Qualitative methods would be best suited for sociological researches  because they provide explanation and look beyond the numbers. The  interpretive theorist believe that the study of humans is complex, because  humans have consciousness and consciousness fluctuates and will not always  remain in the same manner to external stimuli, and the is no universal law of  human behaviour.                 Analyzing the statement from both views, quantitative methods would be best  suited to undergo the rigours of sociological research to an extent and then  there is the other view that qualitative methods would be better because of  its subjectivity which is best for sociological researches.

Sociology is a discipline that has been the subject of debate within the social sciences about whether it can be considered a science or not. While some scholars argue that sociology is a science due to its use of empirical evidence and scientific methods to study social phenomena, others argue that it is not a science because social phenomena are inherently complex and difficult to measure. This essay will evaluate the major positions in this debate, providing a more detailed definition of science, exploring the limitations and challenges of using scientific methods in sociology, and using a wider range of academic sources to support the arguments.

One of the main arguments for sociology as a science is its use of empirical evidence and scientific methods. The positivist perspective, which sees sociology as a hard science like physics or chemistry, argues that sociology should use the same methods as natural sciences, such as experiments and quantitative surveys, to generate reliable and valid data. For example, Durkheim's study of suicide used statistical methods to demonstrate the relationship between social factors and suicide rates. However, critics argue that such methods are limited in their ability to capture the complexity of social phenomena, and may be subject to issues of reliability, validity, and generalizability.

Another argument for sociology as a science is its ability to generate testable hypotheses and theories. According to the falsificationist perspective, sociology should generate hypotheses that can be tested through empirical evidence, with theories that have been falsified by data being discarded. For example, Merton's strain theory of deviance was based on the hypothesis that individuals who experience strain are more likely to engage in deviant behavior. However, critics argue that such an approach neglects the role of interpretation and subjectivity in social research, and may overlook important aspects of social life that cannot be easily quantified.

On the other hand, some scholars argue that sociology is not a science because social phenomena are inherently complex and difficult to measure. The interpretive perspective, for example, argues that sociology should use qualitative methods such as participant observation and interviews to understand the meanings that individuals attach to their experiences. For example, Bourdieu's study of cultural capital demonstrated how social class and cultural background can influence an individual's taste in art and culture. However, critics argue that such methods may lack objectivity and reliability, and may be subject to the researcher's biases and interpretations.

Despite these debates, it is important to recognize that both quantitative and qualitative methods have their strengths and weaknesses. For example, Hochschild's study of emotion management in airline flight attendants used a mixed-methods approach to explore the complex and often contradictory emotions that attendants experienced on the job. By using both quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews, Hochschild was able to capture both the objective and subjective aspects of the attendants' experiences. This demonstrates that a mixed-methods approach can provide a more comprehensive understanding of the social world.

In conclusion, while the debate surrounding sociology as a science is ongoing, it is clear that there are both strengths and limitations to using scientific methods in sociology. While sociology may not be a hard science like physics or chemistry, it is still a valuable tool for understanding society and making informed decisions about social policies. Therefore, it is important to continue the debate surrounding the nature of sociology and to develop new research methods that can address the complexities of the social world. By doing so, we can continue to advance our understanding of society and contribute to the development of more effective social policies.

Discuss the similarities and differences between Conflict/Marxist theories and Functionalist theories in sociology. [25 marks] 2004

Introduction

Sociology is a field of study that attempts to understand human society and social behavior. It is a broad discipline with several theoretical perspectives, two of which are Conflict/Marxist theories and Functionalist theories. These two theories attempt to explain social phenomena, but they differ in their assumptions and explanations. This essay discusses the similarities and differences between Conflict/Marxist theories and Functionalist theories in sociology.

Similarities between Conflict/Marxist theories and Functionalist theories

Both Conflict/Marxist theories and Functionalist theories recognize the importance of social structures in shaping society. They acknowledge that institutions, such as the family, government, education, and the economy, play a crucial role in creating and maintaining social order. Additionally, both theories attempt to explain the dynamics of social order and change. They are concerned with how societies maintain stability and the factors that lead to social change.

Differences between Conflict/Marxist theories and Functionalist theories

Conflict/Marxist theories focus on social inequality and the struggle for power and resources. They argue that society is divided into classes, and the struggle for power and resources between these classes is the primary cause of social change. Functionalist theories, on the other hand, emphasize social harmony and the maintenance of social order. They argue that society is like a biological organism, with different parts working together to maintain stability and equilibrium.

Conflict/Marxist theories view society as inherently unstable and in constant conflict, while Functionalist theories view society as stable and well-functioning. Conflict/Marxist theories are critical of the status quo and focus on the ways in which society is unequal and oppressive. Functionalist theories, however, are more accepting of the status quo and view social inequality as a necessary component of society.

Examples of Conflict/Marxist and Functionalist theories in action

An example of Conflict/Marxist theory in action is the struggle for workers' rights. Conflict/Marxist theorists argue that workers are oppressed by capitalists who control the means of production and exploit their labor. The workers' struggle for better wages and working conditions is a response to this oppression. An example of Functionalist theory in action is the importance of social norms in maintaining order. Functionalist theorists argue that social norms, such as laws and customs, are necessary for social order and that individuals who violate these norms are punished to maintain social stability.

Criticisms of Conflict/Marxist and Functionalist theories

Critics of Conflict/Marxist theories argue that they oversimplify complex social phenomena and do not pay enough attention to individual agency. Critics of Functionalist theories argue that they fail to account for social inequality and the inability to explain social change adequately.

In conclusion, Conflict/Marxist theories and Functionalist theories are two different theoretical perspectives in sociology. Although they share some similarities, they differ in their assumptions and explanations. Conflict/Marxist theories focus on social inequality and the struggle for power and resources, while Functionalist theories emphasize social harmony and the maintenance of social order. These theories provide a framework for understanding society and social behavior, but they also have their limitations and criticisms. Nonetheless, they remain relevant and continue to shape sociological research and thinking.

Question: Assess the extent to which a longitudinal approach is useful for the study of either HIV/AIDS or teenage pregnancy in the Caribbean. Unit & Module: Unit 1 Module 1 - Sociology, Culture & Identity Year: 2009 Essay: A longitudinal design is the study of one group over a period of time noting change and continuity. In this essay, the writer shall discuss the practicality of the longitudinal design in studying HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean. Longitudinal designs or approaches aim to study a particular group and monitor it over a specific period of time. The goal is to notice and document any changes, developments or actions which continuously occur. This approach would be appropriate for studying HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean. The target group in this study would be persons who have either virus, paying attention to how the virus progresses and affects them and their bodies. HIV/AIDS are viruses who attack the human body. Persons who contract these viruses usually start off with a cold/flu virus which eventually transforms into more than that. After that stage, the virus then attacks the immune system of the host. These viruses are initially mild and further progress into a life-threatening illness. Therefore, because of the nature of a longitudinal design, it would be the perfect approach in carrying out a study like this. In using this design, the researcher should monitor the hosts of the viruses as they go through each stage. Longitudinal designs also aim to give information on cause and effect relationships. So, this approach could pay much attention to the effects on the body caused by the virus, for example, deterioration in the condition and of the body itself. Overall, this approach is the most appropriate to investigate such a study. A longitudinal design is not the only data collection method that can be utilized but can arguably be the best one. This study could be conducted with the use of a questionnaire distributed to persons who have contracted the viruses but it could be more time consuming and less cost-effective to do such. The study could also be conducted using interviews but if conducted using that method, it could take extremely long. A longitudinal design unlike a questionnaire or an interview can study the entire target group at one time thus making the research process less tedious. In conclusion, a longitudinal approach can be seen as the most useful data collection method to carry out a study on HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean due to its characteristics and process. It is more cost-effective and less time consuming than a questionnaire or interviews would be in this study.

Question: It is becoming evidently clear that the family is no longer in the main agent of socialization in society. Discuss. Unit & Module: Unit 1 Module 1 - Sociology, Culture & Identity Year: N/A Essay: Socialization is the process of learning the culture of one’s society. Giddens stated that it is through the process of socialization that people become members of society, thereby learning acceptable behaviors and becoming skilled in the ways of their culture. Durkheim believes that socialization is important as it lets individuals know what is expected of them and it also constrains behaviour. Maconis (2007) states that socialization is an important ingredient for personality development. This can be seen in Davis’ case with Anna and Isabelle, who were isolated from the rest of society, from birth to age six. Upon being found, they were unable to speak, unresponsive and incapable of functioning properly. Socialization thus aids in forming our personalities and also avoids punishment in society. Socialization first begins with the family. This is referred to as primary socialization. This essay will discuss the role of the family in socialization, highlighting the reasons why family is no longer the main agent of socialization and identifying other agents of socialization. To begin, the family was essentially the main agent of socialization. They contribute to primary socialization, which takes place from birth, teaching individuals the culture of society. In our early life, the family is very important in shaping our ideas, beliefs, and behaviour. According to Murdock, the family plays important roles in society. These roles include, socializing children into the culture of society, reproducing the next generation, providing the basic needs and aiding in companionship and gratification. In addition, functionalism sees that the family is a universal social institution in society that takes care of the needs of society. Hubert Spencer suggests that society is just like an organism. The organism consists of different parts, which contribute to equilibrium and the wellbeing of this organism. Similarly, the family is the “different parts” in society, that maintain order in society. Each part function to meet Parson’s functional prerequisites. The integration of the various parts, that is, the different roles in the family, provides consensus and patterned relationships. Additionally, although the family is seen as “the cornerstone in society” and provides the means of primary socialization, there are various factors contributing to its decline as the main agent. Through primary socialization, individuals have developed negative attitudes. This is evident as social issues are usually traced back to the family as the source. This is because family is portrayed as the “building blocks” of society. The family has also broken down due to job opportunities. This has led to mothers, whose traditional role was to socialize the children, now working and staying longer periods, away from the home. Due to the lack of the family as the agent of primary socialization, individuals now utilize other agents as they interact with new groups, thus promoting, secondary socialization. Furthermore, solutions for the decline of the family as the main agent includes; the use of new agents, anticipatory socialization and resocialization. Other agents of socialization include school, religious institutions, peers, the media and the community. These agents contribute to secondary socialization, as the individuals interact with other groups, apart from the family. These agents also aid in the resocialization of individuals, where they reinforce the values and beliefs of society. These agents may also play a role in anticipatory socialization, where individuals deliberately seek help to socialize them into the expected behaviour. Religious intuitions are an example of an agent who contributes to anticipatory socialization. However, it must be noted that just like the family, all agents are flawed. For example, religious institutions portray certain activities like adultery in a negative manner to “boost family values”. Therefore, various agents which are not flawless, aid in secondary and anticipatory socialization, as well as resocialization of individuals. To conclude, the family was considered the main agent of socialization. According to functionalism, the family played numerous roles to ensure the transmission of values, norms, and beliefs in society, in an attempt to maintain consensus and stability in society. However, due to numerous factors such as interactions with new groups, the creation of alternatives and job opportunities, the family is no longer the main agent, and there are now other agents who contribute to secondary socialization. These agents include school, religious institutions, peers, the media and the community. These agents although they have flaws, also play an important role in the socialization of individuals.

Question: Within the social sciences, there is a debate about whether sociology is a science or not. Evaluate the major positions in this debate.

A popular debate in sociology concerns whether sociology should be studied as a science or not. Science is defined as the use of systematic methods of research and investigation and the logical analysis of arguments in order to develop an understanding of a particular subject matter. The sociologists that claim it is a science are known as positivists. Those that dispute their viewpoint are known as interpretivists, who suggest that society cannot be measured and oversimplified into a mere thing to be studied. Within this essay, the major arguments made for each viewpoint will be discussed as well as an evaluation of each position on this debate. Positivism is a sociological tradition stating that human behaviour within society can be studied using the same procedures and methods employed in studying natural sciences. Those methods include observation and multivariate analysis as noted by Nasser Mustapha 2009. This tradition was founded by French sociologist Auguste Comte. Comte advanced his theory of positivism by furthering his belief that human behaviour was controlled in the same way that matter was constricted. Positivists adhere to their claim that sociology possesses certain features that allows it to be identified as a science. They make the claim that sociology is theoretical, meaning that data is obtained by research and utilized in formulating theories. This can be seen as sociologists may employ different approaches in order to study the same phenomena and can be related to scientists also utilizing various approaches in order to study the same matter. Sociology can be said to have both a cumulative and a value free nature. Sociology’s cumulative nature means that sociologists are able to develop and refine the older theories established by their predecessors. For example, Emile Durkheim expanded on Herbert Spencer’s idea that society can be viewed as an organism. This concept is similar to that of scientific studies which over time has disputed and modified theories as time has developed. Positivists also hold the view that similar to studying natural sciences; sociology is value-free, meaning it is merely reported without any of the researcher’s moral conclusions on social life. Due to their beliefs, positivists utilize quantitative methods in acquiring information. Quantitative research methods involve statistics and numerical data which ensure that it is easy to quantify and is a reliable source of data. Max Weber, a German sociologist, opposed Comte’s theory that sociology should and can be studied as a natural science. This perspective is known as Interpretivism and is the other tradition of the study of sociology as noted by Mustapha. Interpretivists mainly oppose positivism as it simplifies society to be studied as a single thing. They view human behaviour as something that cannot be measured because it is based on emotions and feelings. Human behaviour also will differ depending on who they are interacting with. Interpretivists are also critical of their view that human behaviour is controlled and contained by the laws and norms of society. Due to this view, they adopt humanistic and subjective research methods referred to as qualitative methods in order to obtain data. Not all sociologists have agreed that sociology is a science and have made very strong cases to support their claims. Their main argument is that human behaviour changes based on several factors which include who exactly they are interacting with. Due to human behaviour being rather subjective (personal) makes it very difficult to study it as a being objective (detached). Alternatively, positivists have made a very strong argument for studying sociology as a natural science. They have linked many of its characteristics which make it very suitable to be considered a science.

Essay submitted by user shanique hayden General Comments on Essay:

1. The writer demonstrated a very good understanding to the subject matter - quatitative research methods vs qualitative research methods.

2. Good use of language and expression.

3. The writer did not cite sociologists, in the discussion/analysis phase of the essay, although their arguments/points of views on the strenghts of the quantitative research method was stated.

Mark out of 25

Knowledge & Understanding 6

Interpretation & Analysis 7

Synthesis and Evaluation 7

Total 20/25 Quantitative methods are better suited to undergo the rigours of sociological research. Discuss.     Quantitative research methods can be described as those methods employing the use of more scientific and numerical data. Quantitative research methods are predominantly used in the positivist approach to research and it was the method adopted by Emile Durkheim in his study on suicide. This research method is also deemed as reliable and practical.      Emile Durkheim did his study on suicide in nineteenth century. In conducting his study, he used the positivist approach which warrants the use of social facts, statistical data, correlations, causation, multivariate analysis and laws of human behaviour. Durkheim's research methodology was therefore quantitative. His quantitative method allowed him to make very good use of the statistical data available to him which helped to propel his theory. He used this statistical data to explain why the suicide rates among Roman Catholics and Protestants were either higher or lower than those of other groups. This data also enabled him to make a correlation between the suicide rates and the group with which it is associated. After making his correlations, he used multivariate analysis, which involves trying to isolate the effects of a particular independent variable upon the dependent variables, to isolate the most important variables and also to determine if there was a genuine causal relationship between these factors and suicide. The quantitative method proves to be better suite d in this situation as it would be difficult to obtain the information for the study using other means such as the qualitative method of research. This is due to the fact that the persons under study are d e ad and so would not be able to provide the information needed for the research. Therefore due to the method used it was easy for conclusions to be drawn about the situation based on data such as statistics that were available.      Quantitative research methods are deemed to be reliable. Reliability means that the study done can be replicated and the same results will be produced. Quantitative methods usually produce standardized data in a statistical form which makes it easy for the results to be repeated and checked.  On the other hand qualitative methods are seen as failing to meet the standards of reliability because the procedures used to collect data are often unsystematic, the results are hardly ever quantified and so there is no way that a qualitative study can be replicated and the reliability of the findings checked.      Practicality alludes to efficiency of the time and effort associated with the study. Quantitative methods are generally less time consuming and require less personal commitment when compared to the qualitative method. It is also possible to study larger and more representative samples which could provide a better understanding of the population under study. Qualitative methods however are less practical as they require a lot of time and most times the study has to be confined to a small group thus at times making the sample non-representative of the population under study and so accurate generalizations cannot be made.    To conclude qualitative method of research provides the research with the use of statistical data thus making it easier to study phenomenon where the direct individuals under study are not available for interviews, for example suicide victims. This research method is also reliable and so other persons in the field of study can improve on the study or use the study to assist in another. The research method is also very practical which becomes useful when there is not a lot of time or resources and when the population size is quite large, thus requiring a large representative sample. However it must be noted that while quantitative methods are better suited for conducting some research in sociology, it is not suited for all and so the writer would like to conclude that quantitative methods are better suited to undergo some rigours of sociological research but not all.

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In-class activities.

Suggestions for in-class activities, as well as additional essay and discussion questions are included below. Suggested in-class activities and additional essay and discussion questions can also be downloaded as a document here . This was originally created by Kathy Dolan and Jennie Law from Georgia State University.

Module 1 Foundations of Sociology

Short answers:.

• How would you define sociology to someone who knows nothing about it?
• What is the sociological imagination? Illustrate your definition with an example.
• What are the benefits of studying sociology?
• Describe the differences between micro-level and macro-level theories. Illustrate your point with examples.
• Describe the history of sociology, naming and describing the contributions of three different sociological theorists.
• Should we raise the minimum wage? Present arguments for and against raising the minimum wage. Identify which of the three sociological theories would best match arguments for and against raising the minimum wage.

Online Discussion Question:

• Do some online research on locavores and one specific locavore group. Describe the group using the symbolic interactionist perspective. Include web links and other relevant sources.

Class Activities:

• Create an infographic (using an infographic creator tool or website tool) showcasing the main parts of each of the three major sociological theories, Functionalism, Conflict Theory, and Symbolic Interactionism.
• Create a simulation of a social media conversation between two different sociological theorists on the nature of society.

Module 2 Sociological Research

• What are the advantages of using surveys in research?
• Define reliability and validity.
• Devise a hypothesis about some aspect of society. Identify your dependent and independent variables.
• What is interpretive research? Give an example of a research question that would be best answered using an interpretive framework.
• Outline and define the steps of the sociological research process.
• Describe at least three ethical concerns in sociological research and how the profession addresses those concerns. Make up original examples to illustrate your points.
• If you had a million-dollar research grant to study anything about society, what would you study? Why would you choose this topic? Remember to develop a sociological question with sociological reasoning. Try to be value free. Which research method would you use and why?

Class Activity:

• As a class or in groups, identify a sociological research topic. Ask a question about this topic. Formulate a hypothesis. Create 10 closed-ended survey questions addressing your hypothesis. Use a program like Plickers or an electronic polling tool to have students in class answer the questions. Create infographics, charts, etc. to display the results to the class. Have each group discuss the results for their questions and their conclusions about their hypothesis. Explain to students why these results pertain just to this class and cannot be generalized.  

Module 3 Culture

• Describe at item of material culture that is important to you. What symbolic significance does it hold for you?
• How is social control functional for society?
• Describe the difference between folkways and mores. Give an original example for each.
• Technology does not just meet modern technology. Describe two original examples of technological developments that had an impact on group living.
• Describe how the media can have a life-changing function. Illustrate with an original example.
• Define ideal and real culture. Explain the concepts with an original example.
• Describe high culture and popular culture. Provide original examples for each, explaining why they fit the description.
• What is the digital divide? How is this concept related to social class and inequality? Who suffers from the digital divide?
• What is media consolidation, and what impact does it have on society?
• Have you ever experienced culture shock? Describe a time you experienced culture shock. What was surprising to you? How did you react to the surprise? How did you overcome your culture shock?
• Have you ever thought about inventing something, or that someone else should invent something to solve a specific problem? What would you invent if you could? Explain how your invention would be functional for society.
• Imagine knowing nothing about human life in the United States. Pick an aspect of life that seems mundane and normal to you, and explain it to someone who is experiencing culture shock.
• The Breaching Experiment, as described on P. 58 of your text, is a classic sociological experiment. For this assignment, students should break a social norm at the folkway level. Be sure students understand that they should not do anything dangerous or illegal or that would put them at risk in any way. Often students will choose to do this assignment with a family member or friend. Have students report to the class on what they did and how people reacted. Discuss sanctions and social control.
• As individuals, small groups or a whole class, create a new norm for society. Decide what the norm is, how it will be enforced, and what the sanctions will be for following or breaking the norm. Then describe how you would effectively socialize people into this norm. Discuss.

Module 4 Socialization

• How do sociologists and psychologists view the world differently? Give an original example to illustrate your point.
• What is resocialization? Illustrate your definition with an original example.
• How important are peer groups to socialization? In what ways do they influence individuals throughout the life course?
• Describe the concept of the social construction of reality. Illustrate your essay with an original example.
• Describe Erving Goffman’s theory of the presentation of self in everyday life through role performance. Illustrate the theory with original examples.
• Have you ever observed someone experiencing a self-fulfilling prophecy? Explain. If you have not personally observed this, use an example from the media, books, movies, or TV.
• Have you ever experienced role strain or role conflict? Describe the different roles and how they were strained or conflicted. How did you resolve this?
• Since socialization is often so unconscious, we sometimes take for granted what we know without thinking too much about how we came to know it. For this discussion, think about an aspect of life you take for granted, and describe what you can remember about being socialized or taught specific norms.

Module 5 Society and Groups

• How did the Industrial Revolution lead to urbanization?
• Describe Karl Marx’s theory of alienation.
• What is the difference between social group and institutional agents of socialization? Explain your answer with original examples from both social group and institutional agents.
• Define the concept of the McDonaldization of society, including the 4 characteristics Ritzer describes in his book.
• Choose two of the four characteristics of the McDonaldization of Society and show how these concepts can be applied to other aspects of our lives.
• Define and describe two different leadership styles. Give original examples of both from your own life or in society and explain why they are good examples of the style.
• What would life be like if the Internet just stopped working? Describe how this event would impact two different social institutions.
• Briefly describe the concept of Mcdonaldization.
• Describe your example.
• Apply the four characteristics of McDonaldization to your example.
• Include inserted photos, links, and resources to help illustrate your example.
• How does advertising play on the ideas of in-groups and out-groups to sell products and services?
• Are you a part of any voluntary groups? Describe them and why you joined them. What do you get out of them? What do you contribute to them?
• How are sociological theorists relevant to today’s world? As individuals or as a class, do a hashtag search for Karl Marx on a social media platform that uses hashtags. Do a brief content analysis of the posts that you find to describe their relevance.
• You can use this activity in class with magazines and glue sticks, using old file folders as the base, or you can have students create their image boards using online tools and programs. Have students make an image/text board or infographic using images and text that illustrate the McDonaldization of Society. These can be posted online and discussed or discussed in the classroom.

Module 6 Deviance, Crime, and Social Control

• How can deviance be positive? Explain your answer using an original example.
• What are the two main ways we get statistics on crime in the United States? Name the reports and describe how their data is collected.
• Describe 2 of the 4 types of social bonds in control theory. Give original examples of each.
• According to Functionalist theory, deviance can be functional for society. Give 4 specific, original examples of how deviance can be functional for society.
• Sanctions, or reactions to behavior, can be positive or negative and formal or informal. Define the 4 combinations and give original examples to illustrate your descriptions.

Online Discussion Questions:

• What do you think about C. Wright Mills’ notion of the Power Elite? Who do you think makes up the power elite? Give two specific original examples, and show how their decisions can impact society as a whole.
• What is panoptic surveillance? Besides prison, where else do we find this? Why does it exist? Describe two original examples.
• Make a list of common law-breaking activities or actions that most people do not consider serious, and the legal penalty in your area for each. Using Plickers or another classroom survey tool in an anonymous way, ask students who has broken each law. Have them tally up how much they would owe in fines and jail time had they been caught and convicted of these offenses. Discuss perceptions of crime and why different law-breaking activities are treated differently.

Module 7 Stratification and Inequality

• What is meritocracy? To what extent do you think the United States is a meritocracy? Give two original examples to justify your response.
• Why do most Americans self-identify as middle class?
• Why are conflict theorists deeply critical of social stratification?
• Briefly describe Wallerstein’s world systems approach to global inequality.
• Differentiate between extreme and relative poverty, and give original examples for both.
• Social mobility can take many forms. List and describe three types of social mobility. Give original examples of each to illustrate your answer.
• Compare and contrast how conspicuous consumption would be explained by a symbolic interactionist theorist and a functionalist theorist.
• What is meant by the cycle of poverty? How does it operate? How is poverty feminized? How does the feminization of poverty impact the cycle of poverty?
• How would you describe your standard of living? What factors are you basing your description on? Has your standard of living changed over time or by circumstances? What are some indicators of that change?
• Discuss conspicuous consumption. Insert photos from the Internet or original photos of your own of 3 examples of conspicuous consumption. What are these items supposed to signify? What are some other social meanings that might be assigned to these items if viewed from a different perspective?
• Do you think you purchase goods made in sweat shops? Look up where some of your clothes and goods are made. Look up the records on working conditions of the workers in companies that make your products. Who actually made them? If they were made in sweatshops, does that matter? Why or why not?
• Are there any forms of cultural capital that can be acquired without economic capital? That is, can one cultivate habits of speech and appearance that suggest higher social status but which do not cost money? (or at least very much money?) What symbolic values are at work here?
• If prestigious brand-name products, such as the Louis Vuitton handbag we started with, confer some sort of high status on those who possess and display them, then how does the “branding” of the self function in our 21st-Century economy? When individuals brand themselves through social media and other public platforms, whether as employees or “influencers” and such, what status or characteristics are they trying to claim? What do they hope to gain?
• The sociologist Charles Horton Cooley introduced the concept of the “looking glass self,” which says we develop our sense of self according to how we believe others perceive us. Can this idea help us understand how social status and economic class are related? To what extent are status and class a matter of self-conscious performance for the benefit of an imagined audience?
• Have students go to Playspent.org and play through the game at least twice. Or, you can do this in the classroom and make choices as a group. Each choice opens up the conversation to discussions of inequality and structural and personal factors that impact those living in poverty. Discuss how poverty is linked to so many other social problems.
• As individuals, groups, or a class, list several indicators of global stratification. Choose three countries you think will rank differently on these indicators and find data on the chosen indicators for each country. Compare and discuss results and how stratification manifests in your examples.

Module 8 Race and Ethnicity

• How are stereotypes both functional and dysfunctional for society?
• What is racial steering? In what ways do things like this exist today?
• What is intersection theory? How can we use it to help understand the experiences of those around us? Illustrate your answer with an original example.
• What do you do when you hear someone tell a racist joke? What social responsibility do you think we have to speak up or stand up when we see or hear racist behavior or talk?
• Have you ever been incorrectly stereotyped? Describe the situation and why you think you were stereotyped. Why was the stereotype wrong?
• Have students go to Implicit Association Test Website and take an Implicit Association Test related to race and ethnicity. In advance, explain to them how the test works and what the results will and will not mean. The website has a great explanation and answers to questions. Discuss results and why students think they got the results they did (go beyond the mechanics of the test).

Module 9 Gender, Sex, and Sexuality

• What is gender identity? How does society contribute to our understanding of what it means to identify ourselves and others by gender categories?
• How did the work of Alfred Kinsey impact the field of sexuality studies?
• How does the concept of heteronormativity manifest in society? Describe three original examples.
• How does inequality based on gender impact society? Compare and contrast the functionalist and conflict views on gender inequality.
• It is easier to see examples of gender role socialization in children than it is in adults. Think of some examples of how adults are socialized into gender roles over the life course. What does society expect of people based on gender at different ages?
• In small groups, create Public Service Announcements (PSAs) targeted at teaching boys and men not to sexually assault girls and women. Use some class time to prepare, and the rest for the students to act out or demonstrate their PSAs. As a class, discuss the perceived pros and cons of the PSAs.

Module 10 Marriage and Family

• How does the U.S. Census definition of family compare to the sociological definition of family?
• How do changes in one social institution or structure impact another? Give an original example using the institution of the family.
• How does symbolic interactionism describe how we develop an understanding of what constitutes a family? How does this differ from a functionalist explanation?
• Describe intimate partner violence in the United States using an intersectional approach.
• Who do you consider to be family? Do you consider only relatives, or do other people or creatures fit that description for you? How do you decide who you consider family?
• As a class, list the functions of the family. Divide the class into small groups and have them imagine a society where the institution of the family does not exist. In their society, how would the functions the class listed be filled? Groups should be creative and inventive. After about half of the class period is over, ask groups to describe their societies and how the functions that would be met by the institution of the family are met in their imagined society. Students should be thinking in terms of social structure.

Module 11 Religion

• How does a religious movement move from being a sect to a denomination?
• Explain 3 functions of religion that are positive for society.
• What is liberation theology? Give an original example from current events.
• How does the social structure of religion impact other institutions in a society? Illustrate your description with two original examples.
• How is the Protestant Work Ethic related to capitalism? How might it be used to justify inequality?
• Megachurches are a relatively recent phenomenon described in your text. What is a megachurch? Find an example of a megachurch and do some research on it. Using functionalist theory, explain how the megachurch meets various needs for its members and for society. Give concrete examples.
• Individually or in small groups, have students investigate death rituals from a culture other than mainstream U.S. culture. What are the functions of the death rituals for the group? As a class, discuss similarities and differences in death rituals across cultures.

Module 12 Education

• How is education related to life expectancy?
• In what ways is the U.S. education system unequal?
• What is social promotion? How can it be both functional and dysfunctional?
• How does cultural transmission work through the institution of education? Give three original examples.
• How is the importance of credentialism in today’s society explained by labeling theory? Illustrate your explanation with original examples.
• You read about grade inflation in this chapter. What do you think about it? How do you think grades in your college classes should be calculated and distributed? Give some examples related to grades that you have experienced that you thought were either helpful or harmful and discuss why you feel the way you do.
• In small groups, have students design a sex ed curriculum for 5th, 8th, and 11th grade public school students. What topics would they cover at each grade level and why? What topics would they exclude and why? What is the overall goal of their curriculum? Discuss as a class, and have each student group add to a written chart on the board.

Module 13 Health and Medicine

• Define and describe the stigmatization of illness. Illustrate your description with an original example.
• How does socioeconomic status influence health?
• How does health and wellness differ between high and low income nations? Give at least 3 examples.
• What is socialized medicine? Describe 2 benefits and 2 drawbacks.
• What are your thoughts on the medicalization of deviance? How might this view be beneficial for society? For the deviant individual? How might it be detrimental? Do a little online research and describe an example of a deviant behavior being medicalized.
• Look up and examine historical changes in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. You may want to assign topics to small groups in class. Discuss how the changes in the conceptions of mental illness are related to other things happening in society. Discuss how social views and the social construction of reality impact the definition of mental illness.

Module 14 Aging and the Elderly

• Why do we distinguish between three different stages of seniors? What is the basis of the distinction between stages?
• How is ageism institutionalized? Illustrate your explanation with an original example.
• What makes the Baby Boomers an important generation? Describe three ways they are impacting how society deals with aging.
• Compare disengagement theory with modernization theory. Which theory do you think better applies to today’s seniors? Explain and give an original example.
• How much do you think we value the elderly in American society? How are our ideas about what and who is considered “old” changing? What is driving the change in our conceptions of age?
• Have students ask elder members of their family to describe their impressions of their own grandparents, great-grandparents or other family elders when they were a child. Ask how their own senior years are comparing to those of their ancestors. Discuss these changes as a class, and connect them to historical and social structural factors in society.

Module 15 Government and Politics

• Describe the three types of authority, and give original examples for each.
• How would a symbolic interactionist theorist study government? Illustrate with an example.
• Describe two social factors that impact voter participation in the United States.
• Compare and contrast two different forms of government.
• How is voting impacted by race, class, and gender issues?
• Using functionalist theory, describe the four main functions of the government. Give an original example for each function.
• Why do you think some Americans have such a fascination with royal families and monarchies? How do you think views on royalty have changed since an American actress recently married into the British royal family?
• Have students create and administer a short interview guide concerning voter participation and attitudes toward voting. They should interview 3 people and discuss their findings with the class.

Module 16 Work and the Economy

• What are the main differences between capitalism and socialism?
• What impact have women had on the modern workforce?
• How do developed countries protect their citizens from extreme poverty?
• How is the information age changing the institution of work?
• How has globalization impacted the nature of work? Include discussion of global assembly lines and global commodity chains.
• You read in your text about the woman who lives without money. Find another example of a group that lives without money. Describe the group’s philosophy on money and how they replace money in their economic system. Provide links to sources where possible, and insert relevant pictures and video clips into your post.
• Have students write their description of their ideal job. What would it be? What would the working conditions be like? Responsibilities? Compensation? Then have them search Indeed.com for the job they have described. Students should report back to the class how their ideal job compared to the actual jobs available.

Module 17 Population, Urbanization, and the Environment

• What is fertility rate and mortality rate? What do these measures tell us about a population?
• How does the Cornucopia theory address the idea that the human population may become unsustainable?
• Compare and contrast two demographic theories with regard to how societies develop.
• What is gentrification? What are some functions and dysfunctions of gentrification? How does it impact different groups?
• Investigate an organization that is working to ease some aspect of the trash problem somewhere in the world. Check the discussion board before you post to be sure you are posting about an organization that has not already been discussed. Describe the specific trash problem the organization is addressing, the mission of the organization and the impact of their work on the trash problem. Include links, pictures, and video clips when you can.
• As individuals or in small groups, think of some items that are generally considered trash and easily thrown away, and come up with a reasonable way to reuse the item. Be inventive and creative as well as practical. Leave time for each group to describe their ideas to the class and for the class to discuss the merits of each idea.

Module 18 Social Movements and Social Change

• Give an example of each of the three types of framing using frame analysis.
• The Internet serves many positive functions for society. What are three ways it has been dysfunctional?
• Describe the four different types of crowds, and give original examples for each.
• There are 5 types of social movements, each with different goals. Define and describe them, and give an original example for each.
• Fads are a type of collective behavior. Investigate a fad, from now or the past, and describe what the fad is, how it became popular and how it declined. Which groups were the first to adopt the fad? Who was influential in the spread of the fad? Was the fad related to other things happening in society? Include links, pictures and video clips where you can.
• In small groups, have students develop a plan to start a social movement. What social problem are they addressing? Have students restate the claim using three different framing techniques. As a class, discuss each group’s ideas and which of the three framing techniques might be most successful in attaining attention and resources for their social movement.
• There has been years of debate over the question of whether violence in media and video games causes young people to be violent. Discuss arguments on both side.
• Advertisers have had to become more innovative and clever in order to get their message to a public that may not watch traditional TV ads or see them in print magazines. Discuss two original examples of how advertisers are getting their message to consumers in new ways. Try to give examples classmates have not already given. Include links when you can.
• Have students keep notes on everything they see in one day that is advertising a brand, product, or service. A lot of these things fly under our radar and we often do not pay close attention to things like company logos on someone’s tee shirt, product placement in movies, or an ad on a social media page. Ask students to jot down notes throughout the day because it will be harder to remember them all later. Discuss their examples and the pervasive nature of advertising
• In-Class Activities modification, adaptation, and original content. Authored by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Classroom. Authored by : Prosymbols. Provided by : Noun Project. Located at : https://thenounproject.com/term/classroom/520781/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Resources for Instructors, Openstax Sociology 2E. Authored by : Kathy Dolan and Jennie Law. Provided by : Georgia State University. Located at : https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/psychology-ancillary/11/?fbclid=IwAR0w1n8jecFiy49h_hKpaZ5bqd43keKhxGxKtpYUs6_eNatlYVhpYadleIA . Project : Affordable Learning Georgia Grant. License : CC BY: Attribution

Top 277 Sociology Essay Topics & Questions for Discussion in 2024

Sociology, as one of the most debatable disciplines, can easily confuse anyone. This article will help you to survive in these sociological jungles.

Further, you will find a quick guide about main sociological research questions. If you already know about macro- and micro-sociological perspectives, you can skip this section and go to the next part. There we have more than 200 cool ideas on sociology essay topics.

And finally — constructive advice on writing sociological papers.

So get comfortable, and let’s go!

• 🔬 Research Questions
• 📗 Topics. Macrosociology
• 📘 Topics. Microsociology
• 👩 Topics by Academics

📜 Sociology EPQ Ideas

🧐 sociological questions to ask, 🖊️sociology topics to write about in 2024.

• Domestic violence in American and other cultures .
• Does segregation exist in the contemporary US?
• The anti-vaccination movement in social networks.
• Gun control: Does it reduce or increase crime ?
• Gender pay gap and its impact on women.
• Is environmentalism possible in a consumer society?
• Challenges that multicultural children face in the US .
• The impact of government policies on the family structure.
• Gender disparities in the criminal justice system.
• Effects of domestic violence on children: The cycle of violence .
• Neighborhood crime and violence.
• The importance of memes in the digital world.
• Marijuana legalization in the United States .
• Exploring the social dimension of climate change.
• War on drugs: Implication for the criminal justice system .

🔬 Sociology Questions. Introduction

Sociology is very flexible, and at the same time, requires all of your attention and accuracy.

There is even a joke among sociologists: add ‘sociology of’ before any issue, and you are ready to find your research topic—sociology of Christmas, sociology of ballet, sociology of Italian mafia, etc.

Not only are there endless variations for your research focus, but also many approaches and instruments.

Let’s introduce you to the main fields that sociologists study. Keep in mind that you are never limited to one sphere; multidisciplinarity is always welcomed. However, if you are a beginner, better concentrate and work with one issue.

🌆 Research Perspectives for Sociology Paper Topics

Sociological studies can be conducted on macro and micro levels. The difference between these two stages is in research focus, methods of analysis, and conclusions derived from the study.

• Macrosociology examines large-scale processes and trends concerning the general social systems and populations.
• Microsociology examines small-scale patterns concerning individuals and groups in their face-to-face interactions.
• Macrosociology methods include historical, archival research, statistical analysis (large-scale).
• Microsociology methods are interviews, questionaries, focus groups, observations, statistical analysis (smaller-scale).

N.B.; This is not an ultimate division of research methods. They can vary and be a part of a mixed-method strategy.

• Macrosociological conclusions cover causes and effects, functioning and interaction of social systems, institutions, phenomena, etc.
• Microsociological conclusions cover social institutions and systems’ interactions with individuals, groups, etc.: how they affect and shape their lives.

Once again.

Besides the apparent contrast, this division is fluctuating. Some sociological research questions can be at the junction of two perspectives. To a great extent, they complement each other.

📗 Sociology Questions from Macro-Perspective

Below you can find interesting sociology topics from or related to the macrosociological perspective. The examples include fundamental questions about social institutions, social systems, and global processes. Try to understand society as a whole, greater than just a set of individuals.

⚜️ Sociology Essay Topics on Social Institutions

Studies about social institutions examine complicated forms of social order that focus on meeting social needs. Such patterns are government, religion, education, family, etc. Focus in this area is usually on the ways institutions work, interact with other social forms, and change.

• Distinguish social institutions from simpler social units (rules, social norms , rituals, etc.) and more complex social forms ( culture , society, etc.). Use as many examples as you can; it is also possible to depict that one social form is a component of other social structures.
• The burden of labor: Is work a necessity? Why do people have to work: is it an inevitable social institution, a duty , or a natural predisposition? While most individuals have to work to ensure their living, others claim that labor is a burden that negatively impacts a person, leaving no time for rest and creation.
• Institutional culture. What is the system of informal, unwritten rules of an institution? Use an example of a particular social institution (e.g., religion ) to comprehensively describe its ‘culture’. Focus on how this informal set of norms complements the determined structure of rules.
• Education as a social institution. Discuss either the internal or external system of relations of this social institution. You can choose to outline different educational system agents or other related institutions and structures.
• Structure of roles in ___ institution. Analyze the structure of differentiated roles in a specific institution: interdependence, hierarchy, functions , and rights. Try to depict the structure entirely.
• How do definitions of some social institutions can change over time? As an example, you can use family as a social institution and provide details that have changed this notion’s understanding.
• How we make friends: friendship as a social institution. Think about the role friendship plays in social relations . Conduct sociological research to focus on revealing the benefits and drawbacks friendship may provide.
• Mafia as a social institution. Discuss why we can call any mafia clan a social institution: go through a set of rules, norms, differentiation of roles, and behaviors.
• How does a global crisis affect specific social institutions? For instance, the influence of war on education institutions, the pandemic’s impact on the family institution, etc.
• Language as a social institution. Discuss whether or not we can define language as a social institution. What is the structure and boundaries of it?
• Mother’s and father’s roles in the family .
• Internet and social media technology in the family context .
• The role of government in the U.S. healthcare system .
• Family, cultural legacies, and identity formation .
• The functions and role of education .
• Impact of culture on the American family system and structure .

📉 Sociology Essay Topics on Social Change

This area studies major shifts in society, such as transformations in behavior, social institutions, social structure, etc. Researchers in this field study how and why specific mechanisms appear and make significant changes.

• Innovations that resulted in negative consequences and didn’t bring any global benefit. Nuclear weapons , for example? You can discuss changes in states’ military equipment, policies, and regulations .
• Compare technological progress today and centuries ago. People need less time to get used to innovations nowadays. Each innovation may have significant lasting social consequences .
• How do economic developments improve other parts of life? For example, economic prosperity can stimulate tolerance towards the LGBT+ community . Try to crack this causal puzzle.
• Was the individualistic ethic of Calvinism the only reason for economic growth in the West? Research other causes and compare them with other cases.
• Overpopulation in China led to the one-child-per-family policy . Discuss how demographical change can affect different spheres of life.
• Public policy to enact social change: Legalization of marijuana.
• Revolutionary changes result mainly from the state’s inability to perform essential legal functions and protect a territory’s integrity.
• Post-Civil War political, economic, and social changes .
• Was the Black Death one of the reasons for feudalism to be disrupted in Europe in the 14th century?
• Does population growth stimulate the economic prosperity of a state or increase poverty?
• Impact of technology on social change .
• What is the causal path from climate change to changes in everyday life?
• How does social decline affect morality?
• Reasons for changes in race and gender hierarchy .

⚖️ Sociology Essay Topics on Political Science

Political sociology focuses on different sources of power and authority. Among these sources are wealth, class, race, etc. Individuals and groups being differentiated by any of these characteristics impact decision-making processes both in small organizations and the whole states.

Therefore, sociologists analyze how these decisions affect people, groups, and societies in terms of their legal rights and resources.

• Is not taking a shower an acceptable and effective method of political protest ? Individual protests, hunger strikes, and the rejection of taking a shower – all this refers to sociological research studies that explain human behavior.
• The notion of a nation-state . How do the characteristics prescribed to particular nations influence individuals’ self-understanding? You can also discuss the corresponding country’s political culture .
• Is it possible for democracy and capitalism to work together successfully? Discuss the interaction of these two systems and whether they can cohabit in one society.
• Formation of a modern ___ state . Choose one state as an example and analyze the processes of formation of its political and social institutions.
• The role of political elites in countries with different levels of development . Compare progressive and underdeveloped states concerning the functioning of political elites there.
• Sociology of war . Analyze any conflict as a result of an individual’s or group of individuals’ decision-making.
• Illegal immigration in the US and its causes .
• What effects do social movements and public opinion have on state politics?
• The US immigration policy: History and current issues .
• Does the process of globalization weaken national governments?
• Crime and its influence on gun control laws .
• How do increasing forces of technologies reorganize political institutions?
• Is gun control strict enough in the US?
• Is counterrevolution an obligatory response to any revolution ?
• Labor immigration in the US: History, visas, and compensation .

📘 Sociology Questions from Micro-Perspective

Here are the topics from the microsociological perspective. The primary focus of these sociology paper topics is social life, individual behavior, and local processes. Interpersonal levels of interaction and peculiarities of specific categories/groups are the core of these topics.

🕊️ Sociology Essay Topics on Race and Ethnicity

Researchers investigate how societies construct race and ethnicity notions, how people identify themselves with one or another. Study focus also includes whether and how racial and ethnic characteristics correlate with other social features. Among the most popular topics are immigration policies, discrimination, and inter-group relations.

• Cultural appropriation is a manifestation of racism. Compare this issue to police brutality , for example. Are they equally inappropriate?
• Ethnical minorities establish their communities and, as a result, shape the dominant culture. Describe a process of integrating new norms/tastes/traditions from other cultures.
• From race to ethnicity. Trace how sociologists have started to use the notion of ethnicity instead of race in their researches.
• How does society (people and institutions) react to racially biased crimes? Discuss public and authorities’ reactions: new policies, social movements, etc.
• How does the modern anti-racism agenda affect the whole industry? As an example, you can use the Oscar ceremony.
• Is female racism anyhow different from male racism? Use the definition of intersectionality.
• Discrimination against African Americans in the US .
• What are the mechanisms of movements like Black Lives Matter getting so popular and concern every other person worldwide?
• The specifics of race relations in the US .
• How do interracial experiences influence the overall mindset and tolerance level of a person?
• Asian ethnicity representation and stereotypes .
• The relation of the level of education and racial tolerance.
• Stereotypes about African American women .
• Is benevolent racism acceptable, or should it be eliminated?
• The representation of African Americans in modern media .

♂️♀️ Sociology Essay Topics on Gender Studies

Sociological research emphasizes the social and cultural fundaments of gender. Besides, great attention is on the ubiquity of gender and its impact on both the private and public spheres.

• Gender roles in psychological and biosocial theories .
• Is the feminine form of a word better than the commonly used?
• Remaining gender boundaries in clothing. Which pieces of clothes have still not become gender natural?
• Race and gender: Social construction .
• Gender stereotypes in a relationship: Is it okay for a boy to cry?
• Did feminism contribute to the moral decline of America?
• Gender differences in non-verbal and verbal communication .
• Can it ever be acceptable for a man to hit a woman?
• Are women less privileged in today’s society than men?
• Gender inequality: A cutural or psychological issue?
• Are working women better mothers?
• Are only men to blame for the objectification of women’s bodies ?
• Gender roles in music videos .
• Are police less likely to suspect a female person of conducting a crime?
• Should positive sexism be frowned upon like negative sexism?
• Gender inequality and stereotypes in the society .

🐉 Sociology Essay Topics on Culture

This sociological area studies culture in its various forms: art, knowledge, language, beliefs, (collective) behavior, production, consumption, diffusion, etc. Sociologists examine cultural meaning by analyzing individual and group communication. While examining cultural meanings, researchers focus on social practices, ideologies, tastes, and norms. Culture also produces collective representations and inequalities.

• Love profusion: Why is having one partner more socially acceptable than having multiple ones? For this social research paper, review this article published by Psychology Today and link lingering psychological effects on the number of socially acceptable partners.
• Tabooing: What are the things you absolutely cannot talk about even with your closest friends? As noted by Freud, taboos arise where ambivalence of feelings is present. Their main goal is to protect our psyche from extremely negative experiences, like shame and guilt.
• Clothes and identity: How the things you wear reflect who you are. Sometimes, to become a completely different person, it’s enough to change clothes.
• Dark comedy: What things are inappropriate to laugh at? Among other attention-grabbing sociological themes, discover laughter as a protective mechanism when one laughs at their friend who accidentally fell. Interesting cultures to research and compare are American and Chinese.
• The line between compliments and harassment: What comments on someone’s appearance are not reprehensible? Here, you can consider clothes, body, accessories, or any other specific features subjected to compliments and harassment .
• Why art house movies are unpopular: A sociological perspective. Arthouse movies target specific populations and focuse on social realism, the director’s vision, and feelings. You can use the mass culture theory and explore the cultural capital of Pierre Bourdieu.
• “Cool” and “uncool” hobbies: Why swimming or DJing is more socially acceptable and approved than collecting postmarks or knitting? Dig into leisure time theory, and analyze the issue from both social and individual aspects.
• Modern pop music tells young people what they should do and be like . Review The Best Pop Songs of 2017 from Lana Del Rey to Lorde , prepared by Esquire to understand the topic better.
• How memes appear and disappear: The role of memes in today’s popular culture . Among other social issues for a research paper, it seems relevant to explore how memes appear as a result of one or another event and what makes them vanish.
• Celebrities as role models. Select several celebrities such as Miley Cyrus or Rihanna and discuss their role models.
• Chinese culture and cross-cultural communication .
• South Park: Absurdist humor or reflection of American culture?
• Concepts of elite culture and popular culture .
• Who is to blame for emerging beauty standards over time?
• Middle Eastern history and culture: From Muhammad to 1800 .
• Top 3 misconceptions kids get from TV ads.
• Japanese and Chinese culture: Comparison and contrast .
• Is altruism still a traditional virtue in modern American culture?
• Peculiarities of Chinese culture and governmental policies in relation to the environment .
• What is the role of mass media in shaping public opinion?
• Views of Asian and Western cultures on death and dying .
• Culture’s role in language development .

🛐 Sociology Essay Topics on Religion

Sociology of religion studies religious commitment and relations between religious organizations and people. Among other research questions are individual and group meanings of belonging to a particular religion or independent of it. Not trying to evaluate any religious beliefs, sociologists investigate relationships of faith with other social institutions, like the economy, politics, family, etc.

• The role of the church /mosque/synagogue in the complex structure of a religion. Discuss how does a specific religious place shape the practices and rituals of believers.
• How does the level of religiosity correlate with the levels of GDP per capita ? Deepen into the actual mechanisms of this relation. And try to build a chain of issues, or portray a specific context.
• Religion as a social institution. Which spheres of life does faith (in that sense) affect, and how does it become a social institution rather than something very personal?
• Sociology of religious experience. How does the connection of a person to “the divine” appear in everyday or regular practices?
• Sociology of religious beliefs. How do certain ideas that people from different confessions adhere to appear in everyday life?
• Sociology of religious rituals . How do rituals of different religions integrate into social life? For example, regular Namaz or celebrating Christmas, etc.
• What can be described as a source of religion? Consider societal aspect: what bonds people, their mindsets, and behavior.
• Islam after 9/11 . Discuss the influence of this event on different spheres of life: education, media, politics, economics, etc.
• The role of a Church in a state. Debate on what is the influence of a church in different confessions (Protestantism, Catholicism , etc.)
• The Flying Spaghetti Monster. What makes it a religion, and what distinguishes it from religion?
• How do people of different religions express their values in social interactions? Use the interactionist approach for this topic.
• Same-sex marriage as a religious issue .
• Moses in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam .
• Religious beliefs and political decisions .
• Differences between Eastern and Western religions .
• Religion in India: Hinduism and Buddhism .
• The role of religion, morality, and worldview in the shaping of public policies .

🏚️ Sociology Essay Topics on Social Inequality

Distribution of goods (wealth, knowledge, power, status, etc.) among different society members according to their race, gender, age, social class, etc. Researchers question the causes and effects of inequality, how inequality can be shaped by geographical and cultural contexts, the intersection of several inequalities, etc.

• Gender, class, and status: Sociological factors in attraction. Describe the way social factors influence the choice of the object of romantic and sexual interest.
• Fashion and status: How important is it to be fashionable for a young person? Conduct a sociological analysis paper based on the images proposed by fashion media and Instagram accounts of young people.
• How has the notion of social inequality changed over centuries? Earlier, this ‘equality’ was meant to be about white men. Other social characteristics are getting included over time.
• What are the social characteristics of a person failing to understand that inequality is still a big problem in the modern world? Describe this ‘pink glasses’ barrier and how it emerges.
• Inequalities that migrants face in receiving societies. Describe social institutions that provide limited services to migrants.
• What are the main indices of inequality in modern sociology ? Ginni coefficient, 20:20 ratio, Palma ratio, etc. Discuss which indexes are used in which cases.
• Effects of social inequality on health. Here you can compare 2 cases: two different countries, two different time periods, etc.
• Gender inequality in the workplace .
• The culture of poverty : Are the citizens of poor countries responsible for their own poverty?
• Women in the Middle East: Problems and inequality .
• Is intelligence more important than beauty for success in today’s society?
• Social inequality of children in foster care .
• Does wealth always make people less ethical?
• Global gender equality issues .
• Criminal justice system: Racial disparities and inequality .

🏥 Sociology Essay Topics on Health

Sociology of health concentrates on health as a characteristic resulting from the lifestyle and individual psychology. Researchers study how health is shaped by social systems and culture. The main topics of interest are specific illnesses among specific individuals and groups, accessibility of treatments, and other healthcare services, the quality of the healthcare system’s functioning.

• Sociology of food: How is your diet related to your identity? This sociology issue has supreme importance in today’s world suffering from overweight and obesity.
• Health-related stigma . Choose some health issue that shapes the perception of a person by other individuals—for instance, infertility, HIV, etc.
• What kind of health inequalities occur in countries with different welfare regimes? You can also add an education variable and research how does educational level affect health inequalities.
• Can we get any knowledge about an individual’s health according to their social practices? Here we are talking about lifestyle and some habits that determine a person’s everyday behavior.
• Prison health. Research the prison healthcare system: what are the principles of healthcare in prisons, and what determines the prisoner’s health .
• The United States, as the only Western developed country without universal health insurance. Discuss the reasons, consequences, and the current situation in general.
• Sex work and related health stigmas. Discuss how women occupied in sex work are stigmatized due to their social status and the corresponding health issues.
• Gender inequality and physical health problems .
• What are the constraints and rewards of people who work as home care labor?
• Class as a determinant of health .
• Is technological progress always bad for people’s health?
• Gender health inequalities: A link between gender and health .
• Do we need a universal health care system?
• The role of family and social network support in mental health .
• The unique cultural issues: Impact on the US healthcare system .

🎓 Sociology Essay Topics on Education

Sociology of education focuses on teaching and learning processes and the formal institutions where these processes take place. Researchers study how society affects educational institutions and the corresponding processes. Great attention is paid to the effects of different types and levels of education on individuals’ lives.

• Is Spencer’s principle of survival of the fittest a good description for the college admission process?
• Standardized tests for enrollment at universities allow everyone equal access to higher education .
• Education, inequality, and politics .
• Single-sex education affects the process of children’s socialization.
• Is the quality of education differentiated by the well-being of a town/city?
• How does government legislation affect educational institutions ?
• Parents’ educational level shapes the level of education of their children.
• Is the level of education losing its importance when applying for a job? Discuss how soft skills take over professional education.
• Women’s rights movement: Impact on education .
• Will providing education to everyone in 3rd world countries erase poverty?
• What are the pros and cons of homeschooling? Is studying at home more or less qualitative as going to school?
• Challenges of African American in obtaining education .
• Symbolic values of such educational institutions as Harvard, Oxford, Sorbonne, etc.
• Socialization and assimilation when a person starts college.
• How does food insecurity affect children’s education ?
• The pros and cons of mainstream schools.

🛍️ Sociology Essay Topics on Consumption

Sociology of consumption examines consumerism in terms of social relations, conditions, and meanings. Researchers also study the relations between consumption patterns and identity, as well as inequalities.

• Does buying a fake bag make other people believe you belong to a high class? Discuss the cult of buying fake brand items: why do people prefer to buy fake clothes and accessories rather than buying cheaper alternatives from the mass market or other places?
• Production through consumption . How do consumption patterns of some people (e.g., social media influencers ) produce new trends and make some products (or certain brands) more popular and desirable than others?
• The shopping mall as a leisure time place. Describe why for some people a visit to a shopping center is a way to spend free time. What practices do people do there?
• People choose places for shopping according to their specific individualities.
• Consumers’ travel behavior in the mature market in the US .
• How does the growing popularity of online shopping influence the life-being of traditional offline shops?
• Plastic consumption: Environmental public policy .
• Are luxurious brands actually worth their price, or is it just a myth about their outstanding quality and design?
• Consumer culture in China and its middle class .
• Anti-consumerism as a civil position. Why do some people decide to lead a consuming-free lifestyle?
• How do marketing and advertising trends change over time and throughout different societies?
• Lifestyle in a consumer culture .
• A visit to a supermarket: The effects of consumer culture on your choices.
• How does the ecological situation affect the patterns of consumption?
• Sustainable and non-sustainable consumer behavior in young adults .
• Does a wider choice of goods make a person more likely to buy more?

🧠 Sociology Essay Topics on Social Psychology

Social psychology researchers focus on how individuals’ belonging to different categories (race, gender, class, etc.) impact their (social) behavior, emotions, decisions. Among other topics, sociologists also question different types of interactions, communications, and the development of social identities.

• Do violent movies and video games decrease or increase real-life violence rates? Many studies prove that violent films and games may cause aggressiveness to others, while gamers are sure that it is just a virtual reality they are involved in to have some fun.
• Trust and security: Would you leave your wallet on the table in a café when going to the restroom? There are several issues with writing a research paper. For example, consider morale and ethics inherent to a particular society.
• Factors influencing the willingness of individuals to help strangers. What can contribute or intervene a person to provide any kind of help: carry a heavy suitcase on the stairs, help to find a route, etc.
• What reaction does the violation of social norms cause in individuals? Here you can compare violations of different kinds of behavior models.
• Social psychology: The concept of the self .
• What kinds of cognitive techniques are used in modern advertisements?
• Cognitive dissonance in social psychology .
• What are the mechanisms of diffusion of responsibility to happen?
• Cyberbullying in social psychology .
• How can physical appearance affect various social situations? For example, the response of jurors in a court or a process of hiring for a new job.
• Social psychology: African and Western perspectives .
• Social awkwardness: Why some people are more easily embarrassed than others?
• Affirmative action: More positive or negative effects?
• Social psychology with respect to racism issue.
• Virtual reality : Escapism has never been more effortless.

👩🏽‍🔬 Sociology Essay Topics by Academics

Only commenting on any of the following quotes can be an excellent topic for a sociology paper:

• “Americans may have no identity, but they do have wonderful teeth.” – Jean Baudrillard
• “Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.” – Wright Mills
• “Families are nothing more than the idolatry of duty.” – Ann Oakley
• “If advertising is not an official or state art, it is nonetheless clearly art.” – Michael Schudson
• “Man’s nature, originally good and common to all, should develop unhampered.” – Georg Simmel
• “Our individual lives cannot, generally, be works of art unless the social order is also.” – Charles Horton Cooley
• “The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.” – W.E.B. Du Bois
• “There is no truth without responsibility following in its wake.” – Franklin Frazier
• “White prejudice and discrimination keep the Negro low in standards of living, health, education, manners, and morals. This, in its turn, gives support to white prejudice. White prejudice and Negro standards thus mutually cause’ each other.” – Gunnar Myrdal
• “It is not true that good can follow only from good and evil only from evil.” – Max Weber

Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) is an independent research project completed by top-grade students in the UK. It allows students to develop and demonstrate project management skills and provides opportunities for extended writing. Check out some topics you can use for your project:

• Ways to reverse stereotypes about alcohol use and misuse in society.
• How does your gender impact your career development?
• Eating disorders as a social phenomenon.
• How have immigrants changed the modern US society?
• The role of family dinners in strengthening social bonds.
• Best methods to prevent industrial waste.
• How has social media changed our minds since its inception?
• The subculture of parkour and its role in society.
• Factors contributing to abusive marriages.
• The impact of social media on socialization.
• How are community interactions connected to culinary trends?
• The challenges and opportunities of globalization for social justice.
• The ethical considerations of using social media for social activism.
• The pitfalls of online communication among teenagers.
• Is religious education useless in modern society?
• The ethical dilemmas in daily life and ways to solve them.
• The impact of same-sex parents on child development.
• How do different models of socialization affect teenagers?
• The ethical implications of data collection in the digital age.
• Local street markets and their role in preserving cultural heritage.
• The impact of neighborhood characteristics on police harassment encounters.
• Internet-based job opportunities and their benefits.
• Should women choose between family and career?
• Negative health outcomes from a sedentary lifestyle.
• The influence of social inequality on access to affordable housing.
• The impact of neighborhood characteristics on voting behavior.
• The sociological impact of AI on employment.
• Tolerance as an essential social feature.
• The role of human ideas and behavior in shaping the society.
• How do social media platforms affect our sense of belonging and community?
• Should public people share their private lives?
• What are some practical solutions to population growth?
• What is the role of privilege in American society?
• Is it necessary for parents to take a parenting class before having children?
• Should communities provide better care for their elderly residents?
• What social problems exist among minorities?
• How do social media influencers affect teenagers’ self-esteem?
• What ethical values should be taught in schools?
• Is online dating a reliable way to find love?
• How do music genres impact the way people dress?
• What social dynamics drive consumer behavior in retail spaces?
• In what ways do Internet challenges influence social participation?
• How does music influence teenagers’ socialization?
• What social norms exist in the fashion world?
• How can we better adjust to the pandemic’s changing conditions?
• What should society do about addicts?
• Do individuals with disabilities appreciate pity?
• What are the social benefits and drawbacks of arranged weddings?
• How has fast food affected society?
• Is cancel culture an effective method of online social accountability?
• Do eco-villages foster stronger social ties?
• What are the advantages of keeping traditional gender roles in a family?
• Should teenagers be allowed to use birth control without their parents’ permission?
• Is mass media harassment still common?
• Should politics be taught in schools?
• How can language serve as a uniting factor?
• Is physical punishment a beneficial way to discipline children?
• What impact does racism have on global growth in general?
• Should the topic of open sexuality be taken seriously in society?
• Is it worth spending so much money to eat healthily?

📝 How to Write a Sociology Essay?

Sociology, as a comparatively new discipline, creates many challenges. Keep in mind that sociology is an empirical science, and all sociological papers (including your essay) should be based on thorough research and rigorous documentation!

Your task will be to interpret the facts you gather when researching your work. Remember that there are endless exciting cultures and issues to research, so the process will not be as burdening as it may sound.

Sociology differs from other social sciences because it relies on statistics, interpretive analysis, and the written word . College students who study sociology usually need to write several academic papers on different sociological research questions each semester.

If you want to know how to write a good research paper in sociology, take the following steps.

🏁 Get Prepared

• Choose a sociology essay topic . You may find ideas related to sociology in books, scientific articles, and online news. The critical thing to keep in mind is that a good sociology essay starts with an original sociological question. Think carefully about the problem you will answer — whether it is an advanced sociology topic or a “why study sociology” essay. Avoid these mistakes!
• Research the topic of your sociology essay. Visit the library and do some research online. Collect relevant evidence from recent studies. Remember that all sociological arguments must be supported by facts and documentation, even if it is just a sociology research paper proposal.
• Read many sources for your academic essay . And always pay attention to the quality of a source: avoid Wikipedia and the like, use scientific articles and highly cited materials instead.
• Take detailed notes. Include the essential pieces of information from each source. Sociology doesn’t like a superficial review of a subject: the deeper and the more thorough, the better!
• Organize your materials and prepare your work area . Systematization of thoughts and materials is an inalienable part of the writing process. Use schemes and tables for more convenient organization of your work.

✍️ Writing Process

• Create a strong thesis. If you fail to write a good thesis statement, the rest of your project is likely to be vague. Your thesis must be debatable and tightly focused so that you can easily support it with the gathered evidence.
• Make a detailed outline for the rest of your sociology research paper . Make sure that each part of your sociology essay supports the thesis you have formulated. Indicate the topic for each paragraph or section. Include references to your sources.
• Write your essay introduction and conclusion . Your introductory paragraph should be concise and focused. To make it more interesting, use a specific example in your introduction.
• Write your body paragraphs. Use relevant data to support the main points in each part. Make sure you include clear transitions between the sections in your academic essay.

Researching and writing a good research paper on any topic is a process that takes time. You better spend a few days on the project. As a rule, the best sociology essays are rewritten, partially or entirely, several times. Very few first-draft college essays receive high grades.

You can use our sociology essay ideas as inspiration or choose one of the sociology essay topics from the list to write your perfect sociology essay. If you like these ideas for sociology essays and research papers, be sure to share them with your friends!

🔎 References

• Social change | Definition, Types, Theories, Causes, & Examples
• Understanding Social Change – Sociology; University of Minnesota
• Social Institutions (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• Introduction to Sociology – 1st Canadian Edition by Ron McGivern
• Sociology | Subject Content – A-level | Topics in Sociology
• Sociology, Macro–

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Demography – Families and Households Topic Overview

Last Updated on May 17, 2017 by

Topic 7: Demography

Demography refers to the study of the causes and consequences of changes to the size and structure of a society’s population. There are generally three things which can change the size and structure of a population – birth rates, death rates and migration, and these three things make up the three major sub-topics.

As with marriage and divorce, we break this down into discussing the reasons for the changes and then consider the consequences. A final additional topic here is migration patterns, which we deal with separately.

7.1: Reasons for changes to the Birth Rate

7.2: Reasons for changes to the Death Rate

7.3: The consequences of an Ageing Population

7.4: The reasons for and consequences of changes to patterns of Migration

Key concepts, research studies and case studies you should be able to apply

Dependency Ratio

Total fertility rate

Infant Mortality Rate

Child Mortality Rate

Life Expectancy

Healthy Life Expectancy

Demographic Transition

Immigration

Net Migration

Push Factors

Pull Factors

Possible exam style short answer questions

Suggest two reasons for the long term decline in birth rate (4)

Suggest changes in the role of women that may explain why they have fewer children (4)

Suggest three consequences of the decline in the birth rate (6)

Suggest three reasons for the long term decrease in the death rate (6)

Suggest three problems society may face as a result of an ageing population (6)

Suggest three ways in which the elderly might be represented in stereotypical ways (6)

Suggest three ways in which society might respond to the challenges of an ageing population (6)

Suggest three pull factors which might attract people to immigrate into a particular country (6)

Suggest two push factors which might explain patterns of migration (4)

Identify two changes in the patterns of child-bearing over the last thirty years (4)

Possible Essay Questions – You should plan these

Examine the reasons for, and the effects of, changes in family size over the past 100 years or so (24) (January 2012)

Using material from item B and elsewhere assess the view that an ageing Population creates problems for society (24) (June 2014)

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