Bis303 Week 7 Case Study – Marriage and Family

1.What factors bind marriages and families together? How have these factors changed, and how has the divorce rate been affected?

2. How is “his” divorce different from “her” divorce? How are these differences related to society’s gender expectations? In your observation, are the descriptions given in this chapter accurate assessments of divorce outcomes for men and women today?

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3.The remarried family has been called an incomplete institution. What does this mean? How does this affect the people involved in a remarriage? Include a discussion of kin networks and family law. Do you think this situation is changing?

4.What evidence can you gather from observation or your own personal experience or both to show that stepfamilies (a) may be more culturally acceptable today than in the past and (b) remain negatively stereotyped as not as functional or as normal as first-marriage, nuclear families?

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5.Apply the exchange, interactionist, structure-functionalist, or ecological perspective (see Chapter 2) to the process of providing elder care.