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Main Body
All around the world, families and marriages are functional and necessary for a successful society. As society continually transforms, marriage and family values evolve and adjust to societal changes. Two different sociological approaches regarding changes in society are the cross-cultural and historical perspectives. Historically and cross-culturally, gender socialization, mate selection, and dating have had the greatest impacts on family and marriage values. This essay will further explain, the functions of gender socialization, mate selection, and dating, as these concepts, pertain to how changes in values influence how families change and how these changing families impact these values.
Throughout life, individuals learn the
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There isn’t much face to face contact when selecting a mate anymore. In fact, “With the increasing dissemination and usage of online mate choice, finding a partner via the Internet has attracted remarkable public attention in the last decade.”( Schmitz, A., Thurer, S., Zillmann, D., & Blossfeld, P., pg. 1) Social media can allow for someone to select a mate via online. Historically, “mate selection in the United States has been based on the notions of romantic love.”(Schwartz and Scott, 2013, pg. 126). Mate selection in the United States has always been centered around hetersexual pairing. In the past, the community and parental control was necessary for the approval of a selected mate. Later, in history courtship became a normal process of mate selection. It was the male who had to attain the permission from the females family to court the her. Still, couples were chaperoned and hardly ever left alone. In colonial times, marriage and family were utmost important in providing the family value of stability. Today, courtship is completely private. With technology, people communicate mostly through the …show more content…
Cross culturally, “In places such as China, India, South America, and most countries in africa, dating in this sense is very rare.”(Schwartz and Scott, 2013, pg. 126) Dating is not common and is not allowed in some countries. Only in western countries, is dating considered normal. The purpose of dating in America is recreation and fun. It is not tied to getting married. People date either to attain a lot of emotional involvement or none at all. The individualistic nature of the American society puts hardly any value on marriage/family and instead places value on
In today's society, relationships of all different kinds become more and more accepted each day. However, when it comes to interracial relationships, people still hold opposing viewpoints on the matter. For the most part, peoples' viewpoints all boil down to two beliefs; the traditional belief and the popular culture belief. People who follow the traditional belief are seen as more proud of and loyal to their culture/heritage and tend to be more segregated than others. They feel that when someone of their own culture dates someone outside of their own culture, he or she is "wanting to escape" from his or her cultural identity. On the other hand, popular culture belief sees people not by the color of their skin nor by their culture, but rather
There appears to be widespread agreement that family and home life have been changing dramatically over the last 40 years or so. According to Talcott Parsons, the change in family structure is due to industrialization. The concept that had emerged is a new version of the domestic ideal that encapsulates changed expectations of family relations and housing conditions. The family life in the postwar period was highly affected. The concept of companionate marriage emerged in the post war era just to build a better life and build a future in which marriage would be the foundation of better life. Equality of sexes came into being after...
...ourtship, while many younger Americans adhere to subcultures that challenge the mainstream cultural expectations of courtship.
Dating back to the early 1900’s and all the way through to the present, romantic relationships have been viewed differently. From strict unwritten dating regulations to not having regulations at all, recent generations have become more liberated in making their own decisions. The progressing times have made us become a more accepting society and have caused a decrease in the strong practice of religion and class. Even though differences such as religion and class in relationships were more than an issue they were not always a complete deterrence.
Wilson (1986) argues that sexual attraction can be explained through an understanding of ‘survival efficiency’. By way of ‘bargaining’ between men and women, our relationships have become defined and characterised. It is in the ‘Interest’ of males to impregnate as many women as possible because he is capable of producing many sperm, whereas the women’s best chance of her genes surviving is to ensure the healthy survival of the relatively few offspring she is capable of mothering... ... middle of paper ... ... In Gender Learning, Pacific Grove, USA: Brooks Cole Ridley, M. (1993)
Dating is definitely an "American phenomenon." Few other countries carry on this practice with as much fervor as Americans do. Then again, few other countries have the same social conditions as America. Since the turn of the century, there has been a greater freedom between men and women, for example, both attend the same schools with the same classes. Both sexes become accustomed to the other at early ages which is very conducive to the practice of dating (Merrill 61).
A family is a group of people consisting of the parents and their children who live together and they are blood related. The family is always perceived as the basic social units whether they are living together in the same compound or at far distance but are closely related especially by blood. Therefore, the family unit has had a great influence on the growth and the character traits possessed by the children as they grow up and how they perceive the society they live in. the family also shapes the children to be able to relate well with other people that are not part of their family and with a good relationship it impacts to the peace achieved in country. This paper addresses the reasons as to why the family is considered the most important agent of socialization. It’s evident that families have changed over time and they have adopted different ways of living. This paper also tackles on the causes of the dramatic changes to the American family and what the changes are. Different people with different race, gender and preferences make the family unit and this makes the difference in marriages. This will also be discussed in this paper.
Sprecher, Susan, Quintin Sullivan, and Elaine Hatfield. 1994. “Mate Selection Preferences: Gender Differences Examined in a National Sample.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 66, 6: 1074-1080.
In the Chinese culture we find the opposite because their beliefs and values stem from collectivism. As a result, we find that mate-selection differs among these cultures. Mate-selection in American culture can be online dating (most recently), cohabitating and casual. These all represent individualism where all thinking is about the individual and what they want and need. American culture allows the individual to select their mate without any formal outside influence such as their parents. The decision lies solely on the individual. Individualism is to basically seek your own happiness. Marriage for the American culture has become a less important stage of life. Marriage is no longer necessary to have children or live together because these things can be achieved regardless of marital status. American culture values marriage but the moment they are unhappy they value their individualism more and
Every culture has its own unique values, beliefs and norms. Culture defines the identity and interests of a society. Understanding other’s culture is crucial in preparing ourselves for the global experience in the twenty-first century. As the world is becoming more connected to each other, interaction between cultures is unavoidable. I consider myself lucky to live in one of the most diverse cities in the world where I get chance to interact with people of different cultures. In this paper, I will discuss my findings about Family Structure in a Mexican culture, and Dating and Marriage in an African / Gabonese culture. Having a chance to understand various cultures, I realized that beliefs and practices tend to vary from culture to culture.
Lenton, A. P., & Francesconi, M. (2010). How humans cognitively manage an abundance of mate options. Psychological Science, 21(4), 528-533.
It may seem obvious to some why people mate, however there are many facets to human mating. Psychology has shown that reasons for mating have gone beyond the scope of love and physical attractiveness. People may search for mates who resemble archetypical images of the opposite-sex parent, mates with characteristics that are either complementary or similar to one's own qualities, or mates with whom to make an exchange of valuable resources (Buss 238). Although these theories play a key role in understanding patterns in human mating preferences, evolutionary psychology and sexual selection theory provide more concrete frameworks for explaining human mating.
For thousands of years until today, the best way to officially be the partner of someone is through marriage. People have practiced marriage for thousands of years. Many cultures see marriage as the best method to celebrate the love of a couple until death tears them apart. “Marriage establishes and maintains family, creates and sustains the ties of kinship, and is the basis of community” (Rowe 2). Marriage is a concept bigger than ones happiness and it is the basic for creating a peaceful home for the family. According to Rowe, “This sense of home requires the dynamic participation of both women and men--the women to mother and the men to father--to fulfill the daily roles of teaching, nurturing and protecting children” ( 2). Parents have an obligation to take care for children, so that when they grow up they are able to become a person who is strong enough to support himself. But there are different opinions whether raising a child should be shared equally between parents. One group thinks that it is essential for a child to grow up with the love and care of both parents. Meanwhile, others believe that child raising should be shared in a way that suits the family. While single parents argue that even without one parent they can give their children the needed love and care.
In recent discussion between change in generations, a controversial question has been whether dating and marriage for Generation Z improved for the better or for the worst. From this perspective, marriage and the definition of dating has changed so much from the older generations. Generation Z has brought in many new features to dating and marriage, some features are the acceptance of dating or marrying the same gender or different race, and many more. In the words of (Taylor Markarian), she gives a main view on how families of the two “lovers” were involved almost all of the time. A view on generation Z is that many of these different types of relations make it seem like it’s an on the daily thing you see around the world, because of that
ASENDORPF, J., PENKE, L., & BACK, M. (2010, April 20). From Dating to Mating and Relating: Predictors of Initial and Long-Term Outcomes of Speed-Dating in a Community Sample. Retrieved June 9, 2015, from https://www.psychologie.hu-berlin.de/de/prof/per/pdf/2011/SpeedDating2011 5. Baron, R., & Branscombe, N. (2008). Social psychology (12th ed.).