Family Studies Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The main social functions of the family are Reproduction, Maintenance, Placement, Socialization.

Following Kingsley Davis, sociology and family studies list four main social functions: reproduction of new members of society; maintenance, the physical care of children; placement, giving the child a status in society through the family's own; and socialization, teaching the culture and norms of the society.

The other lists mix in items that are not among these core functions, such as political, psychological, guidance or evaluating functions, so they do not match the standard list.

Answer: C

The cluttered nest is the time after the children have grown up and come back home to depend on parents.

The term describes the situation where young adult children return to, or never leave, the parental home, often because of education, unemployment, divorce or the cost of housing. It is the opposite of the 'empty nest', when the last child has left home.

'Life is empty' and 'there is no meaning to life' describe the feelings some parents have in the empty nest. 'Life is to be celebrated' is not what either term means.

Answer: D

A married couple living with or near the husband's father has a patrilocal residence.

Patrilocal (or virilocal) residence means the bride moves to the home of the groom's father, as in the traditional joint families of much of India.

Matrilocal residence is with or near the wife's family, avunculocal is with or near the husband's mother's brother, as in some matrilineal societies, and neo-local means the couple sets up a new home of its own, separate from both families.

Answer: A

Research shows that grandparents are often the primary source of non-parental care of young children.

When mothers work outside the home, grandparents, especially grandmothers, are among the most common carers of infants and preschool children, both in India and in Western studies.

The other statements are false. Most middle-aged people, not about 30 per cent, become grandparents. In Western societies people usually become grandparents in their late forties or fifties, not at about 70. And research reports that grandparents can influence grandchildren directly, through care, play and teaching, as well as indirectly through the parents.

Answer: D

The traditional family structure is a married couple living with their biological children.

This is the conventional nuclear family, the type against which other forms are compared in family studies.

The other options are non-traditional family forms: teenage parents raising their children, married couples raising children from previous marriages (the blended or reconstituted family), and a single individual raising foster children (a single-parent foster family).

Answer: B

A single parent family may result from separation, divorce or death, but not from matrimony.

A single parent family is one in which one parent brings up the children alone. It arises when one parent leaves through separation or divorce, when a parent dies, or when a child is born to or adopted by an unmarried person.

Matrimony, marriage itself, brings two partners together, so it is the one option that does not produce a single parent family.

Answer: D

Marriage is considered necessary because it is regularised and provides societally sanctioned sex gratification and family.

Sociologists describe marriage as the institution through which society approves a sexual relationship between partners and establishes a family in which children are born, recognised and brought up. This option combines all three functions.

It is not the only way to acquire paternal property, since inheritance laws do not depend on it. 'Provides societal sanction' is part of the answer but leaves out what is sanctioned. And marriage is not literally the only means of sexual gratification, which is why that option is rejected.

Answer: C

The client-centred approach focuses on the conscious process.

Carl Rogers's client-centred (person-centred) therapy works with the client's present, conscious experience and self-concept. The therapist offers empathy, unconditional positive regard and genuineness, and trusts the client to find solutions.

Unconscious processes, past conflicts and childhood fantasies are the focus of psychoanalysis, the approach Rogers was reacting against.

Answer: C

The first phase most middle-aged couples go through is the child launching phase.

In the family life cycle, middle age begins as children leave home for study, work or marriage, the 'launching' stage. The couple then moves to the empty nest or post-parental period, then to retirement and finally to widowhood.

Retirement and widowhood come later in the cycle. A childless pre-retirement period describes only couples without children, not the first phase for most middle-aged couples.

Answer: B

Masculinity and femininity are most closely linked to gender.

Sociologists distinguish sex, the biological differences between males and females, from gender, the socially and culturally constructed roles, behaviours and traits a society considers appropriate for men and women. Masculinity and femininity are such cultural expectations, so they belong to gender.

Sex is the biological category, while sexism (prejudice by sex) and patriarchy (male-dominated social structure) are related ideas but not what the terms describe.