SOC-136-01 Marriage and Family online
General Description:
This course provides an overview of sociology of the family, including emphasis on sociological concepts, methods, perspectives and areas of substantive concerns in field of family studies. Our aim is to assist you to understand the relationship between the internal dynamics of the family and the social context that shape family dynamics. The sociological orientation of this course should enable you to identify, interpret, apply and evaluate sociological theory and methodology as it relates to social processes present in marriage, family and intimate relationships in contemporary societies.
Catalogue Description:
Analysis of the family as a basic unit of society and the chief formative influence on the shaping of personality. The American family is studied from a historical and cross-cultural perspective. Skills prerequisite: ENG 020.
Student Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of role sociology plays in contributing to our understanding marriage, family and intimate relationships.
2. Analyze the linkage between social behavior within intimate relationships and social forces that operate in society.
3. Identify and critically analyze the sociological issues related of social change in contemporary society and the family
4. Apply the sociological perspective to a study of diverse marriages, families and intimate relationships in the number of professional settings
5. Explain the different methods of sociological inquiry and be able to give general assessment of their strengths and weaknesses.
6. Articulate possible social program and policy application of sociologically derived knowledge to social issues relating to the family.
Course Units, presentation topic and Text Chapters:
The course is structured around 8 Units with each scheduled to last one week. A lecture guide in the form of PowerPoint and/or Voice Thread presentation will be posted on Moodle site. Whenever a voice is used student will encouraged to comments the lecture topics:
Units and lecture topics:
Units VT presentation and Discussion topics
Unit 1: Studying the Modern Family: An Overview
MF 1.1 – Family, Marriage, Sociology and the Global Context
Unit 2: Theories and Methods of Family Studies
MF 2.1 Theoretical Perspectives of the Family
MF 2.2 Researching the Family
Unit 3: Diversity of Families and Gender
M 3.1 – Dynamics and Diversity of Families
MF 3.2 – The Family and Gender
Unit 4: Intimate Relationships ( Love and Sexuality) MF 4.1 – Friendship, Love, and Commitment
MF 4.2 – Understanding Sex and Sexuality
Unit 5: Intimate relationships ( Paring and Communication)
MF 5.1 Communication, Power, and Conflict
MF 5.2 -single-hoods, Pairing, and Cohabitation.
Unit 6 Parenting and Family Contexts
MF 6.1-Family Processes and Marriage.
MF 6.2 – Choosing whether to have children
MF 6.3- Experiencing Parenting roles
MF 6.4 -Marriage, Work and Economics.
Unit 7: Family Violence and Divorce MF 7.1-Family Violence and Sexual Abuse
MF 7.2 -Coming Apart: Separation and Divorce.
Unit 8: New Beginnings and Social Policy
MF 8.3 -New Beginnings: Single-Parent Families, Remarriages, and Blended Families.
Course Assessment:
This course has four types of assessments: Forum discussions, quizzes and assignments. Participants can earn a maximum total of 500 points.
Students’ points will be distributed as following:
Assessment and Points
Assessment Items Points
1 4 Discussion Forum (15 Points each ) 120
2 Worksheets and Mini projects (To be presented and/ discussed on VoiceThread to gain points) 100
3 Four quizzes (30 Points each) 120
4 Four Short paper Assignments (to be submitted online) – (40 Points each) 160
Total 500
Final grade:
Final grades for the course will be assigned according to the following scale
A= 450 points and over
B= 400 – 500
C= 350 – 400
D= 300 – 350
F= 300 and below