Making Choices

The Freedom and Pressures of Choosing

NORMS

Rules and expectations by which a culture guides the behavior of its members

Social Influences & Personal Choice

1. It’s always easier to make the common choice

2. Social factors can expand people’s options

3. Social factors can limit people’s options

Five Social Factors that can Influence Individuals’ Choices

1. HISTORICAL EVENTS2. SOCIAL CLASS3. RACE and ETHNICITY4. AGE EXPECTATIONS5. SOCIAL GROUP MEMBERSHIP

MARRIAGE NETWORKS(Bott)

Patterns by which husbands and wives organize their social lives

1. Joint Marriage Networks 2. Segregated Networks

Racial-Ethnic GroupsPeople who share a common identity and think of themselves

as different from others by virtue of common ancestry, culture, and sometimes physical features

ADULT LIFE COURSE (Sheehy)

1. Try-out-20’s2. Turbulent 30’s

3. Flourishing 40’s

4. Middle-Essence (mid-life) 45-50’s5. Flaming 50’s

6. Anything Goes 70’s

FAMILY DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE (Pp. 27-29)

Family itself as the unit of analysis

Normative Order

Normative Order Hypothesis (Jackson, 2004)

THE FAMILY LIFE CYCLE1. Married Couple

2. Childbearing3. Preschool4. School 5. Teenage

6. Launching7. Middle-age Parent8. Aging Family Members

ADULT LIFE COURSE (Sheehy)

1. Try-out-20’s2. Turbulent 30’s

3. Flourishing 40’s

4. Middle-Essence (mid-life) 45-50’s5. Flaming 50’s

6. Anything Goes 70’s