2019-2020 Academic Catalog 
    
    Mar 29, 2024  
2019-2020 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

PSYC 368 - Contemporary Families


The goal of this seminar is to engage students in the major theories, empirical research, and current controversies on contemporary families. Contemporary families are notably diverse, varying in terms of their racial/ethnic makeup, number of parents, gender of parents, biological relatedness among family members, and many other factors. In turn, modern families are the subject of considerable debate and discussion, with questions centering on whether “the family” is in transition or in decline, whether certain families are more valid than others, and so on. This seminar will examine the varied contextual forces and social locations that are fundamentally intertwined with, and serve to shape, family life (e.g., race, social class), as well as the many forms that contemporary families take (e.g., single-parent families, lesbian/gay-parent families, adoptive families). Special attention is paid to timely but understudied topics related to family life, such as the influence of reproductive technologies (e.g., donor insemination) and information technologies and social media (e.g., text messaging, the internet) on family life. This course will also emphasize the major theoretical perspectives that have been used to understand and theorize about families. Finally, media representations of diverse families, as well as resources aimed at addressing the needs of diverse families, will be examined and critiqued based on the empirical literature. This advanced seminar is ideal for students who wish to gain an in-depth understanding of family complexity and diversity, especially those who are interested in working with families in research or applied settings.

The goal of this seminar is to engage students in the major theories, empirical research, and current controversies on contemporary families. This seminar will examine the varied contextual forces and social locations that are fundamentally intertwined with, and serve to shape, family life (e.g., race, social class), as well as the many forms that contemporary families take (e.g., single-parent families, gay-parent families, adoptive families). Special attention is paid to timely but understudied topics related to family life, such as the influence of reproductive technologies (e.g., donor insemination) and information technologies and social media (e.g., text messaging, the internet) on family life. This course will also emphasize the major theoretical perspectives that have been used to understand and theorize about families.

Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered periodically