Family backgrounds and how they influence us - Why examine family background? - Understanding the socializing influence of the family - Determining differential effects - Developing self-understanding - Assuming personal responsibility - Making peace with the past - Personal perspective: patterns of communication - Parental attitudes toward children - Approval - Cultural perspective: African American family strengths and influences - Criticism and rejection - Attitudes toward intimate partners - Family closeness: attitudes toward intimacy - Attitudes toward sex - Attitudes toward marriage and divorce - Gender-role socialization in the family - At issue today: Values and marital satisfaction - Variations in values - Culture and values - Family values - Work habits - Communicative, noncommunicative, and conflictive families - Open, honest, tactful communication - Superficial communication - One-sided communication - False communication - Avoidance of communication - Noncommunications - Angry communication - A question of policy: family environmentģ. Intimate relationships, marriages, and families in the twenty-first century - What is a family? - Family forms - Changes in family philosophy and emphasis - From institution to companionship - From patriarchy to democracy - Changes in marriage and parenthood - Marriage rates - Median age - Birthrates and family size - Working mothers - One-parent families - Cohabitation - Gay and lesbian families - Personal perspective: gay marriages - Grandparents as parents - Changes in life expectancy - Changes in divorce and remarriage - Divorce rates - Remarriage trends - Blended families - Changes in nonmarital sexual behavior - Sexual activity - The use of contraceptives - At issue today: oral sex and STDs - Increased cultural diversity in families - Cultural perspective: ethnic identity and acculturation - Theories to help explain family behavior - Structural-functional theory - Family developmental theory - Symbolic interaction theory - Systems theory -Exchange theory - Conflict theory - Feminist theory - Critique of family theories - The study of marriage, families, and intimate relationships - A question of policy: gay and lesbian familiesĢ. Includes bibliographical references and indexġ.

Family and intimate relations ppt