Sociology and Family

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Mid-Term Paper Sociology and Your Family Richard F Lewis III For my mid-term paper, I decided to write this essay focusing on the topic Sociology and Your Family. I decided to write about this topic because I am the patriarch of my own family and believe I could write easily about it. In my own family, I have a wife and three children. As we have progressed through the beginning of the year, I found that Chapter 3 of Society, The Basics by John J. Macionis focused a lot about family and children. Specifically, much of it focused on development and early socialization. According to Macionis, “family may be the most important socializing agent of all” (Macionis, 2009, p. 79). Furthermore, happy well-rounded children are more likely to come from a loving family (Macionis, 2009). As we grow, we are shaped by nearly every social experience we have. “However, several familiar settings have special importance to the socialization process” (Macionis, 2009, p. 79). This especially rings true regarding the family unit. Infant care rests primarily with parental figures. As the child grows, parents are constantly teaching their children, making sure they learn the necessities, ultimately ensuring that they grow into successful adults. However, “not all learning results from intentional teaching by parents” (Macionis, 2009, p. 79). Children learn a lot from viewing their parents’ actions and overall self-being. This includes whether the parents are happy or sad, joyful or angry, hopeful versus hopeless, and so on and so forth. The parents often unintentionally teach their children personality with their own daily personal experiences. “Children learn the environment adults create” (Macionis, 2009, p. 79). The assigned article I chose to read is “Sociology and Your Family.” This article and much of its content stress that by viewing the family at a sociological
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