Reference no: EM133395700
FAMILY HISTORY PAPER
Goal
The purpose of this paper is to interview a family and to analyze family processes and issues from a sociological perspective. The end result of this paper will be a sociological portrait of your subject family. You may use your own family, but may also select another family. Your interview will probably touch onto many themes covered in the course. Try to explore just two topics/issues. The bulk of the paper should contain the discussion of these issues relating the interview material to sociological concepts discussed in the class.
Steps
1. Pick a family member or friend you want to interview. Have some prepared questions but keep it open. Let the interviewee talk. Ask them just generally to talk about their family - how did the family start; what happened in that family over the time; how did the family develop; what issues did the family have to deal with and how did they adapt to changes or problems; etc. If the answers are short, probe and ask for further details. Some themes that may emerge in your interview are family structure, family change, parenting, child rearing practices, work and family, gender structures and ideals, marriage, divorce, remarriage, dysfunction and conflict handling, dating / mate selection, elderly care, family violence.
2. Either tape record your interview or take detailed notes (I would recommend tape-recording!).
3. One or several topics will emerge in your interview. Pick two of the topics that emerged and analyze them using the information you learned in class (and maybe some further information you found).
4. Contextualize the issues. For example, if someone talks about marrying at a young age, write about current or historical patterns of age at first marriage and possible reasons for the trends. If someone talks about being a stepdad, add some information about stepfamilies and current trends in stepfamilies and stepfathers.
5. Analyze the issues: apply information learned in class to explain the issues this family has encountered. For example, if the issue is domestic violence, look into known causes and consequences of domestic violence and see how they apply to this family. Look into different factors that might apply and explain why they might have played a role in this family.
5. Once you have written a first draft of your paper, allow your interview subject to review your paper and possibly correct the information.
6. Revise the paper - look for errors, clarity, and logical structure. The more you revise, the better your paper will get.