Glossary

'tweeners	The group of elderly people who have incomes that place them between the poor, who can qualify for public assistance over and above Social Security, and the middle class, who can supplement their Social Security checks with savings and pensions.



1965 Immigration Act	Act passed by the U.S. Congress which ended restrictions that had blocked most Asian immigration and substituted an annual quota.



acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)	A disease, caused by the human immune deficiency virus (HIV), that leaves the body unable to fight against disease.



activities of daily living (ADLs)	Personal care activities, including bathing, dressing, getting into and out of bed, walking indoors, and using the toilet.



ADLs	See activities of daily living.



AFDC	See Aid to Families with Dependent Children.



affective individualism	An outlook on personal relationships that emphasizes the emotional rewards to, and autonomy of, each individual more than that individual's obligations to care for and support others.



AIDS	See acquired immune deficiency syndrome.



Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)	A federal program of financial assistance to low-income families, commonly known as "welfare" until it was replaced by Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) in 1996.



alimony	Maintenance payments from an ex-husband to an ex-wife.



American Indian	The name used for a subset of all Native Americans, namely, those who were living in the territory that later became the 48 contiguous United States.



androgynous behavior	Behavior that has the characteristics of both genders.



annulment	A ruling that a marriage was never properly formed.



archival research	Research that uses printed or written documents stored in libraries or other data archives.



arranged marriage	A marriage in which the parents find a spouse for their child by negotiating with other parents.



Asian American	A person living in the United States who comes from or is descended from people who came from an Asian country.



assigned kinship	Kinship ties that people more or less automatically acquire when they are born or when they marry.



assimilation	The process by which immigrant groups merge their culture and behavior with that of the dominant group in the host country.



attachment	A bonding to another person that produces feelings of security, comfort, and ease when the other person is nearby.



authoritarian style(of parenting)	A parenting style in which parents combine low levels of emotional support with coercive attempts at control of their children.



authoritative style(of parenting)	A parenting style in which parents combine high levels of emotional support with inductive control of their children.



authority	The acknowledged right of someone to supervise and control others' behavior.



baby boom	The large number of people born during the late 1940s and 1950s.



barrio	A segregated Mexican-American neighborhood in a U.S. city.



berdache	In Native American societies, a man or woman who dressed like, performed the duties of, and behaved like a member of the opposite sex.



bilateral kinship	A system in which descent is reckoned through both the mother's and father's lines.



biosocial approach (to gender differences)	The theory that gender identification and behavior are based in part on people's innate biological differences.



birth cohort	All people born during a given year or period of years.



block grant	A fixed amount of money that the federal government gives each state to spend on a set of programs.



blood relatives	People who share common ancestors: parents and children, uncles and aunts, nephews and nieces, grandparents and grandchildren.



brideservice	A custom in which a prospective bridegroom agrees to work for a time for the bride's family.



bridewealth	A custom in which a prospective bridegroom's family makes a gift of money or livestock to the bride's family.



capitalism	An economic system in which goods and services are privately produced and sold on a market for profit.



centralizing women	Women who specialize in maintaining the links of kinship.



child abuse	Serious physical harm (trauma, sexual abuse with injury, or willful malnutrition) of a child by an adult, with intent to injure.



cohabitation	The sharing of a household by unmarried persons who have a sexual relationship.



cohort replacement model	A model of changing public opinion in which each successive birth cohort experiences a different social environment and retains distinctive opinions throughout their adult life.



compadrazgo	In Mexico, a godparent relationship in which a wealthy or influential person outside the kinship group is asked to become the compadre, or godparent, of a newborn child, particularly at its baptism.



companionate love	The affection and partnership felt in a love relationship of long duration.



companionship marriage	A marriage in which the emphasis is on affection, friendship, and sexual gratification.



comparable worth	A system in which an expert body classifies jobs according to their "worth," as defined by attributes such as skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions; wages or wage guidelines are then set according to the ranking of jobs.



comparable-worth discrimination	A situation in which women and men do different jobs of equivalent value in the same company but the women are paid less.



comparison level for alternatives	The level of satisfaction that a person thinks she or he would find in other relationships.



conflict theory	A sociological theory that focuses on inequality, power, and social change.



conjugal family	A kinship group comprising husband, wife, and children.



consensual union	A cohabiting relationship in which a couple consider themselves to be married but have never had a religious or civil marriage ceremony.



contingent workers	Workers who are hired temporarily or on a part-time basis and who typically do not receive fringe benefits such as health insurance, retirement pensions, and paid vacations.



coparenting	An arrangement whereby divorced parents coordinate their activities and cooperate with each other in raising their children.



courtship	A publicly visible process with rules and restrictions through which young men and women find a partner to marry.



courtship stage theories	Descriptions of the stages of courtship that young adults must follow if their relationship is to result in marriage.



created kinship	Kinship ties that people have to construct actively.



crisis period	A period during the first year or two after parents separate when both the custodial parent and the children experience difficulties in dealing with the situation.



distribution of family income	The proportion of the total income of all families in the nation that each family receives.



domestic violence	Violent acts between family members or between women and men in intimate or dating relationships.



donor insemination	A procedure in which semen is inserted into the uterus of an ovulating woman.



Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)	A refundable tax credit to low-income families with a child or children in which at least one parent is employed.



EITC	See Earned Income Tax Credit.



elder abuse	Physical abuse of an elderly person by a nonelderly person.



elderly population	The group of people aged 65 years and over.



entitlement	A program in which the government is obligated to provide benefits to anyone who qualifies, regardless of the total cost of the program.



era of divorce tolerance	The time of a tolerant approach toward divorce, from the middle of the nineteenth century until, in the United States, 1970; the grounds for divorce were widened, and divorce was made more accessible to women.



era of restricted divorce	The time of a restrictive approach toward divorce, until about the middle of the nineteenth century; divorces were usually granted only on the grounds of adultery or desertion, and generally only to men.



era of unrestricted divorce	The time of a virtually unrestricted access to divorce, from, in the United States, 1970 to the present; divorces are usually granted without restriction to any married person who wants one.



evolutionary psychology	The view that human behavior can be explained in terms of evolutionary pressure to behave in ways that maximize the chances of reproduction.



exchange theory	A sociological theory that views people as rational beings who decide whether to exchange goods or services by considering the benefits they will receive, the costs they will incur, and the benefits they might receive if they were to choose an alternative course of action.



extended family	A kinship group comprising the conjugal family plus any other relatives present in the household, such as a grandparent or uncle.



externalities	Benefits or costs that accrue to others when an individual or business produces something.



extramarital sex	Sexual activity by a married person with someone other than his or her spouse.



familial mode of production	A means of production in which the family produces nearly all its own food, makes most of its own clothes, and with the help of others builds its own dwelling.



family wage system	A division of labor in which the husband earns enough money to support his family and the wife remains home to do housework and childcare.



female-centered kinship	A kinship structure in which the strongest bonds of support and caregiving occur among a network of women, most of them relatives, who may live in more than one household.



feminist theory	A sociological theory that focuses on the domination of women by men.



fertility	The number of births in a population.



flextime	A policy that allows employees to choose, within limits, when they will begin and end their working hours.



formal sector	The part of a nation's economy that consists of jobs that meet legal standards for minimum wages, are relatively long-lasting and secure, include fringe benefits such as contributions to Social Security or health insurance, often have possibilities for advancement, and are sometimes unionized.



foster care	The removal of children from their parental home and their placement in another home.



free-rider problem	The tendency for people to obtain public goods by letting others do the work of producing them-metaphorically, the temptation to ride free on the backs of others.



frustration-aggression perspective	The theory that aggressive behavior occurs when a person is blocked from achieving a goal.



functionalist theory	A sociological theory that attempts to determine the functions, or uses, of the main ways in which a society is organized.



gender	The social and cultural characteristics that distinguish women and men in a society.



gender role	The different sets of behaviors that are commonly exhibited by women and men.



generativity	A feeling of concern about, or interest in, guiding and shaping the next generation.



gerontologist	A social/biological scientist who specializes in the study of aging.



gestation	Nine-month development of the fetus inside the mother's uterus.



Hispanic	A person living in the United States who traces his or her ancestry to Latin America.



HIV	See human immune deficiency virus.



human immune deficiency virus (HIV)	The virus that causes AIDS.



hunter-gatherers	People who wander through forests or over plains in small bands, hunting animals and gathering edible plants.



hypothesis	A speculative statement about the relationship between two or more factors.



ideal type	A hypothetical model that consists of the most significant characteristics, in extreme form, of a social phenomenon.



immigrant enclave	A large, dense, single-ethnic-group, almost self-sufficient community.



incest	Sexual relations with one's child, brother, or sister.



independent marriage	A marriage in which the emphasis is on self-development, flexible roles, and communication about problems.



informal sector	The part of a nation's economy that consists of temporary or casual jobs that sometimes offer illegal subminimum wages and that have little security, little possibility for advancement, and no fringe benefits.



initiator (of a divorce)	The person in a marriage who first becomes dissatisfied and begins the process of ending the marriage.



institutional marriage	A marriage in which the emphasis is on male authority, duty, and conformity to social norms.



interactionist approach (to gender differences)	The theory that gender identification and behavior are based on the day-to-day behavior that reinforces gender distinctions.



intergenerational solidarity	The characteristics of family relationships that knit the generations together.



internal economy	The way in which income is allocated to meet the needs of each member of a household, and whose preferences shape how income is spent.



intersexual	A person who is born with ambiguous sexual organs.



intimate outsider	A person, such as a stepparent, who plays a role in a family that is somewhere between that of a parent and that of a trusted friend.



in vitro fertilization	A procedure in which eggs are removed from a woman, fertilized in a laboratory dish with sperm from a man, and then inserted into the uterus of either the genetic mother or a surrogate mother.



joint legal custody (of children after a divorce)	The retaining by both parents of an equal right to make important decisions concerning their children.



joint physical custody (of children after a divorce)	An arrangement whereby the children of divorced parents spend substantial time in the household of each parent.



Kinsey Report	A 1948 book by zoology professor Alfred Kinsey detailing the results of thousands of interviews with men about their sexual behavior.



labor force	All people who are either working outside the home or looking for work.



labor market mode of production	A means of production in which people work for pay and thus produce less for their own use at home and buy and sell more on the market.



latent function	An unacknowledged, unstated reason behind social actions.



legal custody (of children after a divorce)	The right to make important decisions about the children and the obligation to have legal responsibility for them.



life-course perspective	The study of changes in individuals' lives over time, and how those changes are related to historical events.



lineage	A form of kinship group in which descent is traced through either the father's or the mother's line.



longitudinal survey	A survey in which interviews are conducted several times at regular intervals.



lower-class families	Families whose connection to the economy is so tenuous that they cannot reliably provide for a decent life.



manifest function	A publicly stated, acknowledged reason behind social actions.



marriage market	An analogy to the labor market in which single individuals (or their parents) search for others who will marry them (or their children).



masculinity	The set of personal characteristics that society defines as being typical of men.



matrilineage	A kinship group in which descent is through the mother's line.



mediating structures	Midlevel social institutions and groupings, such as the church, the neighborhood, the civic organization, and the family.



Medicaid	The government program of health insurance for people with incomes below the poverty line.



Medicare	The government program of health insurance for all elderly people.



mestizo	A person whose ancestors include both Spanish settlers and Native Americans.



middle-class families	Families whose connection to the economy provides them with a secure, comfortable income and allows them to live well above a subsistence level.



monogamy	A marriage system in which people are allowed only one spouse.



mortality	The number of deaths in a population.



nation	A people with shared economic and cultural interests.



nation-state	A term that combines the governmental and cultural connotations of the two words it comprises.



negative externalities	The costs imposed on other individuals or businesses when an individual or business produces something of value to itself.



new second generation	Children who are either immigrants themselves or who were born to immigrants after their families arrived in the United States.



no-fault divorce	The granting of a divorce simply on the basis of marriage breakdown due to "irreconcilable differences."



non-Hispanic whites	People who identify their race as white but do not think of themselves as Hispanic.



nonmarital birth ratio	The proportion of all births that occur to unmarried women.



nonstandard employment	Jobs that do not provide full-time, indefinite work directly for the firm that is paying for it.



norm	A widely accepted rule about how people should behave.



objectivity	The ability to draw conclusions about a social situation that are unaffected by one's own beliefs.



observational study (also known as field research)	A study in which the researcher spends time directly observing each participant.



oldest-old	The group of elderly people 85 years of age and over.



old-old	The group of elderly people 75 to 84 years of age.



parallel parenting	An arrangement whereby divorced parents gravitate toward a more detached style, going about their parenting business separately.



parental leave	Time off from work to care for a child.



passionate love	The sexually charged attraction that occurs at the start of many love relationships.



patriarchy	A social order based on the domination of women by men, especially in agricultural societies.



patrilineage	A kinship group in which descent is through the father's line.



patrilocal	A marriage residence rule in which the wife goes to live in her husband's parents' home.



pay equity	See comparable worth.



peer group	A group of people who have roughly the same age and status as one another.



permissive style (of parenting)	A parenting style in which parents provide emotional support but exercise little control over their children.



Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA)	The federal welfare legislation that requires most recipients to work within two years and that limits the amount of time a family can receive welfare.



physical custody (of children after a divorce)	The right of a divorced spouse to have one's children live with one.



polyandry	A form of polygamy in which a woman is allowed to have more than one husband.



polygamy	A marriage system in which men or women (or both) are allowed to have more than one spouse.



polygyny	A form of polygamy in which a man is allowed to have more than one wife.



positive externalities	Benefits received by others when an individual or business produces something, but for which the producer is not fully compensated.



poverty line	A federally defined income limit defined as the cost of an "economy" diet for a family of four, multiplied by three.



power	The ability to force a person to do something even against his or her will.



prestige	Honor and status in a society.



primary analysis	Analysis of survey data by the people who collected the information.



principle of least interest	In a dating relationship, the fact that the partner who is less interested in the relationship has more power because he or she could more easily leave it.



private family	Two or more individuals who maintain an intimate relationship that they expect will last indefinitely-or in the case of a parent and child, until the child reaches adulthood-and who live in the same household and pool their income and household labor.



privilege	A special advantage or benefit enjoyed by some individuals.



procreation	The process of having and raising children.



production for exchange value	Work for wages outside the home.



production for use value	Work that produces goods and services used within the home.



pronatalism	The belief that public policies should encourage people to have children.



psychoanalytic approach (to gender differences)	The theory that gender identification and behavior are based on children's unconscious internalization of the qualities of their same-sex parent.



public family	One adult, or two adults who are related by marriage, partnership, or shared parenthood, who is/are taking care of dependents, and the dependents themselves.



public goods	Things that may be enjoyed by people who do not themselves produce them.



racial-ethnic group	People who share a common identity and whose members think of themselves as distinct from others by virtue of ancestry, culture, and sometimes physical characteristics.



reflexivity	A researcher's examination of the nature of the research process that she or he is undertaking.



relationship by blood	The sharing of a common ancestor, including cross-generation ties (such as parent and child) and same-generation ties (such as brother and sister).



relationship-specific investment	Time spent on activities such as childrearing that are valuable only in a person's current relationship.



remarriage chain	A path that links individuals across households through the ties of disrupted unions and new unions.



remittances	Cash payments sent by immigrants to family members in their country of origin.



responsive workplace	A work setting in which job conditions are designed to allow employees to meet their family responsibilities more easily.



role overload	The state of having too many roles with conflicting demands.



scientific method	A systematic, organized series of steps that ensures maximum objectivity and consistency in researching a problem.



secondary analysis	Analysis of survey data by people other than those who collected it.



selection effect	The principle that whenever individuals sort, or "select," themselves into groups nonrandomly, some of the differences among the groups reflect preexisting differences among the individuals.



selection hypothesis	The assertion that two groups differ because certain kinds of people select (or are selected into) one group more than the other.



service sector	Workers who provide personal services such as education, health care, communication, restaurant meals, legal representation, entertainment, and so forth.



sex	The biological characteristics that distinguish men and women.



sex-gender system	The transformation of the biological differences between women and men into a social order that supports male domination.



sexual identity	A set of sexual practices and attitudes that lead to the formation in a person's mind of an identity as heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual.



sexually based primary relationship	An erotic, close relationship that is one of strong, frequent, and diverse interdependence that lasts over a considerable period of time.



sexual monogamy	The state of having just one sex partner.



social capital	The resources that a person can access through his or her relationships with other people.



social class	An ordering of all persons in a society according to their degrees of power, prestige, and privilege.



social exchange perspective	The theory that people calculate whether to engage in a particular behavior by considering the rewards and costs of that behavior and the rewards of alternatives to it.



social institution	A set of roles and rules that define a social unit of importance to society.



socialism	An economic system in which the number and types of goods produced, and who they are distributed to, are decided by the government rather than by the actions of a market.



socialization	The way in which one learns the ways of a given society or social group so that one can function within it.



socialization approach (to gender differences)	The theory that gender identification and behavior are based on children's learning that they will be rewarded for the set of behaviors considered appropriate to their sex but not for those appropriate to the other sex.



social learning perspective	The theory that individuals learn behavior they will later exhibit by observing what others do and seeing the consequences of these actions.



social network	A group of people who are linked through interaction with one another.



social role	A pattern of behaviors associated with a position in society.



Social Security Act of 1935	The federal act that created, among other provisions, Social Security, unemployment compensation, and aid to mothers with dependent children (later renamed Aid to Families with Dependent Children).



specialization model	A model of the marriage market in which women specialize in housework and child care and men specialize in paid work outside the home.



spillover	The fact that stressful events in one part of a person's daily life often spill over into other parts of her or his life.



state	A government that claims the right to rule a given territory and its population and to have a monopoly on force in that territory.



stem family	A kinship group comprising parents plus one child who remains at home.



stepfamily	A household in which two adults are married or cohabiting and at least one of the adults has a child present from a previous marriage or relationship.



Stonewall riot	The 1969 riot to which many writers date the emergence of the gay political movement.



surrogacy	A procedure in which a woman agrees to be artificially inseminated with a man's sperm, carry the fetus to term, and then turn the baby over to the man (and typically to his wife) when it is born.



survey	A study in which individuals from a geographic area are selected, usually at random, and asked a fixed set of questions.



symbolic interaction theory	A sociological theory that focuses on people's interpretations of symbolic behavior.



Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)	A federal program of financial assistance to low-income families that began in 1996, following passage of new welfare legislation. (See Aid to Families with Dependent Children.)



total fertility rate (TFR)	The average number of children a woman will bear over her lifetime if current birthrates remain the same.



transaction costs	The costs of organizing and carrying out exchanges.



union	A stable, intimate relationship between two people who live in the same household but may or may not be married.



union formation	The process of beginning to live with a partner either through cohabitation or marriage.



upper-class families	Families that have amassed wealth and privilege and that often have substantial prestige as well.



value	A goal or principle that is held in high esteem by a society.



welfare state	A capitalist government that has enacted numerous measures, such as social security, unemployment compensation, and a minimum wage, to protect workers and their families from the harshness of the capitalist system.



Western nations	The countries of Western Europe and the overseas English-speaking countries of the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.



women-centered kinship	A kinship structure in which the strongest bonds of support and caregiving occur among a network of women, most of them relatives, who may live in more than one household.



working-class families	Families whose income can reliably provide only for the minimum needs of what other people see as a decent life.



young-old	The group of elderly people 65 to 74 years of age.

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