Course Description

The study of families lies at the heart of the social sciences. This course takes a new approach to understanding the American family by integrating different academic perspectives.  Team-taught by three social scientists, an economist, a psychologist, and a sociologist, it provides students with an unusual opportunity to learn and practice the models and methods of these three disciplines.  The course will illustrate how to approach topics from an interdisciplinary perspective and help prepare students for a range of upper-division interdisciplinary and disciplinary majors. Students will focus on central questions about the changing American family and study the contrasting and complementary views of sociology, psychology, and economics.  These questions include: What is the family and what do families do? Is the American family in decline? Who marries whom? Do opposites attract? Who benefits from marriage and who bears the cost of divorce? Is cohabitation now just an alternative form of marriage? What determines the fertility rate? How are children raised--are parents or peers the most important influence on children? What determines decision-making power within a family? Why do American mothers work so much? Throughout, we emphasize the diversity of family life and experiences, and the relevance of social science research for policy issues affecting the family. The development of research skills is an important goal of this course, and weekly lab sections will be devoted to projects than enable the student to learn how to access information about families from a variety of sources, prepare and analyze data, and present their results clearly and effectively. Course requirements:  Midterm exam, final exam, lab project reports, possible additional quizzes or small assignments, participation in class discussions. Class time:  MW 1:30-2:50 plus one lab (Th, F 8:30-10:20 or Th, F 1:30-3:20) Textbook: Cherlin, Andrew (1999). Public and Private Families: An Introduction.  McGraw-Hill. Course packet: Additional readings are assigned and on library reserve at Odegaard Undergraduate Library. Click here to access the course packet on electronic reserve (see instructions below regarding Acrobat Reader). Syllabus: Click here to download a copy of the course syllabus in pdf format. Your computer must have Acrobat Reader installed to view this file. To download a free copy of Reader go to www.adobe.com. Library searches: The Odegaard librarians have set up a webpage for this course that is designed to assist you in searching for scholarly sources for your papers. Click here to get to that page.

Instructors

Name: Department: Email: Office: Office Hours: Julie Brines Sociology brines@u.washington.edu SAV 206P W 10-12 Ana Marie Cauce Psychology & American Ethnic Studies cauce@u.washington.edu PAD B508 MW 12-1:30 Shelly Lundberg Economics lundberg@u.washington.edu SAV 227 T 10:30-11:30 & W 5:30-6

Teaching Assistants

Name: Sections: Email: Office: Office Hours: Steve Stillman AA and AB (Thursday) sstill@u.washington.edu SAV 415C Th 10:30-11:30 & 3:30-4:30 Beth Jackson AC and AD (Friday) bjackson@u.washington.edu SAV 217 F 10:30-12:20

Course Handouts and other files for download

Focus Questions for Weekly Readings (pdf format): Week 1 (updated version) Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Lecture Outlines (pdf format): Prof. Lundberg, Economics of Dating and Mating, 4/5 Prof. Brines, Sociology of Dating and Mating, 4/5 Prof. Lundberg, Week 4. Prof. Lundberg, Monday, Week 7. Prof. Brines, Wednesday, Week 10 Lab Handouts and Paper Assignments (pdf format): Lab Exercise, Week 3 (4/13-14) Paper Assignment 1, due in lab, Week 5 (4/27-28) Some Guidelines for Organizing Paper 1 (also appropriate for Paper 2) Lab Exercise, Week 7 (5/11-12) Lab Exercise, Week 8 (5/18-19) Paper Assignment 2, due in lab, Week 10 (6/1-2) Codebook for Week 8 Lab Exercise and Paper Assignment 2 Note that there is a penalty for late papers. Unless you have made other arrangements in advance with your TA, your paper loses 1 point (out of a possible 20 points) for every school day it is late.

Rooms for Labs

All lab sections will take place in Savery 135, the computer lab, except for lab sections during weeks 5, 6 and 10. The rooms of lab sections for those weeks are listed here: Week 5 Midterm Review AA Th, April 27 8:30-10:20 ART 006 AB Th, April 27 1:30-3:20 SWS B010 AC F, April 28 8:30-10:20 ART 004 AD F, April 28 1:30-3:20 SAV 142 Week 6 Midterm AA Th, May 4 8:30-10:20 ART 006 AB Th, May 4 1:30-3:20 PAR 206 AC F, May 5 8:30-10:20 ART 004 AD F, May 5 1:30-3:20 SAV 316 Week 10 Final Review AA Th, June 1 8:30-10:20 ART 006 AB Th, June 1 1:30-3:20 PAR 206 AC F, June 2 8:30-10:20 ART 004 AD F, June 2 1:30-3:20 SAV 316

Interesting Links and other Miscellaneous Items

Message board: Click here to get to the message board set up for the course. Participation is voluntary and no course materials will be posted there. The message board is not monitored by the instructors or TAs, so questions for them should not be posted there.

Questions about this webpage may be directed to Beth Jackson.
Email: bjackson@u.washington.edu.