Deck 2: Preindustrial Families and the Emergence of a Modern Family Form

Question 1

Social history focuses primarily on the lives and experiences of upper-class individuals.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The most important themes to emerge from historical studies of the family are all except which of the following?

A) the diversity in family types
B) the uneven change in family patterns
C) an ever-increasing divorce rate
D) the social agency of family members

Answer 2

C

Question 3

In colonial America,romantic attraction was the primary basis for the selection of a spouse.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The wage economy greatly increased women's access to productive work.

Question 5

The family-based economic system characterized life during

A) the colonial period of the United States.
B) the Industrial Revolution.
C) the early twentieth century.
D) the emergence of the household as a private sphere.

Question 6

All of the following were functional roles of the colonial family except

A) family as school.
B) family as church.
C) family as encumbrance.
D) family as house of correction.

Question 7

Aggregate data analysis refers to the research method that

A) involves population-level analysis of family trends.
B) uses only oral history accounts of older people.
C) studies the artifacts of an individual family history across generations.
D) focuses on the history-making activities of the upper classes.

Question 8

Hareven's research on patterns in family history concludes that

A) families are passive victims of social change.
B) community involvement is rare among early colonial families.
C) there is not a uniform pattern of change among all families toward a more modern level.
D) all immigrant groups have similar patterns of adjusting to family life in the United States.

Question 9

The research technique that brings together scattered information about family members in successive generations is referred to as

A) family revisionism.
B) aggregate data analysis.
C) family genealogy.
D) family reconstitution.

Question 10

In the colonial United States,neighbors and other community members frequently intervened in family matters.

Question 11

Social historians studying U.S.families of the past have focused primarily on

A) the diaries of upper-class people.
B) the experiences of ordinary people.
C) the Industrial Revolution.
D) the image of family in the media.

Question 12

Which of the following accurately describes family life in colonial America?

A) Sharp boundaries existed between family and community life.
B) Family privacy was complete-communities did not get involved in family matters.
C) Men, women, and children worked in a household enterprise to ensure family survival.
D) all of the above

Question 13

Society's conception of childhood is one of the things that did not change with the emergence of the modern family.

Question 14

Pre-industrial families,in addition to other roles,were also seen as "welfare institutions," providing different kinds of welfare service.

Question 15

With the transition to the wage economy,households began to incorporate a variety of non-kin members.

Question 16

The technique used by family historians whereby several historical documents are used to create a composite picture is called

A) content analysis.
B) record linkage.
C) multiple regression.
D) variable analysis.

Question 17

The shift from pre-modern to modern family life was a transitional process that occurred slowly and unevenly.

Question 18

Family history has only recently emerged as a subfield in the discipline of history.

Question 19

The "godly family" refers to

A) an egalitarian family.
B) a three-generation family.
C) the family form created by industrialization.
D) a patriarchal form of family life.

Question 20

Evidence suggests that colonial children in New England were more sternly reared than those in other regions.

Question 21

Nancy Cott's research on divorce in the colonial United States was important in that it

A) underscored the public-private split in social life.
B) proved that marriages were much more sound in colonial times than in the contemporary United States.
C) showed that only upper-class individuals got divorces.
D) showed that much information on values, attitudes, and practices can be found in court records.

Question 22

Which of the following characterizes marriage in the colonial period of U.S.history?

A) Romantic love was the basis of the marriage relationship.
B) Decision making was largely shared by the husband and the wife.
C) Marriage was primarily an economic union.
D) Incompatibility and lack of affection were viewed as grounds for divorce.

Question 23

The privatization of family living that accompanied industrialization resulted in

A) family activities being less observable to the larger community.
B) a decline in external social control over family behavior.
C) the fostering of an ethic of individual rights.
D) all of the above

Question 24

As the family ceased to be a center of production during industrialization,

A) an increasing number of young children were sent away from home to work.
B) it ceased to function efficiently.
C) it took on specialized functions of procreation, child-rearing, and consumption.
D) its educational function increased.

Question 25

During the period of the emergence of the modern family,the phrase "angels of the house" referred to

A) women.
B) children.
C) visiting nurses.
D) none of the above

Question 26

Contemporary scholars describe the size of colonial families as

A) smaller than contemporary families.
B) unknown, because historic documents are unreliable on this subject.
C) much larger than previously thought.
D) smaller than many have assumed, but larger than today's families.

Question 27

Which of the following is not one of the effects of industrialization on middle-class women's roles?

A) Women became the moral guardians of the home.
B) Married women increased their participation in the public sphere.
C) Caretaking and nurturing became primary roles.
D) Women's and men's roles overlapped far less than in the preindustrial United States.

Question 28

The term primogeniture refers to

A) the likelihood that children from more than one marital union would be cohabiting in the same household.
B) the public chastising of wayward individuals.
C) the transfer of the family land to the oldest son.
D) none of the above

Question 29

All of the following characterized family life in the colonial United States except

A) families were organized around the principle of patriarchy.
B) community members frequently intervened in family matters.
C) romantic love among spouses and nurturance of children were the norm for family relationships.
D) fathers were actively training and tutoring their children.

Question 30

Which of the following statements represents a major theme in contemporary family history?

A) Diversity among families was virtually nonexistent until the beginning of the 19ᵗʰ century.
B) Families are active agents of change.
C) Change in family form has been uniform across all races and classes in U.S. society.
D) Economic factors had little effect on family life in the colonial United States.

Question 31

The emergence of literature on child rearing in the 19ᵗʰ century is related to

A) growing concern about the negative effects of urbanization on children.
B) the increasing involvement of fathers in day to day care-giving.
C) the growing child-centeredness of family life.
D) alarm about mounting evidence of the association between mental illness and strict parenting.

Question 32

According to Coontz,marriages in 17ᵗʰ century England and Ireland

A) were often carefully negotiated.
B) could be more costly to families if young people were drawn together by love.
C) involved the expectation that wives would tolerate their husbandsʹ infidelity.
D) all of the above

Question 33

An example of community intervention into family matters wherein wayward individuals were subject to public ridicule and punishment is

A) the mystification.
B) the primogeniture.
C) the charivari.
D) the familial time.

Question 34

The form of economic system that emerged with the industrialization of society has been referred to as the

A) consumer-based economy.
B) family-wage economy.
C) family-based economy.
D) nuclear family economy.

Question 35

According to the text,which of the following demographic changes was influential in the transition to the modern family?

A) The chronic shortage of women ceased to exist.
B) The infant mortality rate dropped sharply.
C) Many women delayed childbearing into their late 20s.
D) Women began bearing fewer children, spaced them more closely, and stopped child bearing at a younger age.

Question 36

The modern family form

A) emerged primarily in White middle- and upper-class families.
B) emerged essentially the same in both working-class and middle-class families.
C) emerged in African American and Native American as well as White families.
D) was essentially an image, not widely embraced by any class or race.

Question 37

The gender ratio in the colonial United States was such that there was

A) a shortage of women.
B) a great need for women's economic participation.
C) frequent remarriage among women.
D) all of the above

Question 38

During the time of transition to modern family life

A) families took on an increasing number of social functions.
B) families began to be sustained by members' wages.
C) the majority of married women with children took jobs in factories.
D) household boundaries expanded, incorporating a greater number of nonfamily individuals.

Question 39

Which of the following does not characterize child rearing in the colonial period of the United States?

A) Children were sometimes viewed as miniature adults.
B) Child rearing practices were more genteel outside New England.
C) Corporal punishment was viewed as appropriate.
D) Children were viewed in a sentimental way.

Question 40

Colonial children's lives were dominated by the "three Rs." Which of the following is not one of these "three Rs?"

A) Religion
B) Repression
C) Respect
D) Recreation

Question 41

Discuss the role of communities in family life prior to and after industrialization.What implications do changes have for the behavior of people in families?

Question 42

Discuss how the work of family historians in recent decades has contributed to our understanding of family diversity.

Question 43

Contrast the relationship between husbands and wives in the emergent modern family with their relationship in the colonial United States.

Question 44

What are the primary functions of privatized industrial families? How do they differ from functions of families in the colonial period?

Question 45

Which of the following describes the status of women in colonial and emerging modern families?

A) During the colonial period, wives were subordinate to husbands but as the modern family emerged, relations became egalitarian.
B) During the colonial period, spousal relations were egalitarian but women were subordinated with the emergence of the modern family.
C) During both periods relations were patriarchal, with wives subordinate to their husbands.
D) none of the above

Question 46

Contrast societal assumptions about children during the colonial period with those that emerged with the modern family.