The second type of threat to contemporary marriage is the apparent rise in marital breakdown. Marital breakdown can take three different forms such as divorce, separation and empty shell-marriage. These three forms have dramatically increased for the past decades. This relates to my aim because divorce was less popular back in the 20th century, but now social expectations about marriage has changes, it is much more likely to come about and help lead to increased number of lone-parents.
To many New Right commentators the single-parent family cannot function properly. Charles Murray has argued that single-parent families are largely responsible for the creation of an ‘Underclass’. These families consist of mainly women who’re unwilling to work and choose to illegitimate children. As these children have no present fathers they are often unsociable and take part in anti-social behaviour, most will end up criminal record. Although it is not true to say all lone-parent children are more likely become criminals than children from other family form. I’m a child from this family structure and I do not have a criminal record, so this is a common stereotype amongst right wing commentators.
Secularization is the process of religious decline. Secularization has dramatically weakened the influence on couples to stay together, Secularization has also witnessed the fading of the evangelical bond of grid morality which intertwined the cultural fabric of conformist mores and habits and the declared public conscience. This ties in to modernity and links with reasons for the increase in lone-parenthood. (400 words)
Main Research Methods and Reasons
My main research method is going to be fixed response questionnaire; I’ve chosen this method as I believe the quantitative data it will produce can help me show common patterns of behaviour within society, which can significantly help understand why there has been such a dramatic increase in the number of lone-parents. Questionnaires are highly efficient because they mostly give an objective perception of things. As fixed response questionnaires entail only a limited category of responses, they are less likely to be time consuming. Fixed response questionnaires are also very fair, as all participants are asked the same questions, again this helps with the analysis as patterns/opinions/views are much easier to indicate. My final reason for using fixed questions is that they are highly reliable, meaning that other researchers can replicate questions and verify results.
The positivist approach will enable me to evaluate how representative my statistics are of society as a whole. My study should classify the social world in an objective way; I mustn’t allow my situation as a lone-parent child to biased questions in away, as this will alter my results and they might become void.
My questionnaire will give me the chance to incorporate concepts such as ‘secularization’; I’m including this because I want to test whether men and women alike believe this has had an affect on the strength and importance of marriage over the last several decades. I’ll also include questions on marital breakdown; this is important as my result will give me an indication as to whether there is a majority of opinion concerning this that could potentially explain any correlation or patterns.
I will use a quota sample, a small number of males and females for example; 20 single males and 20 single females, or if acquirable a smaller or equal number of lone-parents themselves. Questionnaires are easy to distribute; therefore it will not be time consuming.
I’m fully ware that the format of my language in the questionnaire could be misinterpreted or potentially misleading, as some participants might not understand what constitutes ‘secularization’; the meaning could vary according to class, culture, age, etc. To help lower the inaccuracy of my results I’ll carry out a pilot study to ensure that the terms and the phrases within questions and also the way they are structured are understood. In the pilot study I can include some questions and I will make alternations.
(399 words)
Potential problems
There are possible problems that can happen while I’m carrying out my research, which can lead to my research to be unreliable and invalidity. The participants may be dishonest and give inaccurate answers. However, I’m fully aware of all these possible problems that can occur. I might be biased to who I choose, my questions will be given out mainly black and white as they are the majority parent who lives in my area, due to this many other cultures might being under-represented since our society is very diverse.
I have chosen to use quota sample, a small number of males and females for example; 20 single males and 20 single females, or if acquirable a smaller or equal number of lone-parents themselves. They will all come from one particular area and therefore can not be represent the total wider society picture of a large sample. Various factors could affect my data such as geographical location, age and social class. In addition, 40 people may not be enough number from each gender to obtain an accurate perception of typical views as well as to make precise generalizations.
Interpretive would criticize my questionnaire and its findings because they do not demonstrate a full (direct) explanation as to why lone-parenthood has increased. They would argue that quantitave data analysis cannot produce data that shows meaning and motives for social action that’s why qualitative data is much more and in depth which helps sociologist to identify underlying meaning for social action. Additionally, the level of my researcher objectivity may be a problem when collecting the data because it is likely that as I’m trying to find out what I think about the causes of lone-parenthood. It might be difficult to come into conclusion as there are many other factors that influence the cause of lone-parenthood. (300 words)
