Allyn & Bacon / Prentice Hall

Interdisciplinary Studies



Marriages, Families, and Intimate Relationships: A Practical Introduction, 2/E
Brian K. Williams
Stacey C. Sawyer
Carl M. Wahlstrom, Genesee Community College

ISBN-10: 0205521452
ISBN-13: 9780205521456

Publisher: Allyn & Bacon
Copyright: 2009
Format: Paper; 624 pp
Published: 02/08/2008

Suggested retail price: $100.00
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This book provides timely, practical, and high-interest information about marriages, families, and intimate relationships, in an engaging format that is easy to use and learn from.

  • A unique format and pedagogical plan make this book easy to read, review, and learn from:
    • "Major Questions" begin each main section in the chapter, provoking students to think and motivating them to learn. 
    • "On the Web" directs students to a website where they will get a close-up look at one of the topics discussed in the chapter, encouraging them to think and talk about this topic right away.
    • "What’s Ahead in this Chapter" provides a brief overview of the material to come in the chapter, while the Preview serves the same purpose for each main section in the chapter.
    • The contemporary, magazine-like layout visually organizes material so it is easy for students to grasp one concept at a time.
    • Each major topic is organized into easily-manageable units of study, chunking texts into smaller sections and making innovative use of photographs and other graphics.
  • "Popular Culture and the Media" boxes help students separate fact from myth by showing examples of messages (often false or misleading) that we receive from the mass media about marriage and intimate relationships.
  • "Practical Action" boxes provide concrete advice that students will find beneficial in their personal and work lives.
  • "Numbers that Matter" boxes in each chapter provide statistics that will stimulate class discussion and help students focus on important data on race, ethnicity, gender, and age as this relates to marriages, families and intimate relationships.
  • "The Learning Lab" at the end of each chapter presents Self Assessments that enable students to discover how they feel about the chapter topic and help students see that relationships and family life are skills and processes, rather than something that just “happens” to them.  This section also includes key terms, a chapter summary, and websites that relate to the chapter's topics.    
  • Special Supplements:
  • RELATE and READY—RELATE and READY are comprehensive self-assessment inventories developed by a team of marriage and family professionals and researchers. RELATE is for those who are married, living together, or in a serious dating relationship. READY is for anyone who wants to learn more about how prepared he or she is to enter into a serious relationship. Either inventory can be completed online at the same Website; students who complete one or the other instantly receive an extensive report analyzing their responses.   Available to students at a special discounted price when the RELATE and READY User Guide is packaged upon request with this text.
  • The Instructor’s Manual includes sections on Teaching Marriage and Family to a Diverse Audience, Teaching with Video, and a guide to using the RELATE and READY self-assessments in the classroom.
  • MyFamilyLab - MyFamilyLab gives instructors and students access to a wealth of resources all geared to meet individual teaching and learning needs. Combining an e-book, video, audio, animations, research support, practice tests, exams and more, MyFamilyLab engages students and gives them the tools they need to succeed in and out of the classroom.

  • 555 new references from 2004 - 2007 (including 155 references for the year 2007 and 188 references for the year 2006).
  • Increased coverage of the sociological perspective to the topics of gender, sexuality, marriage, and divorce.
    • A discussion of the eight principal sociological perspectives is presented in Chapter 2 
    •  Three perspectives–structural-functional, conflict, and symbolic interaction– are now applied to the following topics: gender, sexuality, marriage, and divorce.   
  • The new edition has been updated to include coverage of important issues, topics, and research from the past few years. Examples of new topics covered include: state abortion law updates, abstinence education controversy, adultolescents, children and the effects of TV watching, foster children, LGBT, living apart together (LAT) couples, post-adoption blues, safe-haven laws pro and con, Web 2.0, and more. 
  • The Communication chapter is now presented earlier in the text - from Chapter 9 to Chapter 6. The Communication chapter is now before the Sexuality, Marriage, and Variations chapters.
  • Biological topics have been moved to the appendices (human sexual response, sexually transmitted diseases, contraception, abortion procedures).
  • MyFamilyLab - MyFamilyLab gives instructors and students access to a wealth of resources all geared to meet individual teaching and learning needs. Combining an e-book, video, audio, animations, research support, practice tests, exams and more, MyFamilyLab engages students and gives them the tools they need to succeed in and out of the classroom. What do you want out of MyFamilyLab?

    • Personal Applications

    • Research & Writing

    • Currency

    • Study Aids

    • Assessment & Homework 

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Comprehensive Table of Contents

* All Chapters end with Key Terms Used in This Chapter, Summary, and Taking It to the Net


Chapter 1 SEEKING: Finding Happiness in Relationships in a Complex World

1.1 Seeking Happiness through Love & Intimacy

1.2 Intimacy, Marriage, & Family

1.3 The Challenges to Relationships &

Families Today

Self-Assessment: The RELATE and READY Relationship Questionnaires

Chapter 2 UNDERSTANDING: Learning about Intimate Behavior

2.1 A Short History of Marriage

2.2 Learning How to Think: Keys to Being Open- Minded

2.3 How Do You Know What’s True? Learning to Evaluate Research Results

2.4 Theoretical Perspectives on the Family

Self-Assessment: Gaining Self-Knowledge from the Harvard Project Implicit Website

Chapter 3 GENDER: The Meanings of Masculinity & Femininity

3.1 Understanding Gender & Gender Roles

3.2 Why Do Gender Roles Differ? Some Theories

3.3 Gender Socialization: Who Teaches Us How to Act Male or Female?

3.4 Gender Roles in Transition: Multiple Masculinities & Femininities

Self-Assessment: What’s Your Gender Communications Quotient?

Chapter 4 LOVE: The Many Faces

4.1 Can We Define Love?

4.2 The Origins of Love: Some Theories

4.3 The Dark Face of Love: Jealousy, Unrequited Love, & Attempts to Control

4.4 How Can You Tell Whether It’s Meaningful Love?

Self-Assessment: How Capable Are You of Being Intimate?

Chapter 5 INVOLVEMENT: Dating, Pairing, Courtship, & Cohabitation

5.1 The Dating Game

5.2 Pairing Up: Finding & Choosing a Partner

5.3 Cohabitation: Living Together as an Unmarried Couple

5.4 Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

Self-Assessment: How Compatible Are You & Your Prospective Partner?

Chapter 6 COMMUNICATION: Realizing Effective Intimacy

6.1 Power & Intimacy

6.2 Conflict & Growth

6.3 The Nature of Communication

Self-Assessment: Accepting Your Partner

Chapter 7 SEXUALITY: Interpersonal Sexuality, Sexual Values, & Behavior

7.1 Sexual Values, Learning, & Scripts

7.2 The Varieties of Sexual Experience

7.3 AIDS & Other Sexual Diseases

Self-Assessment: Test Your Knowledge of Sexuality

Chapter 8 MARRIAGE: The Ultimate Commitment?

8.1 Why Do People Marry?

8.2 Changes in the Family Life Cycle: Scenes from a Marriage

8.3 Different Kinds of Marriage Relationships

8.4 What Makes for a Successful Marriage?


Chapter 9: VARIATIONS Nonmarital Families & Households

9.1 Different Family & Household Relationships

9.2 The Single Way of Life

9.3 The Gay & Lesbian Way of Life

9.4 Communal Living, Group Marriages, & Open Marriages

Self-Assessment: Homophobia Scale

Chapter 10 REPRODUCTION: Decisions about Having or Not Having Children

10.1 Having or Not Having Children: Choice or Fate?
10.2 Contraception: Practical Methods of Birth Control

10.3 Abortion & Abandonment 10.4 Infertility, Reproductive Technology, & Adoption

Self-Assessment: How Would You Deal with an Unexpected Pregnancy?

 Chapter 11 PARENTING: Children, Families, & Generations

11.1 Parenthood: The Varieties of Experience

11.2 Becoming a Parent

11.3 Parenting Approaches

11.4 The Aging Family: When Parents & Children Get Older

Self-Assessment: Assessing Your Readiness to Become a Parent

Chapter 12 WORK: Economics, Jobs, & Balancing Family Demands

12.1 Work,Wealth, & Well-Being

12.2 Changing Family Work Patterns

12.3 Balancing Work & Family Demands: Some Practical Strategies

Self-Assessment: How Well Do You Balance Work & Life?

Chapter 13 CRISES: Managing Stress, Disaster, Violence, & Abuse

POPULAR CULTURE & THE MEDIA Crises: A Way of Life?

ON THE WEB Dealing with the Ultimate Crisis

13.1 Stresses, Hassles, & Crises: Seeking Hardiness

13.2 Crises & Disasters

13.3 Violence & Abuse: The Dark Side of Intimate Relationships

13.4 Coping Strategies: Successful Ways of Handling Stresses & Crises

Self-Assessment: Major Life Events & Stress

Chapter 14 UNCOUPLING: Separation & Divorce

14.1 Separation, Divorce, & Trends

14.2 Why People Divorce

14.3 The Process of Divorce

14.4 The Effects of Divorce

Self-Assessment: How’s Your Marital Adjustment?

Chapter 15 REMARRIAGE: Reinvented, Renewed, & Blended Families

15.1 Moving toward Remarriage

15.2 Remarried & Blended Families

15.3 Inside the Blended Family

15.4 Strengthening Stepfamilies

Self-Assessment: Rate Your Family’s Strengths

BRIAN K. WILLIAMS is married to Stacey Sawyer and they live near Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and share an avid interest in seeing college students become well-educated. Over the past two decades, they have individually or together authored more than 25 books,in such subjects as health, college success, and computers and information technology.  

 

He has been Managing Editor for college textbook publisher Harper & Row/Canfield Press in San Francisco; Editor in Chief for trade book publisher J. P. Tarcher in Los Angeles; Publications & Communications Manager for the University of California, Systemwide Administration, in Berkeley; and an independent writer and book producer based in the San Francisco and Lake Tahoe areas. He has a B.A. in English and M.A. in Communication from Stanford University.

 

 

 

STACEY C. SAWYER, formerly Director of Founder’s Clinic, a women’s reproductive health and family planning clinic in Columbus, Ohio, is an independent writer and book producer who has been based in the San Francisco and Lake Tahoe areas.

 

She has taught at Ohio State University and been a manager for Brooks/Cole Publishing Co. in Monterey, California. She has a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan and the University of Freiburg, Germany, and an M.A. from Middlebury College and the University of Mainz, Germany.

She is coauthor of Computers, Communications, & Information, a college textbook in print for 15 years. She and husband Brian Williams also cowrote Using Information Technology, now in its 7th edition. 

 

 

 

CARL M. WAHLSTROM is Professor of Intermediate Studies and Sociology at Genesee Community College, Batavia, New York, and is also an Adjunct Lecturer in Sociology at the State University of New York at Geneseo. He has taught courses in marriage and the family, human development, learning strategies, sociology, psychology, human relations, and college success.

 

He has been the recipient of the State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creativity, the National Freshman Advocate Award, and several other teaching honors. He has a B.S. in Sociology and an M.S. Ed. in Counselor Education from SUNY Brockport and an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Bridgeport. He is an active presenter and educational consultant.

With Brian Williams he is coauthor of Learning Success, The Practical Student, The Urban Student, The Commuter Student, The Successful Distance Learning Student,and College to Career.He lives with his wife, Nancy, an employee benefits consultant, in the Finger Lakes area of New York.

Marriages, Families, and Intimate Relationships: A Practical Introduction

Second Edition

 

Brian K. Williams

Stacey C. Sawyer

Carl M. Wahlstrom 

Practicality

Readability

Student-Centered Approach to Learning

 

Marriages, Families, and Intimate Relationships: A Practical Introduction, Second Edition, provides a research-based introduction to the study of marriage and family, along with practical advice that readers can put to use in their own lives.  With its accessible writing style and a unique set of features to promote active learning, this text engages readers with useful information about fundamental concepts and current issues.  Marriages, Families, and Intimate Relationships, Second Edition, is a text that invites success.  

 

New to This Edition:

< MyFamilyLab Logo >

 

MyFamilyLab is a state-of-the-art, interactive and instructive online solution for marriage and family courses.  Designed to be used as a supplement to a traditional lecture course, or to completely administer an online course, MyFamilyLab is a fully integrated multimedia e-book that combines tutorials, videos, self-assessments, news articles, tests, and quizzes to make teaching and learning fun.

View a Sample Chapter PDF: /samplechapter/0205521452.pdf

For Marriage and the Family


For Marriage and Family


Give your students a choice! PearsonChoices products are designed to give your students more value and flexibility by letting them choose from a variety of text and media formats to best match their learning style and their budget.

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This title is a member of the MyFamilyLab Series, which also contains the titles below . You can also visit the MyFamilyLab Series page.

    This text applies a sociological imagination to explore both the private, personal side of family life as well as the public, institutional nature of "the Family." It shows that many family concerns are actually social issues that need to be addressed through sound social policies.

     

    The author, Karen Seccombe, encourages students to think about families beyond their own personal experiences, and even beyond family structure in the United States. Her goal is to impart a passion for critical thinking as students see that families exist within social worlds.  

     

    Families and Their Social Worlds shows that our conceptions of families are imbedded within our social structure, and that families represent a set of rules, regulations and norms that are situated in a particular culture in a particular historical time.

     

    Important policy considerations are imbedded in each chapter to illustrate what is currently being done, and perhaps even more importantly, what can be done to strengthen families and intimate relationships.

     

  • 0205516459Families and Their Social Worlds
    Seccombe
    © 2008 | Allyn & Bacon | Cloth; 496 pages | Instock
    ISBN-10: 0205516459 | ISBN-13: 9780205516452
    Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

    • A candid and thoughtful conversation about families and family life.

     

    This text combines the personal touch and scholarly expertise of an outstanding teacher to explore the ways that family members and intimate partners interact, and how families adapt to stresses, changes and everyday challenges. We are all a product of our families of origin. How that influences who we are and who we become is a central theme woven throughout Family Life Now.

     

    This book follows the Family Life Education framework to examine marriages, families, and intimate relationships. Throughout the text, theories from the fields of sociology, family studies, psychology, lifespan human development, and other social sciences are integrated so that they can be applied to real life situations. The text also presents enough biological science to explain some of the physical realities of who we are and why we behave as we do.

     

     

  • 0205398642Family Life Now: A Conversation About Marriages, Families, and Relationships (Book Alone)
    Welch
    © 2007 | Allyn & Bacon | Cloth; 608 pages | Instock
    ISBN-10: 0205398642 | ISBN-13: 9780205398645
    Brief Description

    • A candid and thoughtful conversation about families and family life.

     

    This text combines the personal touch and scholarly expertise of an outstanding teacher to explore the ways that family members and intimate partners interact, and how families adapt to stresses, changes and everyday challenges. We are all a product of our families of origin. How that influences who we are and who we become is a central theme woven throughout Family Life Now.

     

    This book follows the Family Life Education framework to examine marriages, families, and intimate relationships. Throughout the text, theories from the fields of sociology, family studies, psychology, lifespan human development, and other social sciences are integrated so that they can be applied to real life situations. The text also presents enough biological science to explain some of the physical realities of who we are and why we behave as we do.

  • 020552334XFamily Life Now: A Conversation About Marriages, Families, and Relationships (with Student Workbook)
    Welch
    © 2007 | Allyn & Bacon | Kit/Package/ShrinkWrap; 608 pages | Instock
    ISBN-10: 020552334X | ISBN-13: 9780205523344
    Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

    • MyFamilyLab is an easy-to-use online resource that allows instructors to assess student progress and adapt course material to meet the specific needs of the class. MyFamilyLab enables students to diagnose their progress by completing an online self-assessment test. Based on the results of this test, each student is provided with a customized study plan, including a variety of tools to help them fully master the material. MyFamilyLab then reports the self-assessment results to the instructor as individual student grades as well as an aggregate report of class progress. Based on these reports, the instructor can adapt course material to suit the needs of individual students or the class as a whole.

     

     

    MyFamilyLab’s innovative features include:
    • Student resources such as a complete Flash eBook, videos, links to interactive self-assessment activities, and a variety of other study tools.
    • Groundbreaking MyTest assessment module and comprehensive electronic resource library for instructors.
    • Engaging Going Further activities that prompt students to think critically and applytheir knowledge of topics relating to families and relationships.

     

    For more information, visit www.myfamilylab.com and click Prentice Hall.

  • 0136035396MYFAMILYLAB: Where family, life, and learning unite!
    Prentice Hall
    © 2008 | Prentice Hall | On-line Supplement | Instock
    ISBN-10: 0136035396 | ISBN-13: 9780136035398
    URL: http://www.myfamilylab.com
    Brief Description

    • MyFamilyLab is a fully integrated multimedia ebook that helps students study for exams, explore concepts from the texts, write research paper, and better understand their own attitudes and beliefs. Found throughout the ebook are icons in the margins that students can click on and explore concepts — and their views — more closely. Icons found in the text include Examine, Watch, Listen, Sociology in the News and Pre/Post Tests.

     

    MyFamilyLab is a fantastic tool to help students do better in class and be better prepared for their own lives.

     

    To see a list of books available with MyFamilyLab, visit the MyFamilyLab Series page.

  • 0205543375MYFAMILYLAB: Where family, life, and learning unite!
    Allyn & Bacon
    © 2007 | Allyn & Bacon | Website | Instock
    ISBN-10: 0205543375 | ISBN-13: 9780205543373
    URL: http://www.myfamilylab.com
    Brief Description

    • For one semester/quarter courses on Marriage and Families, Sociology of the Family, Human Development or Family Studies.

     

    By introducing the themes of “Changes, Choices and Constraints” when presenting the basic concepts, theory, research and statistics about marriages and families, Benokraitis discusses how contemporary changes in families and their structure impact the choices student’s actually have, and how society can constrain their marriages, families and relationships.  Through this approach, students are better able to understand what the research and statistics mean for themselves!

     

    Seeing that there was a need for a text that reflected the issues- like race and ethnicity, remarriage and stepfamilies, and sexuality, that face students and their families, Professor Benokraitis wrote Marriage and Families as a way to show students both the choices and constraints that families face in modern society. 

     

  • 0132431734Marriages and Families: Changes, Choices and Constraints, 6/E
    Benokraitis
    © 2008 | Prentice Hall | Cloth; 672 pages | Instock
    ISBN-10: 0132431734 | ISBN-13: 9780132431736
    Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

    • This book provides timely, practical, and high-interest information about marriages, families, and intimate relationships, in an engaging format that is easy to use and learn from.
  • 0205521452Marriages, Families, and Intimate Relationships: A Practical Introduction, 2/E
    Williams, Sawyer & Wahlstrom
    © 2009 | Allyn & Bacon | Paper; 624 pages | Instock
    ISBN-10: 0205521452 | ISBN-13: 9780205521456
    Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

Pearson Higher Education offers special pricing when you choose to package your text with other student resources. If you're interested in creating a cost-saving package for your students, browse our available packages below, or contact your Pearson Higher Education representative to create your own package.