Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to: formulate theories and applications of  how sociologists approach the study of the family; distinguish this approach from descriptive, historical and therapeutic approaches; place their own family in a larger cross-cultural and historical context; distinguish several definitions of family by showing how they emerge from different ways of looking at families; summarize the major theories on explanations of family life and changes; clarify and specify family roles and relationships including grandparents and extended relatives and the functions they serve in different societies; discuss the processes by which families form, terminate, and reconstruct; and identify and discuss the stressors, response factors and processes whereby families adjust to situations of change; and examine functional alternatives to the family.