I was given a task to produce a project based on a sociological topic. From the wide range of subjects available, I have chosen to investigate, 'Family Matters'. From this subject, I then had to think of a suitable question that my whole project will be revolving around. The question I have chosen to examine is: -'What is the place of marriage in Modern Britain?'By this I mean that are more people finding alternatives instead of getting married and also are there more couples getting divorced at this moment in time than before.
I have chosen this subject because it sounds like a very interesting and challenging topic to find out information on and also because I would like to know what the outcome will be and why this may be occurring. Hopefully, I will be aiming to find out different solutions to my question as well as providing some useful information to back up my final solution.I will gather information from a variety of sources. These including: -* Internet* News on television* Newspaper* Library books* Friends & familyI will also be asking some individuals and questioning them about this matter. I will use the outcomes from these to hopefully provide extra evidence to back my final answer as well as expanding my project and so concluding with an interesting and informative conclusion.
PredictionIn order to carry out this project I would first of all like to give my opinion on the outcomes of my 'question'.I personally expect to find out that 'the place of marriage in Modern Britain' are that many people are finding alternatives to married life, such as living together without having a relationship which consists of them being officially married. I have found out that the correct term for this is 'cohabitation'. I also expect to find out that the divorce rates are drastically increasing as marriages are failing to work out. Reasons for this may be that couples are 'rushing' into their married life's, which is then causing problems between the two.
Other possibilities could be due to financial difficulties. Others may argue that the actual reason for the increasing divorce rates are due to the media and television programs, which many may believe influences family life. Hopefully I will be able to produce many other reasons and also explain them.Another aspect that may be affecting my 'question' is the ethnicity and the social background of the individual being questioned. From my personal background, I have been brought up to believe that in the Asian community living with a member of the opposite sex but not being officially married is 'wrong' and so I am not expecting many Asians, that I am going to question, to have a member of the family cohabiting.However I am hoping to expand on these sources and find more sufficient data, which I will write about in my conclusion.
HypothesisThere are a number of matters that I would like to think about and include in my project to make it interesting. To do this I will be creating a number of statements that I will try to find out information about. Here are some of the statements that I will be writing about: -* Marriage is becoming less popular* Divorce rates are increasing* People are developing alternatives to married life* Divorcees tend to re-marry* Cohabitation is increasing* Cohabitation does not occur as much in Asian cultures as to other cultures* Divorcing is not seen as being bad in white and black community as much as it is in Asian communities.Pilot StudyBefore making an actual questionnaire I was informed that it would be appropriate to produce a pilot study before hand.
This is an actual questionnaire but if there are any mistakes or any questions that are not understandable, I could change them. This is so that in my actual questionnaire I do not have any unsuitable or unnecessary questions. For example: -Asking a question like,'What is your name?'This question would be inappropriate as some of the individuals that are being questioned may not want to reveal their name or identity so that others can see the details that they have filled in for a particular question or even the whole questionnaire.I will try to ask a mixed race of ethnic origins the questionnaire, so that I get a varied selection of answers.
I will also ask the questionnaire to a member of each of the appropriate age ranges so I get a wider range of reactions.I have printed out three copies of the questionnaire so that the individual filling in the questionnaire can write straight onto the paper. These copies can be seen on the next few pages. It includes their responses to the questions given.
