This credit unit forms the foundation of your learning process for the rest of this course. It will begin with essential terms and concepts: difference, power, and discrimination, determining your dominant identity, and critical thinking skills. These concepts constitute the lens through which you will examine issues important to today's families in the U.S. You will then move on to discussion of several of the more widely used theoretical perspectives for understanding and explaining families. After this groundwork is set, you will delve into some of the most prominent topics related to difference, power, and discrimination in the United States: race and ethnicity, social class, and gender and sexuality.

Course Outcomes: