FAML 150: Introduction to Marriage & Family
Course Description
This is an introductory and required course for all students desiring to obtain a major in Marriage and Family (MF). This class is inappropriate for non-majors or non-minors in Marriage and Family Studies. The course includes an overview of historical and current scientific, societal, and family issues related to the family sciences. Applications will be made to career and advanced educational opportunities as well as family, church, and community settings.
Course Book & Other Required Materials
- Download the free booklet "Career in Family Science."
- Reading assignments will be posted in each lesson.
- You must have access to a computer and a webcam.
Course Load
This course is a one credit course. Because it is offered in the block format (7 weeks), plan to devote 5-6 hours per week to successfully complete the course requirements.
Goals and Objectives
- Analyze the purposes, methodologies, and challenges of scientific study in the marriage and family field.
- Discuss prevention and intervention approaches for improving marriages and families.
- Research career opportunities for marriage and family studies professionals.
- Analyze the relationship between professional conduct, ethics, and career growth.
- Design a comprehensive BYU-Idaho Marriage and Family Studies degree completion plan.
Requirements
- Participation. Participate appropriately in group activities (your instructor will assign the groups), discussions, and other instructional experiences. Participate fully, but do not dominate the class discussion. All students must participate.
- Professional Writing. You are training to be a professional. Your papers' formatting, content, grammar, spelling, and referencing are expected to be of professional quality. Edit and proofread your papers for each of this professional writing criteria.
- Completion of Two Exams. Exams will include material from videos, assigned reading, discussion boards, and lectures; they will consist of objective and short-answer items; and they may be comprehensive.
- Student Introduction Paper. You will complete a personal information paper. This is basically a letter of introduction to help the instructor get to know you. Please include your reasons for choosing to be a Marriage and Family Studies major and how you hope to use this degree in the future.
- Graduation Plan. You will use the Grad Report screen to plan your coursework to complete the Marriage and Family Studies degree. You should have already done this in progressing toward graduating the Marriage and Family program. To ensure that you have thought through all the necessary steps to graduate, including their sequence, talk to your advisor about the sequence of the major (e.g., core courses, practicum, and internship), minor, and general education classes, including religion courses. Turn in the actual printout from the Grad Report screen as your completed assignment. The grad plan does not need to be approved by your advisor for this class.
- Character Strengths Assessment. You will go to authentichappiness.org, create an account, and
complete the Online VIA Survey of Character Strengths (240 questions). You will then do a brief
write-up including:
- An ordered list of your top 24 strengths- discuss whether you agree with the top and bottom five strengths and how they compare to the other strengths.
- Identify specific ways you could develop and use your top five strengths to serve married couples and families in your career. In other words, identify a specific career you may be interested in and discuss how you could use your strengths to creatively excel in this career. Spend most of your time on this part.
- Career Profiles. Every student will research two specific Marriage and Family Studies careers and complete a career profile sheet for each. Use this as a worksheet to gather information about your chosen career.
- Ethics Analysis. Students will work in pairs to respond to an ethics case study.
This is to help you internalize the ethical guidelines of the profession. Type a paper (one paper
per pair) that addresses ALL of the ethical issues in the scenario. Your paper should address:
- What ethical guidelines apply to the case? List each one from the CFLE Code of Ethics. List as many as you find.
- Why is it a potential problem in this case? Provide a reason for each guideline.
- If you were the professional in this case, how should you proceed with helping this family in a way that maintains that specific ethical guideline?
- For example: "Principle I.1—The part in the case regarding the family life educator yelling at the family and telling them they will have to change or they'll be charged double for their sessions violates Ethical Principle I.1: 'I will be aware of the impact/power we have on parents and family relations.' This is an issue because the family life educator is misusing the power she/he has over the family. If I were the professional in this case and became frustrated with the family, I would be careful not to give mandates that involve me using my p owe r over the family to manipulate them. These manipulations could be threatening to charge them more, threatening to give a negative report to their superiors, or to tell others they are having problems. Instead, I would let the family know of my disappointment, but then work with them to find a better solution."
Department Policy Regarding Intellectual Property and Course Materials
All of the materials in this course are covered by fair use and copyright law and are proprietary (intellectual property). Students are not permitted to sell, post, trade, share, distribute, or send any information contained in this course (including outlines, handouts, syllabi, exams, quizzes, PowerPoint presentations, lectures, audio and video recordings, or images of the same, etc. including your own work for this course) to any parties outside of this course (ie Course Hero, Quizlet, Google Docs, etc.) by any means (e.g., posting, uploading, attachments, etc.) without the express written permission from the creator of these works and the Department Chair. Any of these actions violate the Academic Honesty policies of Brigham Young University-Idaho (please see Academic Honesty) and will be dealt with as such. The materials in this course are also intellectual property and taking any materials from the course and posting them outside of this course in any manner will be construed as theft and distribution of intellectual property. If you engage in any of these actions, or use any of these materials without authorization, the instructor has the right to impose an appropriate academic sanction (e.g., give you a failing grade for the assignment and/or fail you from the course). Additionally, the respective Course Lead, Program Lead, and/or Department Chair also reserve the right to impose appropriate academic sanctions regardless of any imposed by the instructor.
Grades
Grades are based on the following points. Assignments are worth 50% of your grade. Exams are worth the other 50% of your grade.
| Assignments | Worth 50% |
|---|---|
| Ice Breaker Activity | 5 |
| Student Introduction Paper | 5 |
| Graduation Plan | 10 |
| Career Presentation: 10 pts x 2 presentations | 20 |
| Web Pages Search | 10 |
| Career Profiles: 10pts x 2 profiles | 20 |
| Input Low/High Salary | 5 |
| Annual Salary Discussion: 10 pts x 2 parts | 20 |
| Character Strengths | 10 |
| Ethics Analysis | 10 |
| Exams | Worth 50% |
| Syllabus Quiz | 5 |
| Mid Term Exam | 30 |
| Final Exam | 30 |
| TOTAL POINTS | 180 |
Grades will be calculated as follows:
| Letter Grade | Percentage Range |
|---|---|
| A | 100% – 93% |
| A- | 92% – 90% |
| B+ | 89% – 87% |
| B | 86% – 83% |
| B- | 82% – 80% |
| C+ | 79% – 77% |
| C | 76% – 73% |
| C- | 72% – 70% |
| D+ | 69% – 67% |
| D | 66% – 63% |
| D- | 62% – 60% |
| F | 59% – 00% |
Deadlines
Because I-Learn does not scale times to match your local time zone, please note that times are set at 11:59 PM Mountain Time (USA). You will need to be sure your I-Learn profile is set to your local time zone and check your Calendar to see when assignments are due for you. There are 1-2 deadlines to meet per week.
If you are in the Mountain Time Zone, these dates/times are:
- Wednesday at 11:59 PM
- Saturday at 11:59 PM.
If you are in a different time zone, check the course Calendar and identify the two recurring weekly due dates for you.
All assignments are due at one of these two times. You are encouraged to submit your work and complete the reading well before the time it is due.
The Week 07 Final Exam is due Friday at 11:59 (Mountain Time). See Calendar for exact time in your time zone.
Late Work
The standard late policy for this course is to deduct 10% per day late.