Couple Interview Essay

I interviewed three different family member of all different age that have experienced my family culture in their own way. For my interview I interviewed My mother Okala Mundeke. She is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo but she moved to America when she was 35 years old and she is now 50 years old. She has grown up mostly in Congo so she has a strong knowledge of our heritage and family history since she was around it more.. My sister Emmanuella Kalonda she was born in the congo but has little memory of it since she was less than a year old when she came to america. she is currently sixteen years old. But she was raised with my mother learning about family and our culture. My next candidate is my other sister Jocelyn Fetner

I met with Christine, an acquaintance I know through members of a twelve step program. We met for about 20 minutes over coffee. As we spoke, I asked the questions that I prepared,

This mother shows signs of her mental illness almost right off the bat, when, after looking at her son, she “began yelping without tears, retching in between” (39). The onset of this illness appears to be very sudden. The story begins with “One winter evening she looked at them….the sight of them made her so sad and sick she did not want to see them ever again” (39). It seems as if just one evening she suddenly begins to feel this way. When the son says, “‘It’s alright Mommy’” (39), causing the father to respond “Mommy is sick” (39), shows that the father did not have time to explain this to the son any time before. There is no evidence given in the story as to what caused her mental illness, though we can infer that the onset was quite sudden.

I had the opportunity to interview a family very close to me whom I have been blessed to know since I was three years old. The mother Heidi, who is 59, remarried at the age of 31 to Paul, who is 57, and they have been married for 28 years now. Heidi had her first son Markie, who is now 38, with her previous husband who is no longer in the picture. Paul and Heidi have a son named Travis who is 26 and a daughter named Tina who is 24. Paul used to work as a carpenter but retired when he was 52. He then began working at a grocery store and eventually retired from there as well. Heidi also worked at a grocery and just recently retired. Paul loved what he did as a carpenter and still continues to build things for the family such as cabinets and furniture.

She also has a family history of depression. Her marriege is unhealthy and she reported that she thought of asking for a divorce. Furthermore, she was frightened of her father who had abusive tendencies towards

Ms. Psaras reported that she has two sister with whom she is close to. She indicated that her mother is still alive. Ms. Psaras stated that her father died when she was eight years old. She indicated that she was not exposed to any physical, emotional or sexual abuse as a child. Ms. Psaras reported that the death of her father was traumatic for her, she indicated that she did not experience no other traumas as a child.

Ann Gill was born on December 20, 1930 in Athens, Georgia. Her parent’s William Standridge and Elizabeth Williams had four children. Ann was the middle child, the third child born. Ann had three brothers. William JR, Howard, and her little brother Henry. Ann’s dad was a _____. Her mother stayed at home watching after the children and taking care of the house. Ann’s father was often at work. Her brothers would often leave her to go outside and play. Ann spent a lot of her time with her mom. She was very close to her mother. Ann’s mom taught her how to cook and sew. She enjoyed cooking and spending time with her mom. Ann remembers her childhood as being a happy one.

Established with Adam and Eve, still surviving, marriage is the oldest institution known. Often the climax of most romantic movies and stories, whether it may be ‘Pride and Prejudice’ or ‘Dil Wale Dulhaniya Ley Jaein Gey’, marriage has a universal appeal. It continues to be the most intimate social network, providing the strongest and most frequent opportunity for social and emotional support. Though, over the years, marriage appears to be tarnished with high divorce rates, discontentment and infidelity, it is still a principal source of happiness in the lives of respective partners. Although marriage is perceived as a deeply flawed institution serving more the needs of the society than those of the individuals, nevertheless, marriage is

1. Question: Share some of the background of your interviewee (or couple). What was this person’s/couple’s story?

Past research has demonstrated that there exists a connection between smiling and physical attractiveness. A smiling person was perceived as more intelligent and could create in the perceiver a warmer feeling than a nonsmiling person. This study evaluates whether smiling vs. not smiling and rater’s gender have an effect on attractiveness ratings of a male and a female dating profile. Furthermore, it predicts that there will be a main effect of smiling on the ratings of both, male and female dating profiles. Moreover, it also predicts that there will be an interaction of rater’s gender and smiling for the female profile. However, the results did not support this statement, there was not a main effect of rater’s gender on any of the dating profiles. Both profiles male and female, were better rated when the person was smiling. Indicating that people prefer smiling over the non-smiling faces. On the other hand, no interaction was observed between rater’s genders and smiling for male and female profile.

I interviewed John and Cindy about their marriage and the challenges they’ve faced together as a married couple. I am encouraged by their relationship and have decided to use their relationship as a model for my second interview. John and Cindy have been married for almost 5 years. In addition to this union, there is McKenna, Cindy’s son. They are a blended family, of course, and are part of the more modern structure of families in our society.

What does marriage mean? By definition, marriage is “the legal union of a man and a woman as husband and wife” (Webster’s Dictionary). Most people claim that they want their marriage to last a lifetime. Because over half of all marriages in the United States end in a divorce, most people lack the understanding of what it takes to stay married. I believe that couples should become more aware of the commitment that they are making when they enter into marriage.

For my interview, I interviewed a woman by the name of Mrs. Miskell. She is a close family friend and also teaches at the elementary school that I used to attend. Mrs. Miskell has been teaching for fifteen years. She has a class of 21 including 2 special education children who are mainstreamed into her class for a few areas of study. She team-teaches one day a week with the remedial math teacher, and one day a week with the remedial reading teacher. Her children switch classes with one other class for social studies and science. In this interview, I covered her views on special education and security in today's schools.

    The person I interviewed was Mrs. L. I know her because she is my mother’s mother. The interview took place at my house and the interview lasted about 2 hours and 20 minutes. I chose to interview Mrs. L because she seems to have done everything right and in the right order to lead to a successful life. I thought it would be interesting to go into depth and find out how she really did it and find out the hardships that came with making a successful family and life. (word count: 90)

Marriage is the socially recognized union of two or more people. Selecting a marriage partner is very much a culturally defined process. The rules governing selection vary widely from society to society and are more often complex. How would you go about selecting a mate? Where would you begin? What criteria would you use? When we look around the world to see how other societies deal with these questions, it is clear that the ways of selecting a mate or a marriage partner has been changed from generation to generation.