Family Is The Most Basic Unit Of Structure

What is a family? How are families shaped and what effect do they have on society? In the United States a family consists of both parents, one’s self, siblings (biological or adoptive) and extended family members; however, this is not the case around the world. The concept of family and who is family changes in each culture, but is mostly centered around who is kin and who a person marries. Family, kin, and marriage are established through how society decides their lineage, which establishes cultural rituals within the society.

First, according to Macionis (2004) the term family is defined as a social institution found in all societies that unite people in cooperative groups to oversee the bearing and raising of children. Same author also discusses several theoretical approaches have been identified that identifies the family as a form of social institution and how the family unit interconnect with other social institutions within any given society. According to the Structural-Functional Analysis for example, the family serves as a unit that perform many vital tasks

Eveyone's family is shaped diffeent, and functions differently The first major one is marital arrangements of a family, that is the number of persons each sex is allowed to marry. This includes monogamy, which is one marriage, and polygamy which is two marriages. There are also sub catergories that includes polygyny, which includes multiple wives, polyandry, which include multiple husbands, and cenogamy, which is a group marriage. the household arrangements of a family is the expected household composition including marital units and blood. There are two major houseold arrangements of a family that most of us fit into. The first arrangemnet would be a nuclear familty. A nuclear family coud either be intact, childless or incomplete. In an intact family the memebers of the family include a husband, wife, and children. In a childless family this includes a couple without children. In a incompletee family, for example this would be a widower with a child. some would say that the nuclesr family is more intimate then a compounded family because nuclear family are more monagomous and conjugal, but that is not always the case. But it is safe to say that the nuclear family is the norm in all societies today, because family comes in all different shapes and sizes. The other type of household arrangement is a compounded family arrangement. This

Depending on their cultural background, many families will often have different understandings or ideas of what a family is and how it should be structured.

A family is the single most influential factor in the life of an individual. Being in a family brings with it support, relationships, connections, and love that is rarely found anywhere else in a person’s life. However, families are not all the same. Each individual family structure is unique when compared to the next. When looked at from a general perspective there are two main groups of which families fall into.

Constance Ahrons, a doctor who coined the term “binuclear family” once said, “Pessimists say that the family is eroding. Optimists say the family is diversifying. Both points of view are right. Families are more diverse and they are more in trouble-but not because of their diversity. The families of today-whatever their size or shape-are in crisis because our economy is failing, our national resources are shrinking, and our governmental policies to support them are inadequate.” This quote gives a perspective of several reasons for the decline of the nuclear family. A nuclear family is a type of traditional family, consisting of a mother, a father, and their children. It involves time spent with the children, emotional support, low stress, and a stable economic environment. This type of family became most popular during the 1950’s, and was regarded more as a universal form of a social organization, and not just a simple family. Both parents worked secure jobs, and would come home to their children, and would enjoy this happy-go-lucky lifestyle. However, this fantasy of a family evolved over time, and the idea of a nuclear family curtailed. New generations were created that opposed the idea of a nuclear family, and began to reject society’s values: Generation X and Generation Z. In addition to the new generations, there was a development to the word “family”, as many families differed from the traditional template of a mother, a father, and children; changing the idea of a

A family can come in many forms, from nuclear to extended, from single parent and even divorced families. Family has an enormous influence in shaping our lives, identities and ultimately who we will turn out to be. Family categories usually fall into three groups: the nuclear family consisting of a mother, father, and siblings living together. The extended family, consisting two or more families live together such as grandparents, uncles, aunts, or other relatives, and single-parent families.

A family is a group of individuals related by blood, marriage, or adoption. Most people are familiar with the term “nuclear families”. However, today the idea of a postmodern family is becoming more and more common. A nuclear family consists of two parents and children. The nuclear family was long held by society as being the ideal in which to raise children. The single parent family consists of one parent raising one or more children on his or her own. This limits income and opportunities in many cases, although many single parent families have help from relatives and friends. The extended family structure consists of two or more adults who are related, either by blood or marriage, living in

In this last chapter, the author briefly summarizes the four definitions of family and how the family has changed over time. Although every family has different definitions of family, I believe most individuals agree that the interactional approach is more accurate. The interactional approach depicts that families have a sense of collective identity that emerges through shared activity and interaction. For instance, caring and helping each other in difficult times or simply just having dinner together every night. Furthermore, a significant change in families was the late transition to adulthood. Today, young adults are more dependent on their parents than they were in the 20th century because the expansion of higher education and the competitive

A family consists of father, mother and their children, and some cases several generations living together in the same house. I was born and raised up in Bangladesh. Later I immigrated to Canada with my mother in 2010 and my father has been here since 2003. In our family, we are the first one to immigrate and live in abroad. I live with my parents and I have two younger sisters who were born in Canada, thus I can call it a nuclear family. Both my father and mother comes from extended families. I grew up in my mother’s extended family before moving to Canada, but I have noticed that over past few years how the extended family is gradually transforming into nuclear families. In this research paper, I will explain the changes that my family went

Family constitutes the basic unit of society, and it assumes diverse forms and functions from one country to another, and within each national society. There are many different types of family structure, with different strengths and weaknesses. Any image of what constitute the ideal family differs greatly both within and among countries. The manner in which families form, establish pattern of behavior, function and evolve, as well as their relationships with the local

Family is one of the hardest words to define. There are many definitions and thoughts of what a family consists of. When one accepts the definition of the census family given by Statistics Canada then a family becomes “a married couple and the children, if any… a couple living common law and the children, if any… a lone parent with at least one child living in the same dwelling… grandchild living with grandparents but no parents present… Census families can be opposite or same sex and children may be adopted, by birth, or marriage and all members must be living in the same dwelling” (Baker 2014). With family being such a difficult term to agree on, the creation of a complex study of family life emerges. The factors that influence family life are put into three theory categories; Social Structure, Interpersonal Factors, as well as Ideas, Global Culture, and Public Discourse.

Families are not like sweat pants or pyjamas, they are not 'one size fits all '. Family sizes and dynamics vary from one to the other. Some families eat certain meals together every day, while others do not. Some family homes include aunts, uncles, and grandparents in their living accommodations. Other people prefer the nuclear family, which consists of just parents and children. Different dynamics can change what a family looks like, where they live, and what functions they serve.

Extended Family tend to be far away, however with some family children are normally closer to their grandmother and grandfather. Grandparents tend to treat the children with sweets and they play with them from time to time as well. Aunts and Uncles also fall into this category, they are normally strict to their child but when it comes to their niece they lay back a bit and become nicer (happens to me). These people as I stated before are grandmothers and grandfathers.

Everyone is part of a family. Family, sometimes provide us with a sense of identity and sense of belonging. The definition of family, according to , is when two or more people are related by marriage or blood. Sociologists also define family as an institution. It is called an institution as it meets social needs such as child bearing, basic necessities and economic resources. The traditional type of family is called a nuclear family. A nuclear family consists of a mum, dad and their children. Although nuclear families are the norm and also more dominant here in Singapore, there has also been a rise in alternative families. Alternative families are families that are not part of the social norm, such as a single parent household, blended families and extended families. A family is also either dead, which means they are not changing or they are in a state of constant transition. This essay aims to shed light on a few of the factors and theories that cause a family to be dead or to be transitioning constantly.