Family structure and function Historically humans have always lived in families. Infants would not survive without a family. When the family is dissolved our instincts drive us to create family-like relationships. It is a natural human tendency. Family structure Form of the family: who and what the family is composed of Nuclear Extended Single-parent Stepfamilies Grandparent families Evolution of the family Large extended family functioning in a nomadic or agrarian culture – large size was good for manual labor. Mobile nuclear family in industrialized and urbanized society – industrial revolution meant less space; smaller families because of mobility. Mobility: The single most important contributing factor to the shift towards a nuclear family. Move away to find jobs Move away to school Move and stay away when married Shaping family structure Birth control Women working Working mothers Delaying childbearing Divorce Structural parts - Position: a certain location in the family. Mother daughter wife etc. - Role: defines behavioral expectations that are given to an individual within a family based on physical and social factors like age and gender. Protector nurturer role model. Family functions *Activities engaged in by families that contribute to the life and maintenance of the individual or the family as a whole. *General family functions Raise babies responsibly Provide economic support Give emotional security Maintain the group over time Family life cycle: The life cycle is used to describe changes in individuals and families throughout their lifetime. Describes changes in both structure and function. Compromised of stages. Distinctive enough from those that will precede and follow to constitute a separate period Each stage builds on the preceding stage Characteristics Of Stages Stages are marked off by: - Structure: addition and subtraction of family members through birth adoption death - Based on the age of the first-born child and the various stages children go through - Changes with family’s connection with other social systems *** Online sheet describing stages – on Final ExamDevelopmental Tasks -Essential to family functioning at each stage -Successful achievement of such tasks leads to happiness and to succeed in later tasks -Failure leads to unhappiness, disapproval by society, and difficulty with later tasks Tasks usually have to do with different areas of life Defining the family Housing Economics Parenting Work/employment Sex Individuals and family systems receive information through 4 processes of: - Perceiving - Spacing - Valuing - Deciding Perception: The process of meaningfully organizing sensations or the process of how we assemble sensations into a useable picture or a model of the world. *Individual’s first stage of choice Perceiving: Active process of interpreting and giving meaning to the environment. Adapting Information Assimilation: process by which the mind receives information from the environment and changes the information to fit existing knowledge or schemas. Adaptation: process by which the mind takes in information and changes itself to fit the information. Perceptions are filtered through: -Physical factors: the mind -Social: use of language, agreement of what is right and wrong -Individual factors Mental Maps - Cognitive / mental maps are images about an area or an environment developed by an individual based on information or impressions - Cognitive maps are the interpretations or pictures in our mind Field Independent – These people are highly sensitive to stimuli from their own bodies, irrespective of outside environmental stimuli Field Dependent – very sensitive to the outside environment and rely on others for guidance *Processes during perception - Affect: emotional impact of perception - Orientation: becoming acquainted or familiar with any situation - Categorization: developing categories for similar objects and events that are seen - Systematization: identification of regularities in the environment - Manipulation/Designing: creating change in the environment ***Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs – Online *Space and Time* Space: The 3 dimensional expanse in which events actions and processes occur and which energy and matter exist.Types of space - Territoriality: emotional attachment to and the defense of home ground - Personal: zone of privacy and separation from others our culture or physical circumstances require or permit - Activity: area within which we move freely during our daily activities - Awareness space: knowledge of opportunity locations beyond normal activity space Time and space Time often restricts space because: Can’t be in two places at once Defined activities make constraints on our space – time paths What we can do at certain ages Use of space - Fixed feature space: Physical space organized by unmoving boundaries - Semi-fixed: Flexible space created by the arrangement of furniture and other movable objects - Informal: the way people handle individual or spatial needs that vary according to situation Types of informal space: Intimate 0-18 inches Personal 18 inches- 4 feet Social 4-12 feet Public Over 12 feet Privacy The claims of individuals, groups, or institutions to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent information about them is communicated to others. Controlling environment. Maintaining personal autonomy. Space & Privacy - Exterior arrangements: fences, safe environment - House placement: apartments, large lots, higher traffic areas - Neighborhood - Interior design: layout, size, how physical structures are used Time: A continuum in which events succeed one another from past, through present, to the future. Things to consider are subjective experience of time and how we punctuate time. Individual time *Time sense: perception of present time linked to perception of duration *Value influences our perceptions *Perceptions of danger and states of alarm or pain *Age influences time perception Social Time - Time of interactive systems such as companies, schools, businesses where individuals interact with one another - Culturally what it means to be “on time” - Time organized by technology and modernization Cultural time - Based on the general assent of the individuals and human groups that make up a culture - Cultures have very different ways to describe time
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