Lecture 3

Family Structure

Family of Origin/orientation – the family you are born into

Family of Procreation – the family formed through marriage or having kids

In other words:
- We belong to two families in our lifetime:
o Family of origin: you were the child
o Family of procreation: you are the parent
Why Do We Need Families?
- Procreation
- Socialization
- Economic security
- Emotional security
- Social status
Aspects of Family
- 2 interrelated processes:
o internal processes/cohesion: how do individual members come together to
create a meaningful whole
o external demarcation – drawing boundaries that separate the family from other
social units

Healthy Families have high levels of the following:

- trust, commitment, and respect for one another
o these factors underlie everything
- they facilitate healthy interaction and other behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs about the
family and other relationships
Characteristics of Strong Families
- values and standards, strictness and permissiveness, problem solving and tradition
How Do We Study Families?
- What do you see as particular problems if you want to study families?
- Can one be objective? Why or why not?
- Basic unit of analysis –family instead of individual or society
- Interdisciplinary field:
o Anthropology, child development, demography, history, psychology, religion,
sociology
Family Research
- Why are we attracted to some people and not others?
- Why are we waiting to marry?
- Why do people divorce?
- How does divorce affect children at different stages in their lives?
Research influenced by:
- Funding availability
- Who is doing funding
- Access to subjects
- What is a “hot topic” at the time
- Time
How do we study the family?
- Relationship between theory and research
o Theory provides indeas – LENS
o Research provides observations used to verify or disprove theory
- Issue of objectivity/ethics
- White middle class used as norm
Family Research Method
- Quantitative – numerical analyses of people’s responses or specific characteristics
- Qualitative – non-numerical data
- Social Scientists generally use six major research methods:
o Surveys, clinical research, field research, secondary analysis, experiments,
evaluation research
Survey
- Researchers use surveys to systematically collect information or data through
questionnaires or interviews
- It is important to have a representative sample of the population that you are interested
in studying
- Oftentimes, face to face interviews are used for social science research
Methods of Social Research – Survey
- Advantages: large sample size, flexibility, lower costs, efficient and anonymous, gives
people voice
- Disadvantages: sample biased, poor wording can affect results, low response rate,
honestly
Clinical Research
- Studies individual or small groups
- Often relies on Case Studies or an in-depth informative interview about one person
- Case studies are typically linked with long term counseling which can be beneficial for
individuals and families
Field Research
- Researchers collect data about people by observing them in their natural surrounding
- Typically, this kid of research is high structured
- There are two kinds of observations:
o Non-participant observations-researchers do not interact with their subjects
o Participant observations-researchers do interact with their subjects