Family

Institution
The history of Family ?How did it emerge?
How did it come into existence?
- Family is a group that members joined by
blood, marriage or adoption. It started from
the first human being was born to this
world, and, family, as a group, keeps our
generation and culture continuous for
thousands of years.
Family
How do members of society perceive your
Institution
institution?
How do members of the institution perceive
itself (its own institution)?
- Family is considered as the most important institution in
society because it is the primary group a person interact
with first when he/she comes to this world. Parents and
other family members are significant others to shape
your behaviors in the beginning of your life. However,
members in this institution are not aware of the
importance of family and they cannot sense how large
family can influence in shaping their personalities.
Family
How has the institution changed over time?
What has caused various institutions to

Institution
change?
- Family relationship has been changing
during times. In old times, parents words
are more like orders and laws that children
have to obey. However, the ideal
relationship between parents and children
should be equal so that they can discuss
and resovle problem together. The changes
contributed to the change of social policy
and the resolved problem like equal human
rights.
Family
Institution

Why FAMILY is the most important institution

in society?(the most stable feature of Family)
-Family shapes personalities of every individual.
It begins with
Nature. 1.Genetic
Genetic factor is one of the reasons that lead to
behaviors similarities.
According to Edward L. Thorndike, a well-known
psychologist, in his book An Introduction to the Theory
of Mental and Social Measurements, the primary and
determining factor of behavior is heredity.
The chart is a study comparing personality traits on different kinds of siblings from
Wordpress.com. Red bars represent monozygotic twins that share most similar genes;
Green bars represent siblings that are biological but not twins; and blue bars represent
adoptive siblings with no similar genes shared. We can see that no matter which trait
we compare, monozygotic twins are most similar on their behaviors, and biological
siblings are the next, while adoptive siblings have least similarities even though they
are living in the same family environment. We can see Gene plays an important role in
personality forming.
 Twins behaved alike even they grew up in different
environment thanks to similar genes. In 1968, twin
girls were separated and they united in 2003 when
they became two 35-year-old women. Still, they
shared a lot similarities in behaviors. Studies like
these point to the genetic roots of our temperament
and behavior.

Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein

(The separated twins)
Nurture
2. The relationship in family develop childrens later
emotional personality.
L. Alan Sroufe claims that the style of early attachment
relationships predicts later emotional development of
children. In his research, Such variations [of relationship
quality] are not reflections of genetically based traits of the
infant but of the history of interaction with the parent
(188) Depressed mothers have maladaptive thoughts,
attitudes, and behaviors, and these, along with being in a
similarly stressful environment as the mother, put a child
at risk of developing his own emotional problems (Sroufe
204).
3. Family can also affect childrens development in
extraversion, maturity and intellect.
As the statistics collected from Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, the influences of family
environment on personality traits were examined. Family environment influenced three personality
traits of extraversion, maturity, and intellect very much.

-Extraversion was negatively associated with overprotection/interference and with maternal participation in child
rearing.

-Maturity correlated with high socioeconomic status, appropriate child-rearing patterns and paternal participation in
child rearing.

-Intellect correlated positively with high socioeconomic status and with maternal participation in child rearing.

(Chart is on next page)

Family in functionalism
Family should be the first group that an individual interact with. From family,
children learn basic communication, general knowledge and norms that
accepted by the majorities in society. Sociologist George Murdock, in his
masterwork Social Structure published in 1949, claims that the family of parents
and children is a central social structure in all cultures and the four universal
residual functions of family is sexual, reproductive, educational, and economic.
Familys function in reproduction and positive personality education in new
generations directly affect the outcome of other essential social institution like
institutes and economic. If members in family find their roles and execute them,
other institutions will maintain balanced. For example, the purpose that fathers
want to support their families will lead to their diligence in work and it also
boost the development of economics.
Family & Conflict theory

Conflict theorists believes that the conflicts committed in family usually result
from the power differentials between family members. Robert Blood and
Donald Wolfe observed that power was apportioned between husbands and
wives based on the relative resources that each contributed to the family.
When they focused on the resource of income, and ownership of other forms of
assets, they found that the more the individual owns, the greater power he has.
The situation might lead to inequality in many forms of expression and finally
becomes conflict that harm the relationship. The conflict in family also can be
considered as a reflection of inequality caused by power differentials in any
other kinds of social groups.
. As a way to better accommodate members of society, how would you improve your institution?
. Who are the major participants in the institution? What are their roles and statuses?
. Does your institution work better for some members of society (as opposed to others)?

-From my perspective, family conflict is a serious social issue that cannot be

neglected. To improve the situation, every member of each family need to be aware
of their roles in the group. The major participants are father, mother and children.
Father and mother should figure out the differentiation of the roles on the basis of
sex in order to maintain the balance between family and other institutions like work
or friendship. Assigned tasks enhance the responsibility that each role should take.
It is assemble as the division of labor. When everyone finds his or her role, marriage
will be balanced, in a bigger chance. There is no one can live without the influence
of family. Even for those who lost their treasure ones, they cannot get rid of the
impact their family member had or will have on him. Also, there are different
conflicts or issues occurring in different families. As a result, everyone of ourselves
are unique in our family roles and no other member plays it better than ourselves.
As a result, even when we have serious conflicts with our family member, we should
never escape from it. Instead, we embrace them and solve them. You will increase
the sense of belonging and unite you as a team.