Family Study Notes

Connecting Individuals, families and society * Canadians view families as essential to personal and social well-being. * No society can survive unless certain basic functions, such as reproduction or the provision of food, are carried out. * According to American sociologist William Goode: It is through the family that society is able to elicit from the individual his [or her] necessary contribution. The family, in turn, can continue to exist only if it is supported by the larger society. If the society as a larger social system furnishes the family, as a smaller social system, with the conditions necessary for its survival, these two types of systems must be interrelated in many important ways
Defining Family * Definitions of family reflect both the actual nature of families that exist within the culture and desirable nature of families as described in the social policies of that culture. * What one must note is that the criteria used in any definition reflect the purpose of the definition. * A definition of family is effective if you can use it to differentiate between families and other groups in a way that suits your purpose for having a definition. * Individuals define family based on their own personal experience and expectations of what family means to them.
Definitions of the family in social sciences * As our understanding of human society evolves so has our definition of family. * Anthropologists have provided extensive descriptions of many societies and the ways they have organized themselves to survive and thrive. * They have also identified certain basic and universal functions as prerequisites for the survival of any society.
Analyze the following definitions of family * “… a social group characterized by common residence, economic cooperation, and reproduction…includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a sexually approved sexual relationship and one or more children, own or adopted of