The Family an Example of a Primary Group Essay Example
1. INTRODUCTION
"The family we are born into is the small group to which most of us owe our primary allegiance for the first fifteen or twenty years of our life, and, indeed for many people in our society, it remains a focus for allegiance throughout their lives." (Douglas 1983: p86 Quoted from Tajfel 1978:p179)
People can establish or grow their social structure, status and leadership abilities just by being a part of a group of people. Many theorists have discovered and revealed reasons why people join group, as Carl Jung stated that member belongs to a group because of personality dimensions. With regard to the family group, members are born / adopted into the group and have lifetime membership.
The focus of this assignment is unlike voluntary or involuntary group organisation. The research study proposes to find out the functions of the family group, whether the family can be defined as a primary group and reasons for group membership in a group. It also strives to define the physical environment that surrounds the group. The group structure is also dealt with and defined i.e. norms, values, sanctions, roles and status that govern the family group. The process of group development is also explored as well as any leadership roles that are present in the family dealt with.
The methodology used was a literature review and this was then was used to further investigate family group behaviour according to the different authors. The objective of this assignment is to distinguish how group theories relate to the family group. The information gathered was then used to relate any interesting findings the author had discovered about group behaviour from the literature and then used to analyse the author's own family group.
2. LITERITURE REVIEW
2.1 NATURE AND TYPE OF GROUP
Most definitions define the family as an institution based on the notion of man-women-children nuclear family and the central function it performs.' (Barnard:2007) The family
"The family we are born into is the small group to which most of us owe our primary allegiance for the first fifteen or twenty years of our life, and, indeed for many people in our society, it remains a focus for allegiance throughout their lives." (Douglas 1983: p86 Quoted from Tajfel 1978:p179)
People can establish or grow their social structure, status and leadership abilities just by being a part of a group of people. Many theorists have discovered and revealed reasons why people join group, as Carl Jung stated that member belongs to a group because of personality dimensions. With regard to the family group, members are born / adopted into the group and have lifetime membership.
The focus of this assignment is unlike voluntary or involuntary group organisation. The research study proposes to find out the functions of the family group, whether the family can be defined as a primary group and reasons for group membership in a group. It also strives to define the physical environment that surrounds the group. The group structure is also dealt with and defined i.e. norms, values, sanctions, roles and status that govern the family group. The process of group development is also explored as well as any leadership roles that are present in the family dealt with.
The methodology used was a literature review and this was then was used to further investigate family group behaviour according to the different authors. The objective of this assignment is to distinguish how group theories relate to the family group. The information gathered was then used to relate any interesting findings the author had discovered about group behaviour from the literature and then used to analyse the author's own family group.
2. LITERITURE REVIEW
2.1 NATURE AND TYPE OF GROUP
Most definitions define the family as an institution based on the notion of man-women-children nuclear family and the central function it performs.' (Barnard:2007) The family