FRHD 1020 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Longitudinal Study, Nuclear Family, Structural Functionalism

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Family Relations and Human Development
• Course: FRHD 1020
• Professor: Olga Sutherland

Document Summary

It is difficult to define the family"; there are many ways to define it (page 5 has a few definitions). Definitions have changed according to time and place. Legal definitions of the family are not fixed; changed as a result of court cases and legislation. Traditional family: includes father, mother and their children. Extended family includes the nuclear family and all other relatives. In some cases a person may not consider a biological member to be part of their family", for example, a parent that has abandoned the family or disowned the child, this can also include a divorced parent. Ideas about the family fall along a continuum with biological and legal definitions at one end and social and personal definitions at the other. Theories about family help shape government policy, agency regulations, methods of therapy and other ways society relates to families. Theories tend to ignore realities of family life, for example time pressures or spatial matters.