Introduction
Sociologists have always attempted to cover and measure up practically every aspect of human life. Sociology as a discipline has an extremely wide range of interests and it is next to impossible even to enumerate them, however the issue that has always been of the utmost importance for the sociological study is family, because it is the cornerstone of every society and the indispensable condition for its stability.
Problem Statement
The problems that are closely connected with the family issues, especially with marriage and family process are very acute nowadays, that is why they attract close attention of many scholars. Overall, it is quite possible for us to say that these still issues require thorough analysis from different points of view, despite the great number of works on this topic.
In order to find a solution to family problems it is of the utmost impotence to give a definition to this term. The next step is to identify the cause of family problems. The main purpose of this research paper is to analyze four different works dedicated to our topic. We have to analyze these books in terms of the approach, research methods that were employed, and naturally the main hypothesis of these books. Our task is to present different views and different approaches to the family issues and the way the explain problems connected with them. The final step is to outline the major directions for further research.
The first scientific work that we are going to discuss is the book “The Family: Its Sociology and Social Psychiatry” written by Joseph Folsom, professor of sociology in Vassar College. The principal aim of this book is to combine various scientific methods to the study of such complicated phenomenon as family. An attempt is made to integrate history, individual psychology, anthropology, sociology, in order to analyze the notion of family from different standpoints.
Overall, it is worth mentioning that the cultural approach is the dominant one in this research study. The author of this book analyzes problems connected with the family in the context of constant cultural and social change. Joseph Folsom attempts to analyze the historical genesis of family, and the way this phenomenon evolved with time passing. It should be taken into consideration that the focus of this book is on the so-called Euro-American system of family relationships. Thus, the results of this research cannot always be applied to other nations or ethnic groups.
As it has already been mentioned, the author analyzes the problems connected with family in the context of social change. According to him, Euro-Americans culture has undergone a drastic change over the last fifty years, however Joseph Folsom avoids using the word “progress” because it usually implies change for the better, however it is not always so.
Naturally, he agrees that in terms of financial prosperity this changes have been extremely beneficial to the overwhelming majority of the population, however he believes that this changes have a detrimental effect on the family relationships. First, because the very tempo of life has quickened, and many people are so deeply absorbed with their work that they have practically no time to be with their families. Moreover, the author substantiates this statement. He says that according to the statistical data, an average employee spends at most three or four hours with his or her family per his working day, which is certainly not enough.
Moreover, Joseph Folsom says that the increased need for social mobility or perhaps it would be better to say independence has an inverse effect on the marriage process (Folsom, 1999).
Therefore, we may arrive at the conclusion according to the author that family problems are closely connected with the process of social change especially with the increased need for social mobility or independence.
Another sociological study dedicated to the family issue is the book “The Family as Process and Institution” written by Clifford Kirkpatrick. It can be quite easily deduced from the title that the author studies the dual nature of family. The author views family as the constant flow of experience that a person acquires beginning from his childhood, adolescence and so on and so forth. In other words, the author believes that the so-called family process does not begin with the actual marriage; on the contrary, it is a constant and ever-changing experience.
According to Clifford Patrick the problems connected with family take their origin in the persons background. Perhaps, it would be prudent to illustrate this point. A person acquires behavioral and social patterns since his or her childhood. Thus if these patterns were absorbed in the wrong way or to a certain degree misinterpreted, he or she is very likely to have some family problems (Patrick, 2000).
Thus, it is quite possible for us to arrive at the conclusion that in Clifford Patrick’s view the problems connected with the family usually takes their origin in the inner world of the person.
The problem, which undoubtedly requires thorough analysis, is the problem of domestic violence. There are many scientific works dedicated to this problem and all of them try to find a different approach to this issue. Nevertheless, it is quite possible for us t single out the article written by Arnold Murray, which is called “Sociological Research and Social Policy. The Case of Family Violence”. The point is that the author attempts to integrate different approaches to this problem. According to Murray, domestic violence can have two types of origin; the author calls them internal and external” As far as the external factors are concerned, we should mention the following: childhood experience, wrong behavioral patterns. However, the author pays more attention to the external factors. First, the author mention that the social changes, which the American society has undergone over the last thirty years have significantly quickened our life, therefore the tension has become very acute.
The point is that a person is very often unable to cope with this tension. It goes without saying that this phenomenon could not but have a detrimental effect on our family relationships. Sometimes a person gives vent to his feeling through violence. The author provides some sociological data according to which every fifth person is more or less prone to domestic violence just because of the problems he may have with his job (Murray, 2005).
Thus, we can say that the author tries to use combine different approaches such as sociological and physiological Overall, Murray singles out the following factors: social instability, difficult relationships at work and general inability to cope with the stress.
Another issue, which has always been a subject of thorough psychological and sociological research, is the problem of divorce. Alan Guttmann tries to analyze this problem in his article “Who Divorce”. He believes that the there is a wide variety of factors; however his views coincide with those ones of Murray who singles out external and internal reasons.
However, the author pays more attention to the internal reasons. Among them he singles out the following: the persons inability to be tolerant to his partner (37 per cent of the divorced couples). The author also singles out such factor as inability of the couple share their duties and obligations. Moreover, he singles out some objective reasons as for instance the psychological incompatibility (30 per cent). (Guttmann, 2005)
Conclusion
Therefore, having analyzed this four article, dedicated to the such notions marriage and family process, it is quite possible for us to arrive at the conclusion that family is extremely vulnerable to the social changes and this seems to be the main cause of the majority of the problems. Nevertheless, we cannot disregard the internal problems in other words those ones connected with our inner world. As it has already been mentioned before the family process is a flow of experience which means which starts from our childhood, this is why it is of crucial importance to impart correct behavioral patterns to our children. That is why the dual nature of these problems should always be taken into account, and it is always necessary to combine different approaches to these problems such as sociological, psychological , historic, and many others, because without it the analysis would be incomplete.
Bibliography
Allan Guttmann.(2005). Who Divorce. Harvard University Press.
Arnold Murray. (2005) Sociological Research and Social Policy. The Case of Family Violence. Sociological Issues, (2) 14, pp 40-49.
Clifford Patrick.(2000) The Family as Process and Institution. Palgrave.
Joseph Kirk Folsom.(1999) The Family: Its Sociology and Social Psychiatry. John Wiley & Sons.