Types of Families: Standard North American (SNA) Families

Types of Families
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Types of Families
A family can be defined as a group of people related to one another through bonds, legal policies, laws, blood or sexual mating, and mutual benefits. Family is also considered one of the basic socially functional units of society, and it is where the fundamental constructs of society are built. The entire family picture depicts the overall picture of society. Family structure and functioning have been studied over time, and various theories have been formulated to understand what a family is.
Family Processes From The Theoretical Perspectives
Structural functionalism theory is a framework that shows an understanding of society as a complex of systems whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability within the community (Jaraczewska, 2014). This theory can study the family process, which entails family communication, decision-making, roles, and family values and beliefs. The theory enables studying the communication patterns within a family; how information is channeled from the parents to the children and vice versa for the peaceful and harmonious interaction between these two subsystems. For example, which type of information can be channeled directly to the family head from the children, and which needs to be passed to the mother first before getting to the family head? Which discussions would include all the family members and those for either the children alone or the parents themselves? Additionally, the structural-functional theory enables an understanding of how family roles have been shared among the members for efficient interactions. Those roles are played by the children subsystem, mother roles, and father roles.
Social exchange theory is a framework that enables an understanding of the social behavior of an individual, which is a result of an exchange between the parties involved. An individual weighs the percentage of potential benefits and risks or costs of a social relationship (Kim, 2014); potential benefits incorporate fun, companionship, and social support. The risks or costs include over-dependency and other forms of negative relationship impacts.
Family processes and functions can be studied with the aid of social exchange theory; the degree of the intimate relationship between married couples to an extent can be attributed to the degree of the social relationship benefits and risks, if the benefits outweigh the risks, there is any evidence of strong bonds, trust, and understanding in the relationship. For instance, the provision of adequate social support and companion among married couples in an equal measure has been attributed to the extended stay of the relationship. On the other hand, when studied by the social exchange theory and families with frequent domestic violence and neglect, the ultimate finding would be that the risks outweighed the benefits.
Conflict theory is also a framework that tries to explain the continued state of conflict in a society attributed to limited resources. The family function...