Family Ecology
Like any other family in America, my family is profoundly impacted by the physical, social, and cultural environment in which we find ourselves in. Due to the country’s ongoing gentrification trends in recent years, we have been forced to move out of the neighborhood our family has lived for generations. Essentially, the increased arrival of wealthier families in our neighborhood has led to rapid increases in house rents, property value, and overall cost of living, which has gradually caused us to move to a new neighborhood. This has caused not only separation from my close members of our extended family but also my siblings. This changing ecological environment around my family has thus adversely affected me as well as my relatives.
Social Exchange Theory
The high rates of divorce in the U.S is an issue I have closely followed both on news and literature. While many experts have attempted to explain this heightening societal problem, I believe the social exchange theory explains America’s burgeoning divorce crisis. This theory cane explains America’s increasing divorce from per perspective of women’s education. As more women become more educated, they are more likely to leave abusive relationships and marriages than their less-educated counterparts. This is primarily because they become less dependent on their abusive partners. When the costs of remaining in the violent relationships outweigh the benefits, more women opt for divorce. The social exchange theory holds that human relationships are fundamentally built on estimates of rewards and costs.
Family Systems Theory
Our family has run a grocery business for several generations, and like any other typical family-operated business, we face communication challenges. One of the critical challenges that our family business has faced over the years is communication. Unlike in normal businesses where everything is done on the basis of communicated decisions and legally secured communication, we base our communication on attachment. Since we often assume that each of us knows what the other family member feels or wants, personal problems as a family tend to become business problems in many instances. Communication is thus an area of dispute in our family business, and this is largely because our communication and managerial practices are built on a personal connection, attachments, and feelings of kinship.
Feminist Theory
The feminist theory holds that gender is central to the analysis of the family. Since childhood, I grew up aspiring for a nursing career, a passion that was mainly inspired by my mother, who is also a nurse by profession. However, my father’s gender-biased attitude towards nursing gradually caused me to change my ambitions and career goals. As far as I can remember, my father has always respectfully convinced me that nursing is a somewhat feminine profession, and this has gradually eroded my admiration for a career in nursing. On several occasions, my father would always remind me to choose a “manly” profession that matches his. Essentially, my father’s gender-biased attitude has successfully made me shift from my childhood passion and ambitions.
Attachment Theory
“Breeders” is one of my favorite parenting TV shows. It explores parenting difficulties that most parents face in the modern world. “Breeders” specifically explores the adventures of parenting and the excruciating experiences that push many parents to the edge. These are issues that often result in some of the themes of the parental problems addressed by the attachment theory. These include emotional bonding between parents and children, single-parenting, relationships and, divorce, among others. These are pertinent issues that shape early childhood experiences and development.
References
Lamanna, M. A., Reidmann, A. C., & Strahm, A. (2012). Marriages: Making choices in a diverse society. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Kreager, D. A., Felson, R. B., Warner, C., & Wenger, M. R. (2013). Women’s education, marital violence, and divorce: A social exchange perspective. Journal of marriage and family, 75(3), 565-581.