Compare And Contrast Family Systems Theory

In my opinion there’s more differences than similarities between the Family systems theory and the Human Development/Family life cycle theory. The Family systems theory is the most common family theory there is. The belief is basically that if something happens to one member it affects the whole family, it’s kind of like the domino’s theory when one domino falls they all fall with it. Some concepts of this theory pertain the belief of boundaries in every aspect of their life which could mean the emotional, psychological or physical aspect. As well as the belief that everyone needs to work together as a team, they feel wholeness by being together, they include the parents, children, and even extended family. I’m very familiar with the Family

The Human Development/Family life cycle theory is more about the belief that individuals evolve over time as they react to certain universal developmental challenges. For example, from my understanding it’s more about taking care of one’s self and their personal experiences shaping them into who they become rather than the family having that effect on them. A similarity they might have is that both theories have a huge impact on the people with these beliefs. Both of these theories shape the individuals in a certain way. There’s a couple of different family types; there’s a family of orientation, procreation, nuclear, blended, and extended families.

The traditional nuclear family is essentially the smallest family made up of the parents and children only while the pluralistic family structure is in fact the stepfamilies or the remarried couples. Back in the day technology hadn’t been discovered therefore traditional

Nowadays, it’s more common to see both parents be the source of income, which is a good thing because equal sharing is tied with marital satisfaction. It also seems like both parents have at least a high school diploma in our current generation. Obviously the more education you have, the better pay and knowledge you get so this can only benefit the spouses. Furthermore, parents look as though they’re having less children at this present time. Long ago having kids was beneficial, but now it seems to be an economic liability and so parents prefer not to have as many children. Everything is so expensive already, I can’t imagine having a child and not being able to support them. Gender roles are not intuitive, they are learning and according to Mead culture is the key to gender differences. Even though there’s been progress toward Egalitarian roles in the family, there’s still quite a few things that haven’t made much progress. Plenty of women still engage in what is called “second shift” which in essence it means after work they come home with housework responsibilities. This however causes conflict between the partners because there is still not enough help from the males. In household chores men only do about half of the time that women do in a week. Even when it comes to single parents there’s more sympathy when people see a single father, while it’s normal to see a single mother