Family Development Theory: The Perfect American Family

Why is the perfect American family described or advertised as having a father, mother, son and daughter? Is the previous question actually a reality in America? Is this the only way of having a perfect family? These questions are simply answered by understanding the many types of families or family theories. In addition, according to the Family Life Now textbook, family origin is the main thing that influences an individual’s development and the ability to relate to others (Welch, 2010). The theories I will be focusing on are the family development theory, conflict theory, family systems theory, and social exchange theory. Family development theory can be understood as the traditional family and the many phases or stages in their development. For example a family can start by a man and women getting married and their new roles that come into play at this stage. Then having children and all the roles that come into play then, etc. In my personal experience, my family, or grandparents in particular, fall into this theory. My grandparents were both single in the United States military when they met each other and only had to focus on their personal needs around this point, hence stage one. They got married after dating for a year, and now they have to focus on each other instead of just themselves, which can be

Right.” In other words, social exchange theory is a theory that people only want relationships that will give them the greatest amount of benefits. My family does fall into this theory, only in the opposite direction. I say opposite direction due to my mom kicking out my father, because he was only hurting the relationships between him and my mom, and then him to my little sister and I due to his drug and alcohol problems. In conclusion, my mom thought that it would better benefit our family if my dad was not a part of it, which I think was a very hard decision but for the