Families Flashcards
Discursive psychological approach to families:
Singleness
Key Psychologists: Jill Reynolds and Margaret Whetherell - feminist discursive psychology.
Singleness: it has increased but it’s still not seen as healthy for women.
Key points:
- Singleness is socially constructed
- social category for the neat framework of social life.
- singleness is a discourse- complex meanings and produce knowledge of the truth of single people.
- singleness is constructed in relation to power as an ideological field.
- should be studied as a personal narrative and subject positions.
Research:
-interviewed 30 women on how they define themselves as single.
-it shows singleness is an uneasy subject showing singleness as:
>personal deficit
>social exclusion
>independence and choice
>self actualisation and achievement.
Repertoires of choice: Interview of Annie and Lynn
Annie- sees singleness as a positive condition through the repertoire of independence and choice.
Lyn- sees it as social exclusion
Gender: the domestic distribution of labour and power.
Key points:
The distribution of justice framework- based on questionnaire methodology. It shows womens entitlement when understanding the division of domestic work;
- outcome values
- comparison referent..comparing to others
- justification… Discussing it out loud makes it ok.
Key psychologist: Caroline Dryden - qualitative study of gender relationship in marriage.
Interview with Rachel- in small extract Rachel thinks that the house work division is fair as her husband works full time and earns the most money. She justifies it as he hates housework and compares it with activities she wouldn’t want to do.
These can really only be studied through discourse in order to understand the interactions between the married couple and the arguments or debates they pose over housework. Husbands doing house work is seen as a gift and although they tend to compromise is not usually fair on the wife.
Social psychoanalytical perspective on family
Siblings
Key points:
- siblings seen as ego ideals- it doesn’t only have to be parents
- siblings often form object-elements of child’s early life, the notion that siblings are introverted to become part of the self is conductive to the idea that siblings are central to the development of the self.
Key psychologist: Helen Lucy and Ross Edwards
Research : sibling relationships on different families - five sisters
Interview with 2 out of 5 Bangladesh sisters. The second and middle sister habiba and shabnur where interviewed regarding their relationship with their elder sister azra and it was clear that they looked up to her and they wanted to make her proud and not disappoint her. They referred to her as kind and warm and supportive and they wanted her to be proud of them.
- sisters can internalised ego ideals.
Within this same research they look into family interdependence through their culture and community. Shabnur sister number 4 talks about how she has outgrown her friends and she mainly spends time with her family. This is due to the religious and community impact their culture have on them. Sabina sister number 3 talks about the impact that each sister could have on the other if they don’t follow the rules of their communities… For example if one sister ran away with a boy that the parents didn’t approve of could the affect the marriage of another sister as the parents of the fiancé would look into the reputation of the family. Their subconscious is influenced by the rules of their society.
Families in social psychology..intro:
- Families gives us the opportunities to learn what is necessary to become a well adjusted adult and live in society.
- Core institution responsible for the development and happiness of the individual and society as a whole.
- the first group we belong to is our family, it’s within this group that our feelings of individuality, collectivity, belonging, connection and separation, dependence and interdependence take shape. It’s where we make sense of ourselves and the world we live in.
