PSY 3105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Positive Feedback, Attachment Theory, Nuclear Family
Document Summary
The changing functions of the family: the family in our time has mainly emotional or affective functions: to provide love, nurturance, and affection. Example: the subsystems in a family consisting of two parents and an adolescent would be: mother and adolescent, father and adolescent, mother and father dyadic relationships. Family systems approach: two key ideas, each subsystem influences every other subsystem in the family. If adolescence begins about age 10, this means that most parents are nearlyage40 when their first child enters adolescence. In one study 1/3 reported sig adjustment needed, but most viewed this as positive. For most, marital and life satisfaction improve when nest emptied. Midlife crisis: for men in blue-collar professions that require physical strength and stamina, job performance becomes more difficult to sustain and job satisfaction declines (gilbert & constantine, 2005, midlife divorces tend to be more emotionally and financially difficult.