Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Family
Family
Meaning of Family:
Family is a group of people organized on the basis of natural bond, i.e., love and affection.
It is the fundamental social unit formed in the society, which provides safety, security, rearing of
children and the fulfillment of certain human needs.
It is the primary group in the society to fulfill the functions of procreation, nurturing and
socializing the children and transmission of culture.
It is a group of interacting personalities who have definite and specific roles to establish mutual
relationship between the family members.
Family is a sacred institution deriving sanctions from religion and social traditions with myths
and legends.
Definitions:
The word ‘family’ has been derived from the Latin word ‘famulus’ means ‘servant’.
Definitions: Mc Iver, “A group defined by sex relationship sufficiently precise and enduring to provide
for the procreation and upbringing of children.”
Eliot and Merril, “The biological unit composed of husband, wife and children”.
Burgess and Locke, “A group of persons united by ties of marriage, blood or adoption constituting a
single household, interacting and intercommunicating with each other in their respective social roles of
husband and wife, father and mother, son and daughter, brother and sister thus creating a common
culture”.
Family is a group defined by sexual relationship, which is sufficiently precise and enduring to
provide for procreation and by bringing of children.
It is a living together of males with females and offspring, establishing a permanent relationship.
It is a form of marriage which is established and maintained.
It is an attachment of blood relationship among family members.
It is a system of sharing economic provisions to fulfill economic needs.
There is common habitation.
There is universality.
Family fulfills emotional needs and it is a formative agency with limited members.
Family controls the activities of its members.
Family members will have certain responsibilities and duties and obligations.
Family is peculiarly guarded by social taboos and legal regulations.
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Importance of family:
Family is the first institution in the history of man and so it is the primary group and
fundamental unit of society where face -to -face contact of the members is established. Family meets the
total needs of the individual. As man is a social being he can’t live without a family. It is the nucleus and
major part of man’s activity. It maintains social organization and develops the characters of the members
of the society. A person is socialized in a family. The child learns about the roles of adults in a family.
He acquires sincerity, honesty, sympathy, self-esteem, character formation and consciousness of
responsibility in a family. A child’s first school is his home and family. It is the family that moulds the
character and personality of the individual and so family is so important in a person’s life.
Functions of a Family:
Family fulfills biological functions as it replaces the species through the propagation of progeny.
It controls sex regulations of the members.
It provides food, housing and clothing.
It maintains psychological functions like affectionate bond, love and belongingness, intimate
relationships, affection, sympathy, love, security, etc.
It maintains educational functions like knowledge and experience, personality and character
formation.
It provides protection: protection of interests and give security in all dimensions.
It provides recreational facilities which can develop positive interest in the child.
It provides religious instructions which make the child kind-hearted and fulfilling fellow feelings.
It maintains social and cultural status of the individual. The child learns honesty, truthfulness,
traditions, cultural pattern and role model activities.
Family keeps culture of the society alive. It moulds members according to the social culture.
It socializes the members and maintains social control over them.
The functions of the family are divided into essential and non-essential functions.
1. Satisfaction of stable sexual relationships: Family has made it possible to have regularity of
species and the perpetuation of human race.
2. Production and rearing of children.
3. Provision of home.
Types of Families:
Families are divided on the basis of Authority, Residence, Ancestry, Marriage and Dominance.
1. Industrialization: Production affected the economic functions of the family. Family has
become more a consumption unit than a production unit.
2. Urbanization: Family is cut into small size and has become smaller and its ties are weak due
to industrialization and urbanization.
3. Democratic ideals: Liberty has made women play not only domestic roles but also
economic and political roles.
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4. The decline of the influence of mores, religious beliefs and the spread of secular
attitudes: Morality and religion are slowly losing ground and family members have become
more secular in outlook.
5. The spirit of individualism and romantic love: Marriage has become easily dissolvable.
6. Economic independence of women: women have become an earning member. She now
works in schools hospitals, banks, offices etc. The economic independence has increased her
status but it has affected her attitude.
7. Emancipation of women: (free from restraint; freedom) Women are now liberated from the
chains of traditionalism and stand in equal footing with men demanding more rights and
liberty.
8. Decline in birth rate: Size of family is becoming smaller and joint family is not common.
9. Divorce: Love is no more sacramental now. Instance of divorce, desertion and separation
are mounting and marriage has become more of a civil contract.
10. Parent-youth conflict: Due to generation gap unusual amount of conflict takes place
between parents and their adolescent children.
The degree of impact of burden will be depending on the duration and severity of illness. During sickness
the entire family pattern and its activities will be altered, they have to modify total roles to fulfill care
associated activities.
1. Economic burden: Family has to spend lot of money for diagnostic measures including
screening, health check-up and therapeutic activities and if the sick person happens to be the
bread winner of the family, the intensity of economic burden will be more. Due to the sickness,
he may lose the job, or unable to cope up with working activities. If the severity of the illness is
chronic, so many alterations has to be made in the family like appointing home nurses, servant
maid, which increases the economic burden.
2. Disturbances in routine family activities: When the client is unable to take of his personal
needs due to disability, someone at home has to provide the care. This disrupt the routine
activities of the care taker
3. Leisure time: Either partially or completely the recreational time and activities are disrupted.
4. Alter family relationship.
1. Fulfills the psychological needs like nutritious food, water, clothing, personal and environmental
hygiene, sanitation, love, care, rest and sleep.
2. Safety and security needs for the fullest recovery by fulfilling the emotional needs.
3. Fulfills economic needs of the patient like bearing hospital expenses and the needs of the family.
Definition: ‘It is the prolonged influence of emotional factors which produces a group of diseases where
structural lesions are produced in organs supplied by autonomic nervous systems
Characteristics:
Emotions that upsets and precipitate attacks of the illness and increase severity of an attack.
Stressful life experiences.
Psychopathology:
Psychosomatic symptoms are related to psychically experienced stresses which produce anxiety and
disturbances in hypothalamus limb areas through the autonomic system and endocrinal glands produce
changes in the different systems due to inherent biological weakness or because of injury to the organs by
physical diseases. Thus a predisposed personality, organ vulnerability and prolonged emotional stresses in
life are the main factors involved in the production of psychosomatic diseases.
Possible Questions:
1. Define Family. What are the different functions of the family? (Essay)
2. Define Family. What are the different types of families? (Essay)
3. Why family is importance?
4. What are the factors that brought about changes in family patterns?
5. Effect of sickness in the family. Or How a family is affected when someone in the family
becomes sick?
6. What are the functions of the family during disease?
7. Psychosomatic disease and its importance in physiotherapy.
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