Family Relationships in a Context Involving Social Science

Social Interaction

Social scientists have traditionally perceived family relationships as being closely connected to the values promoted in environments that communities live in. The way that family relationships are structured and their quality are largely important when considering family functioning. Depending on their understanding of the concept of a family and on their struggle to behave in accordance with ideas they know are going to have a positive effect on their relationship with their loved-ones, individuals are more or less likely to assist their family members in improving their condition and the condition of the family as a whole.

One of the most impressive documents that past social scientists have produced with the purpose of providing the world with the opportunity to understand family relationships is Thomas Malthus' 1798 book "An Essay on the Principle of Population." Malthus considered that even though family relationships were important in the context of people being in charge of their fate, society also had an important role in shaping these respective relationships. "To Malthus and those who followed him for the next century and a half, the family was the product of historical events, not the maker of history in its own right." (Committee on Basic Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council 1982, p. 37)

Individuals like Malthus acknowledged the strong connection between individuals and the environment they live in. Alexis de Tocqueville's arrival in America makes it possible for society to gain a better understanding of social scientists and the way they conducted their studies. Through field studies and observations, he concluded that individualism was an important idea in the U.S. "Tocqueville believed that the American trend toward individualism had reshaped every social institution and that the drift toward equality had redefined family life." (Mintz 1989) Ideas present in the American society had practically pervaded family life and influenced people to put across a certain type of attitudes toward other family members, as they interpreted this as being the 'right' kind of behavior.

Field studies and reports were among the principal mediums through which social scientists would conduct their research in the past. By examining the way that family members in certain areas behaved with regard to each-other, experts would be better acquainted with these structures and would thus have the ability to reach important conclusions concerning family relationships.