Marriage And Family

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In a country as diverse as the United States, it is only logical that people will hold different values and traditions. What one person may have grown up seeing could have been drastically different from how any given person lived. These differences in perspective shape ideologies and perceptions. This is especially true with the perception of what a family should be. Another example would be marriage. The institution of marriage has a great amount of ideas and per-conceived notions attached to it. While it is undeniable that the concept of marriage and family is certainly a prominent institution in modern culture, the way in which people view and define them are varied. In order to gain a better understanding of this phenomena, a sample of fifteen people (eight men, seven women) were given a questionnaire regarding views of family and marriage. The questionnaire was as follows: How would you define a family? What are the roles within your definition of a family (financially; division of labor)? How is your family structured? How do yo picture your future marriage and family? In your opinion, has the concepts of marriage and family changed? How so? In defining a family, the sample related the concept of “family” with having a connection biologically, or by marriage. One of the more interesting factors that was consistent with almost every answer was living in the same household. In Andrew J. Cherlin's “The Deinstitutionalization of American Marriage”, cohabitation was highlighted as an alternative to marriage. (176) Since the sample also related marriage to family, cohabitation can be determined to be a factor in defining family, based on deductive reasoning. I agree with the idea of cohabitation as a determinant of being a family. After all, what is a family but an institution in which there are actors who play different roles. Cohabitation
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