Values Education 3: Family Concepts and Classifications

These vocabulary flashcards define the nature of family, its essential and non-essential functions, stages of the family life cycle, and various classifications based on lineage, authority, and marriage patterns.

Family

The basic unit of the society and the nucleus of behavior.

Stuart (1991) Family Attributes

A system of unit whose members may or may not be related or live together, may or may not contain children, involves commitment and attachment with future obligation, and performs care-giving functions like protection, nourishment, and socialization.

Burges & Locke

Defined family as a group of persons united by ties of marriage, blood, or adoption, constituting a single household, interacting in roles like husband/wife or father/mother, and creating a common culture.

MURRAY & ZENTNER

Defined family as a social system and primary reference group made up of two or more persons living together by arrangement over a period of time.

Family of Orientation

The family in which one is born and grows up or where the individual receives cultural training.

Family of Procreation

The family created or formed when one marries and has children.

Essential Functions of Family (Maclver)

Satisfying sex needs, production and rearing of children, and the provision of a home.

Non-Essential Functions of Family (Maclver)

Economic, educational, religious, social, recreational, and civic functions.

Satisfaction of Sex Needs

The most important essential function of the family, performed since the inception of human civilization.

Production and Rearing Children

An essential function where the family institutionalizes the process of procreation and provides food, shelter, affection, protection, and security.

Provision of Home

An essential function providing common living where children are brought up under the strict vigilance of family members.

Economic Function

A non-essential function where formerly families were self-sufficient units; today, the family primarily serves as a consumer while earning income outside the home.

Religious Function

A non-essential function where families shape rituals, faith, and spiritual practices, though modern families have become more secular.

Social Function

The family acts as an agent of social control and is responsible for the socialization of individuals into ideal members of society.

Recreational Function

A non-essential function focusing on emotional bonding through leisure; once focused on home activities like singing, now often found in external places like malls or hotels.

Civic Function

The family as the first school of citizenship where virtues like cooperation, tolerance, sacrifice, and discipline are developed.

Beginning Family

The stage of the life cycle where two people form a family unit separate from their original families.

Contracting Family

Sometimes called the launching period, it begins when the first child leaves home and ends when the last child leaves home for their own life.

Nuclear Family

Consists of a husband, wife, and their unmarried children, with the husband typically as the main authority and breadwinner.

Joint Family

Also called an extended family, it consists of a nuclear family along with uncles, aunts, cousins, and grandsons.

Unmarried Single Parent Family

A family consisting of either a male or female with children.

Unmarried or Married Homosexuals

Individuals living together in a common household with or without adapted children.

Community Family

A group of unrelated monogamous individuals living together and collectively rearing their children.

Commune Family

Several adults married to each other who share everything, including sex and the rearing of children.

Patrilineal Family

A family where property and title inheritance passes down through the father’s side.

Matrilineal Family

A family where property and title inheritance passes down through the mother’s side.

Patriarchal Family

A family classification based on headship where the father is considered the head.

Matriarchal Family

A family classification based on headship where authority is held by the mother.

Monogamous Family

A family where a husband has only one wife, typical of the western idea of marriage.

Polygamous Family

A family where the husband has more than one wife at the same time, found mostly in Saudi Arabia.

Polyandrous Family

A family consisting of a wife with more than one husband, such as among the Todas of Southern India.