Theoretical Perspectives

  • Functionalism: Each person has a role to play for the equilibrium of society

  • Systems Theory: How individuals act as a system -- theory of feedback; how one interacts with society and maintains the stability

    • Family-unit Subsystem: members sharing a household

    • Interpersonal Subsystem: between individuals (e.g. wife and husband, mom and child)

    • Personal Subsystem: interaction between the individual as self and a member of family

  • Symbolic Interaction: How individuals behave based on their perceptions of themselves and of others; taking on different personalities based on how you belief someone thinks of you -- Each person has their own definition of words and actions based off their own experiences, arguments can occur because the other cannot understand the person’s personal definitions

  • Exchange Theory: Making choices based off the costs and benefits; individuals act to minimize the costs while maximizing the benefits

  • Life-Course Approach Theory: Examines biological, psychological, social, and cultural factors that influence development (Each life stage influences the next) -- Describes predictable changes in the behaviour of families as they move through different life cycle stages -- prerequisites for moving on to the next stage

  • Conflict Theory: Functionalism for whom? Looks at how societies are held together by power, not by individuals and groups needing and depending on each other -- Marxist Lens

  • Feminist Theory: Explains social inequalities between men and women from a variety of female perspectives

    • Radical feminism: argues that differences between man and women results in relationships being exploitative  

    • Social feminist: inequality is rooted in the sexual division of paid and unpaid labor (challenges both capitalism and the patriarchal model of the family) 

    • Liberal feminist: changing political means to even out gender rights 

  • Ecological Systems Theory: How influences outside the family (e.g. peer groups, educational institutions) affect developmental behaviour-- going beyond systems theory; Can be used to explain the diversity of developmental behaviour that cannot be explained by development theory alone

    • Microsystem: individuals are systems that develop behaviours to meet its needs

    • Mesosystem: small group (family and friends)

    • Exosystem: socio-economic environment, including extended family, school Macrosystem: socio-cultural environment -- society of which the person lives