Relationship Rules: Commitment and Maintenance in the Family Based on the Western Culture, Research Paper Example

Families are expected to be considered as the basic uniting element that puts people together and thus logically holds the solidity of a particular society. In this particular unit of social arrangement, the parents remain as the ones in command. The father, in particular, is considered as the head of the family. Notably, it could be understood that this arrangement of the family members specifically follow the traditional structure of families. As the human culture continues to change, family setup also changes in form and the recognizable role of each individual involved within the said unit.

Relationship between parents and children as well as between couples has slowly been redefined by the changes in the society and the differentiation of needs of human beings living in it. At this point, instead of the women staying at home and taking care of both the house and the children, they are now faced with the challenge of supporting the financial needs of their family as well. Some women do this in support of their husbands while others take such role as a necessity to be able to fill in the position that an absent husband is supposed to take.

Considering these changes, the aspect of commitment and maintenance has taken different considerations in the process of keeping the American family intact. As for a fact, commitment and its meaning in a human relationship, especially related to the family and its members have slowly lost its hold in the aim of keeping the family ties tight. Commitment between couples have weakened through time and instead of the society supporting the need to keep family commitment and connections strong, it is now obvious how divorce and other options of separation have been retained open for couples [seemingly having problems, whether pity or deep] who aim to take themselves off from the commitment of marriage. Maintenance has been redefined as well. At present, children are considered as mere members of the family that who need support from the parents. Hence, in the event of divorce, the children are expected to follow through the situation and just go with the flow of the process whereas they are needed to go back and forth their parents’ homes or simply follow what is indicated in the agreement as settled in the court. The truth is, very few among the western families are now able to keep their unison intact through time. And it is because of this fact that the emergence of psychological and social issues arise hence affecting the development of the society as a whole.

In the aspect of working with families from cross cultural backgrounds, clinical psychologist are able to see and experience the difficulties in relation to creating a connection between the said cultural indicators. Relatively, being able to make a connection between all of the elements concerning culture may make it harder or easier for the clinicians to work on the problem being resolved. When it comes to the evaluation on the maintenance and commitment factor that bounded the Singh family (Singh, et al, 16), it was evident how the background cultures and beliefs that the family has apart from that of the therapists created a gap in relation to the procedures undertaken for assessment. The norms that the western culture embraces is quite different from those who are living in the east, who are known to be more traditional and family-oriented as a whole. Undoubtedly, the written report by Singh and Clark depict the specific differences that western and eastern families have especially in relation to the realization of both commitment and maintenance in a family arrangement.

References:

Singh, R and Clarke, G. (2006). Power and Parenting Assessments: The Intersecting Levels of Culture, Race, Class and Gender. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Mattox, William R., Jr. (1990). “America’s family time famine”, Children Today, Nov–Dec.

Williams, Brian; Stacey C. Sawyer, Carl M. Wahlstrom (2005). Marriages, Families & Intinamte Relationships. Boston, MA: Pearson.