Social Science Example

Social Science Example Social Science â€" Essay Example > FamilyFamily is the building block to forming a well-rounded society. Family is therefore, a minuscule of the community or the society (Corbett, 2004, p. 1). Family is an institution that an individual first interacts with others other than him or herself and one learns to think, relate, value and respond to what is happening around them. Traditionally and partly in modern society, the family is the means to procreation, companionship and a place that offers safety and security from the harsh external environment (Smith Young, 1998, p. 39). Although the role the family plays has rapidly changed over the years, the family remains a fundamental aspect in human society. The family is the first learning ground where individuals acquire their personality, identity, value system, perceptions, character, conduct and behavior and it is where ideals such as patience, kindness, love, honesty, self-confidence, trust, understanding, compromise, self-control, respect and self-efficacy are, ac quired (Goodwin, 1999, p. 87). Similarly, from the family individuals acquire negative values such as egocentrism, mistrust, lying, cruelty, violence, and lack of remorsefulness, selfishness, low self â€"esteem, low self-confidence and low self-efficacy. The family forms a foundation in which the past, present and future of a nation is, based on (Poutziouris, et al. , 2006, p. 27). Due to the fundamental role, the family has played in traditional and contemporary society, many theorists and disciplines have argued greatly on what the definition of a family is (Corbett, 2004, p. 1). According to UK’s definition, a family is ‘a married heterosexual couple and their children’. The report will therefore, analyze how social scientists have challenged this kind of conventional definition of the UK family using an interdisciplinary approach by drawing on three social science disciplines. Social science disciplinesThe interdisciplinary approach used in this analysis will draw on anth ropology, psychology and sociology disciplines. Anthropology can be, defined as the science of the entirety of the human survival, psychology is the science of analyzing human actions, behavior and psychological processes that helps explain why people think, behave, perceive and react the way they do and sociology is the science of assessing and analyzing the society and understanding the human social deeds. The main reason for selecting these three disciplines is the important role they play in helping analyze social systems, social structures and interrelationships among individuals be it in personal or business environments. Challenging the conventional UK’s definition of familyThe family allows continuity of human race. Through choice, the definition of family has evolved to challenge the definition of the married heterosexual couple and their children sort of family (Corbett, 2004, p. 2). People are free to choose whom they marry and the family arrangements they want to eng age in, since, they are not slaves to traditions. With shifting ideals, people are more likely to define families based on what they perceive to be valuable to them and discard anything contrary to that (Mitchell, 2006, p. 81). This is, based on sociological theory that states that the actions and conduct of people are, founded on choice. It is important to note that, the reasons why people marry have contributed to the varied definition of families. The structure of a family can be, defined based on the reason why an individual gets into one in the first place (Haviland, 2009, p. 240). For instance, a couple may start a family for economic reasons and may therefore delay or decide not to have children, in their own eyes they are a complete family, since they provide each other with companionship, intimacy and all the other elements accessible by the married heterosexual couple and their children sort of family (Robert Amy, 2008, p. 83). According to sociologists Giddens, contemp orary couples form families for love and late modern couples form families because they want to and therefore, for the latter, if the couple no longer feels they want to, they quit, seek and form new families. Sociologists define family as a unit of married couple with a child (Keilman, 2003, p. 12).