Sociology -- Family Issues Group Essay

Specifically, even as adults, we tend to maintain more formal communications with my father and to disclose personal issues and concerns primarily with my mother, and not uncommonly, in confidence with respect to my father. In the long run, it seems that the natural evolution of communication patterns during our childhood have resulted in much closer relationships with our mother than with our father.

Conclusion:

My family illustrates the manner in which individuals with groups fulfill fundamental roles in the realm of ensuring the cohesiveness of the group and long-term maintenance of established group goals. My father has always been the group's primary leader and determinant of essential group values and goals. My mother has always functioned in a dual role of co-leader and mediator of conflict resolution, especially between other group members and my father. In the long-term, those dynamics and the communication patterns that evolved to facilitate them persist to this day. However, our decreasing reliance on my father's approval have, unfortunately, corresponded to a much greater psychological distance on our part with respect to my father, primarily because he contributed so much less to direct communication in the area of conflict resolution as played the role of critical evaluator more than any other role in his direct communications. My family experiences, therefore, suggest that both parents must share more equally in direct communications within families if cohesiveness is to be maintained beyond the period of the parental dependency of children.

References

Fiese, B.H., Tomcho, T.J., Douglas, M, Josephs, K., Poltrock, S, and Baker, T. (2002).

"A Review of 50 Years of Research on Naturally Occurring Family Routines and Rituals: Cause for Celebration?" Journal of Family Psychology, Vol. 16, No. 4:

381 -- 390.

Kastner, J.W., and Ray, K.P. (2000). "Adolescent Ratings of Group Process: What They

See May Not Be Exactly What We See" Journal of Child and Adolescent Group

Therapy, Vol. 10, No. 4: 213-221.

Myers D., Spencer S. (2004). Social Psychology. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson.

Phinney, J.S., Romero, I., Nava, M., and Huang, D. (2001). "The Role of Language,

Parents, and Peers in Ethnic Identity Among Adolescents in Immigrant Families"

Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Vol. 30, No. 2: 135-153.

Zabriskie, R.B. And McCormick, B.P. (2001). "The Influences…