Ethics of family relationships article on psychology on the topic

Psychology of family relationships is a branch of science that allows you to understand the essence of the definition of family and marriage, types of interactions between family members, causes of conflicts and other factors, according to which it is possible to adjust your behavior and improve relationships with loved ones. The family can be represented in the form of a model, and the types of this social institution, its functions and cycles of family relations can be clearly examined.

Family psychology is

The psychology of family and family relationships studies the peculiarities of human development in the established environment, relationships with other family members and the mechanisms of adaptation of each specific cell of society in society.

The information obtained allows us to draw a conclusion about the health status of the small group and the presence of family pathology. In practice, this information is used to provide psychological assistance to members of society. The information available to science allows us to formulate correct psychological and social programs and prepare professionals to coordinate the relationships of family members.

The subject of the psychology of family relations is the study of the characteristics of interpersonal relationships in a social unit, the structure of the family, its functions, patterns and dynamics of development. Therefore, the object of this direction of science is the family itself.

What problems does the psychology of family relationships solve?

The psychology of family relationships is a separate branch of science, which faces certain challenges:

• research into the patterns of formation and development of family structure at all stages of the cycle;
• studying the characteristics of the relationship between potential spouses before marriage, as well as certain nuances of choosing a partner;
• study of the psychological aspect in the relationship between husband and wife;
• analysis of the psychology of relations between parents and children;
• studying the influence of family upbringing on the formation of a child’s personality;
• research into family crises, the causes of their occurrence and the development of strategies to overcome them.

Thus, the tasks of the psychology of family relations cover all aspects of the interaction of individuals within a specific cell of society. The psychology of family relations studies the main directions of analysis of problems arising in a small group of society.

Family is

We are accustomed to considering the definition of a family from the point of view of socio-economic parameters, as a unit of society living together and leading a common household. But in psychology, this aspect is considered in a slightly different context.

A family is a complex structure, consisting of many elements and relationships between members of this structure, within which the needs of people arising from existing family ties are satisfied (or not satisfied).

From the point of view of psychologist G. Navaitis, a family is a social structure whose activities are aimed at meeting the needs of all its members.

Family structure

The structure of the family cannot be considered unambiguously; this aspect depends on what typology underlies the formation of a small social group:

Whatever typology underlies the structure of a social unit, within its framework the peculiarities of the formation of moral and psychological connections between all participants, its spirituality, the balance of power and other factors that influence the performance of family functions in society are considered.

How does a consultation with a family psychologist work?

As a rule, one consultation with a family psychologist lasts 60 minutes. During therapy, a friendly atmosphere, mutual respect and a desire to solve the problem are important.

You can come to a specialist as a couple or one at a time. But the result is better if both spouses come; this also reduces the number of necessary sessions, approximately to 5. The number of clients is not limited to two - those family members who are related to the problem and want to solve it as quickly as possible can come to therapy.

Therapy does not require preliminary preparation, since the family psychologist himself conducts the conversation in the manner that is necessary in a particular situation. Clients do not need to focus on this; they can only follow the therapist's questions or instructions. To help understand each other and the common problem, special tasks and tests are used.

People do not always rush to see a psychologist, fearing certain aspects. To allay these fears, it should be noted that the entire conversation with a specialist is strictly confidential. The psychologist will not judge, evaluate or lecture the client. The therapist acts for the benefit of the couple to resolve their issue, so there is no point in taking anyone’s side; he takes the softest possible position. Also, the psychologist will not insist on discussing those aspects that the client does not want to discuss.

Family functions

Family psychology studies not only the structure and form of a small social group, but also its functions - spheres of life aimed at meeting the needs of all participants.

Educational function

This function should be considered both from the perspective of meeting the needs of family members and its role in society:

• for spouses it means satisfying the needs for fatherhood and motherhood, their own self-realization in children;
• For society, raising a new generation is important from the point of view of the formation of society and its structure.

The implementation of the educational function takes a fairly long period - from birth to the stage of growing up of the child. During this time, parents need to form appropriate psycho-emotional, physical and social norms and help in adapting to life in society. In addition, the self-education of parents in relation to children and the elderly generation plays an important role.

Household

The household function is based on the needs of family members:

• in material well-being;
• in maintaining health (physical, psycho-emotional, social);
• in maintaining life and development.

The manifestation of this function can be expressed in preserving and maintaining the health of both parents and children, in caring for needy family members, in joint housekeeping.

The implementation of household functions affects the structure of the family and the formation of its status. It may depend on the type of management, sources of income, its distribution and other factors.

Emotional exchange

Relationships between family members are built on the basis of emotions, which are expressed in affection for each other. In positive dynamics, this attachment develops into respect, sympathy, love - emotions that are considered the norm for most. In this way, an emotional exchange occurs between members of the community.

In addition to interacting with each other, family members have to communicate with society, as a result of which an emotional exchange also occurs, in a positive or negative way. And here broader forms of interaction are already appearing, ranging from sympathy to hatred or enmity with other members of society.

The implementation of this function depends on the presence of emotional interaction between family members and society. The lack of energy exchange leads to the accumulation of unexpressed feelings and illnesses of a small social group.

Communication function

In some sources the function is called leisure. It is based on the need of family members to spend time together, cultural and spiritual interaction. The implementation of the function contributes to the spiritual development of members of society, personal growth, self-development, and depends primarily on the ability to communicate in society.

Positive implementation of leisure function affects the psycho-emotional background and health status. The lack of ability to communicate and the possibility of rest leads to stress, loss of strength and negative interaction with other participants in the process.

Function of primary social control

All members of society are subject to certain rules, which are based not only on what is allowed, but also on prohibitions. Standards of behavior help maintain the integrity of society and provide a certain degree of protection for its members.

Within a small cell of society, mechanisms of control and self-regulation also operate, since not all participants are able to responsibly and independently structure their behavior without infringing on the interests and needs of other members of the group. For example, young children or elderly parents need the supervision of capable relatives.

Sexual-erotic function

The role of the function in satisfying the respective needs of spouses and in regulating sexual behavior between them. Realization ensures reproductive function, procreation, and, consequently, the development of society. As you know, the purpose of marriage is to have children and raise new members of society. Therefore, one of the tasks for spouses is the reproduction of psychologically and physically healthy people.

Economic function

The economic function is based on the level of material well-being of the family. Consequently, it depends on income, which is formed based on the sources of its receipt and the costs of disabled group members who require financial support.

Protective function

The family’s ability to defend its interests lies not only in physical protection, for example, when passing hooligans show aggression, but also in the formation of psychological, emotional, and economic stability.

Succession function

The function of preserving traditions and continuity of generations. Thanks to implementation, relationships between relatives are strengthened, values ​​and family history are formed.

Violation of the implementation of the listed functions leads to problems in the family . In our time, society is faced with the manifestation of dysfunctions in the following ways:

• demographic crisis caused by a decrease in the birth rate and an increase in mortality;
• short duration of marriages and high divorce rates;
• degradation of family values, including in relation to raising children;
• an increase in the number of families with low social status;
• shifting roles in the family;
• increased manifestation of tyranny and violence.

It should be noted that in the current situation it is not so much the members of a small cell of society who are to blame, but society as a whole, since the functioning and interaction of group members depends on:

• generally accepted norms;
• economic microclimate;
• demographic situation;
• work of state institutions;
• psychophysiological dynamics of relationships.

The formation of family psychology as a scientific discipline

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The background of family psychology can be found in ancient texts that talk about the family in mythological and edifying terms. For example, Plato has the dialogues “State” and “Laws”, Aristotle – “Politics”, Plutarch – “Admonition to Spouses”, F. Engels – “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State”, I. Kant – “Metaphysics of Morals”, A. Schopenhauer - “Aphorisms of worldly wisdom”, V.V. Rozanov - “The Family Question in Russia”, etc.

Philosophical studies are being replaced by ethnographic and historical studies on the origin and development of the family, which are developing into a cycle of psychological studies aimed at the present and future of the family. Modern science has accumulated a sufficient amount of materials describing pathological phenomena in the family and ways to overcome them.

Currently, there are several general scientific directions that study family issues: evolutionary, functional, ethological, empirical and scientific.

Evolutionary direction

The greatest contribution to the historical reconstruction of family relations belongs to the Swiss historian I.Ya. Bakhoven (“Mother Law. Studies of the Gynecocracy of Old Time and Its Religious and Legal Nature,” 1861), as well as the Scottish lawyer J. F. McLennan (“Primitive Marriage,” 1865). Both authors emphasize the idea of ​​variability in the forms of marriage.

Already in ancient times, there were ideas about both the “patriarchal” nature of the family structure and the presence of promiscuity, which was called “promiscuity.” Plato is called the father of the “patriarchal theory”. His ideas of patriarchy, as corresponding to human nature and serving as the initial cell of the state, were consistently developed by Aristotle. During the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment, patriarchal theory reigned supreme. The idea of ​​group marriage is from Herodotus, who pointed to the community of wives among a number of nations.

I. J. Bakhoven developed the concept of heterism, through which all nations went in the direction of individual marriage and family based on maternal right and the high position of women in society (“gynecocracy”). The ideas of matriarchy and the historical development of the family found support from J. Lebbock, I. Kohler, M. M. Kovalevsky, L. Sternberg, L.G. Morgan, F. Engels.

Researchers have come to the conclusion that the first form of clan is the maternal clan, based on collective farming and exogamous-endogamous marital relations in the observed pair unions.

Following L. G. Morgan and F. Engels, they consider the decomposition of collective property, the acquisition of economic independence and the emergence of private property and inheritance as the main reason for the variability of family relations associated with the transition from the maternal to the paternal clan and the emergence of a monogamous family.

The evolutionist approach is based on the theory of primordial promiscuity, followed by exogamous matrilineage. Later, the theory of exogamous clans is supplemented by the idea of ​​a dual-clan organization that arises during the union of two matrilineal exogamous tribes or phrateries. It was assumed that the clan consisted of two halves, frattries, in each of which men and women could not marry each other, but found husbands and wives among the men and women of the other half of the clan.

P.A. Sorokin points out the main provisions of the evolutionist approach:

1) in almost all the peoples studied, the calculation of maternal kinship preceded the calculation of paternal kinship;

2) at the primary stage of sexual relations, along with temporary monogamous relations, wide freedom of marital relations prevails;

3) the evolution of marriage consisted of a gradual restriction of this freedom of sexual life;

4) the evolution of marriage consisted of a transition from group marriage to monogamous (individual) marriage.

According to evolutionism, family relationships develop in a progressive direction: from lower to higher forms, while emphasizing their social conditioning, historical predetermination and representation in family life and the kinship system. Swiss psychologist A. Guggenbühl-Craig views marriage as the expression of an archetypal principle, more fundamental than one might assume, judging by the social and personal problems inherent in marriage.

Functional direction

According to the functional approach, family relationships are derived from the family’s lifestyle and family structure, are determined by the sociocultural functions of the family and are built on a system of sociocultural roles associated with marriage, kinship and parenthood. The founder of the structural-functional direction in the study of family E. Durkheim. The scientist's main attention was focused on the mechanisms of family cohesion, the role of each family member in family life, and the relationship between divorce and suicide. In his opinion, a number of family functions are changing and even being lost under the influence of urbanization.

Functionalism recognizes marital relations only when pregnancy occurs and the birth of a child occurs. The change in historical family forms and the emergence of exogamy are derived from the taboo of incest (the ban on incest). Taboos were seen as a means of functional integration of family relationships (E. Westermarck). The influence of voluntary marriage (instead of marriage under a parental agreement) on its instability is emphasized, and the decrease in the number of modern families on family solidarity (E. Durkheim). Functionalists are responsible for the development of the problems of motherhood and fatherhood (B. Malinovsky).

In the functional approach, much attention is paid to the analysis of the historical transition of family functions to other social institutions. The name of W. Ogborn is for the first time associated with the establishment of the phenomenon of transition from a family based on following sociocultural prescriptions to a family based on interpersonal preferences. In the terminology of E. Burgess, this is expressed as a transition from the “family-institution” to the “family-partnership” (or marriage-partnership). Domestic sociologist A.I. Antonov and V.M. Mednikov discusses this terminology as a restructuring of the leading motives for entering into and maintaining a marriage.

In the functional approach, the key point is the problem of responsibility, understood narrowly - in intrafamily relations and broadly - in the context of social relations. The measure of responsibility can set the dynamics of family relationships.

Ethological direction

The origins of this trend should be attributed to the appearance of Charles Darwin’s book “The Descent of Man and Sexual Selection.”

Representatives of this approach operate mainly with the methods of comparative ethology, understanding the hidden, often rudimentary instinctive foundations of human behavior. Proponents of the ethological approach reject promiscuity as the original form of marital relations, because it contradicts the instinctive need of children to have parents and the maternal (parental) instinct of adults.

According to this approach, the historical period found humanity with four systems of marriage relations: group marriage, polygyny (one man and several women), polyandry (one woman and several men) and monogamy (one man and one woman); the latter in two forms - lifelong and allowing divorce. Ethologists note the natural nature of all of these forms of marriage and family relations and their variability. From a biological point of view, the diversity of marriage and family relationships is an amazing fact, because The mating system is a species characteristic and is a constant.

The unusualness of the ethological point of view lies in the assumption of the initial monogamy of human ancestors, the assertion that then, at some stage of evolution, human ancestors turned to group marriage with the care of ancestral men for primordial women. The coexistence of monogamous and group marriage programs has been long. Later, when living conditions changed, people could easily move to different forms of marriage relationships. For example, monogamy was most suitable for farmers in Europe, while polygyny was more suitable for nomadic pastoralists.

Within the framework of the ethological approach, it was established that monogamy is not an ideal from the point of view of natural selection, a fundamental difference was discovered in the biological motives of mating behavior of the sexes, the phenomenon of inversion of dominance during marital relations, and excessive human hypersexuality were discovered.

At the very height of biological evolution, man emerged from the influence of natural selection because the main condition for success was not genetically transmitted information, but extragenetically transmitted knowledge and the need for socialization.

Empirical direction

According to empiricism, the family is considered as a small social group with its own history of origin, functioning and disintegration. Family relationships are built on the emotional closeness of family members, on their needs and desires.

The founder of the empirical approach is considered to be F. Le Play, who believed the spontaneous stability of the family during the change of generations due to the tendency towards solidarity and cohesion. As an empirical research method, Le Play widely used analysis of the family budget as a quantitative expression of the diversity of intrafamily functioning and the family microenvironment, the organization of which depends on structural changes in family relations associated with raising children.

Le Play emphasized the unstable nature of family relationships, which came under the pressure of industrialization and urbanization, which is manifested in the separated existence of parents and children, in the weakening of paternal authority.

Scientific direction

The creators and supporters of this area of ​​family study include W. James, C. Cooley, W. Thomas, F. Znaniecki, J. Piaget, Z. Freud and others. Family relationships are considered in the relationship between the individual and society.

Interpersonal relationships, Self and Other, the significant nature of close relationships, the family as a “unity of interacting individuals,” disturbances in family functioning, marital agreements, coordination of family values, structural characteristics of the family, the functioning of family systems - these are the key points of theories of a scientistic socio-psychological orientation.

The American sociologist R. Hill made a great contribution to the analysis of theoretical schemes and concepts of family research. According to R. Hill, the first 5 approaches to studying the family that have constructs are as follows:

1) institutional-historical approach (evolutionism);

2) structural-functional approach;

3) interactionist-role analysis, symbolic interactionism;

4) situational psychological approach;

5) developmentalist approach (based on the development of the family life cycle).

The first two approaches are focused on the study of the family in terms of the role and functions performed in society, as well as the dynamics of family structures and their social consequences. The next three come down to the theory of social behavior of individuals and groups.

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Types of family relationships in psychology

Types of family relationships in psychology are classified into several different typologies. But if we take general principles as a basis, we can distinguish the following types of family relationships:

1. A traditional family is an average small group in society, the purpose of which is to procreate and preserve traditions and values. Spouses value stability and continuity.
2. Partnership relationships are characterized by equality of rights between group members, equal responsibility for decision making, commonality of views and the ability to resolve conflicts.
3. Diktat is the predominance of the power of one of the family members, which is most often expressed in violence (both moral and physical), an authoritarian regime. This can be expressed in the dictates of one spouse in relation to the other or parents in relation to the rest of the household. The result of such interaction most often is severe psychological trauma and a feeling of fear.
4. Codependent relationships - one of the family members is dependent on the other for a number of reasons. There can be many variations here:

• “tyrant-victim” – characterized by constant (moral or physical) suppression of one of the community members;
• “victim-rescuer” – applicable to couples when one of the family members suffers from addiction, and the other tolerates and tries to help get rid of it;
• Guardianship – one of the partners treats the other like a parent treats a child.

If the types of relationships do not develop according to the standard pattern, disharmony arises, and therefore related problems. In accordance with this, the following classification is distinguished:

1. Calm relationships are an external picture that hides boredom and indifference.
2. Explosive relationships - suitable for those who like to quarrel in public.
3. Overprotection is when one of the spouses completely devotes himself to his partner, to the detriment of his own interests.
4. The wall - each family member is absorbed only in his own interests.
5. A demonstrative idyll is happiness only in public, but in reality it is a dysfunctional union inside.
6. Childfree union is a deliberate refusal to bear and raise children.
7. Family for the sake of children - maintaining relationships for the sake of raising children, but without unnecessary sentimentality in relation to each other.
8. Rivalry is constant competition between partners in everything, careers, raising children, doing household chores, and even for the love of children.

Models of family relationships in psychology according to David Richard Olson are divided into 7 types, which echo previous classifications, combining harmonious and destructive types.

1. A traditional family is a social unit that adheres to generally accepted social norms. The relationships are favorable, the continuity of traditions and the preservation of family values ​​are fully present.
2. Balanced relationships - certain agreements are observed in the family in all areas, as a result of which everyone is satisfied with everything, and the occurrence of conflict situations is practically excluded.
3. Harmonious partnerships - complete mutual understanding between spouses, mutual support and correct distribution of roles.
4. A full-fledged marriage is a coincidence of views in all directions, a prosperous relationship.
5. A lifeless marriage is classified as dysfunctional, due to the fact that the spouses were unable to realize themselves, achieve financial stability, or build a career. Olson attributes the reasons for this situation to the early age of marriage, and especially the birth of children, as a result of which the partners did not have time to receive a decent education and succeed in their careers.
6. Conflict relationships between partners - the manifestation of quarrels in the family is constant, for any reason. The reason lies in irritation with each other, dissatisfaction, and aggression.
7. A marriage of convenience is the creation of a family for mercantile purposes, but initially the spouses understand what they are getting into, so they accept these conditions of the game and try to save the marriage.

The functions of a small group of society are closely related to the emerging models of families and their structure. In the following articles we will talk about what life cycles a family goes through from the moment of marriage, how the types of family relationships affect the upbringing of children and the formation of personality.

Result of consultation with a family psychologist

Any family goes through periods of crisis in life, which is explained by the multi-stage nature of relationships. Contacting a family psychologist will allow you to overcome these moments painlessly and quickly. After the consultation, the couple will acquire the necessary skills.

1. Spouses will learn to competently discuss an emerging problem before it turns into a conflict. They will begin to negotiate instead of arguing.
2. Partners learn to trust each other, talk about their needs in the relationship without making complaints.
3. They recognize each other's personal boundaries and learn not to violate them.
4. People calmly acknowledge and accept their own and each other's shortcomings.
5. Spouses learn to share their expectations from the relationship, discuss this issue and find a compromise solution.
6. The couple sees in the conflict an opportunity to take their relationship to a new level, to bring them closer to each other, and not a problem, as it was before.
7. As the main result of therapy, family relationships become trusting, filled with respect and love.