Psychological features of a modern family

The family is the first social group or community in a person's life. It is thanks to her that his involvement in the values of culture occurs, the first social roles are mastered, and experience of behavior in society is acquired. It is in the family that the first steps are taken, the first joys and disappointments are experienced. From this social group, a person enters the big world, and can always return to it, if in this world he becomes uncomfortable for some reason.

What is family?

By family is understood the social community of people based on marriage or on blood relationship. This is a small group of people linked by mutual assistance, common life, and legal and moral responsibility.

Under the family also mean persons who live together, have a joint household and have a relationship of kinship or guardianship. But at the same time this cell is not at all a simple set of individuals. In this complex social education, each of its members is not only part of the group, but also a unique personality. Not so simple is the family itself. And it is no accident that her problems are the topic of research of sociologists and philosophers, lawyers and demographers, economists and historians, doctors and teachers.

The standard of the family

In the opinion of social psychologists, such an important unit of society acts as the main regulator of relations between people. The moral and ethical norms that an ethnic group adheres to set certain standards for the husband and wife, father and mother in relation to their children, and the daughter and son - in relation to the parents.

From the point of view of social psychologists, the family is a social group that corresponds to the values of modern society. At the same time, it unites in the process of aggregate relations, which manifest themselves in love, intimacy and attachment.

Main functions of the family

The leading role in this social cell of the society is played by the spouses. Over time, they become parents. In this regard, the features of the modern family are that its functions are conventionally divided into two groups by sociologists. The first of these includes marital duties, and the second - parental responsibilities. What are they?

In the group of conjugal functions there are spiritual (cultural) categories of relations, as well as economic and household. The peculiarities of the modern family are also concluded in the fact that both spouses take an active part in organizing the life activity of their small community. This is the administrative function. In addition, sociologists have identified a number of other types of spousal involvement in the life of the family they have created. It consists in the functions of implementing primary social control, emotional, sexually-erotic, etc. Specialists identified and other features of the modern family - its functions of a representative nature. They consist in the fact that both spouses represent their community in institutions, organizations, other families, etc.

The group of parental functions includes the functions of procreation and upbringing of their children, guardianship and maintenance of minors, and incompetent or disabled family members.

Life in new conditions

To date, our country is under the impact of the crisis. The drop in the economic level affected not only the most important systems that make it possible for the society to function normally.

The crisis directly affected the Russian families, which are one of the most important social factors in determining the viability of the state, society and the nation. And this problem is given a great deal of attention, because, first of all, the character of the generation that will live and work in the 21st century depends on how the psychological features of the family in modern society will be.

Global changes

The characteristics of the family in modern society are affected in many journalistic publications. They say that during the last decades the basic cell of the society has undergone a number of serious changes. And this applies not only to our country, but also to most other states.

If we describe briefly the characteristics of a modern family, they concern such traits:

- the fall of the birth rate;
- Complications of interpersonal relationships;
- the constant growth of divorce, which is the reason for the existence of families of incomplete or with non-native parents;
- the constant spread of extramarital relations.

The peculiarities of the modern Russian family consist in the reduction of its material wealth, the deterioration of the mental and physical health of parents and children, and in the growth of the number of single women and men.

Forming a new type of family

In earlier times this small community of people was united through purely formal external factors. They served as categories such as morals and law, traditions and public opinion. The features of the modern family are that its unity, as a rule, depends only on personal relationships between all its members, namely, on their mutual understanding and attachment, respect and mutual participation, devotion, love and sympathy. These feelings strengthen the strength of a small society.

Necessity of family relations

At the present time, it is often suggested that the social cell of society is a relic of the past, and it should be replaced by something else. However, despite the crisis situations and losses, the psychological characteristics of modern families are that they begin to adapt to all the changing conditions of society.

At the same time, their significance does not disappear, but one can even say that it is growing. It is the family that is the best environment for raising the younger generation. Often, it acts as a kind of emotional shelter, in which adults can find moral satisfaction. That is why the application of efforts in helping families, as well as in solving their social, economic and other problems, is more appropriate than talking about condemning this supposedly outdated and outdated institution.

The urgent task of the state

Most experts are of the opinion that the existing problems of the modern family and the characteristics of the modern family testify to the existence of a genuine crisis in a small cell of society. Moreover, such a crisis becomes more pronounced and brighter with the growth of the socio-economic development of society. Special difficulties are experienced by young families. It is they who today need support and attention not only from the state, but also from the side of socio-psychological practice and science.

Executing the Parent Function

Many experts emphasize such features of the modern family as its precariousness and vulnerability. There are many divorces in the country. But even in surviving families, internal conflicts and conflicts do not subside at times. And the impact of these negative phenomena on the younger generation is quite strong. This is especially true in cases when parents do not try to protect their child from mutual insults and quarrels.

The features of the family of modern Russia consist in the complexity of the educational process that it carries out. It has become considerably more complicated due to the abrupt changes that have affected all areas of our life. During a relatively short period, people's way of life changed radically. What are the characteristics of upbringing in the modern family in connection with this? If in the old days parents were preparing their daughters and sons with a meeting with the big world, which was familiar to them, today it is far from the case. Modern life dictates its laws and puts forward new demands, of which the previous generation has no concept. This leads to the fact that today it is not enough for the younger generation to give only one ready-made knowledge. It is quite possible that after two or three decades they will not be of any value. It is unlikely that the skills and instilled skills that were given to him by the parents will help the person. After all, most likely, the whole production will radically change, and with it the way of life.

The notion of a modern family

We are all familiar with the traditional gender stereotype of a small cell in society. According to him, the man is the breadwinner and the head of the family, and the woman is the keeper of the hearth, the wife, the mother and the teacher of children.

However, the features of the modern family are that it is far from this ideal. To date, it can be noted that there are undesirable tendencies in society regarding the relationship between the sexes. And they begin in school years. Experts believe that the principle of joint training has serious drawbacks. This is due to the significant differences in the psyche of women and men. The girl as a person is formed much earlier than the boy's personality. And already in the first class she goes, being more mature. The great development of the female half of humanity gives priority in matters of study and morally. A certain role is played by the fact that the main contingent of teachers is women. This brings them closer to the students.

As a result, a woman's environment is created. It consists of a mother, a grandmother, a nanny, a teacher, classmates and teachers. A kind of skew is formed. Women exert constant pressure on maturing men. The result is negative phenomena such as incomplete families, disrespect for parents, loss of family ties with cousins and brothers, etc.

Leadership

In each family there is a certain distribution of functions and roles. All this is closely related to such a concept as leadership. Currently, the head of the family is considered to be one of the spouses whose psychological influence was recognized on a voluntary basis. In connection with this, psychologists distinguish three forms of the family that take place in modern society:

1. Symmetrical. This is a family in which both spouses have equality and do not obey each other. All the problems that arise, they solve in a coordinated way, following the path of compromise or exchange of views.
2. Complementary. In such a family there is an autocracy. In other words, one of the spouses gives orders, and another blindly obeys him.
3. Megacomplementary. In a family of this type, one of the spouses achieves their goal by manipulating others while emphasizing their weaknesses, impotence and inexperience.

Factors of well-being

In determining the characteristics of a modern family, psychologists identify some aspects of its well-being. They include:

- Psychobiological compatibility, which includes mutual attraction and mutual respect, readiness of both spouses to create a family, responsibility and duty, self-control, flexibility, etc .;

- education, which should be approximately the same for the husband and wife, since the level of intelligence of the partners should not have any significant differences;
- labor stability, which clearly indicates the nature of the partner (it is believed that a person who often changes his job is not able to establish long-term family relationships);
- the age that is considered the most optimal for marriage (it is 20 years for girls and 24 years for boys, with an earlier marriage the family will entail a long-term adaptation of the couple);
- the length of the period of courtship (with short acquaintances it is impossible to know the nature of the future partner).

When considering all of the above factors, the psychological compatibility or incompatibility of the spouses can be determined.

The future of the family

What, in the opinion of psychologists, are the prospects for the existence of a small cell in society? Features of the development of the modern family allow us to consider its future quite positively. And this despite the existence of a number of negative phenomena and trends due to the existence of a crisis.

Specialists note that in the society there are some positive changes that will support the small social group. Such changes can include:

- Increased equality of spouses;
- expansion of freedom of choice for both men and women;
- the statement of equality in mutual relations;
- increase the possibility of contacts between different generations;
- Orientation of people to create a family.