1.4 The personal life perspective

• What would we say to summarise the personal life perspective view?

  The family isn't in decline, its just very different & much more diverse and complex than ever before
• What are the 5 relationships?

  1. Relationships with friends who may be 'like a sibling to you'

  2. Fictive kin- close friends treated as relations e.g. mum's friend you call 'auntie'

  3. Gay & Lesbian 'chosen families'- made up of a network of friends, ex partners etc

  4. Dead relatives- live on in people's memories

  5. Pets- children often see their pets as 'part of the family
• What does the personal life perspective say about types of families?

  -They have a wider view- not just traditional blood & marriage

  -They can focus on what something can mean to someone and how intimate relationships are important to people even if they dont fit the conventional family definition
• What does __ believe?

  (Smart)

  -Prioritises bonds between people

  -The significance of emotions, memory & cultural heritage

  -The importance of things like shared possessions/homes in the maintenance of relationships
• Who is Carol Smart?

  She is the person associated with this perspective
• What does the personal life perspective believe we should think about families?

  -It argues that we must understand the point of view of the individuals concerned and the meanings they give their relationships

  -They believe the traditional approaches take a top down, structural approach

  -Whereas the personal life perspective has a bottom up approach with emphasis on the meanings individual family members hold
• What does the personal life perspective think are the weaknesses of traditional approaches?

  -They assume that the traditional nuclear family is the dominant type, ignores the increase in family diversity

  -They are all structural theories (the role of institutions & societies determines behaviour of individuals) They assume that families are passive puppets who are used by society to perform certain functions. But they disagree and think that there's some choice in creating familles