Week 3

This week we went over some terms that we had been quizzed on. I'm interested in pathogenic families and why they are okay with ultimately disowning members of the family if they step out of the family connections or go against the normal family rules. Granted I can understand not being proud of decisions made by some family members and not enabling bad behavior/choices, but straight up "kicking" them out of the family till they decide their choice is wrong? That's way to extreme and yes it will hurt both sides, but if it's not a harmful choice like not going after the career you've always wanted them to go after or joining another religion when you've raised them a completely different way, it doesn't make sense. Even if they are making harmful decisions like drug or alcohol abuse, infidelity, or even becoming a wicken, the worst thing you can do it leave them alone and abandon them. If they a strong individual the only thing your accomplishing is severing personal ties and support. I feel like being open about not being proud of their decisions or talking to them about getting help would be so much more beneficial. On Friday we spoke about salary and we got a little caught up in women getting paid less then men and why. A lot of the points brought up were definitely understandable, such a women with doctorates tend to do different things with their degree then man which pay less, or they choose not to work as many hours. These are points that I completely agree with as to why there might be a different in pay. As for different ethnic backgrounds getting paid less I feel like it might have something to do with opportunity. Not very long ago it was difficult for African Americans or Hispanics to go to a higher level of education and they might still be trying to rise above that and may not have those opportunities yet. Just a theory though, I'm not entirely sure as to why. See you next week...

Week 2

I'm loving this class more and more so far. In the beginning of the week we talked about how we are genetically designed to connect to others. We need and crave that kind of relationship. Unfortunately not everyone gets to have a close relationship from their parents or siblings and it affects who they are in the future. It's interesting to think that love kind of molds who are in the future. We also went over some myths that people take for fact, such as there is a 50% divorce rate, when really the people who get divorced tend to be divorced more than once so it's skewing the numbers. I actually want to take the time and discuss this with my cousin. She hasn't had the best life growing up in the stable mother/father figure relationship in her life. To he divorce happens all to often and she doesn't see the reasons why people get married if it won't work out later in life. I want to explain to her a healthy family life and spouse relationship can change that. Yesterday we went over our own family systems and I thought it was so interesting to sit and understand my own family system. The unspoken rules and the boundaries within each relationship. We all subconsciously follow these rules but don't ever really think about it because it's how it's always been. Then understanding the function of a boundary. How it's a hierarchy and that it regulates how the family functions. I love learning about the family. I never realized how complex the family was, but it makes sense.

Week 1

I really enjoyed this weeks lessons and discussions. When we went over the 5  cautions for family research, they seemed pretty obvious but if we hadn't gone over them I wouldn't have known what to look for. When we went of terminology and how some words might have different meaning to others like what is a traditional family, something really clicked. It can differ within the church depending on upbringing. I never thought I'd have to pay such close attention to details involving studies but at the same time, it makes sense to pay such close attention. We also talked about research methods, data collection, and designs. I'm not gonna lie, at times I had trouble playing attention because it's not the most fascinating information but I can definitely see why I need to know and understand these things.