Family Studies

In times long gone by, fathers were once a very influential figure in the lives of their children. The examples set and the precedents established were viewed as priceless, and their place in the home remained nearly as important as the mother's. Unfortunately, times have changed. Men have become more and more of an optional thing in the lives of their children. With the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, fathers moved out, and they stopped working in the home in favor of higher paying jobs in factories and fields. With this development, fathers became less prevalent, now solely earning the title of breadwinner. No more was the shining and constant example of a father in the home alongside his wife. For a majority of his day, he was to spend his time serving another's purposes to provide for his family. While honorable, this paved the way for even more devastating occurrences. As this went on, 20 th century psychologists concluded (as was usual) that the father played

Effective communication with others is one of the most difficult and vital parts of any individual’s life. As exceptionally hyper-social creatures, humans are very susceptible to negative effects associated with a lack of socializing. Unfortunately, this skill is being lost and discarded rather rapidly. More and more people are feeling and becoming isolated, even when surrounded by crowds of people. More is spoken, but less is said. More is read, and less is understood. True communication is becoming more and more of a lost art. One of the most major difficulties with proper communication is the boundary that lays between minds. I cannot know your experience, just as you cannot know mine. Yet, even such a difficult obstacle as this can be overcome through the simple use of empathy. One can find common ground between experiences, and, through that, communicate. Another major difficulty is apathy. Most people nowadays don’t care enough to communicate properly, or even at all. The

Dealing with stress is a difficulty of a lifetime. More accurately, dealing with di stress is a difficulty of a lifetime. The distinction is important for a few reasons. First, stress is actually vital to our survival. Similar to sugar, it is a necessary commodity that is viewed, in modern times at least, as hazardous to our health. In a Nutrition class that I took, we learned that sugar isn’t bad for you, too much of ANYTHING is bad for you . In this way, we clarify that stress is a type of pressure, while distress is distinguished as any stress that exceeds the level of optimal achievement in life. That being said, learning how to cope with distress can be a challenge. There are several ways to do so, including learning how to implement that distress into mere stress, which can be an efficient method for productivity. In the ABCX model, distress over a situation can be clearly exemplified. In that model, “A” stands for “Actual Event.” This is the trigger that warrants distr

As marriage declines in modern society, so too does much of our economic status (refer to Demographic Winter).   Divorce rates have skyrocketed, marital satisfaction has decreased, and fewer and fewer children are being born into healthy families. Doesn’t it seem ironic that so much misery would prevail when our society encourages us to do what makes us happy? This phenomenon has been deemed the “Paradox of Choice.” As more and more options arise for us to choose between, we become less satisfied with whatever choice we pick, as we can imagine that there may have been a better option out there somewhere. For example, if I gave you a Hershey’s chocolate bar, you probably wouldn’t complain, and would be content with happily eating your bar. But if I gave you a decision between a Symphony bar and full-size Snickers, you may have a dilemma. People higher in the trait of conscientiousness and neuroticism would second-guess themselves, thinking of how much better the other one migh