2.0 THE FAMILY AS A SOCIAL INSTITUTION


2.1. Socialization Process and its Agents


Institution is a procedure, an established way of doing things, a pattern of behaviour, and a custom. All institutions have come out of mores.


Values are the standards by which people define good and bad, beautiful and ugly. They underlie our preferences, guide our choices and indicate what we hold worthwhile in life.


Norms are the visible and invisible rules of through which societies are structured. They describe those expectations or rules of behaviour that develops out of a group’s values. 


Folkways are norms that are not strictly enforced.


Mores are the moral views and principles of a group that are taken more seriously. We think of them as essential to our core values, and we insist on conformity. A person who steals, rapes, or kills has violated some of the society’s most important mores. 


Mores are transformed into institutions when they are given a higher degree of definiteness which clearly defines the specific norms, the approved behaviour, and the organizational apparatus which men/women must uniformly and consistently adhere to in the daily business of satisfying their vital needs and interests.


Socialization is a process by which people especially children learn acceptable and unacceptable behaviours in a given community 


Socialization process is a situation whereby people learn what roles are associated with their status and how to play those roles, as prescribed by the culture. Therefore it is a matter of nature and nurture.


Agents of Socialization comprise of people and groups that influence our self-concept, emotions, attitudes, and behaviour. Socialization agents also can be fictional characters that we read about or see on television or in the movies. Some of the important agents of socialization are as below:

The family has the greatest impact on socialization. Infants are totally dependent on others, and the responsibility to look after the young ones typically falls on parents and other family members. 

Schooling enlarges children’s social world to include people with backgrounds different from their own. Among the manifest functions, the schools teach children a wide range of knowledge and skills. Schools informally convey other lessons, which might be called the hidden curriculum. Through different activities schools help in inculcating values of patriotism, democracy, justice, honesty, and competition. Efforts are made to introduce correct attitudes about economic system/political system.

Peer group is the one whose members have interests, social position, and age in common.  Neighborhood and schools provide a variety of peer groups. Unlike the family and the school, the peer group lets children escape the direct supervision of adults. In fact peer groups have a compelling influence on its members, whereby the individuals conform to group norms.  Among the peers, children learn how to form relationships on their own.  The importance of peer groups typically peaks during adolescence, when young people begin to break away from their families and think of themselves as adults.

The mass media are impersonal communication aimed at a vast audience. Mass media arise as communication technology (first the newspapers and then radio, television, films, and the Internet) spreads information on a mass scale. The mass media have an enormous effect on our attitudes and behavior, and on shaping people’s opinions about issues as well as what they buy.

Religion plays significant role in the socialization of most societies. It influences morality, becoming a key component in people’s ideas of right and wrong. The influence of religion extends to many areas of our lives.

This is an important informal and active agency of socialization. Just as the family and school have a great influence upon the child, much in the same way the community also modifies the behaviour of child through social contacts, group activities also and group dynamics in such a way that he/ she begins to participate in all the desirable activities of the community of which he/ she is an integral part.

This is another agent of socialization; the adults spend much of their day at their workplace. Here, a person meets people of different age group and belonging to different cultural backgrounds. This makes him/her come in close contact with different thought processes, belief systems etc. The interaction that then happens helps a person to broaden his/ her horizons in terms of social acceptance and tolerance towards the others.

Many of the rites of passage people go through today are based on age norms established by the government. To be defined as an “adult” usually means being eighteen (18) years old, the age at which a person becomes legally responsible for him or herself. Any sixty five (65) years old is the start of “old age” since most people become eligible for senior benefits at that point. 


2.2. Concepts of Family, Kinship and Marriage and their Health Implications


Family may be defined as a social group that has the following features: 

i. It originates in marriage; 

ii. It consists of husband, wife and children born of the union; 

iii In some forms of family, other relatives are included; 

iv The people making up the family are joined by legal bonds, as well as by economic and religious bonds and by other duties and privileges; 

v. Family members are also bound by a network of sexual privileges and prohibitions, as well as by varying degree of such emotion as love, respect, affection, and so on. 


2.3. Types of Family




2.4. Functions of the Family 

 Regulation of Sex

 Reproduction 

 Socialization

 Education 

 Affection and Companionship

 Status

 Economy

 Protection 

 Recreation

 Religion 

2.5. Family’s Economic Role: The family in the traditional non-industrial society is the fundamental economic unit. It both produces and consumes the goods and services essential to its survival. According to an accepted division of labour, different members of the family till the soil, plant and harvest, build shelter etc.  In urban industrial societies, these functions have been assumed by numerous other institutions that make up the economy. The change from a productive unit to a consuming unit resulted in a vastly improved standard of living.


Kinship is a relationship between two or more persons on the bases of recognized common ancestry.  Bond of kinship is people bounded together at a particular time for the purpose of provision, security and companion. There are three major types; it could be matrilineal, patrilineal or doubly lineal type of kinship.


Marriage 

The term marriage has various definitions, some of which are:

a. A civil contract entered into by two consenting life partners - preferably an adult male and female which is witnessed by members of the families of the two parties or their guardians.


b. A culturally approved relationship usually between two individuals that provides for a degree of economic cooperation, intimacy and sexual activity.


c. A loving, intimate relationship between one man and one woman, geared towards procreation and parenting, companionship and fulfillment of social and economic necessities.


d. A social institution that provides the recognized form to enter matrimony or for setting up a family unit.


Types of Marriage

1. Monogamy - between one adult male and one adult female only

2. Polygamy - this could be subdivided into two

       Polyginy - between one adult man and 2 or more adult females 

       Polyandry - between one adult female and 2 or more adult males, e.g. in Canada

3. Group marriage- several men and women together (rare), existed in Utopian societies)




Health Problems Associated with the Family







2.6. Inheritance

It is defined as the succession to the real and personal property of a deceased individual.

Types of Inheritance

Inheritance by Will: whereby the deceased while alive stated and attested in writing made legal what will belong to who in his real and personal properties 


Inheritance by Intestate: whereby a statement describing who will inherit what has been made but not yet made a will


Inheritance by Allotment: unknown beneficiaries of the deceased decided to share and allot the real and personal properties of the deceased among themselves by using some methods including seniority, appointment, voting and so on.